If you're setting your TiVo or similar device and you get the Starz network, set it to record a special called Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg, which has been running all month and is next being telecast on April 30. It's a great show about a great talent in the world of stand-up comedy. I wrote here about how important Robert Klein was and this special has folks like Jon Stewart and Jay Leno saying a lot of the same things.
Years ago on this site, I had a piece about how some friends of mine and I had made a list of the Top Ten Stand-Up Comedians of all time. It was, in no particular order: Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Mort Sahl, George Carlin, Jackie Mason, Richard Pryor, Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Lenny Bruce and Robert Klein. If you disagree with this list, fine…but you might not if you read the criteria via which we arrived at it.
Now: Carlin, Pryor and Bruce have died. Berman is retired and in poor health. Sahl and Mason are almost retired and, to be as polite as I can be about this, their admirers seem somewhat embarrassed by their current acts. Allen left stand-up long ago. Cosby has…well, let's just say "problems." The only two on that list who still perform and who demonstrate why they were ever on a list like that to begin with are Newhart and Klein. Newhart is 87 and probably won't want to work much longer…but Klein still tours and he's still great and if you've never seen him live, you really oughta.