Live From New York [Live]

Gilda Radner | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 24, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1979
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002MSZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,547 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Great collection at a great price. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gilda: Unlike Any Other, June 27, 2003

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live From New York (Audio CD)

She was born in 1946 in Detroit, Michigan, and after a stint with Second City shot to stardom as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live: a little slip of a thing with ordinary-girl-next-door looks, a cockerspaniel hairstyle, and twinkling eyes. And a charming, touching vulnerability that combined with a truly subversive sense of humor and a talent that was completely at home with the greatest comic artists of her generation. America's Sweetheart, suddenly, impossibly dead of ovarian cancer in 1989 at age 42.

GILDA RADNER: LIVE FROM NEW YORK extracts portions of her 1980 stage show, a program in which Radner drew heavily upon the characters she had first created for Saturday Night Live--but this was no rerun; the material was new and the characters were as fresh as they were when they debuted. There's Candy Slice, Radner's wickedly funny take-off on Patti Smith, Priestess of Punk; the sinus-afflicted teenager Lisa Loopner, who becomes overwrought during a piano recital; the slightly deaf and eternally confused Emily Litella, who suddenly finds herself working as a substitute teacher in a most unpleasant school; and Roseanne Roseannadanna, an aggressively obnoxious news commentator, delivering a commencement speech at (of all places) Columbia University.

All of these sketches have their charms, but to my mind the best selections from this recording are those in which Gilda Radner is just Gilda Radner, completely unencumbered by the necessity of creating an alter-ego. The opening "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals" is bright, cheery, and hilariously obscene; "I Love to Be Unhappy" is a classic of bright desperation; and the closing "Honey (Touch Me With My Clothes On)" is an incredibly charming bit of nostalgia, a recollection of early highschool romances in a more innocent time.

If I have a complaint with this recording, it is that it is partial and that on occasion the sketches really have to be seen as well as heard in order to fully appreciate them. This is particularly true of the Rhonda Wiess character, a Long Island Jewish princess furious at the FDA for banning saccharine--and who utters a truly disturbing line when she comments that "statistics show men prefer skinny girls with cancer to healthy girls with bulging thighs." At the time, the line got a tremendous laugh. Today it leaves you with a sharp wince of irony and a trace of tragedy.

Sadly, Radner never really had time to find the post-Saturday Night Fame which surely would have been hers: a few minor roles in minor films, a few television appearances, and suddenly it was over. But her unique brand of joyful innocence and sly humor remains intact both here and in other venues, where she is forever loveable, forever young, and absolutely, unspeakably funny. Recommended.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant humor from a brilliant comedienne. A classic., December 15, 1999

By 

Mark J. Koenig - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live From New York (Audio CD)

I remember purchasing this album when it came out in 1979, right after Gilda Radner's one-woman show had premiered on Broadway. Many of the lines from this record (which I played countless times in college for hysterical friends) are classics, and have stayed with me 'till today. (I'm 37 now). Her Roseanne Rosanneadana routine (a commencement speech) will have you laughing so hard you'll cry. Ditto for Emily Litella, and her punk-rock alter-ego, Candy Slice and the Slicers. ("If You Look Close" had me rolling on the floor the first time I heard it.) Also priceless is Radner's number as Rhonda Weiss - the stereotypical Brooklyn Jew/songstress. All in all, absolutely hilarious. How very sad, and what a great loss that Gilda died so young. She'll always live on, however, in my memory and in those of her many fans.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get me some Depends and some Kleenex!, June 6, 2001

By 

"ktempesta" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live From New York (Audio CD)

I laugh so hard every time I hear this album (I had to buy the CD version of this when my vinyl copy finally wore out) I nearly lose control of my faculties. Until the part where Lisa Loopner sings "The Way We Were" and I start to weep.