A quick review of Stand Up For Heroes

This from Joan Fontaine on BTX:

My review from GL:

It was my honor to attend this benefit tonight. Bruce's acoustic setlist:

This Hard Land
Devil's Arcade
Thunder Road

After his set Sotheby's auctioned one item - Bruce's 1991 Harley Davidson Fat Boy which went for $85,000. He pushed the motorcycle out on stage and the auctioneer said 'we aren't supposed to start it' and Bruce did. We were told it had 9000 miles on it.

Bruce was the first artist (and only musician) after Conan's warm-up (something like: "He stole my drummer and I stole him back") and in a small room packed with both movers and shakers and hundreds of servicemen and women in dress uniform he was clearly not the star. He sang his three songs, told a few jokes and bowed deeply to the servicemen sitting in the first few rows. And that was it.

Brian Regan, Lewis Black and Robin Williams rounded out the program. But the real stars were the guys in uniform - some clearly injured, most heavily decorated, and Bob Woodruff and his wife.

And this from AsburyRising:

Just got home from this fine event, and as the earlier poster said, it was the soldiers who were the stars tonight. The Marine Corps Band opened things, and you could tell right away this would be a special night. They finished by doing a medley of all 5 military service's songs, asking each of the current and former members of the service to stand and be recognized when their song played. It was great to hear the genuine applause they all received.

Conan was funny as the host, making jokes about how he came with nothing because his writers were on strike. So he attributed various jokes to his Mother, Father etc. He introduced Bruce by saying here is the guy who stole my drummer, and Bruce came out and said something like let me clarify that, Conan stole MY drummer, and I just stole him back. Bruce told a joke before each of his songs in honor of the event being a comedy event, saying he got his jokes from his kids. The first joke was the Interrupting Cow Knock-Knock joke, with many people seeming to miss the punch line. When Bruce started playing you could hear a pin drop in the place, as everyone gave their undivided attention. Though most probably didn't know the song, when Bruce got to the end of This Hard Land, the soldiers near me started applauding loudly at the end after Bruce sings: "Stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive If you can"
I have to believe this is why Bruce picked this song.
Before Devil's Arcade, Bruce told a joke about an Irishman calling an Italian an idiot, and proving it by asking him to explain Easter. The explaination was Jesus waking up, rolling away a stone stepping into the sunlight and looking for his shadow. It got a little more laughter than the Knock-Knock joke. All I can say about Devil's Arcade was that it was haunting and powerful at the same time. Again you could hear a pin drop.
Bruce's last joke was the same one he told to the crowd at the Today Show taping in September. This one went like this: The doctor tells his patient that he has to stop masturbating. The man asks the doctor why. The doctor says, "because I'm trying to conduct an examination." He saved his best joke for last, as this got him more applause than his other two jokes. He then proceeded to play Thunder Road, which got immediate applause of recognition, but relatively quiet singing from the crowd.
A short but powerful set, and then Bruce was back one more time wheeling out his motorcycle that was being auctioned, and starting it up on stage.

The 3 comedians that followed were all very funny, Brian Reagan, Lewis Black and of course Robin Williams. Haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.

Afterwards as I was leaving, I saw James Gandolfini getting his picture taken with a bunch of Marines, and him thanking them. I also saw Robin Williams out on the street getting his picture taken with a bunch of Marines, then geting on their bus and thanking them before he left in his vehicle. And a bunch of people were getting their pictures taken with a Drill Seargent who made a powerful statement on stage prior to the Marine band playing the service songs. All-in-all it was a great event for a great cause.