A Top 10 List Full Of Surprises
January 24, 2008 · Print This Article
BTB welcomes back Mike, the Simon Cowell of stand up back to the show and this time he’s handing out praise with his top 10 comics of all time. For one one of comedy’s harshest critics, he has some questionable entries.
Other topics include reactions to a life outside of stand up, whether it’s ok for youngsters to steal material, one of the worst pick up lines ever, selling your soul for more bars and a harsh lesson in the art of the schmooze. I’m working on a semi freddo here!
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
I’ve never been the first poster so i thought i’d pop the cherry this time around since it’s probably the last time i’ll be fortunate enough to snag the show right as it comes out.
Love you all,
Sina.
I have to agree with mike on most of his choices.
As for where to draw the line on what is stealing,
I’d have to say that its ok, to a certain extent. for example, if your just starting out i think it would be ok to use someones style of dilivery but not to steal thier jokes.
But if your doing the same thing that they do then you would have no individuality.
Where is the fun in that?
great show as always. mike had some interesting choices on his list. i was especially surprised by the Hicks/Leary thing. im a fan of both albeit for different reasons. all in all a good list
Here’s my top 10 for what it’s worth:
10: Jethro
9. Ben Elton
8: Steven Wright
7: Emo Phillips
6. Sam Kinnison
5. Bill Hicks
4. Eddie Murphy
3. Richard Pryor
2. Lee Evans
1. Billy Connolly
Some of these will be strange to the Americans but I’m a Brit so some of yours went over my head as well.
The comic this week was VERY funny. Good pick.
He had a good delivery that was well polished but still sounded like he was having fun and improvising as well.
Kudos.
Sina.
brian
i’ve got a question
thats probably the worst joke i’ve ever told,
and you decide to jab at my name?
I honestly don’t remember jabbing at your name, but if I did, you have to cut me some slack. After all, it does include the phrase “go play in traffic”. As for the joke, hey, we don’t discriminate, if you send it, I’ll play it. Just ask Stacks.
dude i dont care if you torch me every episode as long as its all in good humor.
ok now i got a question for you guys
i was at school today, during lunch, and me and my friends started telling jokes and having a good time, and this kid that hangs out with us (not sure what his name is, or who invited him) trys his luck at a Hitler joke. (half the people at the table are jewish) a joke that caused everyone at the table to stand up and im looking at him like “you fuckin idiot” and he got mad because noone found his joke funny. he immediatly got up and left.
what do you do when on stage and you get a reaction like that?
-I was struck by the Eddie Murphy-Gallagher thing for some reason. Over winter break, i got really into eddie and bought all of his old stuff. The guy had one of the best runs in the history of comedy. In the 80s, he revived Saturday Night Live, broke out in 48 Hours, followed that up with Trading Places, became a star with Beverly Hills Cop, had kinda of misfire but was still funny in Golden Child, did another Cop movie, and the made Raw, then started to kinda suck. In the last month i think I’ve become sort of an Eddie Murphy historian. Meanwhile, Gallagher turned himself into the most despised person not just in comedy but the world, spawned Gallagher II, and seems to be appearing a local casinos every two weeks. Whew, just had to get that out there.
-Nice Dennis Regan reference. I just found out about him last weekend, and was equally disturbed. The guy is brain’s older brother and became a comic as Brian was picking up steam. Can you say Gallagher II?
Your going to moments like that all the time when your trying to push people to the edge and they don’t want to go over.
Know your crowd when you first go on stage, watch the comics and the crowds reaction, if they like edgy bring on edgy, if not do cleaner stuff, “Don’t go to a Jewish Convention and say hey any jews here, because I have a beautiful way to be get your oven’s cleaner”. Your going to offend someone, its a good idea to study your crowd.
Just be yourself, if your raciest show it, if your a sexual predator tell them your wacky adventures in the alley. I can’t help you on that one, I have ad people looked at my like “why do you think your funny, because it doesn’t show in your act, kind of look, but you suck it up and go out again.
AMC
i dont know if the world is ready for another gallagher, and to even try is an insult to one of the greatest comidians of all times. certainly in my top 5, along with a few others. so i’ve got to say, “No, i can’t say ‘gallagherII’.”
Enjoyed the show this week, just wanted to say that Denis Leary still does some stand-up, he performed in Dublin a couple of years ago. He played in the Point, an 8,000 capacity arena but I managed to get seats five rows back from the stage.
It was clear to see that he was a little out of practice, the material was less polished than you’d expect. However it was an excellant show. The show was billed as “Denis Leary and Friends”, and Denis effectively acted as MC for the night, albeit with a 30 minute set at the beginning containing some classic Leary gripes. He also performed an updated version of “Asshole” to be completely about George Bush (”He’s an asshole”), as he was in Dublin he performed “The Traitional Irish Song”, his new song at the time “Merry F#*&@n’ Christmas”, and he got the whole audience singing “Yoko’s gonna’ wreck the band”.
Patrice O’Neal was in support and Dane Cooke was the feature act. All in all a great show!
Really enjoyed Mike’s list…..it was great that it wasn’t just the usual suspects!
I love Marc Maron…he’s a great comic (and radio presenter!) and I’ve actually spoken to him when he came to the UK.
I was at last year’s Edinburgh Festival but I went during the week rather than weekends so the audiences were way down. Marc was doing a show with Kirk Fox and it just wasn’t advertised. The tickets were even half price (about $7 in your money) and there was only about 12 people in this big hall. But Marc was so fucking cool….came up after Kirk and had a great set. You could tell he was a little phased by the lack of audience but just took it in his stride. About halfway during the show he just shrugged his shoulders and sat cross-legged at the edge of the stage and just riffed with the audience about his life, politics, drugs and women. It was really, really cool and I only wish that it was in a cosier environment.
I also really wish that his UK visit went a bit better; I think he’d do really well with British audiences. But the astronomical fees that the venues charge for the Edinburgh Festival fuck a lot of people over; even the ‘big’ comics.
I went over to him after the show and had a chat about his stuff and Air America and all the shit that went down with that. He was a really nice guy, shook my hand and asked about me and politics in Britain. Totally unfazed he walked off into the Edinburgh night; what a cool guy!
It was awesome to see a pretty big comedian in that setting. For anyone who hasn’t; check him out.
You have to remember that just being racist isn’t a joke. You have to be finding humor somewhere. One of my biggest pet peeves is new comics hitting the stage and just being offensive thinking it’s “edgy”. The basic principles of stand up still apply. You have to have a punchline.
I know that one of the big sins of comedy is stealing someone else’s material, but I kinda agree with Fitzsimmons (sp?) that it’s ok if you’re just starting out.
It’s kinda like if you go to a bar with local band playing, you know you’re going to hear some covers… no one thinks those artists are “hacks” because they’re up on stage fucking up a Fleetwood Mac tune. They’re just starting out and don’t yet have the chops to write their own good material, so you have to let them practice live with something that’s already been proven.
I guess the fine point on this is that if a song’s a cover, it’s usually famous enough that the audience knows without having to say that it’s a cover, whereas comedy bits don’t have that same cache. But to that point I’d say that everyone has, at some point, tried to retell a joke that was truly funny and jacked it up all to hell, because so much of comedy is timing, cadence, and confidence. So a shitty open-mic’er doing a David Cross joke will not be as funny as David Cross doing the same bit… I’d cut the open mic’er some slack, though, because how else do you learn?
But then, I’m not a comic, so…..
Brian-great show again:
I think gallagher might be more defensible than tim allen.
Here’s my list-cuz its a show about lists.
10. Dave Attell
9. Zach Galifianakis
8. Marc Maron
7. Dana Gould
6. Bob Newhart
5. Patton Oswalt
4. Woody allen
3. Bill Hicks
2. George carlin
1. Richard Pryor
to metnion a comedian Acerockolla did:
Billy Connolly is a really great comic. People should look up his stuff. He’s much more than the teacher afeter Howard Hessman on Head of the Class. He was really funny on a documentary I just watched called F**K.
i can give a top 5 but not a top 10
1.Gallagher
2.Bill Cosby
3.Richard Pryor
4.Dane cook (i have my reasons)
5. Tenatious D
but i do have to say that Jim Gaffigan is really good to.
MattH is right about Connolly just check out his early stand up stuff (on DVD) he was brilliant.
My first real comedy hero was Richard Pryor thanks to Video I got to see his stuff, then came Murphy, then Connolly he was the first comedian to actually make me cry laughing something only he and Lee Evans have ever managed with any degree of regularity.
Connolly was recently voted top in a recent UK TV channel poll of 100 best comedians: http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/C/comedy_standups/results/results.html
AceRockolla, did you get your name from Adam Carolla? Just curious cause he calls himself that and he’s one of the funniest men on the planet if you ask me.
I just found out that you can download his show via podcast and am catching up listening to him. I have been Ace-deprived since he left Loveline.
Big hugs,
Sina.
P.S. Brian, I’m in Vegas today and tomorrow and leave Monday. If you aren’t busy, drop me a line and let’s go get dinner.
Hi folks,
Brian, I’m not sure if this is good news or bad news.
I just came across what I think may be the same GQ Magazine we’re referring to for the Top 100 Jokes. It’s from June of 1999 and has Mike Meyers on the cover. But in this version–maybe because it was released in Canada–they have the top 75 jokes of all time.
The judges include the likes of David Brenner, Larry David, Al Franken, Jackie Martling, Robert Klein and Dick Cavett.
Brian Kiley’s joke about his grandfather reading lips and using a highlighters comes in at #70.
Perhaps when we get to #75 on the top 100, I could e-mail you the alternate joke as published in June of 1999 in Canada.
Or…uh…maybe not.
Great show as always!
- Don in Nova Scotia
Fucking exchange rate
I have to agree, Gallagher is in my top three favorite comics. Most people only know him for smashing watermelons, but if you watch his specials, he has some very interesting and funny things to say. I always explain liking Gallagher in the same way that some folks like pro wrestling or magicians : For those who believe, no explanation is needed. For those who don’t believe, no explanation will do.
I feel that analogy can be used across the board. Be it Dane Cook or whoever. If it weren’t for Gallagher, Sam Kinison and a few others, I would have never started improv and acting in a sketch comedy troupe (and most recently stand-up).
p.s. Brian, I think it’s awesome you have created a community (or message board) that actually keeps a generally positive connotation.
Good times,
Kahn
Thanks Kahn. I’m always shocked at the few amount of dicks that have surfaced over the past year. I’m thinking about upgrading to a full fledged message board forum, but i’m afraid it will fuck up the good vibe we have going.
i agree, i mean, we all get along fairly well here, why ruin it?
next thing you know we will have more people from my generation, and lets face it, most of us lack the common since needed to function.
The #1 requirement for being allowed to post on the forum (and for being hired as a lap dancer, coincidentally) should be “No dicks!”
I have a question for Brian and all the other comics here: Have you ever written a bit that was perfectly good and funny, maybe even stronger than some of the material you normally perform, but decided not to perform it because it didn’t really fit your stage voice? Like if you’re a comic who normally does high energy political humor but you come up with a really funny Steven Wright style weird observation that would be really incongruous with the rest of your act? And if you have, do you just scrap the joke, or try to sell it/gift it to someone who might get better use out of it? And where’s that area that you know you couldn’t go into even if you knew it would get a laugh?
Great show as always brian.
Thanks for the feedback Sina. I appreciate it.
“Have you ever written a bit that was perfectly good and funny, maybe even stronger than some of the material you normally perform, but decided not to perform it because it didn’t really fit your stage voice?”
Hey Dave. I’m sure a few comics here will agree with me that the only really true gauge of whether material you’ve written works for your own stage voice or not is just trying it out in front of an audience (or two.) I’m sure I’m not the only one here who’s performed a new set full of material I think is going to be killer, along with other stuff I think only filler, only to see the pieces I think the strongest relating to my act bomb, but then see the filler bits get the really big laughs.
I guess at the end of the day, the audience are really the true judge of what’s funny or not.
But if you think you’ve written some really strong material, you’ve got to share and perform it to the world, regardless if it easily fits with your regular comedy voice. That’s my two bits on the subject anyway.
I actually disagree with you Ricardo. I know I have written a handful of bits that I knew I couldn’t pull off and had to pitch them. Probably not something I would do at this point in my career, but in general when you develop a routine you usually perfect a certain “voice”. For example, Doug Stanhope couldn’t get away with doing a Steve Martin “dumb guy” bit. Not that he would ever write a bit like that, but in this theoretical example, it just wouldn’t work.
does “voice” really matter if your voice fits the joke. I feel that as long as the bit is funny enough and the crowd is drunk enough then it doesnt matter.
I disagree. Ray Romano doing a Richard Pryor bit would be a train wreck.
true, but then again, if the crowd is drunk enough then anything is funny.
Bro, you must have never played to a drunk crowd. If a crowd is drunk enough, they think THEY’RE funny.
Re: John (Traffic)
Relying on the inebriation of your audience when writing material is never a good idea. You want material that will work in front of the TOUGHEST crowds…not the easiest.
Re: Dave
I tend to write a lot of jokes in the voice of whoever I’m listening to or working with at the time. I try to find a way to make it fit with what I’ve already got but if it just doesn’t feel right or if I know someone who I think the joke would better benefit, I’ll just give it to him.
Sadly…I don’t think anyone has anyone has ever used any of them.
Sina.
My comedy comes from my life and surreal moments I want to talked about, that is it, and it works.
Thinking of a jokes that are funny, with someone else’s voice is easy, and a waste of time.
Like Bruce Lee”s epic line ” Be like oil, my friend”
Hey gang — sorry for the late posting. I’ve been stuck on the road the last week.
Just a few quick points:
1) Brian, the mancrush is mutual. When I get to Vegas, you and I will have to get married. Something tasteful.
2) I agree with the “voice” thing — in fact, I’d say that the more you go along in your career, the more you understand your voice. Cementing your voice is one of the biggest accomplishments a comic can achieve because it instantly opens the writing floodgates.
The downside of course is that there is a lot of material that you can no longer use. There was a time in my career when I was a lot more of an “attacking” comic (meaning that most of my jokes were directed “outward” instead of “inward”). That’s changed as my voice has evolved, so a few jokes that were the cornerstones of my act just three years ago are now in the “not for public consumption” file. I still write some mean stuff from time to time and if it’s good enough, I’ll pass it off to my friends who are doing that kind of comedy.
I do think, however, if you’re writing a _majority_ of material that doesn’t fit your stage voice, you may want to reevaluate what you’re doing on stage.
3) Brian: very good point on this show about this being Attell’s _NEXT_ hour. That “Skanks for the Memories” was 17 years polished into an hour and the latest show as maybe two years in the making. It puts the show in a different light and is a very good observation.
It also raised an interesting question for me: What was the best _SECOND_ HBO hour ever? My from-the-hip answer would be “Bigger and Blacker” by Chris Rock, but I also tend to remember Dennis Miller’s “Black and White” being pretty good too. Any other ideas?
– Written from the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Jacksonville, Florida. Tomorrow’s post will be written from the Comfort Inn and Suites in Des Moines, Iowa. All of the posts will have been written with an air of existential dread about why the fuck I’m in either of these places.
Des Moines Rules! Too bad you weren’t in DSM last night, there was a big comedy contest downtown at this place called The Liars Club. Still, welcome to IA!
Hey Joel,
I’m at Simpson College tomorrow, the University of Iowa on Thursday, and Morningside College on Friday. If any of those colleges are close, come on out and hang!
Re: writing great jokes that don’t fit your voice
I’ve been daydreaming about a little bit of a comedy social experiment, but i don’t have the guts to do it… I (a young, white, straight, male) want to do a set “as” something else — so a whole set of “female” comedy, or “black” comedy, or “homosexual” comedy etc.. the idea is NOT to be doing parody, but actually making a determined effort to do perform the jokes allowed and enabled by that standpoint.
I think the reason I’m too chickenshit to do it is that there is this assumption that the comic is performing him/herself, even though I’d suggest there is always an element of ‘character’ going on (see especially Emo Philips, Jeremy Hotz, Rodney Dangerfield, Woody Allen etc). If I’m in a sketch I can throw on a wig and the audience accepts I’m a woman; if I’m in an improv scene, I just have to indicate somehow that I’m playing a woman and its all gooood. But why is it that if I stood up and said “Hi, I’m a Mexican woman” that the crowd would be booing before I even finished my first joke?
that would be like me trying to portray a middle age gay man, you cant do somthing your not if you’ve never had that situation in real life. it just doesn’t work, it would be like michel jackson claiming he is straight.
Re: ddd
Believe it or not (and those of you who have seen hundreds of open mikes will probably believe it), I’ve seen your daydream made manifest. A guy who “experimented” by jumping around like Dane Cook one week then by doing trippy one-liners like Hedberg the next, finally decided to BREAK OUT by doing an entire six minutes as a fat person, complete with a pillow stuffed into his shirt. This guy weighs 140 with dumbbells. It was awful. He might as well have come out in black face.
Of course, Dan Whitney is not Larry the Cable Guy, but at least that’s a white guy doing another white guy for a full hour. In fact, it’s an improvement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VROn7ZvVoW8
“give credit when credit is due”
thats something iv always thought was important, well, i think sina needs some credit, drunk off his ass and still funny.
check it out
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2023504538
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=8200938
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=8202436
Sina’s a rock star. That has never been disputed.
I like your question about best “next” efforts. For as much shit as I have given him, Dane Cook gets my nod. I thought his first special and cd (Harmful If Swallowed) was crap, but “Retaliation” was actually pretty solid. Of course it end in a “Vicious Circle” because his last special was crap.
yea
“retaliation” is the only reason he made my top 5
not to mention that he is one of the most famous comedians right now (i say that because that could litteraly change over night)
I found your site yesterday, while doin’ that googling thing that I heard so much about, and now have listened to almost nine of your podcasts. It’s pretty sweet. Now I’ve forced my friends to listen to it, so you have at least five people in New Zealand listening to your cast. If you could get someone to throw it on their ipod and head off to Antarctica you could conquer the entire southern hemisphere… you know, through the ephermial military prowess that comedy has.