Arts & Humanities Stand Up Comedy

[BALKAN]

 

[lenny&carl]

It's not just opinion, it's fact...JIm Jefferies is the greatest stand-up of all time.

 

[Hot Pocket]

Thankyou very muchly for the tip TBD

Seriously great show, has a few sad moments and heaps of funny ones.

 

[Hot Pocket]

Not stand up as such, but I love Norm MacDonald in basically anything he does

 

[Hot Pocket]

 

[nicky]

I reckon Stewart Lee (I posted a short clip of him earlier) is the best standup comedian going around. It's hard to post clips of his stuff because it's hard to get a sense of his comedy from just watching little segments. He doesn't do jokes insomuch as deliberately long, rambling deconstructions and metahumour, punctuated by very funny turns of phrase.

He's not for everyone, but if you like the Carlin/Hicks style of comedy he's worth checking out.

hilarious

 

[lenny&carl]

 

[bkozican]

Richard Pryor on the Mafia.....Gotta love this guy

" I busted into the office with this moth******er, Alright give me the money moth******er............Doing my best black sh**.........You know the sh** that usually scare a whitey to death "

 

[Hot Pocket]

LOL @ Johnny Salami and the Cabuso brothers

 

[nicky]

.

That is so funny.

 

[Cudi]

I love me some Dave Chappelle

 

[Plugger35]

Yeah Dave Chappelle is awesome.

 

[SugarShane]

My favourite is Brian Regan.

 

[Vic Vinegar]

I must be the only person on earth who considers Louis CK to be the most vastly overrated comedian of all time.

 

[SugarShane]

I must be the only person on earth who considers Louis CK to be the most vastly overrated comedian of all time.

I like him, but he's not some god of comedy like a lot of people make him out to be. Especially on places like reddit where people will use his quotes as evidence/proof that their opinion is correct because it's the same as Louis CK's. Just because a comedian says something, doesn't make it true.

 

[Hot Pocket]

LouisCK doesn't believe half the things he says. He's a comedian lol. Unless people really believe that when he dies he wants to donate his body to sexual perversion so that anyone can just have an hour to do whatever they like to his body... He's a damn good comedian though - profilic amount of content, and he is a funny, funny man. I found the more of his stuff I watch, the more I like him.

 

[Caesar]

It's probably a bit harsh to call him overrated. He is just a comedian who is very, very hot right now. You always hear comedians talking about how they did the same act for 20 years and went pretty much nowhere, and then suddenly their style of comedy is in vogue and everybody's talking about them and they're being handed TV contracts and stuff.

I don't think Louis CK is very revolutionary - when you strip it back, he basically does stock standard observational comedy. But he really nails the voice of the ageing Gen Xer, and that strikes a chord with that demographic (plus older Gen Ys who are starting to hit their 30s and fear what's ahead). And finding your voice and your audience is really what being a good comedian is all about.

 

[Hot Pocket]

Exactly. When he was a young Gen Xer, there were simply better comedians doing stuff for that age group.

David Cross and Bob Odenkirk's "Mr Show" for example, probably the best sketch show in history. Completely nailed the Gen X thing of making fun of everything in America at the time. Had spots form Sarah Silverman and Jack Black before they got more popular too.

Louis CK was big around the same time, but mostly in club shows in Boston and NYC. He really started to get popular when Gervais started including him in stuff, and with his direct download special. He definitely nails the 'ageing Gen X' voice though.

 

[Vic Vinegar]

Thread needs more Arj:

 

[stralia]

I think what makes CK as good as he is is the 'survival of the fittest' attitude he has used in developing his craft. He was really stagnating in the comedy scene until he started doing stuff like throwing out all his material every year and opening with his best stuff purely to force his weaker stuff to get better... To start a show with a bit about the words f****t, n****r and c** t, and have everyone in the place with you requires a degree of skill, hunger, talent and craftsmanship, only a small handful of folks on the planet currently possess.

And when you get to that level of stand up, to prefer one over than the other, is purely subjective.

 

[Hot Pocket]

Agreed. He's a master.

Starting that special with the "No jews" thing, and having it somehow not be offensive.... he's a genius.

Daniel Tosh is like the opposite. He's hilarious in his own way, but you can see (and he recognises and even draws attention to it) he hasn't put in the work to become a top line standup comic. Sometimes he finds himself getting unwanted attention for being too controversial, mostly because he stuffed up the delivery when handling a heckler.

 

[stralia]

I love Tosh. He has that raw, cringe factor CK knows how to tap dance his way over. If you've managed to offend me, and Tosh has gotten mighty close, I have to tip my hat to you.

 

[Hot Pocket]

I love Tosh. He has that raw, cringe factor CK knows how to tap dance his way over. If you've managed to offend me, and Tosh has gotten mighty close, I have to tip my hat to you.

Exactly. It shows the difference though between a great comedian, and a good comedian.

CK knows how to deliver his jokes so that you are completely on side with him no matter what he says, he makes it all sound so normal and self deprecating.

Tosh's comedy persona is like an SoCal American Ricky Gervais, annoying, arrogant and over confident. He cracks me the **** up but I understand why a lot of people don't like him - he's abrasive as ****.

 

[Smiling Buddha]

And finding your voice and your audience is really what being a good comedian is all about.

Could you elaborate on this?

 

[Caesar]

Well, like TheBrownDog was saying, often the comedians you like best are the ones whose humour really resonates with your own life circumstances. And comedians themselves have to speak from their own personality and experience. Dylan Moran is the quintessential mocking outsider - I can't imagine him being anywhere near as funny trying to do light, inane observations like Jerry Seinfeld.