Who's the best stand-up comic you've ever seen live?

For me... Rodney Dangerfield. 120 minutes of piss-your-pants, fall down funny.

Second is George Carlin - a total professional.

Third is Lewis Black - I've seen him four times, and each time, he has an entirely new act, and it's achingly funny.

Fourth is Paula Poundstone. I used to see her regularly when she was doing the club circuit, but she wasn't that special. Then, I saw her in her first appearance after her criminal conviction and she was astounding. Then I saw her again earlier this year, and she was still amazing. Almost none of her act is scripted - she just riffs. She's incredibly smart and quick.

Fifth is a little-known comic named Kathleen Madigan. She just cracks me up, AND... I saw her once at the local Improv and when she came back 9 months later, she remembered me. We sat in the front row both times, and the second time, she said "you were here last time, right?". She's great.

"Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?"

I poured spot remover on my dog, and now he's gone.

I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.
So I said, "Got any shoes you're not using?"

"So I took it for a drive...I parked it at the end of the freeway exit ramp and told people to get the hell off my driveway." His monotone delivery makes it all the funnier. :hi:

that sits at a desk.

but he's hysterical as a stand up, basically because he can say so much more that he'd never dare say on TV.

I finally got to see one of my idols live two years ago in San Diego - it was AWESOME.

I saw Hughley a few months ago and I thought he sucked.

To be fair, it seemed like one of the comics didn't show up, so he had to fill in an extra 20 minutes... and he did it very badly.

I didn't think he was funny at all.

When I saw him this summer, he announced that this was his fiftieth year as a professional stand-up. Easily the most influential comic ever.

I had a good time

Emo had me from his opening line.

aka Sanger Harris High,located in downtown Dallas.This was around '71 or '72.

Carlin I knew of but Steve Martin was an unknown. He did the wacky stuff with balloons and played the banjo and was the warmup act for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Whoever did the booking either was a great judge of new talent,had some pull with someone or both.

Didn't think a lot of it at the time but upon recollection later on I thought it remarkable that these two very talented comedians would both play a little downtown community college within a couple of months of each other.

But Don Rickles was by far the funniest I ever saw...

The Unkown Comic was fucking hilareous...

George Carlin was funny...

Jon Stewert was as well...

But for pure piss your pants laughter, Don Rickles....

the ones I would have loved to see were Red Foxx and Buddy Hackett.

But I saw Dangerfield, and he was a master. I couldn't even remember any of his jokes, he told them so fast. When he died, I read that he told more jokes per minute than any other comedian, and I believe it. In a 90 minute act, he'd tell hundreds of jokes... it was very impressive.

And on the topic of Easy Indian/Canadian comics, Shawn Majumder is great as well.

His bit about Jesus and the Bible is brilliant. "His name was probably Jeff...and he wasn't a messiah...he was a masseus...and people would say 'oh, you gotta go see Jeff, he's a miracle worker!'"

I don't think there were 10 consecutive seconds in which I wasn't laughing.

Suzanne Westenhoefer

not at the same time or place

Back in 91. The freaking master!

Bill Hicks quotes:

I smoke. If this bothers anyone, I suggest you look around at the world in which we live and shut your fuckin' mouth.

********************************

People say "Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world". Yeah, maybe, but you know what, after the first 3 largest armies, there's a REAL big fucking drop-off. The Hare Krishnas are the 5th largest army in the world, and they've already got all our airports.

********************************

"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet."

"Pick it up."

"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."

"Pick up the gun."

"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, Mister."

"Pick up the gun."

(He picks it up. Three shots ring out.)

"You all saw him - he had a gun."


http://www.konformist.com/2001/hicks.htm

Have you read Love All The People yet? It's a collection of his routines, letters, writings, and so on. It's a nice book to have on hand.

Also, Kevin Booth's book - Agent of Evolution - is out, although you'll have to order it from the UK which you can do via Booth's site:

http://www.sacredcow.com/allnew/index_content.php?n=agent_preorder

The only stand-up live I've seen who came close to Hicks' insight & wit was Brendon Burns.

Haven't read Love All The People yet, mainly because I didn't know about it until, well, just now. But now that I do I plan to check it out. I've seen alot of Bill's shows like Revelations and Sane Man, even some bootlegs, but no books. Thanks for the heads up. I've got high hopes that one day we can all decide to turn this planet into the peaceful party paradise that Bill and many of us know it can be. In fact, I'll start right now.. now where'd I put that bong? :evilgrin:

I'm just joking. I've never seen Gallager live. One day though. One day...

Hands down.

I'm a huge George Carlin fan, but Eddie Izzard is brilliant and had me in tears laughing til it hurt.

I saw The Definite Article live and a trail of Glorious. For the latter, he'd been in a minor car accident & was wearing a neck-brace which made for some hilarious attempts at mime.

Absolutelyfreakinghilarious.

That was a hilarious show!

"Why... cake, please."

:rofl:

I laughed so hard I almost had an accident. I have never seen Carlin, though I hope to someday.

off the wagon and after her tv show was cancelled. The only thing I remember from the show was her self-deprication about having gone back to drugs. She said people would congratulate her for getting clean, and she thought it was so stupid: like being congratulated for running out of a burning building.

I love her.

I also adore - absolutely adore - Paula Poundstone. Her riffing off the crowd is fantastic. NEED to see her live.

I was surprised. He is funnier than I remember from years ago.

I'd love to go see him.

He used to do stand-up in Minneapolis in the 1980's when he wasn't working on mst3k. He was brilliantly funny.

at the Hollywood Improv back in 1986. I was laughing so hard, I was crying. He didn't need a microphone and it was just an impressive stand up routine.

Friggin' hilarious.

One of the greatest this country has produced!

in Portland. I think he went by the name of Jimmy Mak or something similar. He was hilarious in a loopy yet highly intelligent way.

we laughed so hard that our cheeks and stomachs hurt all the way through!

She's wicked funny.

But I did see Bobcat Goldthwait. He was a scream. Literally.

I catch every Carlin HBO special.

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Small venue, drinking, smoking. I've never laughed so hard in my life.

I'm sure there are better comics, but experiencing him live was insane.

Cosby was good too.

For real. I was living in Redondo Beach way back when and we used to go the comedy clubs around there. This was after the Mork & Mindy rubbish and he was looking to break back into standup and reagain his street cred. He was unannounced and just walked on the stage and brought the house down. He really was that good at the time. Now he annoys me.

his shows when he comes through. And you got to see Rodney Dangerfield? Nice.

Here's my seven way tie:

Jon Stewart (I saw him right before he started hosting the Daily), Lewis Black (I don't even know how many times I've seen him. I think I only missed one of his shows in the past 6 years. And he's the nicest guy too.), Mitch Hedberg, Dave Attell, Will Durst, Norm McDonald, and Carrot Top (it was free at a festival with lots of beer) ONLY because he sucked so bad that it was funny.

a funny, funny, Man:rofl:
May his troubled soul RIPO8)

Her shtick was kinda tired. Wife loves her though.

I'm sorry, I couldn't pick just one. :)

but none of his jokes were very funny

I'm pretty much limited to Dennis Miller, Rita Rudner, J. Medicine Hat, and local stand-ups.

1) Harry Hill - I can't remember any of the gags & Harry's style was to have multiple punchlines for jokes which he slots effortlessly throughout the performance. All I know is that I laughed harder than I've ever laughed since for ninety minutes.

2) Brendon Burns - While I was at Uni, I helped put on the comedy nights at the student union, once a fortnight & the best guy we booked was Brendon Burns. The set was only about 45 minutes but it mixed wonderfully crude sex jokes with a very thoughtful rant about global warming. I've heard bootlegs of his act at various stages after we had him and it blossomed into a beautiful thing.

3) Eddie Izzard - Saw him live twice & interviewed him briefly the 2nd time about his views on Europe (& since then he's gone on to do shows in French & German). I think his most recent tours have weakened, but his still brilliant.

4) Jerry Sadowitz - I'm very fond of Sadowitz. I've sadly only seen him once live but it was a riot. He specializes in offending people who claim to be liberal and just generally making an audience squirm. He made a wee name for himself in North America a few years ago at the Montreal Comedy Festival. He began his set "Hello Moose Fuckers" and then got knocked unconcious by a guy in the audience.

5) Daniel Kitson - Another one we caught on his way up at Nottingham. A rising star, whose show in Edinburgh this year was a real gem.

6) Noel Fielding - And another who has gone on to greatness with his partner Julian Barrett since we booked him at Nottingham. Incredibly surreal & meandering stories that pull you in until you can't stop laughing.

Is the only one I've seen live. Like you said, an hour and a half of non-stop laugh out loud funny. He was so quick. Even with hecklers, he was right back on em with good funny.

I saw him in Atlantic City in between Ft Dix basic training and AIT.

Great guy.

Back in the early early 90's! heck it might have been '89.

SF Punch Line, (was'nt that the club in Ghirardelli square?)

.... but I did see Kevin Meany once and he was hysterically funny!

Lewis Black
George Carlin

1. Jerry Seinfeld. His dry humour had us on the floor laughing. We loved it.

2. I was lucky enough to see Johnny Carson. It was 1969 and that was all I wanted for High School graduation. My Mom took me and he was so risque I wanted to hide my face! But, he was hilarious. What a comic genious!

I also saw Morey Amsterdam (Buddy on Dick Van Dyke) and he was hilarious.

Aside from that I haven't had much opportunity to see stand up comedy live.

on the same program: Judy Garland, Tony Bennett.

I did some art work for his articles in the DN, before he was on Mad TV.

My favorite by far.

Performing live all decade, right here in the DU Lounge. :thumbsup:

1 George Carlin

2 Dana Carvey

3 Sam Kinison

4 Steve Martin

5 Dennis Miller



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Neil Lisst ;) has learned there is a short list of possible VP applicants Bush could go with, in case Cheney has to go. http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst