Favourite Comics

[alantig]

Since I just bought tickets this morning to see him again...Craig Ferguson.

Best known here for hosting "The Late Late Show" for 10 years and as Drew Carey's boss on "The Drew Carey Show", he's been a standup for decades.

He used to bring characters from the show on tour with him. Here's a bit he used to close with...

He's got a taste for the absurd, like a character he used to open TLLS with on occasion...

That doesn't even get into Secretariat, Geoff Peterson the talking robot skeleton, the phone calls...

And he wasn't afraid to get serious, either - he did monologues after his mother and father died that were just heart-wrenching. Being a recovering alcoholic, he did a monologue when Britney Spears was having her meltdown about why he wasn't going to make jokes about her any more. For my money, he was the best late night talk show host since Carson - he made people who you wouldn't think would be interesting very compelling. He didn't care about doing the promotion schtick (typical question...typical question..."So I understand you have a movie...") - he had conversations with people. His interview with Desmond Tutu was classic TV.

He was a drummer in a punk band with Peter Capaldi, the 12 Doctor.

So, for my buddy geese...

 

[alantig]

Bill Hicks. One of my all-time favorites, and another that I can't post too many clips of because they're NSFW.

Hicks was such a special mix - he could go from silly pun-related jokes to confronting the audience to ranting about the power structures that be.

Big music fan, especially hard rock. He had a killer bit about Tiffany and Debbie Gibson - well, let's just say he wasn't a fan, and the bit involved Jimi Hendrix doing very NC-17 to them. He had some very funny stuff about the Judas Priest lawsuit ("What entertainer tries to kill off their audience?"). His JFK assassination bit is one of my favorite, as is his advertising stuff. Later in his career, he really veered off into some wild conspiracy stuff, but he was still funny.

His album "Arizona Bay" is pretty close to a masterpiece. Comedy bits interspersed with original music. Lots of stuff about the Rodney King trial and the LA riots - Hicks had flown out of LA before the riots and landed in London afterwards, and saw the news at a newsstand ("Did I leave a burner on?").

Hicks was a frequent guest on Letterman's show, a relationship that ended badly when Hicks filmed his final appearance, approved by CBS, only to have it mysteriously pulled from broadcast. The official story is that it wasn't approved, but the speculation was that it offended a sponsor. Hicks died of cancer months after the incident, and years later Letterman had his mother on, apologized and showed the bit.

Seeing his mother always gives me a chuckle because of a bit of his about how much porn he had and what would happen if he died suddenly and his parents had to clean his apartment. "Oh, look at my baby. Look at him in his little Cub Scout uniform. What's in this box over here?"

As I mentioned, Hicks died of cancer in 1994. He was pretty well unknown in the US - as much of a fan as I was and still am, it was months before I heard about it. The story is that he said his goodbyes to his family, and didn't speak for the last two weeks of his life because he felt he'd said what he had to say.

Another guy I miss terribly.

 

[alantig]

Rowan Atkinson. Best known as an actor, but he's done some wicked standup/skit stuff. Able to do so much without a word.

Mildly NSFW, so watch your volume (lots of double entendre).

And a little music to take us out...

 

[alantig]

Today's entry is Don Rickles, you hockey pucks. THE insult comedian. He poked fun at people, but never mean spiritedly. Best friends with Bob Newhart (go figure), great friends with Frank Sinatra. Sinatra did the Tonight Show in 1976, and Rickles made a surprise appearance, which led to Frank telling this classic story (FWIW, when Sinatra died, NBC fed this show on satellite - I lucked into it and recorded it then).

Rickles was a frequent Tonight Show guest. During one of his appearances - with Newhart as guest host - he broke Carson's cigarette box, which led to a classic late night moment.

Rickles was, understandably, a fixture on Dean Martin's roasts in the 1970s. There are a ton of these on YouTube.

 

[phillybri]

Bill Hicks. One of my all-time favorites, and another that I can't post too many clips of because they're NSFW.

Hicks was such a special mix - he could go from silly pun-related jokes to confronting the audience to ranting about the power structures that be.

Big music fan, especially hard rock. He had a killer bit about Tiffany and Debbie Gibson - well, let's just say he wasn't a fan, and the bit involved Jimi Hendrix doing very NC-17 to them. He had some very funny stuff about the Judas Priest lawsuit ("What entertainer tries to kill off their audience?"). His JFK assassination bit is one of my favorite, as is his advertising stuff. Later in his career, he really veered off into some wild conspiracy stuff, but he was still funny.

His album "Arizona Bay" is pretty close to a masterpiece. Comedy bits interspersed with original music. Lots of stuff about the Rodney King trial and the LA riots - Hicks had flown out of LA before the riots and landed in London afterwards, and saw the news at a newsstand ("Did I leave a burner on?").

Hicks was a frequent guest on Letterman's show, a relationship that ended badly when Hicks filmed his final appearance, approved by CBS, only to have it mysteriously pulled from broadcast. The official story is that it wasn't approved, but the speculation was that it offended a sponsor. Hicks died of cancer months after the incident, and years later Letterman had his mother on, apologized and showed the bit.

Seeing his mother always gives me a chuckle because of a bit of his about how much porn he had and what would happen if he died suddenly and his parents had to clean his apartment. "Oh, look at my baby. Look at him in his little Cub Scout uniform. What's in this box over here?"

As I mentioned, Hicks died of cancer in 1994. He was pretty well unknown in the US - as much of a fan as I was and still am, it was months before I heard about it. The story is that he said his goodbyes to his family, and didn't speak for the last two weeks of his life because he felt he'd said what he had to say.

Another guy I miss terribly.

You are killing it on this thread...Thanks atlantig!

 

[alantig]

Thanks, Brian - it's probably becoming apparent how I got to be this way! (It'll get more obvious...)

Lewis Black. If you look up the words "rant" or "exasperated", there should just be a picture of Lew. Lew can go from zero to raving in about .6 seconds. And, like some guitars mentioned here, he's a Maryland product.

He's also a playwright and has a handful of books out. Numerous albums and standup specials, and countless appearances on the Daily Show. He's lasted from the Craig Kilborn years, through Jon Stewart's era, and has continued in the Trevor Noah period. And he gave us the phrase "moo-cow f*ck milk".

All of these will be somewhat NSFW for language.

Talking about the White House Correspondents' Dinner - a nice bit about his parents (who I believe are still living).

The mere concept of this story is funny enough...Lew follows Vince Gill and Amy Grant onstage.

I'll finish this with an earlier bit that I loved that paid off twice. This is a bit about a Starbucks across from a Starbucks.

The second payoff came while watching Shrek 2. In the land of Far Far Away was a Farbucks. And across the street from the Farbucks was...another Farbucks. Somebody involved in that movie must be a Lew fan.

 

[alantig]

Missed a couple days, so it's a threefer hump day.

Richard Jeni. Another guy who should have been better known. Well-known among comedians. Actually, a bit of a legend among comedians - other comics were said to be in awe of what he could do onstage. There's one story about him having a show added somewhat last minute, so he ended up having to do two full headline sets back to back one night. He did two completely different shows, which is unheard of.

A classic football bit...

A Tonight Show bit about "Jaws: The Revenge".

His Young Comedians appearance:

 

[alantig]

Craig Shoemaker. The Lovemaster. Does some great voices - if you've seen the movie "Pleasantville", he did some of Don Knotts's dialogue.

I found out a few years ago that I've been following him almost since his career began. We first saw him on the first Comic Relief special - I didn't realize he'd only been doing standup for a few years at that point. He's a Philly guy, but he went to college near to me, so he's familiar with this area. Which led to a funny story - he was driving around with his opener, and they passed a sign for the town where I live, North Versailles. To most of the world, that second part is pronounce "Ver-sigh", which is how the opener said it. But around here, it's "Ver-sales", which is what Craig said. So they argued about it for a few minutes, then Craig pulled over to the first business he found, went in with the opener, went to the counter and said to the guy, "Would you please tell this idiot where we are? And please, speak slowly so this moron can understand you." He said the guy turned to the opener and said, "Bur...ger...King."

He was the announcer on Magic Johnson's talk show. It didn't go well.

Talking about Mayberry:

The Lovemaster:

 

[alantig]

Rodney Dangerfield. A true legend. A guy who got into comedy later in life. Fabulous on the Tonight Show, and usually the butt of his own jokes. His movie career got hot in the 80s, when he really took off in the mainstream after appearing in some Miller Lite commercials (one of the commercials even popped up in one of his movies). He also helped give a lot of comedians their break. He hosted HBO's Ninth Annual Young Comedians special, which never gets replayed these days, but was THE gold standard of that series - Richie Gold, Bob Nelson, Louie Anderson, Bob Saget, Rita Rudner, Yakov Smirnoff and most famously, Sam Kinison.

You're a legend when everyone has an impersonation of you. Even if you get no respect.

A Tonight Show compilation...

Possibly his most classic movie appearance - Caddyshack.

 

[alantig]

Gilbert Gottfried. My lord, how I love this guy's stuff. He's so off the wall at time, you hardly know where he's going. And talk about a varied career - the former Afflac duck, the parrot in Aladdin, one of the most popular roasters on the Comedy Central roasts. I loved when he did Dracula Gottfried on the Howard Stern show years and years ago.

The first time I saw him in person was over 20 years ago - I thought I was having a stroke because my head hurt so much from laughing. He did a bit where he heckled himself that had me in tears. And, of course, he did his Andrew Dice Clay impersonation (does anyone else do one?). I finally got to see him again in the last year or so, and he was just as funny this time around (more on a bit of that later).

He's had three career moments that have gotten a fair bit of mainstream notice. First up was his appearance at the Hugh Hefner roast. This roast took place in New York about a couple weeks or so after 9/11 - one of the first events after. Gilbert got up and told...airplane jokes. They got a very mixed reaction, which moved towards the negative side. At that point, Gilbert broke out the Aristocrats joke. Up until that point, that joke was mostly known by and told to comedians - hardly ever told in public. It destroyed the room. Rob Schneider was literally on the floor during the joke. It's far too filthy to link to here.

He's been a hit on every roast he's done - his bit on Saget was classic (and not appropriate for here). At another roast, he served as Marlee Matlin's translator. Well worth checking out if you can find them.

The second was when the tsunami hit Japan a few years ago. Gilbert tweeted a few jokes about it, someone complained, and because Afflac does most of its business in Japan, he lost his job as the Afflac duck. This is where the second time I saw him comes back - at that show, he talked about being in NY when hurricane Sandy hit. He said he and his family watched the storm move in, watched as the power outages gradually moved towards their building and they finally lost power. He said a few minutes after the power went out, the phone rang. He said he picked it up and it was the prime minister of Japan, who said, "Not so f***ing funny now, is it?" Totally dropped me.

Back to the third in a bit.

Gilbert has a very popular podcast. He's like an old pop culture savant - he's got a surreal ability to recall details, theme songs, names, roles of all kinds of obscure movies and TV shows.

This is one of my favorite Gilbert bits - the land of the three-named people.

Now, for the third mainstream story, and the most recent. I mentioned that Gilbert was the voice of the parrot in Aladdin. There's a kid (well, adult now) named Owen Suskind - Owen has autism and was basically uncommunicative until he started reciting lines from Disney movies, especially Aladdin. It's an awesome story.

 

[alantig]

Steven Wright - 11top already mentioned him, but I avoided him because I knew I was going to see him live tonight. I saw him 30 years ago in VA, and he was just as funny tonight as he was then, He has such a wonderfully dry delivery, reportedly developed because he was worried about forgetting his jokes onstage. As if that wasn't enough, he's got such a bizarre outlook on life. And it's pretty much impossible to remember all the prime stuff - there were at least 10 lines I wanted to remember and use as quotes tonight, and they pretty much all disappeared.

One of my favorite lines, that I use a fair bit - and my wife does as well, at least with me - is "My friend has a trophy wife. Apparently, it wasn't first place."

An edited version of his first national TV appearance...

Another appearance...

And he sings the occasional song...

 

[alantig]

Missed a few days because of soccer, Ghost, and just some fatigue. So, catching up...

Larry Reeb - ol' Uncle Lar - is what Billy Gardell calls a road dog, a guy who's been slugging it out in the clubs for years. I've heard him on the radio numerous times, seen him on TV a few, but I've only had the pleasure of seeing him live once or twice. Very funny, very twisted. And with a great delivery. Never afraid to point out the bizarre underbelly. As Uncle Lar puts it, "It's a sick world, and I'm a happy guy."

Smile for the milk carton...

 

[alantig]

John Fox, a comedian's comedian. Another guy who was legendary among comedians, partly because he was known for leaving the condos some clubs have for comedians in rather nasty condition after he left.

Slightly NSFW...

Longer version of that set, much more NSFW...

A guy walks into a bar...

He also told two of my favorite magician jokes ever, and they get replayed a lot on Bob and Tom, but I can't find them to post here. If I do, I'll add them.

Sadly, John was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer and died in 2012 at age 59. Way too soon. But not before making a plea to men to get screened. So get screened.

 

[alantig]

Doubling up again to catch up for the days I missed...today will be an 11top twofer, since he mentioned these guys.

First up, the legendary Jonathan Winters. What really needs to be said about this man - he poured a painful life into an incredible comedy career. There was no one who careened from character to character like he did, with the possible exception of Robin Williams, but Robin didn't really do repeat characters, like Aunt Blabby.

Painful life? Good lord, the stories he told about his parents, especially later in life. He did a classic interview on Marc Maron's podcast, where he talked about how they treated him. After high school, he joined the Army. When he came back, he went to get some toy cars that he liked playing with, and couldn't find them. He asked his mother where they were, and she told him they sold them. He asked why, and she said, "How did we know you'd come back?" The interview is long, but well worth the listen. He talked about his time in a mental institution as well.

But it's the funny he's known for.

 

[alantig]

And Jonathan Winters begat Robin Williams. I still can't believe this guy isn't around any more.

He's been a presence since I saw him on Happy Days, when they debuted the Mork character, which led to his breakout spinoff, Mork & Mindy. Garry Marshall said one of the best career decisions he ever made was dedicating a cameraman to follow Robin on Mork because he couldn't be contained by the standard three-camera shoot. It was said back then that the scripts were rather short for a TV show - Robin's scenes would consist of basically "this is how it starts" and "this is how it ends", and he was left to his own devices. And in the final season, Jonathan Winters played Mork and Mindy's child.

His standup career was already growing, but his movie career blossomed big-time after Mork - "The World According To Garp", "Good Morning Vietnam", "Moscow On The Hudson", "The Survivors". That was just a warmup. And he wasn't just a comic actor, he was great in dramatic roles, too - "Dead Poets Society", "Awakenings", "The Fisher King", and an Oscar for "Good Will Hunting". And that still leaves us 20 years ago. "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Night At The Museum", "Aladdin", and so, so many more.

He did a final TV role on "The Crazy Ones", which was cancelled after only one season. It felt like it was finally starting to hit its stride towards the end of the season, and the end of show bloopers were always a highlight. And the show gave us a Pam Dawber reunion.

His standup was incredible. Not only the ability to shift characters on a dime, but also his ability to spin longer bits as well. He was also a huge humanitarian - he was one of the hosts for Comic Relief, a periodic homeless benefit show that featured comedians. And the show had some great appearances and classic moments, but year after year, the highlight was Robin and Billy Crystal improvising.