Saget and Atkinson: Naughty and Nice

Fans who head out to see "Mr. Bean's Holiday" in theaters this week will want to make a trip to the video store to pick up the DVD "Rowan Atkinson Live!" when it's rereleased Tuesday (obviously trying to profit from the movie's opening).

The performance, filmed in 1991 in Boston, is at once familiar and different. The familiarity stems from Atkinson's trademark physical humor -- the man can contort his face and his body into all manner of awkward and amusing forms. Such rubbery shape-shifting ability has allowed much of his humor to be built around its visual aspect and less dependent on dialogue. In this stage show, though, there is a lot of dialogue accompanying the physicality.

Skits such as "The Good Loser," wherein Atkinson portrays the loser of an acting award who not-so-gracefully accepts it on behalf of his winning cast mate, and "Fatal Beatings," in which a school headmaster informs a parent of his child's bad attitude, caused no doubt by his being dead, are hilariously constructed displays of timing and verbal wit.

Other highlights include "The Invisible Man," in which Atkinson is an unsuspecting subway rider who has become the target of mischief at the hands of a bored invisible man, and "And Now, From Nazareth, the Amazing . . . ," which has a clergyman delivering the story of Jesus in a way unlike any you've heard. (Unless you've watched the skit on YouTube.)

Extras on the DVD ($19.95) include three bonus sketches ("Elementary Dating," "Guys After the Game" and "Tom, Dick and Harry") plus an Atkinson biography and filmography.

Residing on the spectrum far from Atkinson's sly British humor is Bob Saget's new "That Ain't Right" DVD, being released Tuesday after premiering on HBO this weekend.

Saget's approach is all about words, and, oh, what words they are. He works blue, as they say, and many of his routines can't even be summarized in the newspaper, much less quoted.

Amid the profanity, he weaves themes that he references throughout the show, dropping them in at just the right moment to extract an extra laugh on top of the one that the main punch line provoked.

He acknowledges -- nay, plays up -- the disconnect between his "family entertainment" roles as Danny Tanner on the sitcom "Full House" and as the host of "America's Funniest Home Videos" and his foul-mouthed stand-up riffs. (A highlight comes near the end when Saget takes a guitar and strums a little tune called "Danny Tanner Isn't Gay.") He also good-naturedly abuses an audience member throughout, one of the running gags that he returns to often; muses on his daughters; talks lovingly (albeit profanely) about his father; and in another musical moment performs a country-ish tune about an overly friendly dog.

The shock shtick would get wearisome in less adept hands, but Saget's sense of pace and ability to pull back so that the audience has an occasional moment of breathing space before being led back over the line again keeps the laughs coming. He punctuates a bit with a sly smile and an "Aw, c'mon, don't laugh at that!" which combine to take the edge off the material, morphing it from nasty to merely naughty.

The disc ($19.97) comes with a couple of extras: There's the "Strollin' With Saget" featurette, which has him walking through New York on the way to his show, and there is the "Rollin' With Saget" music video, which milks the image of him as a high-living party alpha dog "in a cardigan sweater." It's supremely silly but amusing.