Dude, I've read your posts for a long time, and I'm well aware of your biases when it comes to popular culture. I say without an ounce of malice, but with complete confidence, that you are the very last person here who I would expect to appreciate the videos I posted. But perhaps it would be more constructive if, instead of inexplicably stamping your feet about the post like a petulant child, you just post your own videos and let everyone else do as they will. How would that be? Could we muster that degree of civility? So you know, all three of them headline. Everywhere. They all sell seats. Everywhere. So if you're in the minority when it comes whether or not these women are funny, it might help if you (and everyone else) takes that assessment with a grain of salt in light of your own wildly obvious prejudices.
That's true, up to a point. However, this is a forum, not a link dump, so if someone makes three posts in a row singing the praises of Dane Cook and Margaret Cho, it's not out of line for there to be a response. I almost never criticize others' tastes in these types of threads...and I have disliked about half the comedians posted in this topic. However, at least those were professionals, with some ounce of humor. The three acts you posted were so terrible, even among female comedians (freaking Roseanne Barr is several levels higher than any of them), that I thought you were just fucking with us, and/or making a point about how much female stand-ups suck. This is bullshit on several levels, and you know it. Firstly, a comedian does not need to be liked by the majority of fans, or even a significant percentage to sell out a goddamn small cub. Hell, some of the most popular comedians ever, that sold out freaking stadiums were disliked by the majority of people that saw them. Secondly, I looked it up, and with the exception of Maria Bamford (who I have actually heard of before), the other two are really small-time, meager comedians eking out a living on the road. Third, and most importantly, NONE OF THAT SHIT FUCKING MATTERS. A comedian is good or bad independently of how much money he or she makes. Dane Cook and Andrew Dice Clay were not ever master comedians just because they sold out giant stadiums, and similarly, there are a lot of small-time guys who are awesome without ever hitting it big.
Who? Kilgariff is a writer/comedian with something like three TV shows under her belt, including Mr. Show. She's pretty much LA-based, so I don't know where you get that whole "on the road" business, but whatever. The point is, she's been around forever, is well-respected and has headlined. Notaro has been headlining for roughly a decade. She has a weekly show at Largo, and I've SEEN her announced as a headliner at clubs in New York. Hardly small time. Hardly meager. Who said a thing about money? I said they headline, and they do. I think if you actually had the slightest idea what it takes to get to that level, to actually warrant a club booking you as the primary draw on a given night, you'd be less inclined to describe their careers as 'meager'. But, by all means, continue creating arguments that I never made, and treating your opinion of their work as some objective fact against which the rest of the discussion is judged. You're mad because I called you out on a typical tactic of yours, which is to get all blustery and angry and then push people into a shouting match with that ridiculous aggressive tone of yours. Do you talk to people that way in person? Do you have any idea how off-putting it is? EDIT: I saw the mod note too late. I'm done, so if you want to leave it up, leave it up. If you want to delete it, by all means...
Discuss comedy and standup all you like, but keep the vitriol and BS out of it. Be civil to each other, be insightful, and don't act like a bunch of pissed off bitches. That shit is not funny, and not fun to read.
My favorite thing about live standup is that it might go horribly, brilliantly off the rails. Dan Bialek v. drunk bitch Bill Burr v. Philly
Just want to spark a little debate here, but does anybody else understand why Patton Oswalt is so famous? I don't think he's as funny as he gets credit for. I've stomached a few of his albums and specials, and the only one I could even get through was his most recent one "My Weakness is Strong"(admittedly somewhat funny). He was a writer for MadTV, which was garbage for the most part. I guess he's been putting in work since the late 80s but I think he's just hipster fodder. It's hard not to agree with a lot of his views(anti-hippies, anti-bush, pro-scotch) but there are so many funnier comedians out right now who are getting less credit. On that note, fuck David Cross too. For reference some of my favorite(living) comics are: Louis CK, Bill Burr, Adam Carolla(who I just saw at the House of Blues on Saturday and was awesome), Doug Stanhope, Chris Rock etc
Patton Oswalt is one of the most highly respected comedians in all of Comedy. You could even call him one of The Comedians Of Comedy, because he was in a documentary called The Comedians of Comedy. Patton Oswalt and David Cross are so well respected in the community of stand up because they were the first ones to shirk comedy clubs and begin doing shows at rock venues. These shows were super successful and allowed them to find their exact audience in a way that many comedians struggle to over much longer careers. You may not be a part of their exact audience, but you’d have to be pretty stupid to not understand why they are successful. Tons of people find them funny. Both of them have also crossed over to mainstream success and used that success to continue to fund their indie projects. David Cross wrote a great piece after getting shit for doing Alvin and the Chipmunks about how indie cred won’t pay his mortgage bills, and Patton Oswalt has time and time again said that he showed up reluctantly to the King of Queens audition and only did it to further his stand up career, which he never compromised for those kinds of fans. Many people also revere Mr. Show as the forefather of most modern good comedy right now. So many great, talented people were a part of Mr. Show in their early career, and David Cross and Bob Odenkirk deserve a lot of credit for giving them that chance. All the guys you listed as your favorites, aside from Adam Carrolla who is very new to stand up comedy, are amazingly well respected as well, and at least 2 (CK and Rock) will go down as all time greats. I hope that answers your question.
He's not the funniest guy by far (Zach G. stole Comedians of Comedy out from under him), but even when he's not at his best, Patton gets points for verisimilitude. He's a language junkie, and his metaphors and descriptions are always so far over the top that they're, if not outright gut-busting hilarious, at least impossible to ignore. Stanhope is similar: his blazingly articulate descriptions of things like, say, mouth-fucking a two-headed infant are damn near literary. He takes the English language back from the tightasses. No disrespect to Dane Cook (he works and hustles harder than anyone), but when his sort of non-verbal comedy dominates as much as it does now, guys like Patton will stand out. There's also the novelty of seeing a guy cross over, do a talking rat, and still talk so much profane, misanthropic shit in his act. Cross exploits this as well. Although the king will always be Saget.
I saw Saget's HBO special and didn't laugh once. His bits aren't creative or funny. I think he just spews whatever's the most vulgar thing on his mind without the slightest bit of insight. Oswalt is very hit or miss. I've loved all his shows in the past but his most recent was a big miss in my opinion. That's too bad, because I consider him one of my favorites. Demitri Martin, Mitch Hedberg, and Doug Benson are a few of my favorites. All are usually solidperformers who consistently deliver the funny.
I wouldn't say they were the first to kick off the alt-comedy venue scene. I think you'd have to give a lot of credit to Marc Maron and his crew and their Luna Lounge shows for that departure. Also, I don't know that it had to do with 'shirking' anything. After the comedy boom died in the early 90s, most big comedy cities lost a huge chunk of their clubs to bankruptcy. The clubs that remained booked big-time, mainstream comics, making it much harder for up-and-comers to get any real time, let the alone middlers who had been at it for years and suddenly had no place to play. That's why they shifted to dive bars and rock clubs. It wasn't so much a cultural statement as a necessity.
Seeing Marc Maron at Union Hall tonight. Very pumped about this. If you're a fan of stand-up, check out his WTF podcast. He does really in-depth interviews with some of the best comics, well, ever.
I just listened to one of Frankie Boyle's shows. It was hysterical. The accent can throw you at times, and so can the references to British or European culture if you're not familiar with them. However, it was one of the best stand-up specials I've listened to in a long time. He leaves out much of his personal philosophy and background, and made it about the jokes and people in the audience. He is along the same lines as Jim Jeffries or Doug Stanhope when it comes to perspective and content, so if those two are up your alley: Boyle is legit. I will warn you: he's fucking filthy and NOTHING is off limits. Rape, cancer, you name it. He goes all out.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFAJapLN4XU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFAJapLN4XU</a> <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp3aAvorZcw&feature=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp3aAvor ... re=related</a>
This should probably go in the Podcast thread as well, but if you like Comedy you should check out The Nerdist podcast. Chris Hardwick has conversations with a huge range of people, but his one's with comedians with various stages of their careers are awesome. They gave me a lot more insight into the writing of jokes, and just how much work it takes to be "good." I'd highly recommend the Drew Carey and Mike Birbiglia episodes as two recent standouts I've heard.
I've been working with a guy who does stand-up as a hobby, and as such, I've been exposed to a number of unknown but awesome comics via youtube. Here is one such hilarious dude: Dan Telfer.
If you enjoy the pyscho, neurotic comics like Bill Burr, his lesser known former roommate, Joe Derosa is pretty damn funny. Not a whole lot of his material is on the Youtube, but he had a great podcast called Uninformed with Bill Burr.
I caught him on Comedy Central not too long ago and he was pretty funny. Anyone can do shock jokes, but he does them pretty well.