Vandemonium Plus (1987 Video) User Reviews

Too Funny!

[jullia.kolb · 10/10 · 12 July 2002]

Ann Magnuson, a NY funny woman with many (many) talents (she was also in the band Bongwater), displays just a few of hers and her friends characters in this half-hour laugh fest. I first saw it on Cinemax, and quickly started calling friends to come watch with me (you know, get some port wine cheese spread and wheat thins, and have the guests bring the cold ones - instant party!)

Seeing Ann as Meatloaf's biker chick, Sweet Pea, is one of those perfect snapshots of all my bitch-ridin' girlfriends rolled into one. Complete with fluffy-feathered alligator clamp roach clip/hair accessory! And that's just where the fun begins...

Love, - Julia

Overflowing with talent & shamefully out of print

[sambson · 10/10 · 8 May 2009]

Vandemonium Plus was one of the earliest pieces of comedy I saw on Cinemax, when it originally aired in the 80's. I associate it with Pee Wee Herman's first HBO Special; Live at the Roxy Theater (1982), which was finally re-released on DVD by Image Entertainment in 2006. Vandemonium Plus features an essentially solo Magnuson in a half-dozen satiric character sketches that deliciously skewer the likes of Tammy Faye Baker, Stevie Nicks and other media stereotypes, yet somehow celebrates the diversity of womanhood all in the same breath! It is a bravura performance that shamefully has never been released in any other format than VHS tape. Consequently, it can only be found for outrageous prices ($888.00 on Amazon) and doesn't appear to have been ripped (off) onto Youtube. What a shame. I'd love to see it again, and so would you.