The Dick Cavett Show: Comic Legends ( )

With Comic Legends Shout! has allowed Dick Cavett to indulge his great passion for humor writing and performing. Like a scrapbook it's chock full of outtakes, promos, kinescopes, interviews, and extensive liner notes. In one interview Cavett says he looked forward to these guests, "there was an added zing, something about this evening could be fun." The set is strong on Cavett's heroes and cohorts. He grew up in Nebraska idolizing Hollywood performers, got his first big break writing for Jack Paar's The Tonight Show, and tried stand-up after befriending Woody Allen. (The set contains a bonus clip of his act on The Ed Sullivan Show.) While he never developed a singular performing presence, Cavett is a skilled comic technician whose sense of timing and punchline set-ups pays off in playing straight man to his guests. He also has a sensitive and instinctual grasp of the comic's psyche that, together with a patient interviewing style, stimulates many of the guests to reveal a personal side rarely seen on talk shows, where comics are usually booked to perform. The guests primarily fall into two camps: golden oldies from Hollywood of the forties and fifties (Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx) and Cavett contemporaries like Allen, Bill Cosby, and Carol Burnett. What all of the featured comedians have in common--from Mel Brook's 2000 year old man to Jerry Lewis trying to fit a glass in his mouth--is a sensibility rooted in entertainment for entertainment's sake stemming from vaudeville, Vegas, the Catskills, and old Hollywood. Overall this is a fascinating and rare peek into the minds of these great performers. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide