There's a law in New York state about driving with a live moose on the hood of your car

December 11, 2011 8:45 AM

Here (from NPR's All Things Considered, 2008) is Woody Allen's classic stand-up routine, the Moose Story. A few more, from YouTube: Science Fiction Film, Eggs Benedict (unfortunately with distracting animation), on the Jack Paar show. MLYT

Some other clips (many of these are from his album Stand Up Comic): The Vodka Ad, Oral Contraception, Pets, Down South,
NYU, Kidnapped, Vegas, Lost Generation, The Army, My Grandfather, Private Life, Bullet (delivery is a little weird on this one). Here's transcripts of many of these routines.

posted by JHarris (9 comments total)

Stand Up Comic is derived from The Night Club Years 1964-1968 (itself culled from three different live performance albums, which don't seem to be available any more). Stand Up Comic was edited for length (to fit onto CD, if memory serves), so a few lines are missing here and there, and it feels like some pauses and laughs have been trimmed too.

Anyway, the whole of The Night Club Years is available free from archive.org. There's a streaming player, or you can dig the download links out from the m3u playlist. It's wonderful stuff, and makes me wish he hadn't abandoned stand-up.
posted by phl at 9:42 AM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks phl, I didn't know of that! I was inspired to make this post from the Stand Up Comic CD, which I actually physically own, having bought it years ago. My particular stand up comedy gods are Allen and Cosby (I'm planning another FPP later this month on the Cos), although I'm open to other suggestions.
posted by JHarris at 10:01 AM on December 11, 2011

BTW, there are multiple YouTube videos of the Moose story, but they all seem to come from a U.K. television performance of it in which Allen has to explain things in a bit more detail, which wrecks the delivery IMO, hence the NPR link.
posted by JHarris at 10:03 AM on December 11, 2011

US Woody Allen fans who missed the excellent 4-hour American Masters documentary on him might be interested in watching it. Part 1, Part 2

(sadly not available outside the US)
posted by hippybear at 10:46 AM on December 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

The last line in the sketch ("And the joke is on them, because it's restricted.") is a sobering historical reminder. The New York Athletic Club was one of many organizations that withheld membership from racial and ethnic minorities.
posted by Nomyte at 11:54 AM on December 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I used to have this LP which was great because it was divided up into the different comedy bits. Absolutely loved it. When I bought the CD it wasn't divided up into tracks. I had to listen to the whole thing all the way through to get to any given piece. Bummer! (I love the library bit, too. "Come out with your hands up! This is the New York Public Library!")
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 2:30 PM on December 11, 2011

Oh wow, thanks to that transcript site, I've learned it was Woody Allen behind this genius bit:

Years ago, my mother gave me a bullet...a bullet, and I put it in my breast pocket. Two years after that, I was walking down the street, when a berserk evangelist heaved a Gideon bible out a hotel room window, hitting me in the chest. Bible would have gone through my heart if it wasn't for the bullet.

posted by Spatch at 2:44 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Awesome, thanks JHarris, and thanks hippybear. I love Woody Allen so have had a pleasant few hours avoiding productive pursuits and listening to these. I'd been bookmarking clips for a potential post sometime on early Woody routines so I will just add them to here the mix:

10 minutes live - it has the Moose routine at the end. But it is a rare live performance clip.
Second marriage
The great Renaldo
posted by madamjujujive at 3:58 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have the Night Club Years on one of those flat black round things with a hole in the middle. "First prize went to the Berkowitzes, a married couple dressed as a moose. The moose won second prize." remains very high on my personal list of funniest lines in stand-up comedy.
posted by Mike D at 12:06 PM on December 12, 2011