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A comedy album is an audio recording of comedic material from a comedian or group of comedians, usually performed either live or in a studio. Comedy albums may feature skits, humorous songs, and/or live recording of stand-up comedy performances, but the most common type of comedy albums are stand up, and are often made in conjunction with a DVD with recorded video of a particular comedy show.
Some of the earliest albums recorded for popular commercial distribution were comedy albums. For example, various collections of humorous short stories recited by vaudeville comedian Cal Stewart were released by Edison Records as early as 1898. [1] A number of record labels specialize in the comedy genre, including Aspecialthing Records, Comedy Central Records, Partee Records, Stand Up! Records, Stereolaffs and Celery Sound Records.
Comedy albums have won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album on several occasions, including America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't, by Stephen Colbert (2014) and If You Ask Me (and of Course You Won't) by Betty White (2012). The first album to win this honor was The Best of the Stan Freberg Shows by Stan Freberg (1959), a variety album including comedy bits.
There is also a podcast that covers the history and influence of comedy albums, primarily on vinyl, titled Comedy on Vinyl , which also premiered a 50-year-old lost Bob Newhart track in 2015.
Cal Stewart recorded monologues of jokes as the rustic "Uncle Josh" in the late 1890s. [2] Stewart included some of the earliest recorded banana peel jokes on the record Uncle Josh in a Department Store in 1903. [3] Another notable early example is Joe Hayman's 1913 Cohen on the Telephone, part of a series of routines about a Jewish immigrant besieged by technology. [2] The Okeh Laughing Record, a record of a man and a woman simply laughing for three minutes, was a best-seller in 1922. [2] Records of comedy songs became popular, with vaudeville and musical comedy stars such as Eddie Cantor and Fanny Brice releasing their own. [2] However, when radio became popular with higher-fidelity FM broadcasting in the early 1930s, sales of records dropped. [2] Spike Jones had some successes in the late 1940s. Comedy albums were held back by the technology of the time only allowing for short recordings, but when longer-duration LP records were introduced in 1948, it allowed artists such as Lord Buckley, Stan Freberg and Tom Lehrer to record material close to modern comedy albums. [2]
The one album to possibly be considered the first modern comedy album is Mort Sahl's 1958 The Future Lies Ahead, which was a recording of his comedy routine in front of a live audience, organized by jazz record producer Norman Granz. Sahl's records sold well and he is said by Shelley Berman to have directly influenced him. [2] Also the same year's The Best of the Stan Freberg Shows, a recording of collected material from Stan Freberg's comedy radio show The Stan Freberg Show , won the first 1959 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. [4] Shelley Berman's own 1959 album Inside Shelley Berman is regarded as the first actual hit and was the first to win a Grammy in the subcategory Spoken Comedy of the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1960. [2] Following it was a much bigger hit, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart in early 1960. It hit number one on the Mono Action Albums chart (Billboard 200) for all recordings, including music. It stayed at the top for 14 weeks. [5] It was only dethroned later the same year by the rushed out sequel, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! . The two albums occupied the top two spots for nearly 30 weeks, a record not surpassed until 1991 by Guns N’Roses. [6] [2]
The 1960s saw a comedy album phenomenon with the likes of Nichols and May, Smothers Brothers, Jonathan Winters, Dick Gregory, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Tom Lehrer, Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Redd Foxx, Allan Sherman and Vaughn Meader. [2] [7] In the 1970s, comedy albums developed a reputation for being targeted towards college students, being countercultural and not being allowed on TV. Notable artists were among others George Carlin, Cheech and Chong, Richard Pryor, Robert Klein, David Steinberg, Lily Tomlin, National Lampoon and Steve Martin. [2] [8]
The Firesign Theatre, an improvisational surreal radio comedy troupe formed on Los Angeles KPFK FM on November 6, 1966, released in January 1968 a tightly-scripted comedy album Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him on Columbia Records. Side 1 consists of a trilogy of extended audio plays: "Temporarily Humboldt County" (9:14), which satirizes the Europeans' displacement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas; "W.C. Fields Forever" (7:39), which satirizes the 1960s hippie culture, and "Le Trente-Huit Cunegonde (Returned For Regrooving)" (7:19) which imagined a projected future in which the roles of the hippie counterculture and the Establishment culture have reversed roles. Side 2 (17:48) is the title track, a stream-of-consciousness play about an American tourist to an Eastern Bloc country, who ends up in prison and is rescued by the CIA. The Firesign Theatre produced fifteen albums designed for FM air play under two five-year recording contracts, and spawned an underground comedy cult. They won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation by the World Science Fiction Society for two of their albums in 1971 and 1972. They continued recording on other labels as late as 2011, and three of their albums received nominations for Best Comedy Album Grammy in 1984, 1988, and 2001.[ citation needed ]
Party records were a genre of blue comedy albums in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s that were notable for their raunchy adult content and often featured African American comedians. Due to obscenity laws, party records were typically not displayed on record store shelves but were kept under the counter, sold by request, and promoted by word of mouth. Laff Records was a notable producer of party records. Comedians who became known due to party records include Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Lawanda Page, Moms Mabley, Rudy Ray Moore, Tina Dixon, Belle Barth, Skillet & Leroy, and Richard & Willie.
George Robert Newhart was an American comedian and actor. Newhart was known for his deadpan and stammering delivery style. Beginning his career as a stand-up comedian, he transitioned his career to acting in television. He received numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. He received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2002.
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly, or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian.
John Elroy Sanford, better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. Known as the "King of the Party Records", he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family, where he played the husband of Della Reese and grandfather of Larenz Tate.
The 3rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on April 12, 1961, at Los Angeles and New York. They recognized musical accomplishments by the performers for the year 1960. Ray Charles won four awards and Bob Newhart and Henry Mancini each won three awards.
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
The Firesign Theatre was an American surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program Radio Free Oz on station KPFK FM. They continued appearing on Radio Free Oz, which later moved to KRLA 1110 AM and then KMET FM, through February 1969. They produced fifteen record albums and a 45 rpm single under contract to Columbia Records from 1967 through 1976, and had three nationally syndicated radio programs: The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour [sic] in 1970 on KPPC-FM; and Dear Friends (1970–1971) and Let's Eat! (1971–1972) on KPFK. They also appeared in front of live audiences, and continued to write, perform, and record on other labels, occasionally taking sabbaticals during which they wrote or performed solo or in smaller groups.
Stan Freberg was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director.
Sheldon Leonard Berman was an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, and lecturer.
LaWanda Page was an American actress, comedian and dancer whose career spanned six decades. Crowned "The Queen of Comedy" or "The Black Queen of Comedy", Page melded blue humor, signifyin' and observational comedy with jokes about sexuality, race relations, African-American culture and religion. She released five solo albums, including the 1977 gold-selling Watch It, Sucker!, and collaborated on two albums with the comedy group Skillet, Leroy & Co. As an actress, Page is best known for portraying the Bible-toting and sharp-tongued Esther Anderson on the popular television sitcom Sanford and Son, which aired from 1972 until 1977. Page reprised the role in the short-lived television shows Sanford Arms (1976–1977) and Sanford (1980–1981). She also costarred in the 1979 short-lived series Detective School. Throughout her career, Page advocated for fair pay and equal opportunities for black performers.
The Stan Freberg Show was a weekly radio comedy show that ran on the CBS Radio Network for fifteen episodes in 1957 from July 14 through October 20. The show, starring comedian Stan Freberg and featuring the vocal talents of Daws Butler, June Foray and Peter Leeds, Peggy Taylor as the resident singer, and the musical direction of Billy May. The show aired in the 7:30 p.m. (ET) time slot following repeats of The Jack Benny Program on Sundays. The show was produced by Pete Barnum.
The Hungry I was a nightclub in San Francisco, California, originally located in the North Beach neighborhood. It played a major role in the history of stand-up comedy in the United States. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1951. The club moved to Ghirardelli Square in 1967 and operated mostly as a rock music venue until it closed in 1970.
GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an independent record label founded in 1954 by Gene Norman (né Eugene Abraham Nabatoff; 1922–2015). It started as a producer of jazz, then expanded into many other genres, including comedy, rock, and Star Trek soundtracks. Currently GNP Cresendo is run by Gene Norman's son, Neil Norman.
The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart is a 1960 live album by comedian Bob Newhart. Recorded at the Tidelands Club in Houston, Texas by recording engineer Bill Holford, Newhart's debut album reached No. 1 on the Billboard Mono Action Albums chart on August 1, 1960, and remained at the top for 14 weeks. In Canada, the album was No. 1 for 17 of 18 weeks between June 13 and October 10. The album stayed on the chart for two years, selling over 600,000 copies near release and ranking as the 20th best-selling album of all time on the Billboard charts. It won Album of the Year at the 1961 Grammy Awards, where Newhart was named Best New Artist; it was the first comedy album to win Album of the Year and the only time a comedian had won Best New Artist.
Sick comedy was a term originally used by mainstream news weeklies Time and Life to distinguish a style of comedy/satire that was becoming popular in the United States in the late 1950s. Mainstream comic taste in the United States had favored more innocuous forms, such as the topical but inoffensive one-liners in Bob Hope's routines. In contrast, the new comedy favored observational monologues, often with elements of cynicism, social criticism and political satire.
Mister Kelly’s was a nightclub on Rush Street in Chicago which existed from 1953 to 1975. From around 1956 until its demise, it was a springboard to fame for many entertainers, especially jazz singers and comedians. As reported in the Chicago Tribune, "It was a supernova in the local and national nightlife firmament." Mister Kelly’s was owned and operated by brothers Oscar and George Marienthal, whose Chicago empire included the London House, an upscale jazz supper club, and the theatrically oriented Happy Medium.
Craps (After Hours) is the second album by American comedian Richard Pryor, released in 1971 on the Laff Records label.
Walter D. Williams, Jr., known as Dootsie Williams, was an American record producer and record label owner who released early records by Redd Foxx and The Penguins.
Nichols and May was an American improvisational comedy duo act developed by Mike Nichols (1931–2014) and Elaine May. Their three comedy albums reached the Billboard Top 40 between 1959 and 1962. Many comedians have cited them as key influences in modern comedy. Woody Allen declared, “the two of them came along and elevated comedy to a brand-new level".
The Crescendo was a West Hollywood jazz venue located at 8572 Sunset Boulevard. It opened in 1954, along with the Interlude upstairs, and ran until 1964.
Jerry Before Seinfeld is a 2017 stand-up comedy film that follows comedian Jerry Seinfeld as he returns for a stand-up routine at the New York City comedy club, Comic Strip Live, which started his career. The album of the special was nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. This is his third special and his first with Netflix.
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