I am 14 years old with dreams of someday becoming a Standup Comic. I have been collecting comedy albums for 2 years now, and by far, this is the funniest, quirkiest, most genious, and most inspiring album I have gotten my hands on yet. I bought this from Amazon.com a few days ago along with his book "Without Feathers" without ever seeing a single Woody Allen film. I only bought the book after hearing Jon Stewart's Amazon.com interview, where he mentioned that it was his favorite book and thought "Why not by his album?"
His ideas are simple, but genious. And his stories are hilarious. Whether you are into Standup or not, this should be required listening. I went from only knowing who Woody Allen was, to being a Woody Allen fan in 76 minutes. Great, whether a fan or not, check it out!

His films and his short stories for the New Yorker would be enough to esablish Woody as one of the all time greats, but his stand up is where it's at.
As his base was in comedy writing his stand up act is very literate and has all the flow of an engaging novel. His delivery is perfect. He's comfortable and confident on stage with perfect pacing. He comes across as having a conversation with his audience that he enjoys as much as they do, often laughing along with them as the jokes come so fast and furious that he doesn't bother with laugh breaks for many of them as he moves foward to bigger pay offs. You'll laugh in different spots each time you play this CD.
Woody is groundbreaking and innovative, even amongst his peers like Lenny Bruce, Nichols and May or Mort Sahl but he also is so steeped in comedic history benefitting from the rythm and stylings of his childhood heroes Bob Hope and Groucho Marx. You'll also detect a bit of Catskills shmaltz in the mix.
You cannot really understand where stand up comedy has been or where it's going without getting to know Woody's heavily influenced and heavy influential performances.

For standup comedy, this has dated incredibly well, almost miraculously well (of course some of it sounds dated now, but in no way to a nauseating degree). Any prospective standup comedian should study this material, get to know why it works, why the timing is so impeccable, why the nonsense parts work, and what helps it stand up some forty years later. Woody Allen is known for other things these days besides standup comedy (you know, films, tv shows, bad breakups, etc.), but this material ranks him amongst the best of all standup comedians. This is particularly true for the first section of the CD recorded in 1968. Allen talks about moral dilemmas, his second (and not to be last) marriage, and the brilliant bit about mechanical objects that rebel against him. The line "Are you the guy that hit the television set?" is unforgettable. "The Moose" is one of the best comedy routines I've ever heard. It is an unforgettable absurdist classic. It's easy to see how he was able to land movie spots and contracts after hearing this material. It's also easy to see how he's lasted so long given the quality and freshness of this, very early, material. He also used some of the material from this collection in his movies, so there is evidence he didn't think too badly of the bits here.

Since I have no knowledge of the original albums, it's hard for me to miss the deleted material. All I can say is I hope that Rhino will release the original records (now long out of print) in their entirety (I'd happily pay the double CD price).

Even if you have never heard any of Woody Allen's routines as a "Standup Comic," there will be some moments of recognition as you listen to this CD because some bits have worked their ways into various films over the year (most notably "Annie Hall") and well as pieces for "The New Yorker" (the bit about being with Gertrude Stein). For those who listen to these routines with full knowledge of Allen's films it is easy to see that as a standup comedian he is much more intellectual. He is still first and foremost a New Yorker, and the Jewish element is also stronger here than in his films, but what really stands out is the intellectual shtick. This even makes sense given that none of these standup routines were performed in New York City.

This probably explains why the album begins with the incongruity of Allen being approached to be the man of the year for a series of Vodka ads. Overall you will find the standard Allen topics, sex and marriage, analysis and his parents, in which the comedian usually ends up the butt of some cosmic joke that is told at his expense. One thing I picked up on is how Allen will use a long set up just to deliver a one-liner (e.g., "The Science Fiction Film" and "Kidnapped"), in marked contrast to the humor in his films. You will certainly have an appreciation for where Woody Allen fits into the family tree of standup comedy after listening to this album, although I think you have to come to the conclusion he is rather unique in terms of combining the fear of being punched in the face by Ernest Hemingway with the irrepressible desire to get off a wisecrack.

These twenty-five bits are taken from a trio of comedy albums Allen released in the 1960s: (1) "Woody Allen," recorded live at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago, March 1964; (2) "Woody Allen, Volume 2," recorded live at the Shadows, Washington, D.C., April 1965; and (3) "The Third Woody Allen Album," recorded live at Eugene's, San Francisco, August 1968. The excerpts actually appear in reverse chronological order on this album. Apparently Jim Hughes and Rhino Records had to make some editorial decisions to as to how to fill up this CD (I can appreciate this now that I have my magic CD burner which yells at me if I try to go over 80 minutes). However, I cannot speak as to what has been lost because this is my first direct exposure to the wry wit of Woody Allen in this particular venue.
Yes, it would be nice to have more, but since these albums are no longer available I can live with this collection. The liner notes are rather minimalist for a Rhino album, but there are some choice quotes from reviews describing Allen ("Time" describes him as "A flat-headed, redheaded lemur with closely bitten fingernails" while the "Herald-Tribune" finds him "Miserable-looking").

This is a single CD compilation of three albums that Woody
Allen issued on Colpix and Capitol in the timeframe 1964-1968.
It takes half a side each from two of those albums, and
the entirety of the third album. The material itself is
brilliant, as is Allen's timing. He is a natural comedian, and
this stuff stands proudly on the same narrow shelf of timeless
standup as the best of standup greats like Richard Prior,
Bob Newhart, George Carlin and precious few others. To fans
of standup, to fans of Woody Allen the comedian, to fans
of Seinfeld (which drew inspiration from largely the same
well three decades later) and to fans of laughter, this
is deliciciously required listening.

So ends the 5 star review of the shows (partially) documented
on this CD. Now the two problems: 1) As noted, this CD presents
only parts of the original LPs. More significantly, the
individual comedy pieces have been edited here, presumably
to get the running time down below the maximum 80 minutes
a single CD can hold. The problem is that this changes
the pacing of some of these routines, and drops funny lines
from others. That's tragic; 2) This CD has been mastered
from mediocre sources and, in the case of the middle set,
from what is obviously vinyl. This middle set (tracks 6 to
13, from the 1965 show) is particularly
'tinny' sounding, with little midrange or bass, and clearly
no effort to even remove the pops and tics of the vinyl. THIS
PORTION SOUNDS WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL LP!
Rhino is usually dependable, but they dropped the ball on this
one. The mastering of the other material is better, although
far from audiophile quality. The only saving grace is that
this sound quality isn't critical for a spoken word recording.
But it still stinks.

Overall, the material gets 5 stars. The editing and sound
quality get 1 star. 3 stars overall. I suggest you look for the
2CD package Capitol issued as an import in 1990. That contained
a similar distillation of the 3 original LPs but not
as poorly edited. It's now out of print,
but can sometimes be found in second hand shops.

If you are not inclined to do that, well, this package will
have to do. And it IS better than nothing.