Bruce Performing At "Stand Up For Heroes", November 6th, 2013

Today, we're treating you to a longer video, so pull up a chair and relax for 20 minutes.  Earlier this month, Bruce performed with other musicians and comedians at Stand Up For Heroes, a charity event focused on raising money to support troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Here, Bruce performs a stripped down set, featuring an acoustic "Dancing In The Dark", Patti Scialfa assisting him on "If I Should Fall Behind", and "Dream Baby Dream", which seems to be getting heavy promotion recently.  However, rather than the touching, personal stories we are used to from Bruce, each song is introduced by a "dirty" joke.  And, boy, are they groaners - Bruce becomes the proverbial drunk uncle of the party, and you feel forced to laugh if only to not make the situation any more awkward.  At the end of the set, Bruce quips he should have been a stand up comedian.  After seeing this, it is safe to say he made the right choice.

However, in some sense, it is a wistful insight into Bruce's off-stage persona.  In Clarence Clemons' autobiography, he claims that he was the king of dirty jokes.  It is easy to imagine Clarence telling all these jokes to Bruce in a dilapidated bus going to their next gig, and Bruce cracking up like a madman.  So, if you factor in that unsubstantiated sentimental notion into the video, it could make it more enjoyable.  But, you should probably just stick to listening to the songs.

Video Spotlight: Robin Williams Stand Up

Ok, so maybe this isn't the best video to be spotlighting.  But here at LOS we take on the good, bad, and the ugly.  And man, is this ugly.  Let me just start off by saying I can't stand Robin Williams.  I think his stand up material is terrible and hack, see above video for evidence, and his only on screen performance that I thought was really good was in Good Will Hunting, and even there most of the credit goes to Matt Damon.  Again, these are just my opinion, as there is no denying that Williams is a major "A-Lister"

Now lets dissect the video.  One thing I can't stand in comedy is dual impressions.  And boy, do we have a doozy here.  Elmer Fudd singing Bruce Springsteen.  Har dee har har.  This stinks!  Why not just do some Elmer Fudd material, or Bruce material.  God knows they both have easily imitable voices.

The only really interesting thing about this video, besides the novelty value of it being so bad it's good, is the song choice.  Really, "Fire"?  Bruce never even put that out on a CD, until The Promise.  It was a major hit for The Pointer Sisters, but did most people know it was a Bruce song?  I legitimately do not know the answer.  I know Bruce fans knew it.  But that's hoping for a lot, that your audience at a comedy club are big Springsteen fans.

Anyway, it could be worse.  It could be Norm Macdonald singing the "Gilligan's Island" theme to the tune of "My Hometown".  I love Norm, but oof!  That stinks too.