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Standup Comedians - past, present, future


VigoTheCarpathian

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Meh...I've watched a lot of stand up over the years, and I dont know if I currently have a favorite or not, The earlier Chris Rock was awesome, and I could quote many of the lines verbatim ('pour some tussin' on it' etc.). His recent stuff as in Tambourine is a bit more introspective and not as laugh-out-loud, and thats ok.

Some of the 'white' comedians also tend to deal with more banal stuff IMO, and they're ok but not era-defining I'd say. I mean, Gaffigan - 'hot pockets', Seinfeld - 'what's the deal with airline peanuts' etc. etc. If you have to go that route then might as well go with Steve Martin/Martin Short. For a bit more edgy comedy there is Bill Burr, but he definitely needs to come with a warning.

Chapelle is (was?) of course great, and you have to love how he crafts his shows, but recently similar to Rock it seems to have descended into a criticism of 'woke culture', and some transphobia (although I cant tell if he is doing it in service of a joke or not).

So I guess my favorites are early Rock/early Chapelle/Steve Martin+Short/BIll Burr

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3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Yeah, that's spot on about Pryor (Carlin's stuff still has me dying most of the time though). Because of my age I had heard the routines of so many people he influenced before I heard any of his stuff, and it just seemed pretty mediocre and barely got much of a chuckle out of me, but I'm sure if I was alive back in his heyday I would have been laughing my ass off at a lot of his sets. I can totally respect his importance even if I don't really care to listen to his material (and it is possible I may not have heard his best stuff).

I’d agree with this 100% - Pryor is one of those groundbreakers, like Lenny Bruce, who you can see their fingerprints/influence all through the art, but their material just isn’t as relevant.  
 

Jeselnick and Mark Normand are great joke writers and their delivery/timing is so precise (the latter has a free special on Youtube called “Out to Lunch” that’s fantastic).  I don’t know that their material “sticks” as much with me like a Chapelle or Hicks.  Gaffigan had a theory he threw out on Birbiglia’s podcast that there are different standup archetypes (“the clown” and “the preacher” are the ones that kind of line up with these examples, I don’t remember the rest cited).

 

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Speaking of Jim Gaffigan. I made (what I hoped was) a humorous comment on one of his videos on You Tube. I know it's actually him because on his channel not only are there a lot of his best comedy bits, but since the 'rona he's been posting a lot of segments with him and his family.

Anyway, Gaffigan replied to my comment saying something like "funny!" and I felt like I had been given the best compliment in all my life.

 

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Right now, for me the best is Chappelle. Just no contest.

Then there are of course the all time greats like Carlin.

I'd throw in Tim Minchin, even if he seems to have quit comedy in order write/produce musicals. But I really did and still do enjoy his musical comedy shows.

I (surprisingly) also have a soft spot for a ruder/meaner kinda comedy, so I am also quite fond of Frankie Boyle in that regard.

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I'd definitely rank Chappelle up there, but I can't put him over Pryor or Carlin, and I think Izzard's best set is simply funnier than Chappelle's. 

I do have to disagree with this contention that Pryor and/or Carlin should be discounted simply because their material is too dated.  There's of course some truth to that, but for me a comedian actually making me laugh has as much to do with delivery as it does with the material.  After all, comedy, as the saying goes, is all about timing.  Otherwise we may as well just compare comedy writers rather than standup comedians - in which case I'd put Stewart and Colbert up there (both of which are obviously very talented and prolific writers, but don't have much of a CV when it comes to pure standup performances).  Tina Fey too.

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27 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Speaking of across the pond stand-up comedians, I havent seen too much of Ricky Gervais (just a few snippets). Going by his award show monologues, I imagine it would be funny, although not to everyone's liking.

 

 



James Acaster neatly summarising what kind of regard Pricky Ricky deserves to be held in.

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2 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Speaking of across the pond stand-up comedians, I havent seen too much of Ricky Gervais (just a few snippets). Going by his award show monologues, I imagine it would be funny, although not to everyone's liking.

This is an interesting case of stand up sets ageing from my personal perspective, I was in my early 20’s when The Office was big and me and my friends all loved it to pieces. So we were naturally enamoured with Gervais’ first set (Animals, I think). I watched it recently and I was shocked how average it was, he doesn’t appear confident at it and something about the style just seems … off. 

But then his more recent set (in particular the whole ‘why have babies cos they just die’ routine) had me in stitches. But I guess that’ll age like everything else.

Stand up does seem to age unlike anything else. It’s uniquely tied to the zeitgeist at the time I guess, and just can’t be as relevant years later. 

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On 8/28/2021 at 6:58 PM, Heartofice said:

Some of my favourite people on panel shows have very mixed records on stage. The recently deceased Sean Lock was an absolute genius on cats does countdown, but I really struggled with his stand up. I think that’s common. Phil Wang mentioned above was great on Taskmaster but his stand up is really weak. 

Yea that’s definitely true, I also assumed Sean Lock would be great but was a bit disappointed with Lockipedia (although as per the previous post, maybe 10 years is too long and his recent stuff is better?). I guess being funny in the moment and actually writing a good set are quite different skills.

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I mean I’ve always thought Gervais was a rubbish comedian. Never understood why people liked his standup. The Office is his magnum opus and he’s been riding off it ever since. Seeing him on round tables talking about being funny with genuine stand ups like Seinfeld ( ok bad example) is just embarrassing.

My first view of him was the 11 o clock show , which introduced the worlds to Ali G. He was awful on that. Awful. 
 

His awards speeches are fun , not because of any great jokes, but because he will say stuff nobody else will. That’s about it.

14 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

Yea that’s definitely true, I also assumed Sean Lock would be great but was a bit disappointed with Lockipedia (although as per the previous post, maybe 10 years is too long and his recent stuff is better?). I guess being funny in the moment and actually writing a good set are quite different skills.

I think Lock’s persona suited the panel show format far better than on stage. It’s much more subversive for him to do what he did than if he just said the same stuff at a live show. Probably true of a lot of people.

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Yeah, writing funny and being funny are completely different skill sets. Daisy May Cooper may be the prime example of this. This country is one of the funniest things I've ever seen but whenever I see her in person she is painfully shy. 

 

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Daisy May Cooper being shy is a revelation to me because my only experience of her is Taskmaster and she was dreadful on that because of being ridiculously overcompetitive and angry all the time.


Anyway yeah it is quite a weird phenomenon - that seems to be particularly strong in the UK, probably because panel shows have become unusually prevalent compared to other countries, but there isn't a grassroots path to being on them- that stand-ups, panel show members, sitcom writers and performers and sketch-show creators all seem to be the same people.

 

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