Robert Klein has not been funny since his 1972 stand-up comedy album Child of the 50s.
His latest release is Unfair & Unbalanced, a 2010 HBO special and stand-up comedy DVD. It is uneven but better than expected. Klein usually hits the mark with some biting observations about the state of America, modern life, and getting old. His generic material about TV and old topics like Wilt Chamberlain makes you wonder how hard he prepared.
Unfair & Unbalanced opens with a Randy Newman hymn to Barack Obama with full orchestra asking him to keep his schmekel in his pants. This segues nicely to the hypocritical senators, congressmen, and governors who got caught with their pants down from Argentina to the Minneapolis airport.
Most of the aging routine is good but it features some cliché stuff like problems opening condiment packets and CDs. You would think a veteran comic like Robert Klein would know better than to parade these tropes.
You also have to wonder what the Dukakis – Bentsen (look it up on Wiki) is doing there even if it kind of sets up his Palin material, some of which is open mic level stand-up.
Klein closes his HBO stand-up comedy special with a ditty about medical marijuana and after a few short jokes, a tune about marriage, gay or otherwise.
Robert Klein Unfair & Unbalanced closes of course with the Shaky Leg song
Unfair & Unbalanced
Robert Klein
Stand-up comedy DVD
HBO Warner Home Video 2010
60 minutes
Related Posts
- 74Third May CD / DVD. Not as good as the first two but pretty decent.
- 72Ordinary stand-up comedy DVD with Red Grant, Luenell, and Melanie Comarcho
- 7020 years of great stand-up and the 2006 New Orleans fundraiser. Must have.