DVD Reviews: John Safran's Music Jamboree

I am a huge fan of music in general and all information that surrounds and is about music. Some time ago, SBS aired this series by John Safran called Music Jamboree. For those of you who do not know who Safran is, he's the guy that streaked through Israel during the Race Around the World contest and in my opinion, one of the most entertaining people on Australian television today.

Spanning two vastly entertaining and informative discs, the Music Jamboree is a fascinating look behind the scenes at the music industry and those who wish to dominate it. Covering almost all topics about the subject in an informative and irreverent manner, Music Jamboree had so many good features, I would have to write an epic review of biblical proportions to cover them all.

There are ten episodes covering both of the discs and they feature comedy skits and actual information and interviews with artists. Some topics verge on the ridiculous, such as having a studio audience watch John interview Ozzy Osbourne and gauging at what parts of the interview they wanted to kill themselves. Other constants include the extremely informative Music Mole segments and World of Instruments.

World of Instruments episodes are unique in and of themselves as after the information about the instrument, a band will play one of their better known songs using traditional instruments. It's unusual and sounds fantastic.

This series comes jammed packed with extras as well featuring segments that didn't quite make it into the series as well as a number of skits that John did for other networks that they did not use. These extras would be worth a purchase on their own, let alone as a bonus on a DVD set.

 There are two extras on the set that I would give a miss, as even I believe that they transcend bad taste. I must confess that I can have a sick sense of humour and even I was offended by these segments and don't understand why Safran even did them. They were 'Not the Sunscreen Song' and '13 Secret Herbs and Spices'. 'Not the Sunscreen Song' features a small part where a Salvation Army Officer (played by Safran) wraps up weapons in Christmas paper and gives them to homeless people. I am an advocate of freedom of expression but thought that this undermines the hard work done by the Salvos and was utterly tasteless.

I would thoroughly recommend Music Jamboree to anyone who has an interest in the music industry as it is insightful, informative and irreverent. Safran is a comedic genius and I can't wait to see more of his work. Buy this DVD.