Redd Foxx: Sly Sex

Redd Foxx is an icon of comedy. He helped pave the way for two groups of comedians: African Americans, and comedians who joke about sex(Eddie Murphy thanked him by paying for his lavish funeral bill when his widow couldn't so that he would have a proper send-off). His set is known for being very raunchy and inappropriate for children to listen to. In fact, for a long time his records were not even sold in white record stores because they were too dirty. But eventually his stand-up landed him the famous role that most remember him for: Fred Sanford on Sanford and Son. During his very long career, he put out a whopping 54 albums, Sly Sex being one of the middle ones.

Now, it is difficult to find too much information on his album. Some comedy sites don't even list it in his discography, and the rest only give a year and album cover, if anything. After listening to it, I can tell why.

The problem with recording over fifty albums is that it doesn't give the comedian enough time to come up with quality material. In 1960 alone he released 9 albums, more than Chris Rock and Steve Martin recorded in their entire careers...combined. Today, comedians usually take at least a year or two between releases, between which they are touring and testing out their new material. Now, I know that if you took all of Foxx's albums, and took the best three hours of all of them, you'd have three amazing CDs, but grouped as they are, it's much more difficult to find a gem.

Foxx's material in Sly Sex is just poor. They sound like bad jokes you hear from your grandfather or read in a joke book. They aren't addressing any issues, they aren't mocking any aspect of life, they aren't particularly witty. They're just fluff. Some of it is dirty fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

Now like I said, he had an impossible task of coming up with material in a very short time. I don't know the specifics of his contract with Dooto Records or whether it was his choice or theirs, but it ruined the album, that's for sure.

Besides the bad material, Foxx is definitely playing in a very small venue. Sometimes this can be a great thing for a comedian. It gives them a more intimate setting where their jokes can have a greater effect. Except in this case, you can identify everybody's laughs and can hear their comments to him very clearly. It may have helped Redd out, but for the listening audience, it completely takes away from the act, especially as they laugh to very poor jokes.

Also, as with the case with most old comedy albums, the track's are not neatly cut up and titled, so Sly Sex consists of Side 1, and Side 2. With this one, I'm not even going to try to tell which is better and which is worse. They're both terrible.

Overall rating: 1/10