Robert Klein Defines the Decade in 'Child of the 50's'

‘100 Funniest Comedy Albums’ Book Excerpt

Frank Mastropolo

Rhino / WEA

Robert Klein’s debut album, 1973’s Child of the 50’s, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album. The album was recorded live at New York’s Bitter End.

“I recorded it on my own in 1973 or ‘72,” Klein recalled on Classic Conversations. “I remember it cost almost $10,000 to record it beautifully. And then, we took it to Neil Bogart who was head of Buddha Records at the time, which brought Monty Python over in Now for Something Completely Different. And he loved it.

“He said, ‘I want to do it over again because I hear the tinkling of glasses.’ I mean, I thought that was authentic, the sound was great. And I called it 50s Child, and he decided to call it Child of the 50’s.”

Klein, born in 1942, criticizes the era he grew up in with parodies of authority figures, school cafeteria ladies, drunk athletes, President James Garfield, and TV commercials.

The album cover depicts Klein in his bedroom surrounded by ’50s memorabilia that includes an Alfred E. Neuman poster, Coca-Cola and fallout shelter signs, baseball cards, an Erector Set, and a “Spaldeen.”

I remember waiting outside a drugstore, planning to buy contraceptives. I used to have to work up my courage. What a dummy I was.

I used to go in and finally pad my order. “Could I have four bathing caps, a tube of toothpaste, a comb, and a pack of (coughs) if you got it. Oh no, it’s my brother, he gave me a note.”

I remember once traveling with my parents in Maryland and we went into this gas station. I went into the men’s room and there on the wall was a contraceptive machine! And I couldn’t believe it! Hey, you can beat the system!

I put in my quarter and out came a little round beauty. I took it, and I put it in my wallet, where it remained for four years. Caused a permanent round dent on my buttock.

I used to go to Yankee Stadium and used to sit upstairs for $1.25 and sneak down by the box seats for the last out. “You’re under arrest, sir.”

What a minor crime that is, really, sneaking down for the last out on a Tuesday afternoon, the Yankees were winning 15 to 2, it was in September, it was 40 degrees, there’s very little chance that the president of IBM is gonna use his box seat that day for the last out.

I sneak down, the last out, and the Stadium cop chases us. I guess he was just doing his job. Overreacted a little bit, drew his gun.

“Robert Klein came on the scene in New York and completely took over New York stand-up,” Jerry Seinfeld said in The Comic’s Comic.

“Comics were very straightlaced in terms of a lot of it was very jokey. Klein came along and he had a New York aggressiveness and intellect. He did not think ‘This is too smart. I’m working too smart.’”

Frank Mastropolo is the author of 100 Funniest Comedy Albums, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Child of the 50's by Robert Klein.