Anybody else collect comedy records/CD's?

Yes, there are dozens of those. Great stuff, too. They made a "Best-of" from this material when "Sanford & Son" became a hit, but they only used the clean jokes. Beats me how they found enough material for 5 minutes, let alone a whole LP!

 

I have the four Lily Tomlin albums on both LP and CD (This Is a Recording, And That's the Truth, Modern Scream and On Stage). They're among my most frequently played CDs (music or otherwise). I also have three Joan Rivers comedy LPs plus some Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby.

 

Mort Sahl!

I like comedians who were riding high in the 60s, but are largely forgotten today - Jackie Vernon, Totie Fields, Shelley Berman...

 

Bob & Ray

and
Bob and Ray The Komodo Dragon

 

I love comedy recordings, especially British comedy from the Goons to Python era. I became a huge Python fan when I was about eight or nine and they're right up there alongside The Beatles as life-long heroes. Through Python, I started to explore other artists.

I collect early UK LP pressings of:
Monty Python
Flanders and Swann
Goons
Peter Sellers
Beyond the Fringe
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore

and CDs by:
Billy Connelly
Woody Allen
Eddie Izzard
Douglas Adams

I still need to explore more of Not the Nine O'Clock News, Stanley Unwin, and Bernard Cribbins (I only know him from Dr Who).

 

To that list I'll add
Lenny Bruce
Flip Wilson
Robin Williams

Redd Foxx is a real pain though. Seems like hundreds of crappy albums all with the same cover. Dooto Records and Laff Of The Party

 

Cool thread. I love stand up. I won't add anything that hasn't been mentioned, but I own pretty much the entire catalogs of Carlin, Hicks, Stanhope, and Hedberg (as small as it is...). Those amount to my Mount Rushmore of comedy.

Steve Hughes, Andy Andrist, Bill Burr, and Jim Jefferies are all really good too.

Also, anyone like Tim Minchin? He has some really clever songs. Look up "Thank you God", unless you are easily offended.

 

oh, and as folks mentioned the Bonzo Dog Band, I should add them to my list of favorite humorists

 

Yeah, Cosby, Python, Carlin, Pryor, Hedberg, Hicks, Freberg, Smothers Brothers (who do *not* get their due -- these are records you can play over and over and they don't get tiresome), NatLamp, Weird Al etc..

But my prize possession would be all my Dr. Demento collections -- the vinyl box set and all the "Basement Tapes" CDs.

Comedy *music* rarely gets old if it's done well.

Comedy routines can come and go (Carlin I can play over and over for some reason...), but I can play something like "Bulbous Bouffant" or "Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen a dozen times and it's still just as funny.

 

I have a lot of Lenny Bruce, both official and unofficial and otherwise out-of-print stuff. I think I also have all of Mort Sahl's albums (even a rip of the rare Sahl at Sunset, which Mort did not authorize). I guess that's the extent of my comedy collecting.

 

I only bought one Firesign Theatre cd. I couldn't get into it

 

I have a couple of albums by german comedians. It's great listening to them every two years.

 

I am just curious who you think is the all time best standup comic? Who makes you laugh more than anyone else?

 

Assuming you do vinyl, try one of their Columbia LPs. They are out there cheap.

 

I guess I do, or I did, anyway. I had the '60s-'80s basically covered 25 years ago and there just isn't enough material coming out as new audio releases to keep me looking for it specifically. I got a Cal Stewart 78 and three anonymously labeled "party records" from the '20s recently, but that's about it over the past six months or so.

 

I'd have to say George Carlin more than anyone else, by far!

 

Yes! I probably wouldn't even have them if I didn't find them used for dirt cheap! I am always cautious whenever I find them in a used bin somewhere, since all the covers are the same. I'm not sure which ones I have, and even then, sometimes the same jokes are on more than one album. And you're right - there must be hundreds out there!

 

Monty Python ‎– The Monty Python Matching Tie And Handkerchief
Label:
Charisma ‎– CAS 1080
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album, Double Grooved
This is a bugger of an album

 

Bill Cosby has two albums where he sings instead of doing comedy. Does anyone know what the rarest/ most valuable comedy LP is?

 

I have some cool comedy like Derek & Clive and Bill Hicks and Woody Allen, but also quite a few curios like Stanley Unwin of Ogdens Nut Gone Flake fame and a really cheesy find by camp 70s comedy star John Inman.

 

Anyone have Hugh Romney - Third Stream Humour?

 

No idea. Lenny Bruce or something on Laff Records or one of those other weird labels maybe?

 

My favorite is Eddie Murphy's S/T.

Robin Williams Live At The Met, Steven Wright I Have A Pony, Ray Romano Live At Carnegie Hall are all great ones that haven't been mentioned.

I keep my Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli in my comedy section as well because they always get a laugh.

 

Alan Sherman, Earle Dowd and Bob Booker ("The First Family" and "Welcome To the LBJ Ranch"), Spike Jones (his 1960's stuff on Liberty Records), Peter Schickele (PDQ Bach) comprise my collection of comedy records. Rhino is to be congratulated for collecting all of the Alan Sherman records on CD in a fabulous box set although it seems to now be out-of-print.

 

I have personally seen and have signed CD copies of the following:

Ron Funches
Weird Al Yankovic
Marc Maron

I enjoy all comedy and Ron is my personal favorite comedian...