Comedy Album Review
Chris Rush: "There's No Bones In Ice Cream"
Well, quite honestly, it's not his best work--"First Rush" and "Beaming In" were better offerings. Of course, you could more easily find a case of "Billy Beer" than to find these old vinyl relics.
For those not familiar with Chris Rush, he's this guy who looks like a cue ball; big bald head and maybe a bit more handsome than Uncle Fester. But damn, is he funny! He observes things with the perspective of a scientist on acid. This is probably because he was a former biologist. He can be sort of cerebral one minute and talking about a monkey's ass the next.
Anyway, I was surfing the net, and was at cdnow.com and did a search for Chris Rush. After years of no matches for this search anywhere, I actually got a result! I quickly ordered the CD "There's No Bones In Ice Cream" and it arrived on Friday. I've listened to this CD like a mental patient for the last two days.
Here's what I've concluded: A lot of this stuff is recycled material. That is, I have a bootleg from a club date in 1980 in Atlanta and some of the riffs are very similar. BUT, and this is a big butt (hehehe), if you've never heard Chris before, this is a gem! For old fans, it shows that Chris is still a true original.
This set is live from Bananas comedy club in upstate NY. The routine about his house break-in and the alarm system is new (to me) and brilliant. The insanity and serial killers bits are also worth the price of admission.
OK, and now the not so good stuff, from the perspective of a devout Rush fanatic. It says on the CD that Chris has toned down a bit, and this is true. The continued "dastardly" chuckling at the end of each joke gets a bit old. And there are enough ass, butt, and rectal references to put Howard Stern to shame. And finally, for a CD with a 1997 date, some of the references must be 5 years old old or more.
Best bits: "Insanity", "Murder Rate", "War on Drugs", "Terror", and "Aliens".
Chris works for an upstate NY radio station (he is somehow involved with the morning show) and they have a pic and a couple of short album clips on their site if you want to check it out at http://www.pyx106.com/chris.htm UPDATE: Looks like Chris lost this gig. Oh well.
Finally, one observation that's on my bootleg, but didn't make the new CD is the one about staying in hotels. After bemoaning having to stay in various hotels around the country doing gigs, he observes that you do things in hotel rooms that you would never do anywhere else. Chris says, "At home, I hardly ever sh_t on the TV".
Out of 5 stars, I give this CD a 3.5. (As for the older albums, "First Rush" is a 5, and "Beaming In" is a 4.5)
Updated August 29, 1999
All Rights Reversed
Comments welcomed.
Chris Rush
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