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Best Stand Up Comedians

Edward M

Edward M

Strata Poster
Everybody loves some good stand-up so who are some of your favorite stand-up comedians?

For me, the best is and will forever be... :angel: George Carlin :angel:

I also enjoy Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, Louis CK, and Aziz Ansari.
 
Good shouts on Eddie Murphy and Dave Chapelle. The latter was (:() brilliant, the former was outrageous.

Mitch Hedburg, Jimmy Carr and the above Dave Chapelle are my top three. Jack Dee, Stewart Francis are up there.
 
Ralphie May, Brad Williams, and Bill Cosby are some of my favorite. Met the first two and they are both genuinely nice guys.
 
I used to be a big fan of Jasper Carrott back when he was doing stand up.

A friend of me introduced me to some of Rhod Gilbert's work a couple of years ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHifn2RZn_8[/youtube]

If I'm in a bitter, cynical mood then you really can't beat the late great Bill Hicks. So far ahead of his time, and still relevant to this day:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4CQ_1GWn4w[/youtube]
 
Along with George Carlin, other greats of the past were Richard Prior, Redd Foxx, Sam Kinison and most of all Don Rickles. My current favorites are Louis CK and Craig Ferguson.
I got to spend a day with Sam Kinison before he passed. Needless to say - it was one of the best days of my life.
 
George Carlin, Louis CK, Jeff Dunham, Steven Wright, and Robin Williams are my top five. My math teacher gets an honorable mention, though.


Posted while reading your mind.
 
CoastingChris50 said:
ECG said:
I got to spend a day with Sam Kinison before he passed.
Click to expand...

:shock: HOW?
Click to expand...
Sam did an in-store signing at Tower Records on 4th & Broadway where I was the assistant manager and his record label invited me to have lunch with him before the event. They also gave me tickets to his show that evening. We got along really well during the lunch and the signing, so he asked if I wanted to hang out with him until the show. We ended up partying until about 5am the next morning.
I still have this Polaroid that we took together as we we're leaving after the in-store signing. I don't have the cut-out anymore, but if you look closely you can see he autographed it for me.
Kinison_zps0820fdd7.jpg
 
My favourites currently are (in no particular order) Ross Noble, Tim Vine, Tommy Tiernan, Richard Herring, Chris Addison, Al Murray The Pub Landlord, Dave Gorman, Robin Ince and Josh Widdicombe. But I have loads more just bubbling under. Also a mention for sketch comedians Pappys who I love love love.
 
Drayton Manor Park management when deciding if to run one or two trains on Shockwave :P

Ha. Ha. Ha.

I love Sean Locke and Bill Bailey. I love surreal comedy where you're can't see where the jokes are heading - I like to be surprised.

For more "traditional", I love the stand up show Rowan Atkinson did many years ago, and the very early Steve Martin stand up is fantastic. An old love of mine is also Emo Philips, but I've not seen any of his stuff since I was a teen.
 
Roy 'Chubby' Brown is by far and away the best comedian I've ever seen, whether it be on DVD or live. Bernard Manning also (R.I.P) was a favourite of mine. Both comedians were excessively racist, homophobic, sexist, crude and would create a joke about something that just shouldn't be joked about. These guys were never allowed on TV for obvious reasons. I think the enjoyment of watching these guys comes from their deliverance, it's outstanding. I would definitely recommend watching one of these 2, even if it is just the once, and even if you're easily offended I don't think the shows cause that much of a stir.

As for American stand-up, I don't really find their sense of humour that appealing, not on stage anyway. However Chris Rock I thoroughly enjoy.
 
^ I used to really like Chubby Brown when I was a teenager. I went to see him a couple of times when I was about 17. Then I grew up.

To be fair, I haven't watched any of his stuff for well over 10 years, but I just got very bored of him.

I don't really keep up to speed with comedians these days, but some of my favourites are Sarah Silverman, Joan Rivers, Jimmy Carr, Margaret Cho, Lisa Lampinelli and, years ago now, Lily Savage.

Victoria Wood was also really good when I saw her, but I generally prefer her non stand-up stuff.
 
gavin said:
^ I used to really like Chubby Brown when I was a teenager. I went to see him a couple of times when I was about 17. Then I grew up.
Click to expand...

I don't think he's as good as he used to be, there was an incident back in 2008 where one of his 'songs' was judged to have overstepped the mark and he was booed off stage, this was the chorus to the song, delete if inappropriate but I'm posting it for the sake of discussion, not to glorify the song;

"A little bit of Abdul on the floor,
a little bit of Ahmed on the door.
A little bit of Sanjay in the hall,
a little bit of Imran up the wall.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mumbai number 5".

I think he toned things down a bit after that, at least for his DVD's. I was given his "too fat to be gay" DVD for Christmas a couple of years ago and he was poor, just recycling stuff from the 90's.

I watched him live though in 2009 and found he'd improved, but I think that was due to the fact there were no cameras around. He was still booed though, he made a reference about Jozef Fritz being lucky to 'have sex on tap' and was jeered, however he made it clear to people straight away that if he was offending them they should **** off out the building.

When I watch his shows I leave reality at the door, no harm is meant by his act, and people who are easily offended should just avoid watching him. I can't believe people pay £25 to watch him then get offended? What the **** were you expecting from him?
 
^Exactly. I never get offended by comedy at all. I just came to realise that he's just childish and puerile, and, like you said, has been recycling the same tired old act since the '70s.

As far as I'm concerned, everything's fair game when it comes to comedy. I detest Bernard Manning though. Most comedians cracking "offensive" jokes realise the difference between the joke and the sentiment behind it. Manning really was a sexist, racist, homophobic pathetic excuse for a human being though.
 
I'm a massive fan of Stewart Lee. Went to see him last year and I was laughing so hard my entire face hurt afterwards!

I also really like Dylan Moran, Reginald D. Hunter, Richard Herring, Bill Hicks and Louis C.K.
The first couple of Ricky Gervais' stand up shows were good, but I think his stand up has gone a bit down hill recently - same goes for Bill Bailey.
 
Re: RE: Best Stand Up Comedians

Lisa Lampinelli is fantastic as well. She just looks odd now that she is skinny. Still hilarious.
 
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