Search - Saturday Night Live - The Best of Dana Carvey on DVD

An excellent sampling of one of the best SNL personalities

Douglas A. Greenberg | Berkeley, CA USA | 06/26/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dana Carvey stopped appearing as a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1992, but he left behind an amazing legacy of hilarious fictional characters, while also showing himself to be one of the leading impressionists in contemporary American comedy. During a period when SNL was largely a hit-or-miss affair (as compared with its classic first five years), Carvey could always be counted on to elicit guffaws when he appeared as Garth of "Wayne's World," The Church Lady, The Grumpy Old Man, Hans the bodybuilder, or even the grossout-inducing "Massive Headwound Harry." But it is perhaps as an impressionist of political and show business personalities that Carvey showed his greatest talent. He became nationally famous for his George Bush impersonation, but he repertoire included so many others: Paul McCartney, Ross Perot, Tom Brokaw, George Michael, Keith Richard, Jimmy Stewart, Johnny Carson, Strom Thurmond, Bob Dylan, and on and on--his ability to capture every nuance of a character was nothing short of astounding. This video presents an excellent cross-section of Carvey's work, including some hilarious Church Lady sequences, a rapid-fire series of impersonations, and a terrific combination impression of Johnny Carson and Arsenio Hall called "Carsenio." Anyone who enjoys laughing will find this video well worth the money.It's surprising to me that in recent years Dana Carvey has not found a lot of new venues for his great talent. While his onetime partner on "Wayne's World" Mike Myers has achieved superstar status as "Austin Powers," Carvey has more or less receded into the show business background. Here's hoping that Dana finds his winning show, film, or character soon."

The best of Dana Carvey...NOT

Zoubouli | Athens, Greece | 08/26/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered this DVD (along with several others from the 'best of' collection) because I used to really enjoy watching SNL when I was an undergraduate in CA and because it is unavailable in Europe. This DVD has some mediocre to good skits with Dana Carvey from SNL, but does not include a single full skit of "Church Chat" opting instead for a "Church Chat Montage" which has small snippets of various church chat skits. I found it quite annoying to watch a few seconds of a skit and then have it cut short - I wanted more. My rating of three stars is because I think several full-length skits of 'Church Chat' should have been included as they were one of the most popular (and one of my favourites). For those of you who can tape episodes when they appear as re-runs, I would suggest doing that rather than buying this DVD. A disappointing 'best of' for a great SNL cast member."

Back In My Day, Dana Carvey Was On "SNL", And We Liked It!

Anthony Nasti | Staten Island, New York United States | 03/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dana Carvey left "Saturday Night Live" 12 years ago, but he left behind a hilarious body of work only matched by Phil Hartman and Will Ferrell. He was one of the show's most vesatile performers of the classic 1986-93 years, creating a wide range of classic characters and dead on impressions. "The Best Of Dana Carvey" features all of his best moments from his seven year career, plus several from his eight guest appearances.



All of Dana's best charcters are here, including the Church Lady, Hans of Hans and Franz, Garth Algar, Grumpy Old Man, Ross Perot and of course, President George H.W. Bush. All of the sketches featured here are hilarious (though I would have preferred a full "Church Chat" bit and the 1988 and 1992 debates sketch with Bush). Also there's a great montage of all his most memorable impressions including George Michael, James Stewart, Paul McCartney and John Travolta and the infamous Il Cantore sketch. The funniest sketch is the Tom Brokaw segment where he's going over various ways of announcing Gerald Ford's deah. As the sketch progresses, each potential from of death gets more absurd, from commmiting suicide to getting eaten by wolves.



If there's any complaints I have, is that are no Ching Chang or "Nightline" sketches (Dana Carvey's impression of Ted Koppell was so hilarious). But still, this is a hilarious look at Carvey's amazing "SNL" career.

"

Dana Carvey... Comic Genius

Luke D. Bolland | Perth, Western Australia. | 10/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am a big fan of SNL and have really enjoyed Dana's work in the past. I hesitated before I bought this dvd not sure if it would be another effort to cash in on a poorly put together dvd... However I was impressed with what I saw. The DVD contained some of my favourite of Dana's moments including some Waynes world skits, Church Chat, his hillarious impression of Dennis Miller, George Bush and my personal favourite the skit where he plays the psychic contestant on a gameshow... It made me sad watching it all knowing that Dana wasn't doing as much as he should be now! The best part though was in the special feature not listed here "Dana's original uncut audition for SNL" this rare never before seen piece is worth the price of admission alone! Check it out for fans of Saturday Night Live or just people who appreciate fine comedians."