I’ve seen Super Dave Osborne (aka Bob Einstein) on a Carson re-run and also a YouTube when he was on David Lettermen. Both times, he was promoting a book of his. He even read from them.
Perhaps I’m not looking in the right place, but I can’t see anything about DVDs and a VHS video of him in Amazon.
Does anyone know the actual book titles he did as Super Dave Osborne? Were they published under another name?
Since this is about books by a TV personality, let’s move it to Cafe Society,
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I’m not sure his books were any more real than the Super Dave Compound.
Whoosh?
I miss his TV show which was (I think) on Showtime.
The book(s) he was promoting may have been fictional, but Bob Einstein is no joke: This is my first magic book so I’m a little nervous by Bob Einstein.
Lest you doubt despite the picture on the cover, you can find it in the gallery at his website.
I was always a big fan of Super Dave Osbourne. I first saw him on Bizarre with John Byner, natch.
And now I have to add that book to my list; thanks!
Yeah, if you watch this clip, it’s obvious the book (“Letters from Old People”) is just a prop to allow him to tell a terrible joke.
I’ve got to see if his show is available from any legitimate sources. My favorite segments were his “stunts.” Best was when he was (pulling from memory) going to do an Evel Knievel-style jump over something, but the ramp was only as wide as his motorcycle tire and had a loop before the jump. Of course, when it came time to do it he blazed past the ramp (yelling “SHIT! I MISSED IT!!”) and just crashed into a nearby shed.
plus there were the little side jokes I was just barely old enough to get, such as when he informed his announcer he had been selected as “Massengill Man of the Year.”
edit: yep, there are DVDs. ordering…
If you want to read about Super Dave, he is featured predominantly in the Smothers Brothers biography. Of course I can’t remember the name of* that *book. He was Officer Judy on their show.
Dennis
Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by David Bianculli is prolly the one you’re thinking of, eh, mixdenny?
My copy is bound in Saskatchewan sealskin leather.
That is is! A very good read. Tom and Dick were more influential then most people realized. Some of the things the network censors objected to were amazingly benign today and the brothers fought tooth and nail over every word. And some of the things that sneaked through were so obvious it is hard to believe they missed it.
I remember the close of one show. I thought it was their last show, but I can’t find this sketch referenced. Tom came out on a bare, dark stage. He slowly began pulling his clothes off and tossing each piece on the floor:
Removes shoes, “Goodnight to all you feet”. He tosses the shoes aside and a single overhead spotlight pins them to the floor.
Removes trousers, “Goodnight to all you legs”. Toss into another spotlight.
And so on until, wearing only shorts and a hat, standing at the end of an arc of small spotlights:
Removes hat, “Goodnight to all you heads”. Fade to black.
I was stunned that he said “heads”, a clear drug reference, on prime time television.
Dennis
I was a huge fan growing up. All through middle and high school, one of my best friends and I used to perform their routines; we knocked it outta the park with Mom Always Liked You Best (I was Tommy), once performing to a room of about 2000. We also used to do Abbott & Costello’s Who’s On First (I was Costello). I also had a bunch of George Carlin, Steve Martin, and Richard Pryor routines I could do, but my favorite was Bob Newhart’s Driving Instructor bit. I’d do the whole thing just like he did, with only a chair as a prop.
Cream of sparakeet soup!
I also really liked Bill Cosby’s routines, my favorite was “The Chicken Heart That Ate New York”.
Cos, very agitated, yelling: “I set fire to the couch and yelled at the chicken heart, Woah…don’t come in here, there’s fire, smoke and jello!”
Dad, entering the room and spotting the burning couch: “What the…what are you talking about?”
Cos: “The chicken heart!”
Dad: “What? Where is it?”
Cos: “On the radio!”
Dad: “Why don’t you turn it off?”
Cos: [veeeeery long pause], quietly: “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Dennis
I didn’t do Cosby routines because a 3rd friend already knew them all. 
You could always ask his brother, comedian Albert Brooks.
(Always liked that bit of trivia.)