Worth it if only for Nick's dead-on impressions of Bud & Lou. Wonderful! I was inspired to go ahead and buy this and Matthew's book about that other team! Loving both books and urge you all to do the same. DEFINITELY worth your while, and your $!
I’m a huge Abbott and Costello fan and just ordered “The Annotated Abbott & Costello.” I’m looking forward to it. If Noah wanted to get a sense of the depth of Costello’s acting ability, I highly suggest that he watch an episode of “Wagon Train” entitled, “The Tobias Jones Story.” It was broadcast on October 22, 1958, mere months before Costello passed away. I read that Bud Abbott was the first person to call Costello to congratulate him after it aired. I can’t verify that the story is true, but it is something that I’d sure like to be true. I’ll post another thought I have in a future post. I love your podcast!
Another great episode with the always welcome Nick Santa Maria! I confess I am not a big A&C fan. But given the pedigree of Mr. Coniam and Mr. Santa Maria, I picked up their book and enjoyed it capitally! I am going to give Bud and Lou a fairer shake going forward. Will the Wheeler & Woolsey comparison video be next? :-)
I've been watching more of A&C because of Svengoolie. Even though they are not my favorite comedy team, I appreciate their work and how they kept burlesque humor alive.
I too am a long time A&C fan,since childhood, but do understand how they wouldn't seem funny to many anymore. Another movie that I really enjoyed as a kid was Lou's solo starring role in The Fifty Foot Bride of Candy Rock. It was released in 1959 after Lou had died .
listening to this podcast, I feel Noah's pain. I LIKE Abbott and Costello, in small doses, but I find most of their films a pretty difficult watch, overall. I liked them much, more when I was a teenager. I wanted to LOVE them as an older adult and bought the Blu-Rays and sat down to watch them, in order. I got through about four of them and then stopped. No desire to see the others again....saw them all decades ago and have my memories....And, in what I consider the "test of time" scenario, my adult children do not find most of their films that watchable either, again, with a few exceptions. I think that "modern audiences" would not be able to sit through most of them whereas the BEST of the Marxes will appeal to most any audience. Individual Abbott and Costello scenes and routines are brilliant....and I do love Season One of the TV show. However, I certainly respect those who do LOVE them and I can understand, to some degree, why. Nice try guys, but I am with Noah on this one. One last thing: many A & C fans love their radio shows, but I find most of those difficult to listen to as well.....too shrill....but as with the films, there are moments of brilliance. Final thought: A & C, for all I have just said, are head and shoulders above anything and everything out there in comedy these days and definitely deserve a place in the Comedy Hall Of Fame, if such a thing actually exists, which I doubt, but it should.
I'm also in this boat: I haven't watched any of their movies all the way through, except, probably the Jack in the Beanstalk one, which is fairly atypical of them, probably. Having grown up in the sixties, I first got to know them through a cartoon series featuring the team. I barely remember it now, but do know the theme music showed cartoon Costello carrying a huge drum on his back. I enjoy their routines, though, especially "Who's on First", and I have a new appreciation for the version at the Actors' Retirement Home: it's my favorite rendition, and I understand Costello had just a few moments before heard about the death of his child. He still came out and performed magnificently, giving nothing away. Abbott does say at the start that he knew Costello would be there and that he always pulls through, and knowing about the tragedy, puts that intro and the entire routine in a whole, rending light for me. They work hard, yes, and maybe they let the sweat show, but clearly they put their audience first, even in the face of disaster, and this deserves respect. For magic: Laurel could also be magic: I love in "Way Out West", how things happen for him that work against Hardy, including being able to eat a hat and enjoy it. For my favorite routines with Abbott and Costello, I think of Abbott's character as the sort who is excessively detail-oriented, and who puts great stock in whatever he's involved with - he knows what he thinks is important, and he's going to drive it home, by gum. So he isn't tormenting Costello out of pleasure but out of a dogged, intense, driven desire to get things perfectly and absurdly correct. I also read and heard that he was considered just about the greatest straight man in the business. As with many of the great comedians (Art Carney, Robin Williams), Abbott, I believe, often suffered from depression, and I give him leeway in his characterizations for this. Since I listened to this podcast in two parts (early in the morning before work, and finishing it up tonight), I had lots of time to reflect, and I came to a similar conclusion that was reached during the Tootsie-Fruitsie section (and fantastic impersonations!!): Abbott is not Groucho: he is Chico. Costello, paradoxically, is Groucho and Harpo (only of course through very different filters).
Abbott and Costello are okay at times, they have their moments. But saying they're better actors than the Marx Brothers...I mean, who cares? We're not doing Shakespeare. The Marxes are 100 times funnier.
At about 42 minutes, during those tiresome burlesque routines, Abbott still isn't having a good time, and neither am I. Well, I gave this episode a shot, anyway!
The go arounds Lou Costello had with Joe Besser (playing Stinky) had some good moments. The TV show had a sort of Outer Limits quality to it, sort of surreal. I always enjoyed the tv show when I had nothing to do and was just loafing.
ANNOTATED ABBOTT AND COSTELLO was a fascinating read. I didn't know there was so much more to understand about A&C.
It even made me want to watch ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS.
@@antoniod I'm jumping all over this book. Then I'm reading it!!!! 😂
Worth it if only for Nick's dead-on impressions of Bud & Lou. Wonderful! I was inspired to go ahead and buy this and Matthew's book about that other team! Loving both books and urge you all to do the same. DEFINITELY worth your while, and your $!
I’m a huge Abbott and Costello fan and just ordered “The Annotated Abbott & Costello.” I’m looking forward to it.
If Noah wanted to get a sense of the depth of Costello’s acting ability, I highly suggest that he watch an episode of “Wagon Train” entitled, “The Tobias Jones Story.” It was broadcast on October 22, 1958, mere months before Costello passed away. I read that Bud Abbott was the first person to call Costello to congratulate him after it aired. I can’t verify that the story is true, but it is something that I’d sure like to be true. I’ll post another thought I have in a future post. I love your podcast!
Another great episode with the always welcome Nick Santa Maria! I confess I am not a big A&C fan. But given the pedigree of Mr. Coniam and Mr. Santa Maria, I picked up their book and enjoyed it capitally! I am going to give Bud and Lou a fairer shake going forward.
Will the Wheeler & Woolsey comparison video be next? :-)
I've been watching more of A&C because of Svengoolie. Even though they are not my favorite comedy team, I appreciate their work and how they kept burlesque humor alive.
all I can say is" Meet Frankenstein" is a great movie, a classic and perfect movie
I too am a long time A&C fan,since childhood, but do understand how they wouldn't seem funny to many anymore. Another movie that I really enjoyed as a kid was Lou's solo starring role in The Fifty Foot Bride of Candy Rock. It was released in 1959 after Lou had died .
Wikipedia reports "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to "The Last Time I Saw Paris"
Abbott & Costello are the Smothers Brothers.
listening to this podcast, I feel Noah's pain. I LIKE Abbott and Costello, in small doses, but I find most of their films a pretty difficult watch, overall. I liked them much, more when I was a teenager. I wanted to LOVE them as an older adult and bought the Blu-Rays and sat down to watch them, in order. I got through about four of them and then stopped. No desire to see the others again....saw them all decades ago and have my memories....And, in what I consider the "test of time" scenario, my adult children do not find most of their films that watchable either, again, with a few exceptions. I think that "modern audiences" would not be able to sit through most of them whereas the BEST of the Marxes will appeal to most any audience. Individual Abbott and Costello scenes and routines are brilliant....and I do love Season One of the TV show. However, I certainly respect those who do LOVE them and I can understand, to some degree, why. Nice try guys, but I am with Noah on this one. One last thing: many A & C fans love their radio shows, but I find most of those difficult to listen to as well.....too shrill....but as with the films, there are moments of brilliance. Final thought: A & C, for all I have just said, are head and shoulders above anything and everything out there in comedy these days and definitely deserve a place in the Comedy Hall Of Fame, if such a thing actually exists, which I doubt, but it should.
I'm also in this boat: I haven't watched any of their movies all the way through, except, probably the Jack in the Beanstalk one, which is fairly atypical of them, probably. Having grown up in the sixties, I first got to know them through a cartoon series featuring the team. I barely remember it now, but do know the theme music showed cartoon Costello carrying a huge drum on his back.
I enjoy their routines, though, especially "Who's on First", and I have a new appreciation for the version at the Actors' Retirement Home: it's my favorite rendition, and I understand Costello had just a few moments before heard about the death of his child. He still came out and performed magnificently, giving nothing away. Abbott does say at the start that he knew Costello would be there and that he always pulls through, and knowing about the tragedy, puts that intro and the entire routine in a whole, rending light for me. They work hard, yes, and maybe they let the sweat show, but clearly they put their audience first, even in the face of disaster, and this deserves respect.
For magic: Laurel could also be magic: I love in "Way Out West", how things happen for him that work against Hardy, including being able to eat a hat and enjoy it.
For my favorite routines with Abbott and Costello, I think of Abbott's character as the sort who is excessively detail-oriented, and who puts great stock in whatever he's involved with - he knows what he thinks is important, and he's going to drive it home, by gum. So he isn't tormenting Costello out of pleasure but out of a dogged, intense, driven desire to get things perfectly and absurdly correct. I also read and heard that he was considered just about the greatest straight man in the business. As with many of the great comedians (Art Carney, Robin Williams), Abbott, I believe, often suffered from depression, and I give him leeway in his characterizations for this.
Since I listened to this podcast in two parts (early in the morning before work, and finishing it up tonight), I had lots of time to reflect, and I came to a similar conclusion that was reached during the Tootsie-Fruitsie section (and fantastic impersonations!!): Abbott is not Groucho: he is Chico. Costello, paradoxically, is Groucho and Harpo (only of course through very different filters).
Abbott and Costello are okay at times, they have their moments. But saying they're better actors than the Marx Brothers...I mean, who cares? We're not doing Shakespeare. The Marxes are 100 times funnier.
Agree, I can't watch them now but I still love Meet Frankenstein, it's a perfect movie. I also watched their TV show religiously ( make your own joke)
"Bud Abbott doesn't seem to be having a great time." Yup.
At about 42 minutes, during those tiresome burlesque routines, Abbott still isn't having a good time, and neither am I. Well, I gave this episode a shot, anyway!
Agree with Bob -- "Tutsi Frutsi" would be much better performed by A & C!
The go arounds Lou Costello had with Joe Besser (playing Stinky) had some good moments. The TV show
had a sort of Outer Limits quality to it, sort of surreal.
I always enjoyed the tv show when I had nothing to do and was just loafing.
Bud Abbott was a much-sought straightman, presumably because being mean to the comic increases the sympathy (& laughs) of that comic.