Stand Up Comedians

[Lacedaemonian]

Who are your favourite stand up comedians?

My favourite stand up of all time is the late Bill Hicks, the man was a genius.

[I, Brian]

Bill Hicks was a prophet.

No other stand-up compares to Bill Hicks, simply because comedy is about telling truth, and few people were so tuned into truth - and able to comment on it in as entertaining a manner - as the late Bill hicks.

I used to be such a stupid tight-wad with my money - Bill Hicks came to the Hull Uni sometime in the 1990's, but I somehow figured that I couldn't afford to put money to going to see him. A friend did - apparently Bill did requests at the end - waffle waitress, etc. I should never have been so mean with my money, because now I'll never be able to see him live.

[erickad71]

Never heard of Bill Hicks. What about Robin Williams and, to go to the other end of the spectrum, what about Bill Cosby? I like both of them.

[I, Brian]

Bill Hicks was very much a social comedian, commenting on modern America. He never really hit it big time, though, having just three standup concerts go out on video release (so far as I know), before he died of cancer of the pancreas just as his career was really moving forward.

[Lacedaemonian]

The media would not touch him with a barge pole. My favourite sketch was Arizona Bay, he hated California that much! I am so pleased that you love Hicks Brian, it is great to meet people with such excellent tastes.

[I, Brian]

I concur.

"We got ourselves a reader!"

[littlemissattitude]

Robin Williams, Bobcat Goldthwait, Ellen DeGeneres. There are a couple of others, but I can't think of names right now.

[Lacedaemonian]

Richard Pryor was a god of stand up comedy but I still consider Hicks to be the finest man who has ever graced comedy. I base most of my perceptions of life on his preachings. It is a shame that America shunned him, he really could have opened some of their eyes. I think Channel Four filmed his performances, hence the short supply of videos. His audio recordings are very good though. Channel 4 did the world a service back then, they have fallen a long way since, with there Big Brother tripe etc etc. In the words of the late Bill Hicks the producers of Channel 4 are munching on the devils ****.

"Hunt down and kill Billy Ray Cyrus!"

[polymorphikos]

John Howard and Mark Latham.

Actually, in seriousness, I'm a big fan of Arj Barker, when I come across him, and the Flight of the Concordes are pretty awesome. Lano & Woodley are also pretty funny. I list these three acts because they don't mine pointless stereotypes and ethnicity, which seems to be the staple of the industry, and frequently makes me very angry. This is why I rarely like Black comedians a la Chris Rock or Eddie Murphy, who are usually just ripping into this near-exhausted reef of once-entertaining crap when they have the talent to be doing something genuinely of interest, instead of taking the easy way out. This may be a broad picture painted, but if you watch the comedy programmes on TV so many fall into this genre.(BTW, the same goes for stupid movies where the cool Black/Stoner/Surfer "dudes" go to some white-collar den of straight-lacedness and teach everyone how to "party-down" via getting really drunk, deflowering the sexy frigid chick and having a house-party that leads to "hilarious consequences").
It irks me.

Sorry, I have contracted verbal diorrhea.

[Sirathiel]

I doubt that my favourite stand-up comedian is known by anyone here, but I still have to mention him: Michael Mittermayer.

He's simply divine. His first act was called Zapped, where he was mimicking a TV junkie. The second one was Back to Life, where he treated the idiosyncracies of our lives including the first human on Mars. And right now he's on tour with his newest act: Paranoid. Don't know what it's about, but I hope to find out soon...

[G-borg]

Bill Hicks. No question. The master of them all. The John Lennon of the eighties and nineties.
Without him there would be no Michael Moore. I would have loved to have Bill Hicks around these days. Not that Moore isn't doing a great job though. He's just not half as funny
Cheer up!