HERE we go...
10: Richard Pryor
Many major modern comics state that he was their idol.
I maintain that he is a much better visual comic than audio. I get bored when I listen to him on satellite radio or a CD. But his facial expressions-- my god.
9: Brian Regan
Even Bill Hicks sought this guy out when he was performing near him. He has taken unfair hits just because he works clean and is therefore the Mormons' comic of choice.
Whatever. Dude's stories about his verbal miscues and his childhood are absolute classics.
8: Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce revolutionized the genre, and as a result he was driven even further into insanity by First Amendment-stomping cops (some things never change). He died broke as a result of lawyers' fees and comedy clubs blacklisting him. Some of his material is dated because so many other comics have retread it, and his last few years were infamous because he just read transcripts from his court hearings, which, apparently, no one cared about nearly as much as he. But he should always be on any comedy connoisseur's short list of the best of all time.
I recommended the film "Lenny" to everyone on my top twenty movies of all time list last year.
7: Rodney Dangerfield
^ my favorite comedy ever
When Rodney died in 2004, I remember that I posted my thoughts about him on multiple message boards. No one seemed to give a shit about him, which was stunning to me. He was a huge name, yet he was all but forgotten in the end. He wasn't just hilarious-- he introduced the nation to Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Kinison. Among non-comics he is probably the most underrated stand up.
6: Chris Rock
Rock just makes comedy feel so goddamn cool. I don't care what people say-- I love him on SNL, not just his stand up. He always has salient points about current events, and I always wonder what his take is on them. Among modern comics, only Lewis Black also has that effect on me.
5: Sam Kinison
YES, his opinions were wrongheaded, and YES he sometimes seemed as if he was an evil prick (unlike most evil pricks of this era, I never saw him pick on an innocent audience member, though).... but goddamn, he was hilarious. On the added audio commentary in "Back to School" the producer states that the kids at whom he was yelling weren't even acting-- they were genuinely afraid of him. He was probably the most intense mainstream comic ever.
4: Jim Gaffigan
Jim is one of the few established mainstream comics who just seems to improve slightly more each time I see him. He also probably has the record for the amount of open micers who have stolen his material (and I've heard them repeat it verbatim). He is known as "the hot pockets guy," but when I think about him my mind always flashes to the first joke that I ever heard from him on Dr. Katz -- the seahorse joke.
3: Lewis Black
He has lost a few steps lately, and the last time I saw him perform on a live stream he displayed symptoms of dementia. But for the time being he is my favorite living stand up comic. No one comments about current events and politics ("I don't know if you've noticed, but our two-party system is a bowl of shit looking at itself in the mirror.") better than this man. Bill Maher is the only comedian with whom I agree more about issues (in fact, it's scary just how much Maher and I think alike), but Maher blows at doing stand up. Sorry. #Facts
2: Bill Hicks
As I wrote on this blog during the twentieth anniversary of his death last year, to this day I'm stunned that I discovered this genius so late in my life (2003). Even his dated references are relevant today, and most of his material feels like it was actually made for this century. I'm getting sad as I'm writing this profile about him because even though he started comedy as a fifteen year old and thus built an expansive resume, I believe that if he had lived even ten more years he would be at #1 in many people's minds.
In this case, in terms of being prolific and brilliant, no one tops
1: George Carlin
When I hear the words "the president" I think of Ronald Reagan simply because it was impressed on me when I was a child. When I hear the words "stand up comic" or even just "comedian" I usually envision George because I remember being seven and seeing him perform for the first time at a neighbor's house on HBO-- the first stand up act I had ever seen.
There was when I was young when George seemed to get so atheistic that it bothered me. A few years ago when his daughter Kelly was promoting his autobiography posthumously she said to me, "he wasn't actually an atheist. He was an agnostic. He would be the first to tell you that he didn't know and would never know."
If George Carlin had never existed it's possible that I wouldn't even be doing stand up today-- some people might hate him just for that fact alone.
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