I've got a million more, but I can't believe I forgot Kyle Kinane. He combines eloquent absurdity with sharp observation; his best bits are super tight, and even his sloppiest ones are just...smart.
Yes. This man is rapier-sharp, and takes shit from nobody. There are 12 people at this show and everyone is pissing their pants.
Most of my favorite comedians have been mentioned, but I'll toss out one of my female favorites: Iliza Shlesinger. I guess she won Last Comic Standing, but I found out about her when she came to the comedy club up the street. She is hilarious and the fact that she is a total dime doesn't hurt. She is just super dry and all of a sudden goes on great little rants. Boarding Zone 4...you can go fuck yourself Also, Nick Kroll. His recent Comedy Central special was both amazing and bad. His weird characters, with the exception of some of Bobby BottleService, were bad, but his actual stand up was hysterical. His bits about drunk packing for trips and why cats suck had me in stitches.
Jim fucking Jeffries. Frankie Boyle is a recent addition of mine: Doug Stanhope, Lewis Black, and Anthony Jesuslzjoijadsik are all fucking stellar as well.
I was able to go see Richard Pryor at a small venue right after he had set himself on fire. It was probably the hardest and longest I have laughed in my life. His timing was perfect and the cussing was used to help deliver a joke rather than just shock the audience. I thought Steve Martin was pretty fun back in the day. He performed a pretty clean show and just was a complete goofball. I got to see John Belushi perform about 6 months before he died. The show did not go very well, it was a pretty maniacle show. Standup really was not his gig. The present day comedians I think are all pretty decent. They certainly are a lot more professional than back in the 70s and 80s. Unfortunatly, now the comedians I get to go see are ones that appeal to my twin boys, so that means Jeff Dunham.
I'm old...school. One of the funniest performances I've ever seen was Buddy Hackett that HBO aired, back in HBO's early days (when there was just one HBO channel. Really. There used to be just one!) Don Rickles, Bob Newhart (the absurd phone calls were brilliant, though we saw him about a year ago and it was pretty disappointing). Can't stand Emo Philips and Andrew "Douche" Clay.
Doug Stanhope gets my nomination for greatest living stand-up. Perfect pacing (his swaying-drunk shtick makes his comic timing seem shockingly good - either it's an act or he's just really, really seasoned), expansive verbal ability (without being a smug asshole like Dennis Miller), and a penchant for clever, well-thought-out social commentary (without predictable rightiness or leftiness). Yeah, Stanhope's my #1 pick. I'll also defend Bill Hicks. I can relate to the angry, socially inept outsider who's fed up with conformity and mediocrity, and he was as hard on himself as on anyone. Like Chris Rock, he really put his ass on the line, just performing the hell out of every bit with total passion and conviction. He's known for antagonizing his audiences (which he didn't really start doing obsessively until after he knew he was dying of cancer), and maybe you don't think that's cool, but admit this much: As heckler rebuttals go, it rarely gets better than "you should have been a blowjob." If he's overrated, it's because he's dead, which isn't really his fault. I think it would have been interesting to watch him get older and change his perspective. Paul F. Tompkins is another verbally brilliant guy who doesn't tell jokes as much as long, complex personal anecdotes. Which is a lot harder than it sounds, at least until you've tried one of your hilarious drunk stories, the one that killed at the office party, at an open mic. His stereotypical upper-class characters, in particular, are retarded genius. He's also the only guy who can crack himself up on stage without being utterly obnoxious. I've seen women kill. At the very least, don't lump a weirdo like Maria Bamford in with the Kathy Griffins of the world. Saying all female comics are screeching PMS queens is like saying all male comics are nerdy, underlaid greaseballs: not ENTIRELY true. Anti-Focus: David Cross is a douchey, condescending idealogue, which would be fine if his stand-up had ever made me laugh once. (He's OK on TV.) Maybe I haven't seen his best stuff, but Demetri Martin has always struck me as a Wes Anderson character made flesh. Way, way too ironic and precious. Cook and Mencia are shameless hacks, but they're good performers who worked hard to become the scourges of comedy.
Do you mind posting a video of him that you consider very funny? I'm one of the haters, but admittedly I've only seen clips of him berating berating salesmen and poor music taste in links sent by hippies with the message "you have to see this, so true." I find myself saying "Ok, I agree with him, but he's not funny in the least." Are there any clips of him actually being funny or is his schtick getting people riled up over music and being angry at 'the man'?
Best quality clip I could find. Amy Schumer is hillarious though. Probably because she tells jokes like a guy. Apparently she was on Last Comic too, but I only found out about her through O & A.
Focus: Pablo Francisco. I've been a fan ever since his 2000 Comedy Central Presents special. I also think Gabriel Iglesias is pretty damn funny too
Someone already mentioned Joe Rogan and I'll second that. The guy is usually stoned into low orbit but is funny as hell. This is the funniest thing I've seen in awhile:
I really like Bill Hicks, he had a lot of great bits that he'd honed and was a hell of a comedian. He's over rated only because his anti-conformist views attract the worst hipster douches into endless raving about him. I don't think he would have "changed" for the better as he aged Im pretty sure his misanthropy would have gone off the deep end during the Bush jr. years. He wanted to move to TV and pitched a "Politically Incorrect" style show years before Bill Maher did. Im pretty sure he would have blown Maher out of the water. Maher was semi-decent early in his career, I think he's a complete hack who relies solely on jokes that pander to a single crowd, much like people criticize the Blue Collar Comedy Tour for, but to the pseudo intellectuals on the other side of the spectrum. I think you are spot on with the description of David Cross, except Id give him much more credit for his TV material. You can tell his whole anti-conformist persona was largely influenced by Hick's. Which is why I think it's hilarious he scoffed off his fans when they flamed him for doing The Alvin and The Chipmunks garbage. I, or anybody else, wouldn't fault someone for taking a payday IF they hadnt spent their whole career raging against sell outs who produce garbage just for the money. Have to give him credit, Mr Show is probably one of the best skit shows of all time, and his role on Arrested Development was great.* As far as taking on hecklers, my all time favorite was the 10 minute Bill Burr vs. the people of Philly rant that's been linked here before. "Fuck the Liberty Bell, shove it up Ben Franklin's ass, what do you think about that?" Haven't seen much of his stand up bit his podcast is pretty funny. * I think it was funny that he had to backtrack on his James Lipton is a douche skit after he worked with him on AD and found out the dude is really a genuine guy.
"High as giraffe pussy" is how Joe described it once. I'm a fan of Joe Rogan as well, especially for calling out d-bags like Carlos Menstealia. My current favorite is Louis CK. I love his take on life, kids, marriage, etc. I love this particular bit.