Jonathan Winters was an American comedian, actor, broadcaster, TV presenter, artist and author who received eight Grammy nominations for Best Comedy Album during his career. He had a troubled childhood and developed his comedy persona as a response to his emotional traumas, and won a talent competition which led to a job as a DJ where his comedy gradually took over the show. He was a constant sufferer from nervous breakdowns and bi-polar disorder, which contributed to his approach as a pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy, with a gift for impressions and mimicry, developing a range of characters that he used in his act - as he said himself: "I was fighting for the fact that you could be funny without telling jokes". This 3-CD set comprises the complete contents of his first five albums, all on the Verve label - "The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters", "Down To Earth", "Jonathan Winters In Concert: Here's Jonathan", "Another Day, Another World" and "Humor Seen through the Eyes of Jonathan Winters", all of them recorded in front of a 'live' audience. It naturally includes many of the routines which made him famous on TV. For those unfamiliar with his work, it's a great introduction to a highly individual entertainer, and for those revisiting his work from those times, it's a feast of comedy very much of it's era, but which laid the groundwork for later performers
8 Introduction, Horror Movies, Amateur Show, Commercials, Great White Hunter
- Disc 2 -
1 Introduction, Scratchy, Broadway Musical, Interviews, Prison Scene
2 Opening
3 Test Flight
4 Billy the Kid
5 New Flying Saucer
6 Opening - Portugese Pirate Ship
7 Oldest Airline Stewardess - Maude Frickert
8 Child Psychiatrist
9 Driving on the Turnpike - Thoughts of a Turtle
10 Opening - California
11 The Lost Island
- Disc 3 -
1 Igor and the Monster
2 New Frontiers, Civil War
3 TV Commercials, American in Paris
4 Moon Map / Ivy Leaguer
5 Human Torpedo
6 Sail Cat
7 My School Days
8 Hungry 'I' Opening
9 Moby Dick & Capt. Arnold
10 Elwood P. Suggins' Automobile
11 Dr. Werner: German Scientist
12 S.S. Robert E. Lee
13 Chief Running Fox
14 Maude Frickett & the Funeral
15 International Folk Singers - Terry Thai (Thailand)
16 International Folk Singers - Lonesome Tom (Western)
17 International Folk Singers - Ivan Korkoffskinovki (Russian)
Jonathan Winters was an American comedian, actor, broadcaster, TV presenter, artist and author who received eight Grammy nominations for Best Comedy Album during his career. He had a troubled childhood and developed his comedy persona as a response to his emotional traumas, and won a talent competition which led to a job as a DJ where his comedy gradually took over the show. He was a constant sufferer from nervous breakdowns and bi-polar disorder, which contributed to his approach as a pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy, with a gift for impressions and mimicry, developing a range of characters that he used in his act - as he said himself: "I was fighting for the fact that you could be funny without telling jokes". This 3-CD set comprises the complete contents of his first five albums, all on the Verve label - "The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters", "Down To Earth", "Jonathan Winters In Concert: Here's Jonathan", "Another Day, Another World" and "Humor Seen through the Eyes of Jonathan Winters", all of them recorded in front of a 'live' audience. It naturally includes many of the routines which made him famous on TV. For those unfamiliar with his work, it's a great introduction to a highly individual entertainer, and for those revisiting his work from those times, it's a feast of comedy very much of it's era, but which laid the groundwork for later performers