A Bit of Albert Brooks
There’s a new documentary, Defending My Life, about Albert Brooks on HBO which was directed by Rob Reiner, who has been friends since high school. For whatever quibbles I have, it’s very entertaining – and a treat for the extended clips on some of his classic bits he did in his standup days. I thought I’d track down some of them and post them here in full from time to time.
I’ll start though with a gem that they didn’t reference, and it’s one of my favorites. (As you might imagine, this is one of my quibbles.) It’s from his first album, Comedy Minus One.
I’m going to post two versions of it. The original from the album, which of course is audio only – and the other, performing it on The Flip Wilson Show. It’s pretty much the full piece (there’s even a very brief, new section). The main difference is that the TV version leaves out the much longer set-up which is fun, maybe two minutes. I like the audio-only version from the album because you use your imagination of the off-beat characters he creates. But if you want to watch it rather than just listen, I’d still suggest listening to the audio-only first, up to the point where he starts with the song auditions, and then change to this link and watch the rest.
For starters, here it is from the album.
And here is Brooks performing the piece on The Flip Wilson Show. Largely the same, but without the full set-up.
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