Looking for standup recommendations. - by ercles
Headphones on 22/12/2009 at 20:03
I don't really like the form but Stewart Lee can definitely be pretty heroic.
He does an amazing thing on Richard Littlejohn's commitment to the correct naming of dead women culminating in him miming Littlejohn breaking into a graveyard and altering headstones so that they properly identify murdered prostitutes.
Stitch on 22/12/2009 at 20:15
Rug Burn Junky.
ercles on 22/12/2009 at 20:19
Cheers for the help here guys, Mitch Hedberg seems pretty amazing, and I find Patton Oswalt funny as well. Kinison seems like what I was looking for the most to be honest, that really aggressive sense of humour is really what I found fascinating about Hicks as well.
If you've got any more suggestions I'd love to hear them.
henke on 22/12/2009 at 20:33
I listened to most of Strategic Grill Locations and, while I did have a few chuckles, Heberg's one-liner style isn't doing it for me. What little I've heard of David Cross and Jim Gaffigan I like. But I am shocked - SHOCKED! - that noone else has back up my Patton Oswalt recommendation. So here's a couple of clips: (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-wyZty-rsU&feature=related) The Douchiest T-Shirt & (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgSC8Qle6nA&feature=related) Road Warrior, Ratatouille & Halloween.
edit: ALRIGHT ERCLES! :D u know what I'm talkin bout!
Rug Burn Junky on 22/12/2009 at 20:36
Sorry, BEAR, Robin Williams is fucking awful. He overcomes deficiencies in his material by being ridiculously energetic and "zany." His material is always the lowest common denominator, cheap and easy joke. To the extent he's ever had good jokes, he probably stole them.
Just finished watching his last HBO set, and now that he's had to tone down the zany thing a little bit, you can see that he has bad timing because of his straight ahead tempo - missed pauses and inflections that could have made jokes work so much better. It's like watching a musician play off key. And fuck, his bit on (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1802451#post1802451) Dock Ellis? YOU SHOULDN'T NEED CAMERA TRICKS TO DO A JOKE ABOUT ACID. Fuck him, no, really. Wading through an hour and a half for the four (admittedly really funny) worthwhile jokes was time I'll always wish I had back.
Hedberg's funny and has some great material, but he's gimmicky and wasn't a very good performer - by his own accounts he was afraid of the audience right up until the day he died. Amazing writing talent, and really unique thoughts, but flawed. Worth listening to though.
I've gone through all of my faves/assessments (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1250442#post1250442) before. Most of my assessments still stand. But the thing I'd reemphasize is this:
Quote:
to talk about comedy in general. The thing is, if you look at any stand up comic, the jokes don't always hold up over time, but what you can see is how they are able to interact with a crowd, and bring them along for the joke, THAT is the true talent. Fuck tapes, albums, HBO specials and the like, you cannot truly appreciate a great comic unless you've seen them live. Period. A great comic is like a jazz musician, or a good DJ, and a recording will never capture the performance as it truly is. It may capture the "jokes," but that's only half the story. The true craft of comedy is timing, phrasing and the interplay with the audience. And that changes from set to set, from audience to audience.
The long and the short of it? GO TO YOUR LOCAL COMEDY CLUB AND SEE SOME STUFF LIVE.
You'll get a far better appreciation of the craft. And you'll laugh a shitload. It's really the best way to appreciate comedy. Albums are great, but it loses the organic nature of it in uncountable ways.
I've spent a TON of time in comedy clubs recently (that's the subject of another thread), and even the best albums lose something compared to a live set. Right now my favorite comic is a 20 year old amateur that I've seen a half a dozen times, who only has about 10 minutes of material, and he still cracks me up.
So yeah, go see live comedy.
That said, tacking on to my original londwinded post:
If you do love the social commentary side, check out Marc Maron's Podcast, particularly his (
http://wtfpod.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=549524) episode with Doug Stanhope and Janeane Garafolo, where they discuss comedy in general, and specifically how they each fit into the legacy of Bill Hicks (and Stanhope, a great comic in his own right, has a couple of great anecdotes about Mitch Hedberg, who was one of his best friends).
I'd also throw in Jim Norton, great at making uncomfortable things funny. Monster Rain, Gorilla Hands and Yellow Discipline are all three great albums.
/edit henke - I'll endorse Patton Oswalt. The whole "Comedians of Comedy" group (Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn, Eugene Mirman and Maria Bamford) are all pretty top notch.
Quote Posted by Stitch
Rug Burn Junky.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
The Alchemist on 22/12/2009 at 20:37
For some reason I really love Louis CK.
ercles on 22/12/2009 at 21:05
Man Patton Oswald reminds me a lot of David Cross, they both seem to have very similar deliveries. He's very fucking funny though, I'm definitely a fan after watching a bunch of his stuff on Youtube.
Thanks for the pointers RBJ, plenty to look into there! One thing I find fascinating about listening to early Carlin is how similar to Lenny Bruce he was (although he certainly doesn't hide the fact that Bruce was hugely influential for him). I prefer Carlin's later material where he started to do his own thing, but it's highly entertaining to hear him do the really conversational patter of his early material.
Enchantermon on 22/12/2009 at 22:11
Brian Regan has some of the best material I've ever heard. There's loads of his stuff on Comedy Central. He's lots of fun to listen to, but if you can see his videos it's even better due to his facial expressions and mannerisms.
Also, if you don't mind ventriloquism, Jeff Dunham is amazing.
Rug Burn Junky on 22/12/2009 at 22:31
Regan and Dunham are two bit hacks and everything that's wrong with popular stand-up comedy.
