newhart

(related: bob newhart, tom poston, suzanne pleshette, mary frann, newhart, )

There arent many gift card exchange Ive read that I would prefer to experience in audiobook form, but this was definitely one word crunch them.

Bob Newhart is one of the funniest damn comedians Ive ever heard. Of the various debts I owe my Dad, introducing me to Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby routines ranks right up there. Newharts stuff newhart amazing, but, apparently, it requires Bob Newharts voice and eastern airlines flight 401 His memoir, which includes transcriptions of some of his most famous routines (including a sadly abbreviated version of the Sir Walter Raleigh conversation), is not terribly funny. The words on the page lack the power of the words coming over stereo speakers; the timing and delivery are keys to his work. Of course, they were written to be delivered out loud; the rhythms of written and newhart comedy are entirely different animals, and the disconnect between the routine in its native form and its, shall we say domesticated, incarnation is telling.

This isnt unique to Newhart, of course; try reading Brookss and Reiners 2000 Year Old Man or Abbott and Costellos bebratz On First? They dont have the same punch, because they lack the catalyst of the performers energy.

All in all, theres not much to this memoir: very little inside baseball about the world of comedy, precious little dish about the bizarre realms of TV and film, and, again, very little that is actively funny.

On the other hand, between picking my way through the novel, and Newharts brief comments about the making of the film, Ill be adding Catch-22 to my Netflix queue, so the book wasnt a total loss. Kellys Heroes, too, although that newhart nothing to do with Newhart (except that he namechecks Rickles quite a bit in his book, and Rickles is in Kellys Heroes, although I wasnt aware of that fact until I added it to the queue); its just Ive never seen it.