Modified On August 4, 2005
Gary Susman, writing for Entertainment Weekly, takes the occasion of the release of The Aristocrats to pen a list of “favorite stand-up comedy routines.” An example:
Bob Newhart CD: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1960). It’s hard to imagine today that a stand-up album could win a Grammy as the year’s top record, but that’s how massive a hit Newhart’s debut was. 45 years later, Newhart’s patented one-sided phone conversations are still wryly hilarious. HIGHLIGHT: Abraham Lincoln’s publicist tries to convince the president to make the Gettysburg Address more audience-friendly.
Susman limits himself to bits that are available on DVD or CD. But he still mixes it up well. Nice feature: You can join the fray and, if you keep it clean and under ten lines, you can add your opinion to the tail of the story. Go. There. Now.