ALBUMS: Outside Shelley Berman
MVC Rating: 3.5/$
Sounds like a 1950’s version of Seinfeld, perhaps crossed with a little bit of Lenny Bruce rage. He euphemizes some sexual content here, very slyly I might add.
He died this year but before that he was a character in Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show everyone recommends but I know little about other than Larry David stars.
Noted for accusing Bob Newhart of copping his one-sided phone routine where he pretends like he’s on the phone with some famous person from history. (See videos).
Bob pretending to be on the phone to Lincoln’s press agent, for example. “Your thinking of shaving? Um let’s re-think this Abe, sweetheart.” Or something like that.
I think Newhart won that spat when they realized a number of comics did that schtick.
He seems to be quick with the wit, funny even. A prototype comic of sorts.
But I can’t see flipping through my records and saying I wanna listen to some Berman right now. I NEED BERMAN RIGHT NOW. No, cant see me doing that.
I prefer what I call the Steven Wright style:
“What’s another word for Thesaurus?”
Counting down my vinyl records before I die of brain disease.