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Comedy Club Greats
Lionsgate Home Entertainment // Unrated // June 5, 2007
List Price: $14.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
So you're looking at the cover for "Comedy Club Greats," and the line-up looks great. Jerry Seinfeld! Adam Sandler! Dave Attell! Flip over to the back of the box. Hmm. "Original material." Is that a code word for "old footage"? And Attell sure has a lot more hair in these pics. What's this? "Many more" comics as well, in a mere 76 minute running time? Surely by now your internal Buyer Beware alarm is going off at full volume.
Yes, "Comedy Club Greats" is one of those crummy compilation videos in which the producers slap together a random assortment of stand-up comedy clips from years back, dig out some footage of a few recognizable names working in their early years, and hope nobody notices before they plunk down the retail price. For this disc, we mostly get clips taken from what appears to be the 80s cable show "A&E Night at the Improv," although, mysteriously, the Attell footage is from the mid-90s and is a little more risqué than what would've made it on TV.
The Attell footage is worthwhile only in the sense that we get to see a young comic honing his craft - he's delivering "blue" material to a room that obviously wasn't expecting it, and watching him win the crowd over is interesting. But Attell's set contains many jokes that would appear in his later work, in funnier, tighter form. He's only shown for about five minutes anyway, so pass.
Also pass on Sandler, seen here in what must be one of his earliest gigs. (I'd guess it's even before his "Remote Control" days.) He's uncomfortable in front of the crowd, and he's too nervous to be enjoyable. If you've seen early Sandler stand-up, you know his style is twitchy and shy, with jokes built more out of weirdness than from more standard humor; he's too unpolished, leaving his very brief (just a few minutes) appearance little more than a curiosity piece.
Worst of all is Seinfeld, promoted as a headline act. Here's what we get: about 90 seconds (90 seconds!) of footage of the comic emceeing an episode of "Improv Tonight." And that's it. We've heard most of his material elsewhere, so there's no rare find to be had (unless you want a few seconds of riffing on the program's generic title), but that's the least of it. 90 seconds!!! Seinfeld is the last comic presented on this disc, so his over-before-we-have-time-to-blink appearance is an insult to anyone who had to sit through the rest, waiting with growing impatience for the big finale.
So what fills up the rest of the running time? Random bits from club comics of the mid- to late-80s, names you may or may not recognize: Bruce Smirnoff, Rob Rubin, Barry Weintraub, Dennis Wolfberg, Mark Schiff, Stanley Ullman, Daniel Rosen, Carol Siskind, and Max Alexander. All of them are terrible - even Wolfberg, whom I had seen elsewhere and know as a funny fellow. Most of the bits are painfully outdated, with punchlines about Yugos and condoms in high schools and L.A. highway shootings. (They go well with the mullets and acid wash jeans on display in the audience reaction shots.) Everyone wants to yuk about their Jewishness or their physical imperfections; a few of them want to dig into some sex jokes but won't take the risk of actually getting too dirty (which makes Attell's carefree vulgarity a refreshing change); some of them turn in "kooky" on-stage characters that irritate from the first moment; one of them even goes for juggling and magic tricks.
It's every awful stereotype about lousy stand-up comedy (the brick walls, the predictable punchlines, the insincere delivery) rolled into a single package, ready for you to ignore. Buyer beware, indeed.
The DVD
Video & Audio
Surprisingly, this video footage has been well preserved, as every clip looks about as solid, if not better, than it did when it first aired. Nothing fancy, but none of the expected video softness. Presented in a 1.33:1 broadcast format, with a decent stereo soundtrack. Optional Spanish subtitles are offered.
Extras
Oh, the gall of Lionsgate and Barnholtz Entertainment, to actually include the subtitles and chapter listings under the special features menu. The only real "extras" are a set of grating trailers for other comedy compilation releases; they also play as the disc loads, and you can skip over them if you choose.
Final Thoughts
It's not just a bad collection of bad comedy. It's a hideous, crass attempt to con any potential customer they can. Skip It.
Yes, "Comedy Club Greats" is one of those crummy compilation videos in which the producers slap together a random assortment of stand-up comedy clips from years back, dig out some footage of a few recognizable names working in their early years, and hope nobody notices before they plunk down the retail price. For this disc, we mostly get clips taken from what appears to be the 80s cable show "A&E Night at the Improv," although, mysteriously, the Attell footage is from the mid-90s and is a little more risqué than what would've made it on TV.
The Attell footage is worthwhile only in the sense that we get to see a young comic honing his craft - he's delivering "blue" material to a room that obviously wasn't expecting it, and watching him win the crowd over is interesting. But Attell's set contains many jokes that would appear in his later work, in funnier, tighter form. He's only shown for about five minutes anyway, so pass.
Also pass on Sandler, seen here in what must be one of his earliest gigs. (I'd guess it's even before his "Remote Control" days.) He's uncomfortable in front of the crowd, and he's too nervous to be enjoyable. If you've seen early Sandler stand-up, you know his style is twitchy and shy, with jokes built more out of weirdness than from more standard humor; he's too unpolished, leaving his very brief (just a few minutes) appearance little more than a curiosity piece.
Worst of all is Seinfeld, promoted as a headline act. Here's what we get: about 90 seconds (90 seconds!) of footage of the comic emceeing an episode of "Improv Tonight." And that's it. We've heard most of his material elsewhere, so there's no rare find to be had (unless you want a few seconds of riffing on the program's generic title), but that's the least of it. 90 seconds!!! Seinfeld is the last comic presented on this disc, so his over-before-we-have-time-to-blink appearance is an insult to anyone who had to sit through the rest, waiting with growing impatience for the big finale.
So what fills up the rest of the running time? Random bits from club comics of the mid- to late-80s, names you may or may not recognize: Bruce Smirnoff, Rob Rubin, Barry Weintraub, Dennis Wolfberg, Mark Schiff, Stanley Ullman, Daniel Rosen, Carol Siskind, and Max Alexander. All of them are terrible - even Wolfberg, whom I had seen elsewhere and know as a funny fellow. Most of the bits are painfully outdated, with punchlines about Yugos and condoms in high schools and L.A. highway shootings. (They go well with the mullets and acid wash jeans on display in the audience reaction shots.) Everyone wants to yuk about their Jewishness or their physical imperfections; a few of them want to dig into some sex jokes but won't take the risk of actually getting too dirty (which makes Attell's carefree vulgarity a refreshing change); some of them turn in "kooky" on-stage characters that irritate from the first moment; one of them even goes for juggling and magic tricks.
It's every awful stereotype about lousy stand-up comedy (the brick walls, the predictable punchlines, the insincere delivery) rolled into a single package, ready for you to ignore. Buyer beware, indeed.
The DVD
Video & Audio
Surprisingly, this video footage has been well preserved, as every clip looks about as solid, if not better, than it did when it first aired. Nothing fancy, but none of the expected video softness. Presented in a 1.33:1 broadcast format, with a decent stereo soundtrack. Optional Spanish subtitles are offered.
Extras
Oh, the gall of Lionsgate and Barnholtz Entertainment, to actually include the subtitles and chapter listings under the special features menu. The only real "extras" are a set of grating trailers for other comedy compilation releases; they also play as the disc loads, and you can skip over them if you choose.
Final Thoughts
It's not just a bad collection of bad comedy. It's a hideous, crass attempt to con any potential customer they can. Skip It.
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