Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Amazing
Review: Excellent, excellent, excellent!Many of us associate Robin Williams with funny didactic movies that always end with a moral value. Well, in this live on Broadway standup routine (recorded for HBO from the Broadway Theater in New York City) Robin Williams throws whatever morallity he has out the window and enjoys an open mic. Watching this made me laugh until I was crying and suffering abdominal pain. For those of you expecting "Flubber" or "Hook" you will be quite suprised that Mr. Williams is extremely dirty and political as he throws controversial jokes straight at the camera. To explain the topics he covers is impossible because he is so fast and is capable of changing subjects so fast that to try to explain what it is about is far beyond my ability. In fact, he goes so fast, he finishes an entire CASE of water, which is probably about 20 bottles. More specifically, Williams takes advantage of his large talent of character acting and astounds his audiences. As he jumps back between is French "Look, I give a cigarette to a baby" to George Dubya saying "Our economy is--oh, look at the kitty!" He is not afraid to offend anyone as he examines religeons like Episcipals, Jews, Christianity, Puritanism, Calvanism, Buddism, Hinduism, and Islam. Because of the fact that this is a DVD, it comes with a few extra features. First is an interview which is very charming with several chuckles allthe way through. Also included is a track of noises, which are all of Robin's wacky sound effects that he creates throughout the stand up routine. For those of you who are always excited to find a secret easter egg, there is also a track called "Parental Advisory" that is 2 minutes of all the curses (which are EXTREMELY plentiful) that Robin uses. The feature is in PCM stereo as well as Dolby Digital 5.1. The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound I thought seemed a little weird since at random times you will hear applause behind you and it sounds unnnatural most likely due to bad mixing/editing. I would not, however, recommend any of this DVD for children under the age of 13, depending on how mature your children are. This probably deserves to be rated R or possibly even NC-17 because of it's extremely naughty language, vulgar topics and sexual content. All-in-all, Robin Williams is absoluletly hilarious, I think this is probably the best stand up routine I've ever seen and is definately worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: The best way to bring a tear to your eye.
Review: Forget chick flicks, and forget sad war movies... The best way to bring a tear to your eye is by listening to Robin Williams stand up. You will be laughing so hard it will be impossible to not cry. Live on Broadway will let you see why he truly is the funniest man on the planet. There are very few comedians who can make me laugh the way Robin Williams makes me laugh. When I was younger I never understood his jokes. But now, I'm older and I've lived through a lot of the events that is the basis for his material. His jokes are witty and what's great about him as a comedian is his unpredictability. The deviations from his set material is always fun. And his ability to adlib is incredible. I honestly think he has 5 jokes in his repertoire and wherever his mind takes him is where he goes. This is truly a gem of a comedy special. If you want to laugh hysterically this is your ticket!
Rating: 
Summary: Some Solid Laughs, but ...
Review: If you are a fan of Robin Williams you are about to hate me. I like some of his movies, and i appreciate his comic mastermind ... however I am much too big of a fan of standup comedy as an art to just hand him five stars because of his celebrity.
Robin's comedic strategy (and most of us are aware of this) is to bombard the audience with a machine-gun tourette of material in hopes that everyone will get hit with a laugh at some point. Unfortunately, unlike most polished standup commedians, he fails to make (or at least sustain) a genuine connection with the audience and ride it out to the shows completion. If you have the stamina and the attention span to keep up with this frenzy of forced humor ... give it a go.
And try not to notice the insane amount of water he drinks (about a tenth of a teaspoon every other joke for the entire hour and a half set) because that may distract you from keeping up with the whirlwind.
Now obviously i didnt think this was all bad. i still gave it two stars. There are a fare share of laughs in the set. There is also so much material that if you watch it again, odds are you'll have forgotten a few jokes. And there is a charm and to delight the robin williams persona that deserves to be recognized.
As an avid watcher of stand-up, I would recomend "live at the met" before this. But if you have some spare time, view at your own risk.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and funny!
Review: It's been a while since Robin Williams got back on the stage to do comedy standup. And it was a long wait that was well worth it. Robin's take on the politics and people's self image is very hilarious. Which some of it is scary, but true! He even tries to push the limits of what people were finding funny when he starts bashing Osama Bin Laden, but then goes into an ethnic joke right off from it and causes some confusion. Even the audience's reaction to that is funny. I ordered this DVD twice, once for a friend for Christmas, since she found the special when it was on HBO funny. Then I ordered it for myself, since I wanted to have it. The only thing I could have wished for was Robin to do a "commentary" track over the comedy. Would have been funny to hear him make fun of himself and to hear his thoughts on what he was making jokes about. The "extras" were nice. The interview was a good thing to have. But then there was the sound effects and the "secret" area. They were nice of all the effects and "special words" he said during his show, but it just felt like it was going for the kids.... for comedy that wasn't censored for kids. Anyways, if you don't have it, well, you're just outta luck!
Rating:
Summary: This was beneath him
Review: One afternoon, being sick and having nothing else to do, my husband and I watched Robin Williams on Charlie Rose Live. The entire hour was just hysterical. I was cracking up, my husband was cracking up, and Charlie Rose was laughing so hard that he had to bang his hand on the table. During the course of this hour-long interview, they played a clip of Robin Williams, Live on Broadway. It was the clip about the invention of golf. I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes. Immediately, I decided that I wanted this DVD. I feel so disappointed. While there are defintely some very funny things on the DVD (such as the invention of golf bit and the September 11 jokes), so much of what was on there was disgusting potty humor, oral sex jokes, and viagra gags. It's nasty. Worse, it is soooo done already. I really expected more from Robin Williams. Not only was this material nasty, it was way beneath him. Robin Williams was by far funnier on Charlie Rose Live, just doing stuff off the cuff, then he was in this DVD. Maybe I'll give away this DVD and try to order a copy of Charlie Rose. If you like nasty humor and never get tired of it, then go ahead and buy this DVD. Otherwise, maybe just rent or borrow it. I think that you'll find it a little disappointing for the price, especially given the tiredness of much of the material.
Rating:
Summary: The funniest stand-up I've seen in a long time
Review: Robin Williams is a genius onstage in this DVD. I've watched this DVD over and over and each time it is just as funny as the last time I watched it. Why is it so funny? Because Robin makes fun of things that we've all thought about. He has a keen ability to point out the stupidities in current events. For example, he makes fun of Donald Rumsfeld giving a press comment as follows: "I don't know where. I don't know when, but something terrible is going to happen". He then makes reference to the CIA being the Central Intuitive Agency. Perfect! Because we've all sat there and watched Rubsfeld say those speeches and we've all thought, "well duh". Anyway, if you know your current events (well current as of 2002), then you're going to find a lot of this stuff really funny. Seriously buy this and enjoy the brilliance of one of the funniest comedians out there. (Also, see the serious side of Robin in "One Hour Photo", a great dark movie).
Rating:
Summary: Way too Raunchy
Review: Robin Williams is a genius when it comes to comedy. His humor is usually so rich and amusing. This DVD turned out to be an exception. The skit about golf was beyond hilarious and a few other bits were funny too but the vast majority of the time even I was turned off by his vulgar humor. I didn't think I could be turned off by this kind of humor. I've heard other comedians do it before and it's funny. Robin Williams with his quick wit took it was over the edge. He'd hit something vulgar and just keep on going with it until he took it way too far. Also, I don't necessarily mind hearing the F word 50 million times (I didn't count but it must have been close) but the jokes were just too raunchy! He just went over the top. I've never seen R. Williams do anything this tasteless before and hopefully we never will again. I'll forgive him for this one. Hopefully the next DVD of his will better-reflect his typical humor. Keep kids far away from this.
Rating:
Summary: The King of Comedy Raw and Sweaty!
Review: Robin Williams' laugh-riot HBO Special is a no-holds-barred comedy classic and a fitting document of the greatest funnyman of our generation. A master of fast and furious storytelling and 3-dimensional characters, Williams' genius is on full display for nearly two hours. The comedian's charm is evident - he leaps from joke to joke, each bit infused with warmth, irony and his now-trademark stream-of-consciousness dialogue. He draws on contemporary themes and hits every punchline like a concert pianist at the peak of his form. Never before has Williams been so accessible or hysterical and this special guarantees unlimited guffaws and side-splitting routines. He's sweaty and raunchy, childlike and mature all at once. Parents may want to save this DVD for personal viewing, since some bits are drenched in wicked adult humor, though Williams never offends - he gives his all and succeeds. Best of all, the Broadway event gets better on repeat viewings (rare as that is for comedy)so that like Lucille Ball before him (think grape-stomping, vitavitavegimin and chocolate assembly lines) the bits he delivers renew themselves time and time again. If laughter is lacking in your life, do yourself a favor and spend two hours with the Oscar-winning master of comedy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Fun, But Not For Kids
Review: This is Robin Williams at his manic best:- raw, inventive and very very close to the mark, if not over it, in this riotious stand up performance of recent material. Once I had overcome his constant breaks to drink water during the performance, I found myself watching it over and over, and gaining more with each screening. Be warned though - this is definitely for adults only, and I didn't given the movie 5 stars for one simple reason. Williams seems to have a constant need for expletives thoughout the show, to the point of over saturation I felt, and whereas I never felt offended by it, it did begin to grate by the end. A lot of the material is also very adult orientated, and one wonders a little if the R rating should have been replaced by MA. These minor grumbles aside, I can honestly say I hurt from laughing by the time it was over. Mr Williams who hardly (it seems) draws breath between, observations, gags, inuendo, and dragging just about every race, religion, and ethnic group through the mud, has humor, biting satire, and a consumate comic prescence. Enjoy, but put the kids to bed first!
Rating:
Summary: Smart, sharp, hilarious, but overlong
Review: This was my first exposure to Robin Williams as a standup comic, and this "Live on Broadway" act certainly makes up for all those mushy sentimental movies that he had starred in before this special. He lets loose here in a sustained comic bout of Williams-style voice impressions and sharp observations and adult jokes that I've never had the pleasure of witnessing in any of his movies (except, maybe, in small spurts). As a standup comic, he might not as smooth a performer as George Carlin (my personal favorite) is onstage, but Williams' energy makes up for a lot, and even makes otherwise stupid jokes make you laugh hysterically. (You know how you can tell he is expending as much energy as humanly possible in this show? By the huge amount of water bottles he has on stage.) His material is not as focused as some of the best standup comics, but I rather liked his improvisatory style---he goes from one thing to another in record time, giving his performance a nicely chaotic feel. (A lot of his best bits, mostly dealing with politics, are delivered quickly and randomly and then dispensed with.) And yet all of it flows together nicely (even if some bits are inevitably better than others). So what's the problem? I think perhaps 99 minutes or so of one man comically riffing about anything and everything is still perhaps a bit too long for its own good. I've watched this on more than one occasion, and by the hour mark I always feel myself getting rather exhausted by Williams' highly energetic schtick. It is not necessarily that his material starts to become significantly weaker or repetitive (although his French-bashing does get a little tiresome after a while), but while you still marvel at Williams' energy level...I dunno, I just kinda got tired of it on some level after a while. Williams' energy may not flag, but ours does...at least until he rebounds at the end with some good bits about American sports and then about sex, particularly Viagra. Believe me, when you see his take on Viagra, you will laugh hysterically in spite of yourself. In short, for me, "Robin Williams: Live on Broadway" is a mostly brilliant but perhaps overlong standup comedy piece (a standup comedy "epic" if there ever was one). It would have gotten five stars as a more focused hourlong show; instead, this one sprawls until we in the audience start feeling a little exhausted by his endlessly energetic (and highly profane) style. And yet there is enough brilliant stuff here---his riffs about the war in Afghanistan and homeland security rival the best, and overall there are plenty of small but great bits here and there that will grab your attention---so that this is definitely worth seeing. Certainly you will be amazed that Robin Williams actually pulls the whole damned thing off at all. Recommended. NOTE: I have seen "Robin Williams: Live on Broadway" as it first premiered on HBO, and for some reason it is slightly longer than the program that appears on this DVD. It is beyond me why CMV Home Video thought it necessary to make some small cuts to the program for this DVD edition. (For instance, it cuts out a lines during the parts where he cracks humorously about Michael Jackson and the Enron scandal.) At least, though, the program is not significantly cut (it's only missing about a few seconds worth of material from the initial broadcast), and overall it is very much intact. (Besides, HBO and its other channels have been showing this marginally-cut version of the program on its stations ever since, anyway.) Just thought people would like to know, though.
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