Customer Reviews

The New! Improved! Bob & Ray Book

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

 

 

Here are Bob and Ray on tape again, late in their career but still the funniest duo on, and off, radio. Here they're reading (with sound effects) from their book - which is more like a collection of radio scripts; it's a good introduction to their work, and longtime listeners will find their material as fresh and funny as always. And while some hardcore fans may miss the unique "live radio" quality that Bob and Ray had, they're every bit as funny as in any of their earlier work. The running gag about walnut pickers is reason enough to buy this, as is the grammar lesson. It's also fun to read along while listening to the tape, so get the book as well. Bob and Ray are a reminder that enduring comedy needn't be offensive.

A work of off-kilter genius from Bob and Ray, surreal comedy pioneers. From "small village endocrinologist Engelbretzen" to the seedy soap opera Garish Summit, it's one loopy deadpan laugh riot. The cheesy, mock-melodramatic music adds to the fun. Hilarious running gags, idiotic talk show guests, crackpot pseudo-experts, bizarre mini-dramas, pathetic losers we can simultaneously sympathize with and deride--the "New! Improved! Bob and Ray Book" is first-class lunacy.

How often do you find humor so insanely funny that you can't resist smirking and chuckling in public places as you remember your favorite lines? This is that funny. A great gift idea for anybody who likes warped humor that's both sophisticated and moronic at the same time.

In a broadcast studio, a man in the audience introduces himself as "one of the very few people in America with a name that is completely unpronounceable", spelled W-W-Q-L-C-W. "I'd like to say hello to my brother on your program, but I don't know how to pronounce his name, either."

Consumer affairs expert Hoyt Netley recommends a child's tricycle from Denmark on account of its rounded edges, plus the gunpowder-fueled rocket engine that eliminates the need for dangerous pedals. "The child just lights a fuse when he's ready to ride."

Bob and Ray. How I miss those guys. This 1985 collection of sketches was their last published work before Ray's death in 1990, and catches them just about wrapping up their comedy career. Even though it is a half-step below their earlier two books in terms of consistent excellence, there's enough good moments in here to sustain many of today's comics over an entire career.

There's another episode of "Tippy The Wonder Dog" and a new visit to "The Hobby Hut", where host Neil Clummer meets a man who collects numbers held by people who wait in line. Two doctors exchange rote platitudes about patient confidentiality until they repeat each other's lines.

The accent on newer material is a drawback. By 1985, Bob & Ray were reworking old concepts rather than trotting out new ones with the boldness they displayed in the 1960s and 1970s. As sharp and witty as they were, there was also a structural element to Bob & Ray's best comedy, Monty Pythonish logic-stretching, which simply doesn't come off as well in a series of sketches of a man being interviewed, which is what you have here.

The newer ideas they did use, like the soap opera "Garish Summit" (a couple of episodes from which appear here) annoyed some older fans who remembered the goofier antics of "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". "Garish Summit" was funny, though, and so is regular sports announcer Biff Burns' interview with champion low-jumper Big Steve Wurbler, who explains why standing atop a cliff and jumping should be an Olympic sport.

"In high jumping, you can strain a muscle or hurt yourself on the way up," Big Steve explains. "But in low jumping, you only have to worry about what happens to you on the way down."

One thing "New! Improved!" has over the earlier B&R collections is the audio version that came out the following year, which shows the two men in fine form giving even the weaker material in this collection a fresh life. Bob & Ray had a habit of surprising you just when you thought you had them figured out; their like won't be seen again for a long while.

Approach this small book as a collection of comedy routines written for a Bob and Ray broadcast; while reading it, longtime fans will probably hear in their minds the duo's voices and inflections. And this book is even more fun when reading along with the recording of Bob and Ray themselves reading the routines. But whatever the circumstances, this is a good, and funny, introduction to Bob and Ray's work. And knowing that this was one of their last works together makes one realize how remarkable their comedy was.

If you consider yourself a fan of comedy or improv, you'll love Bob & Ray. They were original pioneers of radio comedy and their dry humor, delivered in deadpan, inspired many, many imitators which continues into present day. Comedians and actors such as Leslie Nielsen, Johnny Carson, Bill Murray, Steven Wright, the casts of SNL, etc. have all paid homage to Bob & Ray at one time or another. Chris Elliot, Bob's son, is still doing a quasi Bob & Ray improv in his acts, such as his early days on NBC and on David Letterman's show.

Inside this book is a collection of their sketches written in the form of a script, as if the editor had intended for the readers to broadcast their own radio show (but more likely to follow the gist of the humor and punchlines). This book isn't about Bob & Ray so much, or their show. This book is a small collection of their immortal radio banter.

Some of their material may seem a little dated to the individual, given our electronic media-saturated contemporary times, but all of their works are timeless. You don't have to consider yourself a fan or Old Time Radio to enjoy Bob & Ray.

Starting out in a Boston radio station just after the end of WWII, Bob & Ray were doing their thing on radio decades before anybody ever heard of "intelligent comedy" from the likes of Larry David or Jerry Seinfeld. Bob & Ray were eventually syndicated nationwide. Bob is still with us in 2011, but both of them have acquired cult status among old and new fans alike!

So, if you want a window into the old Bob & Ray show, buy this book. If you want a more detailed, tell-all book, this isn't it but it's good reading, all the same!