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[preemo]

There are some really funny comedians from the states, here are some I recommend.

Dave Attell
Mitch Hedburg (RIP)
Jim Gaffigan
Greg Giraldo
Dom Irrera
Brian Regan

I know a lot of people will slate me for bringing americans into this but I don't care. Stand-up is much more developed there and more competitive.
I'm quite a fan of some early classic stuff especially Bill Cosby's comedy albums. Again people are gonna go "he's not funny" but it's very interesting to listen to some of his stuff from the late 60's, early 70's and you'll find pretty much that our very own Billy Connelly has made a career from ripping him off.

[Andy Mulhern]

I havent seen anyone who has come close to Hicks since....
Comedic Genius I would say.

He did his stuff between 80-92 (i think) and its just as, if not more, relevant now than it was then.

I do take on board the repetative points tho - but do band not play the same songs for years and their "favourite" songs?

[Spoonie]

Originally Posted by thurisaz

I also think Bill Hicks was vastly over-rated. Most fo the time I thought he just repeated one joike over and over and over, dshouted alot and condescended every fucking person on the planet.

great shout! i find he makes a few good observations and the rest of the time he's intensely irritating.

one of the best stand up performance i've ever seen was bernie mac on def comedy jam. actually, taking about that series, there are quite a few good women on there too.

i like loads of stuff, much of it being in the richard pryor, eddie murphy, chris rock vein. i saw danny bhoy at the edinburgh festival last year and he was mighty funny. each to their own tho.

/x

I find Bill Hicks observational humour, facial expressions and mannerisms hilarious personally. It's true that he had a reliance on certain material that brought about over-familiarity but there were always other little gems in there to make up for it and while he stretched a joke too far at times, ther eare plenty other comedians who just don't know when to stop with a particular theme. The longest available live video footage of him has too many overlaps of material,the CD's and the more recently released Sane Man DVD are essential for different material.
Eddie Izzard's surreal brand of humour was great for a while, Unrepeatable, Definite Article, Glorious and Dressed To Kill are all pretty great, but he really lost it, that last DVD he had out, Sexie was it?, I tried 3 times to watch it and had to give up, it was so dire.

The Richard Pryor live DVD that came out the other year is good, I do like Dylan Moran but actually find him funnier in Black Books than as a stand up.

[Chris]

There's a guy called Russell Howard (I think) on Mock The Week who's pretty shit. The kind of guy who would be the funny one in a group of friends but looks completely outclassed next to Frankie Boyle, Ed Byrne, Dara O'Brien and Hugh Dennis.

[Johnny Mac]

Check out Dane Cook. His stand up stuff is great!

Or as mentioned, Richard Pryor. All his stand up dvds are hilarious.

[Teabags]

I can't believe I forgot Richard Pryor. As far as delivery goes, Richard was the fucking king.

Oh, and my point about Bill Hicks, by repeating it over and over and over, I didnt mean from gig to gig over many years. I meant in the same bit.

Give you an example, his bit about "if theres anybody in from marketing"

"kill yourself"
"no seriously kill yuorself"
"you might think theres a joke here, no, actually kill yourself"
"see they're all thinkng 'he's going for the *whatever* market there"
"kill yourself"
"see now he's going for the *whatever* dollar"
"kill yourself

and on
and on
and on
and on

or the bit about Bush being "dead"

2hes dead, hes dead,t hat rat fuck is dead, we were shooting at him for years, yes, he;s dead, hes dead hes dead hes dead hes dead hes dead hes dead blah blah blah blah blah"

as far as women go, Victoria Wood is FUCKING hurrendous.

[Teabags]

For those that don't know Mitch Hedberg

YouTube - Mitch Hedberg - 5 minutes special

At first I was thinking that the people who were slagging off Bill Hicks must be on crack, but then I remembered that at 29 I'm perhaps at the upper end of the age scale on this site and most people didn't actually hear him while he was alive.

I myself came across him around 91/92, back in the good old days when there was no intermeweb and only four telly channels. They showed his set from the Montreal Comedy Festival I think on Channel 4 late at night. Hilarious, just one of the funniest things I have ever seen, loved him after that, right up until the day when Danny Baker casually mentioned on his Radio 1 show that Bill Hicks had died (again, pre-internet).

But a lot of his material was topical (Gulf War, New Kids on the Block etc) so I can see how people wouldn't necessarily find it funny these days. Also, much better to discover something for yourself than to have people ramming it down your throat, if your expectation levels are higher of course there is a chance you will end up disappointed.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, "You had to be there." Those of you who weren't, tough luck dudes, you'll just have to take our word for it, Bill Hicks was one of the greatest comedians who ever lived.

bill bailey and dylan moran are the best.