Something Like This...The Bob Newhart Anthology [Double CD]

I have the CD in the car, and several passengers and I, have spent a happy time sitting in traffic jams laughing our heads off.

If you have never listened to Bob Newhart, be prepared for an experince that will stay with you for the rest of our life. You'll remember the telephone call to Sir Walter Raleigh (Nutty Walt), the Driving Instructor will bring back memories for everyone who has taught someone to drive, and the poor policeman trying to defuse a bomb will bring tears to your eyes.

Nobody should go through life without having listened to this CD at least once !!

I vaguely remembered, when I was younger, hearing an amusing sketch about a driving instructor and his hilariously incompetent trainee. I tried to find this sketch and did so by buying this compilation from Amazon. And after listening to the wealth of Newhart's classics this is certainly not a decision I regret!

The "Something Like This" album contains two discs full of Newhart's material. Not all of it is likely to be brilliant for the modern non-American listening to it today. And yet so much of it is. The Driving Instructor, Bus Driver School and Ledge Psychology are just some of the real highlights in the anthology.

This Newhart compilation is almost entirely about one man talking to an imaginary audience - be it a bunch of passengers on a plane, sociopathic bus-drivers or the discontented crew of the U S S Codfish.

There are no special effects on these CDs. No on-stage colleagues. These sketches merely contain one man talking to other people who aren't actually present. And yet it works so well. As Bill Inglot says in the accompanying booklet to this CD package: "Bob Newhart had better conversations with himself than most people have with other people"

As I said, not all of the sketches work perfectly - but there are plenty that do and when they work they can send you into tears and outright laughter.

Just try putting this into your personal CD player. You may get some funny looks from your colleagues or bus passengers when they witness your smirking and giggling. But secretly they'd love to borrow one of your earphones and share a chance to listen to a truly brilliant entertainer.

For the price, the quality and the quantity - this is an excellent investment.