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Roseanne
Arnold – Live from Trump Castle
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Roseanne Arnold – Live from Trump Castle offers a take on a popular media star – a take which will be unfamiliar to many fans of this performer. This is Roseanne live and uncensored, juggling her pre-TV routines with the accoutrements of her more recent media fame. Some of the material is lazy and not particularly funny – such as the screeched rendition of the Billy Jack anthem "One Tin Soldier", and the endless political correctness jokes – but her jibes about men and sex are just wonderful. Arnold presents a fascinating performing persona here, one substantially different to her character on the weekly Roseanne. The darker sides of her comic art come to the fore – such as her cynical attitude towards audiences, and especially the depressing horrors of her earlier life. The full-out finale – a reply to Arsenio Hall ("Ars" to Roseanne) for his nightly "fat jokes" on American TV at her expense – is as disquieting as it is uproarious. MORE Roseanne: Home on the Range © Adrian Martin September 1993 |