Customer Reviews

All Over the Place

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Frank Caliendo is an extraordinary impressionist. His ability to recreate the voices and vocal mannerisms of a wide range of celebrities is remarkable, especially given the ease with which he switches from one to the next. But that skill is not necessarily entertaining. What is so entertaining about Frank Caliendo is his skill as a comedian. He uses the vocal impressions to deliver inspired comic turns that indeed, bounce "all over the place." For example, John Madden says, "I went off on a tangent, there" to which Bush enthusiastically declares, "I love tangerines! They're my favorite fruit!" And Clinton interjects, "I-like-melons." The whole sequence takes, perhaps, 7 seconds, and is typical of the sheer volume of jokes and laughter in this performance. Frank's comedy has the rhythm of an automatic weapon. But his observations are never mean-spirited or unkind, even while he exploits and exaggerates the foibles of his characters. Like Jeff Dunham, Frank has two great skill sets. Dunham is a wonderful ventriloquist and Frank is an amazing impressionist, but both are terrific comedians. Both are eminently likable as themselves. And both get away with outrageous observations by channeling those words through the voices and characters of others. My enjoyment of their humor is tinged with awe at their performance skills.

Seeing an impressionist is often an important aspect of appreciating the effect or the joke. And Frank's recreation of facial expressions is definitely worth seeing. But the vocal characterizations are so strong, even just listening to this performance is entertaining. I bought both the DVD and CD. And once you have seen the DVD, the CD is fully actualized in your imagination. I often listen to it on my iPod while traveling on an airplane.

Like Dunham's "Spark of Insanity" or Steven Wright's "I Have a Pony," Caliendo's "All Over the Place" creates a very challenging standard for Frank to follow-up. I hope he has the chops, but he has set his own bar very high. He should spend a couple of months in a conference room with a group of great comedy writers and once again, distill his new material until it engenders the waves of laughter of this performance.

Although there is new material (president impressions), dont buy cd "make the voices stop" because most of that is on this new one. It is truly a hoot and funny, great when you need some laughter!

If you like to hear an entertainer do spot-on impersonations from the early 90's, this is the album for you! However, if you are a fan of stand-up comedy, you will likely be disappointed by Frank Caliendo, so this is just a fair warning that this is not a stand-up comedy album. The bits are stale, but if you like to hear very well done impersonations of Charles Barkley, John Madden, the cast of Seinfeld, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, you are going to be impressed by this CD.

The album is more family-friendly than most, so that is a plus if it is important to you. However, if you are looking for witty, subversive comedy that really stretches the boundaries you will probably end up throwing this album out.

In conclusion, if you are a casual comedy listener who is looking for something light to chuckle at, this might be for you. If you are well-schooled in the art of stand-up comedy you will find nothing new and exciting in this album and like me you will be disgusted with society for supporting lazy, safe humor like this.

I had not seen Frank Caliendo on MadTV. The first time I was him was doing a commercial on TBS/TNT. He does a lot of impressions. The best part of the CD is when all those voices, John Madden, George Bush, etc come together. Truly talented.

I love Frank Caliendo. I purchased this and have been listening to it every day while driving to and from work. His impressions of John Madden, Al Pacino, George Bush, Charles Barkley, Adam Sandler, Jeff Goldblum and others are amazing.

The CD was the usual Frank...hilarious and eminently enjoyable! Two thumbs up for sure. My only complaint with the Amazon transaction was that the jewel case was cracked in a couple of spots. I was able to glue it back together, but that was a little annoying.

Frank Caliendo is a genius at impressions.

This nonstop funny CD is the companion to his live stand-up performance. Even without having seen the video, it is easy to picture his face as he transforms into character after character like a personality roulette wheel.

Some of these same bits have been done before in his other sets, but this performance is polished and performed flawlessly. This guy can stop an impression and turn on a dime.

Some of his impressions may be lost on a really young listener.

He also keeps it pretty clean.

I love Frank and he had me laughing so hard. I love all his new material. The only thing I did not like was that there was a lot of repition from his last CD on his new one. When I buy a new CD I want new stuff. Other than that it was still very funny.

I goofed. Please note that this is a AUDIO CD. I meant to order the DVD for my husband. How can you enjoy the talent of an impersonator without seeing him?