Vaughn Meader

[faux pas]

How many of you had ever heard of him before? A friend and I were talking about comedy album sales and it turns out a guy I had never heard of before, Vaughn Meader, had the top selling album with The First Family. It sold seven millions copies in the span of about a year, which pretty much blows everything else away. Meader was a stand-up comic but the album is more skit-oriented, Meader's specialty was impersonating JFK and the album includes people impersonating the entire Kennedy clan.

After JFK was assassinated most stores pulled the album and sales stopped. Meader tried to go back to a normal stand-up routine but never found any success (I'm not sure if this has more to do with him being associated with JFK or his skills as a comedian.) During some periods he fell into depression and drug addiction, but lived until 2004. That the bestselling comedy album would be followed with such a sad story is kinda morbidly fitting.

Here's a clip from it, it's not great but has its moments. If you're of the Matthew bray persuasion that art must be viewed in its context then you'll probably like it, if you're of the Malley school of thought that art can be viewed objectively then you'll probably think it's shit.



Thoughts?