This Ellen DeGeneres stand-up comedy CD shows that before she became a talk-show queen and before she became famous for coming out of the closet, she was a pretty good stand-up comic.
Yes, she did use the occasional swear word when telling a funny joke but her debut stand-up comedy CD Taste This shows what Ellen DeGeneres could do when she did not have an agenda. Taste
This, a very funny comedy CD, shows DeGeneres as a comic was a ditsy blonde character and very good at the misdirection joke and very good at observation comedy.
On Taste This, Ellen DeGeneres shows her ability to juggle 4 or 5 storylines at the same time and at keeping you guessing where everything is going to land. Camping and Hunting and Iroquois Indians, the opening tracks on this comedy CD show a talent few stand-up comics have.
Misdirection is probably the most difficult tool in stand-up comedy because the funny joke, the punch line depends not only on the setup but on the comedian getting you there and surprising you. If you see it coming, there is no misdirection and no funny joke.
The topics Ellen DeGeneres covers on Taste This are not groundbreaking. There’s even an eleven-minute piece on airplanes. The funny skit that opened all sorts of doors for DeGeneres after her appearance on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, A Phone Call To God is there of course.
What is interesting about this comedy CD is that it shows it is possible to have the most mundane topic and not say anything really new or interesting about it (such as Depends and Leg Warmers, Cat In Heat, Public Bathrooms) but setup and timing can make it interesting and worth listening to again. This is sometimes the case with the comedy of Ellen DeGeneres. There are a lot of funny jokes but they are based on the most ordinary subject matter.
There is a hidden bonus on this CD: an Ellen DeGeneres screensaver. No big deal, just an Ellen head bobbing around (then again, it was the nineties).
Ellen DeGeneres
Taste This
stand-up comedy CD
Lava Atlantic Records
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