Stand-Up Comedy

[StoutAndAle]

Following on from a digression in the books thread...

I've always been a fan of stand-up comedy or anyone who could make me laugh. There's something intriguing about the art form. Its creators sometimes have the darkness of musicians. The legends we all know Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfeld, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Billy Connolly, Robert Klein, Jasper Carrott etc.

Currently (for my money at any rate) a lot of the best in the game are from the US. Doug Stanhope, Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle are probably the 3 best comedians in the world right now. John Mulaney makes it look almost effortless, the natural successor to Seinfeld. Marc Maron has found a groove over the last 10 years that has made his shows grow from early bile spitting events with humour thrown in into fully formed hours. Ali Wong's "Baby Cobra" special on Netflix is incredible.

That's not to say that the Ireland/UK/Elsewhere doesn't have a decent crop of talent. Stewart Lee is always funny. I've really enjoyed James Acaster the last few times that I've seen him. There's a Scottish called Stephen Carlin who I think is pretty great, low-key but really clever. Henning Wehn is a German ex-pat living in the UK, some of his stuff is hilarious.

I caught Tommy Tiernan doing a warm-up show in a small comedy club here in Cork just before the lockdown. After watching his excellent RTE talk-show, I decided that I wanted to see him once more. I hadn't gone to one of his shows in a long time. He was testing out new material before going on a theatre tour which was subsequently cancelled. Being honest about it, after his earlier stuff I thought that he'd gotten lazy and just resorted to roaring and swearing for extended periods. In an intimate room with the crowd almost up on top him them he has a different approach and just did his new act, proving that he's still capable of generating electricity when he feels like it.

Any recommendations, opinions etc. I'd be glad to hear them.

[Emphyrio]

I used enjoy Stand-Up when I was much younger til Paramount used show every Tom, Dick and Mary and have only come across stuff channel hopping the last while, most of it not my thing. Back in the day, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Denis Leary did it for me. Chris Rock was very funny in his early days but I could take or leave him these days.

If anyone has rec, I'd appreciate it too. If stuff happens to be on youtube a link would be nice n handy too.

[StoutAndAle]

Can't believe that I forgot Chris Rock, that "Bring The Pain" hour was deadly.


"Killin' Them Softly" by Dave Chappelle;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FclScfPoKes

Bill Burr - "Let It Go";

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCJDLgQ6xFk

Doug Stanhope - "Beer Hall Putsch";

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQJ-CnXv4p4

[Eoin McLove]

Leo Kearse is gas.

[lifeeternal]

Jim Jeffries, Bill Hicks, Dylan Moran, Billy Connolly, George Carlin and Eddie Izzard would be my go to guys

[Carnage]

Louis CK, Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura, Bill Burr, David Cross, Jim Gaffigan, Anthony Jeselnik - big fan of those.

I saw a chap called Tommy Nicholson from Navan years ago who nearly killed me, he was hilarious. He was supporting Steve Hughes in Galway, I've never heard of him before or since.

[Pedrito]

Comedy Unleashed on youtube has some good anti-PC stuff. Totally the opposite of the kind of muck that seems to pass for comedy on the likes of BBC and ITV these days.

Will Franken here is good craic

https://youtu.be/golAjKMDuVk

David McSavage set up a while ago on Instagram and he's still his usual nasty/charming self.

Love Bill Burr aswell, I'll post others if I think of them.

Stay away from Joe Rogan(about as funny as cancer). His friend Whitney Cummings and a bunch of others he's mates with are frighteningly unfunny too.

Bill Hicks was great in his time. It's like anything. He started it, we got a million copycats and now it just looks cliché.

[Ollkiller]

The Bill Burr rant at a crowd in Philadelphia is just fantastic. Crowd booed everyone that day and he just let rip. First 2 mins of vid is just audio then the video kicks in.

https://youtu.be/bWuXfIZiSqY

[ldj]

Stay away from Joe Rogan(about as funny as cancer). His friend Whitney Cummings and a bunch of others he's mates with are frighteningly unfunny too.

I was going to say the same thing, I gave his podcast a go but he doesn't even seem to understand when someone is making a joke. Someone will say something ridiculous that's obviously a set up for a joke or a bit and he'll just go 'Well technically that isn't true...' or something , it's like how can you not understand they were setting something up you're supposed to be a comedian  .

[Pedrito]

His podcasts are fine, it's the stand up..he packs stadiums with the unfunniest shite you'll ever hear.

[DeletedUsermNqGIiIuGy]

I liked Joe Rogans Shiny Happy Jihad, Talking Monkeys in Space and Live from the Tabernacle specials.. silly shit like. The later ones missed the mark a lot. I actually got to see him in LA twice in the last two years and he was funny as hell. A lot of the that crowd I find very unfunny in their specials but much funnier in certain pairings on podcasts etc.  Like Bryan Callen and Chris Delia's specials are fucking dog shit.. but two of them together are fucking hilarious to me.
Then there's the like of Brendan Shhuaaaab who's about as funny as a nail in the japs eye.

I'd say most of these have been mentioned but some of my favourites
Richard Prior - here and now
Eddie Murphy - Raw/Delerious
Chris Rock - Bring the pain / Bigger & Blacker
Dave Chappelle - Killing them softly / for what its worth
Bill Hicks -  Relentless / Revelations
Bill Burr - Let it go / You People Are All the Same

Those are ones I could go back and watch over and over.  There are others but not a whole lot lately hit me as much as those ones did. Anthony Jeselnik has some great stuff, I like his delivery. Saw Tom Papa in LA also, I was sore coming out was so hilarious.

The bill burr philli rant is legendary... no better guy for it.

[Eoin McLove]

Yeah, his podcasts are great because of the sheer variety of interviewees. He has learned how to be a listener too, which means he'll interview someone fascinating and just let them speak for five minutes straight without a word. The fact that he's not an expert on many of the issues he'll tackle works in his favour too.  He can ask obvious questions and get you off to a decent understanding of the topic at hand. His stand up is dogshite, though.  Really,  really bad.

Comedy Unleashed is where I saw Kearse in fact.  That seems to be the last bulwark against bland predictable woke comedy that seems to rule the roost.

[DeletedUsermNqGIiIuGy]

He'd get a 'twitter crucifixion' if he released this one these days but this bit had me crying when I first saw it. Funny and true how guys can be about this stuff and it actually causing issue later in life.. but how he delivers it every time cracks me up 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmTgpsvkqt8&t=7s

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

From the ones mentioned so far, the majority would go in the "I used to find them funny" category, which is the conversation this spilled over from. Bill Burr is fairly in a league of his own though, just a natural (as in, not forced) performer, who doesn't spoon feed his jokes and bares enough of his own foibles to get him away with saying just about anything about anyone else. Stewart Lee is also in a league of his own, and doing a weird thing which seems to be slowly and pain-stakingly working his way towards a single, unique perfect meta stand-up show. The upshot of this is that if you're in for the ride, you can appreciate that perfection as it comes along, and you get a few new bits with each iteration, but the downshot is that what is repetition can start to feel really heavy because what he's repeating is so unusual and, well, pointedly heavy in places. Still though, 95% of comedians wouldn't even be able to imagine the idea of what he tries to do, let alone attempt it.

Only a couple of names I'm not familiar with here, look forward to checking them out. I do love stand-up, and it's class happening upon a winner for the first time!

[Carnage]

The Bill Burr rant at a crowd in Philadelphia is just fantastic. Crowd booed everyone that day and he just let rip. First 2 mins of vid is just audio then the video kicks in.

https://youtu.be/bWuXfIZiSqY

Brilliant.