Bob Newhart – Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart (1964)

Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart is the comic’s fifth of  seven stand-up comedy albums released in the sixties.

Collector’s Choice has made the last 4, The Button-Down Mind on TV (1962), Faces (1964), The Windmils Are Weakening (65), and This Is It! (67) available on CD. The packaging is a replica of the vinyl version and the inserts feature somewhat different texts about Newhart and the particular album.

These re-releases are superb but because it features a commentary by Don Knotts I wish the back jacket of this album had been enlarged and made legible.

Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart is the weakest and shortest comedy album in the catalogue. It is 33 minutes long and features two semi-classics, The Man Who Looked Like Hitler and Nudist Camp Expose.

This stand-up comedy CD opens with a bit on now long forgotten commercials though the closer, Laurence Olivier doing a commercial for occasional irregularity is decent enough.

Amateur Show Contestants, is now oddly relevant again in a world with American Idol and so on. Bob Newhart sort of singing the 12 Days of Christmas is the kicker here.

Nudist Camp Expose gets cheap laughs from its premise. Bob Newhart does slip in a couple of good ones.

The Expectant Father is the longest comedy routine on the Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart CD. It is what seems to be a personal anecdote and a commentary on hospital practices in the sixties when the father’s role was minimal.  On Poodles and Planes is funny enough.

The last track on this Newhart CD is the oft-anthologized The Man Who Looked Like Hitler about a man sitting next to Hitler’s doppelganger on a plane. It is a good bit but some of the laughs are based on physical comedy you do not see.

Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart is for true fans of this stand-up comedy legend.

Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart
Stand-up Comedy CD
Originally released 1964
Collector’s Choice Music 2009
33 minutes

Related Posts