George carlin deaf my favorite, Also Eddie izzard, Mitch hedberg, ed byrne and freaking Jim Jefferies The only comidean i have ever seen in person was Kathy griffin I wasent a big fan of her stand ups on TV but live on stage she was freaking great!
The moment she did that 'speaking to camera' thing I had to turn it off, it just made me cringe. I also don't understand slap-stick. I mean it has a place when used sparingly (Del-boy falling through an open bar is hilarious) but that weak, lazy slap-stick- the ladder clocking someone around the head or slipping on a banana skin- is not funny, and this was 90% of her sitcom's jokes (or joke, there was only one of them repeated ad nauseam). It felt like watching Mr Bean, which was basically an excuse to laugh at the mentally ill.
I can take or leave the sitcom, it's alright. For me it did have some laugh out loud moments but it did cross a cringey line. I saw her live though and she was fabulous.
Probably Billy Connolly. He never fails to make me laugh, no matter what subject he's tackling. He's a master of ferreting out the ridiculous things that happen in life. I loved his stuff even before I moved to Scotland and could fully understand where he's coming from. And I agree with you, @Wreybies , about Lucille Ball. Just watched some old re-runs of the I Love Lucy show. By today's standards, it's clumsy and predictible scripting ...but then she goes into one of her schticks, and you can see all the actors around her, including her husband, are killing themselves laughing. I do find myself in hysterics, watching her.
I had a feeling Carlin would be mentioned first thing - I was gonna name him, too. I'd also add Louis CK and Hari Kondabolu to that list.
I never thought of Spike as a stand-up, though. More of a writer/sketch performer. The Goon Show was genius!
lord buckley. if you've never heard "god's own drunk" in the original.....well you should. it's not just a jimmy buffet song....