Published: April 06, 2008 12:37 am            

Another lost art

As a kid I had a friend who would crank up an old Victrola his parents had and we'd listen to old 78 rpm records of Cal Stewart telling stupid stories. We didn't even get that much of what we were hearing, but it was funny the way he told a story.

Cal Stewart was doing comedy records as far back as 1898, and up until his death in 1919. You can hear some of his material still, on Internet Archive believe it or not, at www.archive.org. And, if you look long and hard enough you can find CDs available recorded from old 78s played on a hand-cranked Victrola like the one my friend used.

Like the days of radio we hear people talk so passionately about — when they would sit quietly and listen to programs before TV really caught on — there was a time people really listened to comedy records. There's almost something magical about sitting in a dark room, listening to a performance, not being able to see it with your eyes, but with your mind. Now it's a lost art, just as comedy albums have sort of become a lost art as well.

Comedy albums are still produced, it's just not like it used to be, and you can get some of the great old albums on CD now, again it often takes some extra effort, but it's worth it. You can find some old interesting stuff online at www.laugh.com.

A great old album to get your hands on is "The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart: The Most Celebrated New Comedian Since Attila The Hun."

Released in 1960, this album hit No. 1 on Billboard and received the Grammy Award for Album of The Year. Bob Newhart was also named Best New Artist.

In 2006 this album was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

Routines include: "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue"; "Merchandising the Wright Brothers"; "Driving Instructor"; and "Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball."

Released in 1961, "Lenny Bruce — The Carnegie Hall Concert" is the best album to capture his talent live. It still plays great in the dark on a quiet night and it has some valuable observances of our society that still hold true today. Available as a double CD, I can't print the titles of all the routines, but his they included: "Airlines"; "Point of View"; "Ku Klux Klan"; "The Flag and Communism"; "Dear Abby"; "Christ and Moses."

Bill Cosby's "Why Is There Air," released in 1965, is a treasure. A winner of a Grammy for Best Comedy Album (yes comedy was given its own category so it wouldn't beat out musical contenders), the album's routines include: "The Toothache"; "Personal Hygiene"; "Kindergarten"; and "Shop (as in shop class in school)."

The 1972 release of "Class Clown" by George Carlin will always have a special place in my heart. This was heard through the covert tactics of another friend of mine, who would get it out of his older brother's record collection and we'd sneak a listen to it occasionally. Then we'd turn blue while trying to suppress our laughter as only 9-year-old boys can — while knocking over furniture and snorting and gurgling to the point my friend's Mom would call upstairs wanting to know "What's going on up there?"

The album included the routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television."

Of course Richard Pryor's " ...Is It Something I said?" album from 1975, is a must hear. I had to sneak listens to it and other Pryor albums when I was a kid. My Mom knew I was a fan, however. She even bought a copy of "That N****r's Crazy" for me, but after listening to it before I got home from school that day she returned it to the store where she'd bought it. It was such a far cry from Bill Cosby and Flip Wilson, she was sort of shocked.

Even as a visual comedian the silliness of Steve Martin still played well on his first album, "Let's Get Small," from 1977. It was something my friends and I could practically recite word-for-word.

By the 1980s comedy was something you bought on VHS rather than on vinyl, which was dying out. The same was happening with music. We started watching it and if there was only audio, it was treated as background noise. It just didn't seem like sitting down and only listening to something could be done anymore, but great comedians kept coming, and so did comedy albums from Eddie Murphy, Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks, Robin Williams, and Chris Rock.

I enjoy watching the standup performances as well as listening to them, but treat yourself to hearing comedy the old fashioned way if you get a chance soon, or share the experience with a young person who has no idea what those days were like. Just be mindful of adult content which, unlike in the old days, wasn't posted on our album sleeves. I'll bet you'd be surprised at how funny some of those old comedy routines still are to you, and how deep some of the commentary was for it's time, as well as how relevant some of it still is today.

Besides the albums I mentioned in this column, here's some other titles to shoot for:

"Rejoice Dear Hearts" — Dave Gardner

"Stand Up Comic" — Woody Allen

"Inside Shelly Burman" — Shelly Burman

"The Wit and Wisdom of Andy Griffith" — Andy Griffith

"The 2000 Year Old Man" — Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner

"Hello Dummy" — Don Rickles

"Comedy Minus One" — Albert Brooks

"Rant in E-Minor" — Bill Hicks

"No Respect" — Rodney Dangerfield

"Comedian" — Eddie Murphy

"Child of the '50s" — Robert Klein



Steve Gillespie is managing editor of The Meridian Star.

E-mail him at

sgillespie@themeridianstar.com.

        

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