Talk:John Valby

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Though John Valby may incur the wrath of the "family values" crowd, his brilliant, albeit risque humour, is not without its merit. Firstly, by smashing through the social norms, Valby encourages more societal criticism and allows for genuine truth to show through all the lies. Secondly, Valby targets mainly those that deserve it. In doing such, he does society a great service in exposing the hypocrisy of contemporary moraise. Lastly, John Valby is just that damn good. He is capable of playing the piano as well as any romantic composer while maintaining a wider range of profanity than a sailor. I would like to see your contemporary rock groups top that! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.122.44.131 (talk) 23:50, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm... I myself don't seem find his piano playing better than any others. In fact, he sounds remarkably worse than a drunken professional piano player acquaintance of mine. And, all other things aside, this sentence is a stretch:

From Hispanics to Irishmen, Polish to blacks, Arabs to rednecks, Republican and Democrats alike, no person and no group is safe from his wit and his piano.

"wit"?!? I hardly think so. FunnyYetTasty 09:47, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

I've never had the pleasure(?), but you have to wonder whether 131.122.44.131 isn't Valby himself. The original version of this page was very close to Valby's website, so it is pretty clearly a self-promo. I edited it pretty heavily, but it could certainly use more. -- Mwanner | Talk 14:01, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

If you think the country has gone to Hades in a politically correct hand basket then you need to see and hear JV sometime. It was many years ago in Buffalo, NY when I first saw him perform and I was probably the ONLY person who didn't know the words and sing along, on cue, to EVERY song he played. I went to several of his shows after that and sang at the top of my lungs until my voice actually had that great raspiness that is John Valby. Curt P Jan 10, 2007

I see that John is "classically trained" but there is not listing of where he was trained. Any ideas? 64.24.146.55 (talk) 17:43, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

The line: "Valby seems to be a right-wing conservative" is not verified or written with a NPOV. In my un-sourced conversations with him, his personal views are more balanced than the stage persona that caters to the demographics of his audience. That doesn't need to be included either since this article is mainly about the performer.22yearswothanks (talk) 01:09, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I have seen John Valby perform on five occasions; the first, March 28th, 1979, in Hershey, PA during the Three -Mile Island emergency. The last, in April of 2008, (also) in Hershey, PA. The crowds were enthusiastic, and well pleased with his performance. John provides the ability for all to be introspective. Yes, his material does contain (as the main article states) "racial slurs", slurs which are delivered in a non-offensive, "equal opportunity offender" style/manner, in the spirit of Don Rickles. This world will become a very bland, homogenous place without the ability to laugh at ourselves. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Radioengineer (talk • contribs) 02:30, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

My fetid rot.

I saw him in the early '80's, in college of course. I have a tape of a show, which I listened to a bunch in my early twenties. That was when I was young and, um, stupid, and I thought it was all good because it was supposedly in the right light and in a positive egalitarian spirit. Now I wish I didn't have those awful awful images in my head, and those horrible, yes hateful, lyrics that intrude back into my consciousness. I'm not a reactionary "family values" guy (no way, no how), but I've come to know the nastiness of this kind of purportedly open-minded, free-speechifying entertainment. Sorry, that's how I think now. I regret exposing myself to it. In the long run, I've found there to be little redeeming value, but a lot of fetid rot in my brain because of John Valby.

108.7.7.50 (talk) 23:27, 14 December 2010 (UTC)