Various Stand-Up Comics – National Lampoon Live Un-Scripted with Frank Caliendo

This stand-up comedy CD has something going for it and a strike against it.

I like buffet style stand-up shows and this is one of those. I bears the National Lampoon monicker, basically a kiss of death when it comes to comedy (I dare you to name more funny National Lampoon products than abysmal ones. Case closed). National Lampoon Live Un-Scripted makes it in the miniscule funny section, an even smaller section when it comes to comedy CDs.

Frank Caliendo is the name on which this CD rests and he is a good choice. Caliendo opens with a fun bit using John Madden’s voice and does an absolute killer bit with Robin Williams playing all the characters in Wizard of Oz. I never thought someone could capture the Williams madness but Caliendo does note for note. His closer, Chris Farley and Pauly Shore as Batman and Robin is probably an old bit but still funny if you remember enough Farley to get it.

The first stand-up Caliendo introduces is John DiResta. He is your basic Italian-American goomba comic.  He covers a wide swath of standard comedy club staples: white trash, relationship and my wife jokes. He is a good stand-up but does a couple too many variations on old standards, “My wife is with me here tonight, she’s in the car,” “bought it at Tarjay,” and asking his kid where he got something: “In your dresser drawer.”

Bert Kreisher is the next comic to get his eleven and a half minutes of fame on this stand-up comedy CD. His material is an abrupt switch to adult comedy. Some of it is good, some is lame.

The third comic introduced by Frank Caliendo is Tess. She opens with a bit on her experience on Last Comic You Can Stand. She has a good skinny girl / big girl routine that turns into a viciously funny swipe at the media’s depiction of women. The Mexican clown car is also funny. Also good are her office work routine and her dating history.

Best on National Lampoon Live Un-Scripted is Steve Byrne though he opens and closes with bits that depend on seeing them to appreciate the joke. His stand-up comedy covers a lot of ground so there’s something for everybody here. Byrne also makes mac n’ cheese sexy.

This is a pretty good if a bit uneven stand-up comedy CD

National Lampoon Live Un-Scripted
Frank Caliendo, John DiResta, Bert Kreisher
Tess, Steve Byrne
Stand-up Comedy CD
Uproar 2009 62 minutes

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