*This clip had 400,000 views and over 2,000 likes as of September 2018. Unfortunately, I accidentally took this clip down on September 2, 2018. It has been re-uploaded as of September 28, 2018*
I remember seeing this back in the day. Fell in love with Brooks's comedy immediately. When he drops the dummy it still makes me laugh, 50 years later.
This was etched into my memory. I may have been 12 or so when I saw this aired on TV and I was on the FLOOR. Couldn't catch my breath when he got to "Lady of Spain". Think I did a Kool-Aide spit take. I became an Albert Brooks fan instantly and forever. Learned years later that his brother was Super Dave Osborne (also, a comic genius).
This is, in my mind, the single funniest 4 minutes in the history of standup comedy. I can't watch it without paroxysms of laughter, tears and wheezing. It's the only funny ventriloquism act in the long history of ventriloquism.
On _The Tonight Show_ in the 1960s, Mel Brooks was asked who is the funniest comedian he had ever seen. He mentioned "a kid named Albert Einstein." He wasn't kidding.
This comedy seems so far ahead of its time for when it actually aired originally. This would've been cutting edge in the 80s, let alone a decade earlier.
Albert Brooks was so young when he first came on Carson. He’d always do sketchy, fringe of show biz characters. His Mime is also pee in your pants funny. So is the lion tamer, and the around the bend comedian who has plum run out of material. Aren’t that many geniuses in the comedy world, but Brooks ranks high.
My main problem with AB is he wasn’t on TV more and that he didn’t make more movies! What a talent simply brilliant and I don’t throw that word around very often for people other than me!
and to think Super Dave Osborne was his brother, also played Marty Funkhauser on Curb your Enthusiasm.. cant imagine how funny that house they grew up in was!!
I love it, and he is a big hit on Network television....no surprise there. Still I'd love to see Albert Brooks try to pull off his Anti-comedy at the Fayetteville North Carolina Comedy Zone.
@@vestibulate Now explain how Jeff Dunham got crowds in both Abu Dhabi and Israel to laugh when he did Achmed the dead terrorist. After all, they’re not Christians.
@@LuckyCharms777 Israel? That's self evident. The same reason they have annual "Death to Arabs" marches through Jerusalem and smear all resistance to apartheid as terrorism. Zionists are a natural audience for Dunham's act. As for Abu Dhabi, I'd like to see a video of his performance there. Can you supply a link?
oh my god. Run out and find Lost in America and Defending Your Life. Now. He also did short films for SNL when it first started. They were brilliant. I wish someone would put them together.
I liked Albert Brooks then I watched the HBO special on him and he and Rob Reiner just gloating about how privileged and talented they were. Best friends from childhood in Beverly Hills. brooks ALWAYS played the sad sack who wouldn't get the girl. But it turns out he is another nepo baby. His dad was a legendary comic in Carl Reiners circles but had a heart attack early on. They go on and on how Brooks was allowed to go on shows and do absurdist comedy, when he had his foot in the door all along. He is the original Ben Platt.
I find it extra hilarious that, despite the laugh track, none of the visible audience members seemed to so much as crack a smile. But I guess Brooks was still relatively unknown and it was a few years before this type of absurdist meta-humor went more mainstream with SNL, Andy Kaufman, etc.
Yeah the couple in the front are very confused. I guess they really thought he was a terrible ventriloquist and were just trying to be polite (by not laughing). I still don't know how you couldn't laugh when he drops the dummy.
But he was Destroying Flip. Much like Norm MacDonald did to Conan and Dennis Miller. I Never thought George Burns was funny, but Jack Benny loved him. Bob Newhart did the same to Don Rickles.
Pure comedy. He was playing in front of an audience that didn’t appreciate his comedy. Wonder how it felt without laughter until canned during playback.
Wow, such a young Albert Brooks on the Flip Wilson Show. I always loved Brook's comedy, but he was fabulous in the movie Broadcast News. His disdain for the main anchors while kissing up to them and hating the whole corporate culture, He was perfect in that role.
What really made this work was Albert having the nerve to completely parody one of those old(and,by then,tired)show biz traditions,taking it to an unprecedented level of absurdity. This was during an importantly subversive period of comedy(Smothers Brothers, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Firesign Theater, etc.)
Albert Brooks is unknown quantity outside of America. I know He has done voice work on the Sampson. I could be wrong but there are very few people in the uk or Ireland who have heard of him or are familiar with his work. Many years ago I was on holiday in the US with my family and I think they showed the film he made with merly Streep and had never heard of him. His films are never shown on TV in the uk. Us audiences are more familiar with him.
There aren't enough superlatives to describe the genius of Albert Brooks. (as well as his brother, Bob (Super Dave) Einstein). Watch his electronic ventriloquism bit on The Tonight Show with Carson - Screamin Funny. And your life will not be complete until you see "Lost In America".
That is a funny bit. W.C. Fields also has a bad vent bit in one of his movies I think. Here is something fans of ventriloquism should like. I came across this on RU-vid searching for these acts. It's called Trillo and Suede and reminds of the old Bergen and McCarthy movies. ru-vid.com
I've been looking for a video clip of Albert Brooks first appearance on the Tonight Show. This bit as the world's worst ventriloquist had Johnny Carson almost falling off his chair laughing.
I've tried, I really have, but jamesbowen8960 must be right. After seeing him in at least 15 roles, I just don't see the appeal....Thanks for the upload!
This guy was shown to me under the pretense that he was the “Albert Einstein” of comedy. People are fucking weird. Out of all the comedians you could compare to Albert Einstein; just don’t sell Einstein short.
