Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs by Symphony Space

Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs Reviews

• 
  Tim

  Selected Shorts does a great job of finding good quality fiction and pairing it with fine actors to read them for the public. This collection comes through with several very entertaining stories that are superbly presented by talented performers like Stephen Colbert, Alec Baldwin, and Parker Posey. Among my favorites were T.C. Boyle's tale about a guy who doesn't know when to apply the brakes to his telling of lies, Julia Slavin's corporate-funeral farce, Mathews's loony satire on how to cook a ridiculous French dish (which does go on a little too long), and Philip Roth's look at life at a Jewish Yeshiva in the 1950s (or thereabouts). Bravo.
• 
  Kristen-Marie Freeman

  I found many of these stories more sad than funny, and some were just weird. Here my .02:
  
  The Lie-- depressing
  The Spray-- weird
  The Swim Team-- sad
  The Schartz-Metterklume Method-- entertaining
  **Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double)-- good, funny and well-performed
  Yma Dream-- fun and entertaining
  Covered-- weird
  The Conversion of the Jews-- interesting but overall so-so
  
  So, I guess I only really liked (and thought were funny) 3 of the 8. :(
• 
  Christina

  Three stories were funny. Three. The rest? Um. No. They were sad, depressing and even disgusting. Specifically, the first one, read by the always awesome Stephen Colbert, was disgusting. The lie about a dead infant as the central plot? Um. Dead babies are not at all funny, especially when the dad who uses the lie as an excuse to escape from his life is losing *control* of his life. There's no ironic humor to it, period.
• 
  Linda

  I selected this because I was desperate for an audio download, and it was available. Hey, it said it was funny. There are some good performances by some talented actors, many of whom create humor where it doesn't appear to exist in the text. But funny stories? Not so much.
  
  
• 
  Ob-jonny

  This book contains entertaining and creative short-stories written recently. My favorite was the first one, "The Lie" and the audiobook was read by Stephen Colbert.
• 
  Carolyn

  An excellent collection of humorous short stories, each presented by a notable actor/narrator. My favorites were T. C. Boyle's "The Lie" read by Stephen Colbert and Saki's "The Schartz-Metterklume Method" performed by Marian Seldes. Each was recorded live (with audience reactions) which makes the presentations even more amazing since there were no do-overs.
• 
  Chris

  These were all diverting enough, but Stephen Colbert's reading of T. C. Boyle's "The Lie" and the reading of Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews" are both straight knock-outs. Fantastic readings of exceptional stories.
• 
  Meg

  When you open a collection with T.C. Boyle dark humor read by Stephen Colbert how can you go wrong? Hope the rest of them are as good.
  
  ----------------
  Following that one up with "Swim Team" read by Parker Posey certainly keeps my interest.
• 
  Maggie

  Some if the stories were very funny, some a little less. I really liked the story about the cocktail party. The one about the recipe was good too, although a bit long, which was kind if the point, but a bit tiring.
• 
  Chara's Craftsations

  The Lie 3 Stars
  
  The Spray 3 Stars
  
  The Swim Team 3 half Stars
  
  The Schartz-Metterklume Method 3 Stars
  
  Country Cooking From Central France 2 Stars
  
  Yma Dream 4 Stars
  
  Covered 2 Stars
  
  The Conversations of the Jew 4 Stars
• 
  Joan

  The only laughs related to this audiobook were on the recorded laugh track. I'm not sure there were even any smiles.
• 
  Christina

  Selected Shorts is a series of short stories narrated by famous actors. They have a podcast, and have released several collections. The narrations in this collection were all excellent, and narrators included Stephen Colbert, Robert Sean Leonard, Parker Posey, Christine Baranski and Alec Baldwin. I was only familiar with one of the stories, Saki's "The Schartz-Metterklume Method" which is already a favorite of mine from other audio short story collections, as are all of Saki's stories. The only other author I was familiar with is Philip Roth.
  
  I enjoyed all of these stories, and I wish this was longer. The ones that stood out for me, besides Saki's, were Jonathan Lethem's unusual and imaginative "The Spray" read by Robert Sean Leonard, Miranda July's "The Swim Team" read by Parker Posey who is the perfect narrator, and the humorously teodious "Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lanb (Farce Double)" by Harry Matthews, read by Isaiah Sheffer. The stories are read to a live audience, and with humor the audience adds to the experience like a live audience in a sitcom. Laughter is contagious, and I imagine the actors feed off the response. I'm going to keep this and will probably listen to it again at some point in the future.
  
  One last note, there are some sexual references in some of these stories, so it's not suitable for family road trips with young children.
• 
  Dale

  Humor, Like Food, Is Highly Subjective
  
  Published by Symphony Space in October of 2010
  Multi-cast performance
  Duration: 3 hours, 6 minutes
  
  Here is the premise behind Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs - get a collection of funny short stories and have them be read by great performers such as Stephen Colbert and Alec Baldwin.
  
  There are eight stories of varying quality. As I noted in the title of this review, humor is very subjective. What I can really tell you is that this set is designed to appeal to a wide variety of tastes - not by being middle of the road but by bringing a true eclectic mix to the production. That is certain to guarantee that the listener will not enjoy everything.
  
  Stephen Colbert begins the collection with "The Lie", the story of a man who is just overwhelmed with being the father of a new baby. In fact, he is overwhelmed with everything - his dead end job, his wife's new confidence and his lack of free time. In his desperation, he lies. And, he builds upon that lie until he goes way too far...
  
  Alec Baldwin delivers ...
  
  Read more at:
  http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2016/...
• 
  David Cerruti

  The correct title is Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs.
  
  “Selected Shorts is a program featuring readings of classic and new short fiction, recorded live at New York’s Symphony Space and on tour around the country. This show is produced for radio by Symphony Space and WNYC Radio.” (from the Symphony Space website)
  
  Symphony Space has published many audio books, each containing several of the 1 hour radio programs. These are often available at the New York and Brooklyn Public Libraries.
  
  Even More Laughs has 8 shorts, 3 of which, I found hilarious.
  The Swim Team, by Miranda July, was read by Parker Posey.
  The Schartz-Metterklume Method, by Saki, was read by Marian Seldes.
  Yma Dream, by Thomas Meehan, was read by Christine Baranski.
  
• 
  Janet

  I've heard all these stories on the radio but enjoyed them just the same. My favorite two are, Country Cooking from Central France by Harry Matthews, and Yma Dream by Thomas Meehan.
  
  The former I sent to my brothers a while ago in an email saying I thought they might be interested in making the recipe. One of my brothers responded by saying it looked delicious but a bit time consuming. I had a good laugh at his expense.
• 
  Laura

  I didn't listen to the 3rd of 3 disc of these stories, but it's just because I have some other things to listen to. I liked the stories I listened to, they were funny, in a sad, almost horrifying way. Stephen Colbert and Parker Posey's stories especially, but I think both of them are v good with that kind of material.
• 
  Becky

  More fun live performances of great short stories. These were all new to me - and gave me needed chuckles. Best were T. C. Boyle's "The Lie" read by Stephen Colbert, Miranda July's "The Swim Team" read by Parker Posey, Thomas Meehan's "Yma Dream" read by Christina Baranski and Julia Slavin's "Covered" read by Alec Bladwin.
• 
  Dorothy

  I picked this book off the library shelf thinking that anything by NPR must be good...so I was disappointed in this....it just was not funny.
  I was actually offended by the first story...not funny in any way.
• 
  Jean

  One star almost always means that I had to stop listening (or reading) a book for some reason. This time it was things that other people might laugh at that I don't find funny (like stand-up comedy).
• 
  FLJimmy

  Avoid this book. Not funny enough to make it worthwhile. It draws out each story to the point you want a really big laugh and do not want to stop because you've invested time getting to the punch line then it let you down.
  
  
  
• 
  Amber Chance

  I should’ve been drunk while listening to this. I think maybe that would’ve made it funny. Or maybe not. I really only liked the story about the dream with all the people have vowel names and introducing them. All the others were over my head in the funny department.
  
  I read this via audiobook.
• 
  Jody

  What fun!
• 
  Renee Bouchard

  You will catch yourself chuckling at some very dark humor.
• 
  Troy Taylor

  Good audio fun. Sometimes you're in the mood for short fiction, and this fit the bill.
• 
  Evelyn Doyle

  I don't count the stories as funny on the whole (although a few had amusing parts to them), but they were very engagingly read, so I enjoyed them for that.