Recorded live in his natural habitat at the Sahara in Las Vegas,
Hello Dummy! captures
Don Rickles at the peak of his vicious powers -- even here in 1968, the most tumultuous flashpoint in the history of American racial relations, he steadfastly remains a true equal-opportunity offender, spitting out insults with the speed and force of a rivet gun and without regard to gender, race, creed, or sexuality. Opening with a surreal rant about wife Barbara's bedroom proclivities, Mr. Warmth proceeds to rip apart the audience, from Mexicans ("If it weren't for you people, we wouldn't have filth") to blacks ("What the hell do we need the Negroes for? Oh, yeah, to have cotton in the drugstore") to Arabs ("I hope you put on your turban tonight and a cobra bites you on the neck") and seemingly everyone in between. While certainly never a comedic revolutionary on par with
Lenny Bruce,
Rickles somehow transcends political correctness so completely that he whips the crowd into a communal fervor worthy of a preacher. ~ Jason Ankeny