Are comedy records dead?

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Once upon a time pretty much every stand up released an album. Now the only recent thing I've seen available easily is Chris Morris's Blue Jam, which missed some of the best bits out of the orignal shows (the bored Welshman for eg) A good argument for them would be Bill Hicks because all the videos i've seen place him at odds with the medium. Check out "Rant in E minor" if you know what I mean. Is there any web sites that have samples of great comedy records? I think the lure of TV has caused this demise am I wrong? Incidently I've got a mid seventies Jasper Carrot Stand up Record where he dies on his arse, which is no surprise. Bring back the comedy album I say

― tom, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Now they release comedy videos instead.

― MarkH, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

but Primal Scream are still going.

boom, but probably not, boom

― gareth, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

TV and video are the same because you watch them.

― tom, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gareth gets my vote 'ere :)

x0x0

― Norman fay, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Margert Cho

― anthony, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'cause comedians used to do standup, and now they do chat shows, sitcoms and films.

there's still some CDs released by comedians -- I picked up Rich Hall's Otis Lee Crenshaw disc last year -- but most are on tiny labels or self-released. and most aren't very funny -- otherwise they'd have a chat show or sitcom.

at least primal scream don't have a show. yet.

― bucky wunderlick, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does anyone know if the Peter Cook & Dudley Moore records are still reasonably available?

Although, actually, I'd rather have records of stoopid Americans putting on bad English accents whilst doing impressions of them... hmmm...

'Yoo facking cahnnt'

― emil.y, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Probably dead because comedy recordings are no longer audacious enough to be listened to a 2nd time. Lenny Bruce could hold your attention because he was shocking - now it's been degraded by HBO overkill and the odd Adam Sandler album.

― jason, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore 'Derek and Clive' records are all fairly common secondhand on vinyl, and available on CD. Amazon.co.uk has them for 7 or 8 quid in the 'popular music' section.

― m jemmeson, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I made a telephone repairman laugh once by playing my Lily Tomlin "This is a Recording" lp while he was there...

― Sean, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When I was a lad, Steve Martin LPs were my holy grail - I scoured secondhand stores before finally concluding that - of course - none of them had even been given a UK release. They're plentiful in thrift stores in the US, naturally... last time I was in Baltimore I saw the one where he's smoking eight cigs at once on the inner sleeve. That's comedy.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For NPR types (like me), the comedy album has been replaced by Audio Books written and performed by, er, monologists, like Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris. Although I'm sure I'm the biggest sucker here for this stuff - something prenatal about sooting voices on the radio - I swear that much of it is not nearly as hurl-worthy as you might expect.

Search for David Sedaris' piece about being a Christmas elf at Macy's and the one where his dad makes the kids take music lessons, which includes David's impression of Billie Holiday singing retail ad jingles. And tapes of Garrison Keillor's annual Joke Shows are great, although less than shocking.

― Curt, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

TV may seem like a cheap answer, but starting in the late 1980s or so lodas of U.S. stand-ups got a shot at their own sitcom, from Seinfeld to Ellen to Roseanne through to Titus, The Drew Carey Show and probably a dozen or two more, and HBO regularly broadcasts stand-up acts. Things changed. What was that line from "King of Comedy" about Rupert Pupkin believng he would reach a bigger audience in one late-night appearance than the greatest comedians used to reach in their entire lives?

We need to return stand-ups as opening acts on rock shows. I would have loved to have seen Albert Brooks open for Sly Stone.

Oh, but, in the '90s, ahem, Andrew Clay and Adam Sandler have both charted with comedy albums, although the latter's have songs on them.

― scott p, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my favourite comedy record is the goons "ying tong iddle i po" which osunds like v/vm or cassetteboy done 40 years previous. although i know that a lot of people find the goon show immensely irritating, i was brought up on it, and love it to bits

― ambrose, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Could I just list some of my favorite comedy records, please please please?

OK (while I can, though the term "comedy record" is used loosely here):

Vivian Stanshall's "Sir Henry At Rawlinson's End" (mentioned by me several times earlier on ILM)

Nichols And May, "Take On Doctors" (Mike and Elaine, that is)

Ruth Draper, her recently re-released (finally!) monologues-- especially "The Italian Lesson" and "Doctors And Diets"

Lord Buckley, "A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat"

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, one of the "Beyond The Fringe" collections and maybe the soundtrack to "Bedazzled" (once I get it)

My Bloody Valentine, "Loveless" (well, doesn't this have to be on every ILM list?)

― X. Y. Zedd, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fat Les.. ?

― jk, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I found 2 D&C albums on CD at a local 2^nd Record Shop I went to at lunchtime today. So I bought a Darkthrone album.

― Kodanshi, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

curt -- you should be able to get your fix of sedaris at the This American Life website (TAL site)

the TAL CD is full of great stories, almost all laugh-out-loud funny.

― bucky wunderlick, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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