Favourite Stand-Up Comedians

If I was going to see a stand-up comedian live, and they could be dead, I would choose Frankie Howerd, not because he's the funniest, but I think he would have most chance of holding an audience's attention for an hour and a half. He probably is the funniest anyway.

Never heard of Peter Kay.

OK. Peter Kay. He's the first in ages that I'm genuinely thrilled to be going to see, especially if he's half as good as the Top of The Tower vid the wife bought me two Christmases ago. I was dragged to see Harry Hill at Hackney Empire pre: fruit fancies, having never heard of him before and he was ace. I appreciate Bill Hicks' talent but I'd still rather see PK. Which is just as well under the circumstances. I'd also like to take this opportunity to declare my undying hatred of Mark Lamarr.

Ben Elton - it seems almost inconceivable (heh) now - was good once. He got his style down in the mid-late 80s so that he was weaving lots of strands together, and was pretty consistently OTM. He was still technically good five years later but the material was gone. Now Tarbuck is funnier.

Lee & Herring possibly better as On The Hour scriptwriters than performers, but you gotta love the daft BBC2 shows.

I never saw Alexei Sayle live, but I suspect he was a God in 80-81. Like Tony Morley.

I haven't bothered with live comedy in about 10 years. It's all a bit prosaic and depressing, isn't it? And when it's not that, it's kitchen-sink surrealism. (I'm not sure what I mean by that, but I don't think I like the Boosh).

All this talk of Mr Kay (who I like) reminds me of: Phil Kaye. Whatever happened to him? I thought he was quite good.

One final thought: Norman Collier.

The only person I've actually seen live in a club who's made me laugh was Mary Lynn Rajskub.

"To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With" = a pinnacle of Western civilization.

Rip Torn?

Ooh, you've reminded me of Peter Baynham's in-character stuff on that show as Peter The Welsh Virgin...

"...Today's recipe is for fizzy curryade. What you do is get all the remaining juice at the bottom of curry takeaway foil trays, pour it into a glass, and then put a straw into it and blow a lot to make it bubbly, and then drink it. Fizzy curryade."

Bob Carolgees stayed up all night comforting Spit the Dog when John Major's Dangerous Dogs law was introduced.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Peter Kay's popularity has extended outside the North West, I wasn't sure how it would go down with Southern Jessies. But anyone who wants to "do for Bolton what Woody Allen did for Manhattan" is God in my book.

As for holding the audience's attention - surely the master is Ken Dodd. He plays Springsteen-like marathon sets and the laughs only start to dry up at the three-hour mark (which is when he jumps into his Bentley and hits the M62 for a late show in Eccles). So says my Dad.

I'd love to see a video compilation of all the comedians Bob Monkhouse and Des O'Connor had on their chat shows in the early 80s; I mean, they probably weren't *all* as good as Kelly Monteith, but I bet there are some forgotten gems in there, now working the cruise ships or script editing on My Two Dads - Ten Years On.

I wish I'd seen Dave Allen though; everyone I've heard see him says he is fantastic.

I've not seen the Mighty Boosh, but Noel solo was very funny.

Dave Gorman is remarkable in that he can be very funny without any actual jokes.

Other hilarity comes from Eddie Izzard, Jack Dee and... Well, I really should be able to think of someone else, because things are funnier in threes, but my mind has gone blank.

Peter Kay sucks donkeydong

To whoever asked, Phil Kaye is still around, he did the comedy tent at Reading this year.

I found a Rodney Dangerfield cassette in a drawer when I started one job, and kept it. It's sexist old stuff, but he cracks enormous numbers of jokes, and lots are funny, and he delivers them very well, and he has a very well-defined comedy persona. Is he popular in America, or seen as feeble and outmoded, or what?

We don't get much American stand-up over here - I've only ever seen one Woody Allen routine, for instance.

Brilliant WFMU article on Shecky Greene

My Friars Club pal just posted photos on FB from a recent lunch w/ Shecky Greene (Jackie the Joke Man also at the table). Shecky was "on" for hours, apparently.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/04/22/friars-roast-burned-gilbert-gottfrieds-dirtiest-joke-ever-sends-legend-shecky-greene-out-the-door

When is Shecky Greene ever not "on".

he's about 88, i thought he got tired mebbe

I'm going to keep an eye out for Joe Pera from now on

http://www.vulture.com/2016/05/joe-pera-performs-stand-up-on-late-night-kills.html

http://www.hulu.com/watch/941239

Rory Scovel is a new fave. Pretty brilliant.

Shalewa's the reason I moved to Atlanta (she got me my first job here). She lives in NYC now and her album's about to come out. Here's the titular bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lo_QUo9wzc

Loved Ali Wong's netflix special

My favourite? None of them

The leader of the Labour party taking his cues on racism from a comedian who performed in Blackface in the 90s https://t.co/IIWgjZU0oN pic.twitter.com/W3CcICkSTJ

— black lives matter (@jrc1921) November 16, 2021

YT keeps throwing Randy Feltface at me, 'tis good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2px8F_zDyg

having some challenge with the over-use of smart-ass crowd work that i see online lately - has gotten super old for me

just started in on the James Acaster specials on Netflix, holy hell this guy is amazing. he's like Carlin and Seinfeld and Mitch Hedburg all in one. only on the first one but the way he changes the entire performance into being about him being undercover is really incredible

Love him, still haven't watched all of those since my partner does not like him for some reason.

Saw two totally amazing stand-up performances recently, for completely opposite reasons - Sheng Wang and Moshe Kasher.

(Sheng Wang is extremely Hedbergian and composed, in fact it was kind of a shock whenever he said something that veered off his well-crafted material, and Kasher is just a ridiculously quick-witted improviser who can do a whole set off crowd work, even though his material is great too)

new dave attell on netflix made me laugh. how can someone who looks so sleepy be so quick?

glad he's still around, there were times when I almost wondered if he passed because I just never heard about him anymore despite the fact that he seemed to be really popular for a while. I get why Dane Cook fizzled out (not funny) but Dave at least seems like a guy who should be getting consistent voice work. like how is he not in Bojack Horseman or something

ah, sheng wang is the dude with the Costco fashion routine!