Be Excellent To Each Other

Trying to convince someone I know to stop watching shitty stand up.

I have watched a fuckload of good stand up over the years, but I am terrible with names.

Probably best to keep it to suggestions they can watch around their little sister too.

Jasper Carrott.

The guy off Golden Balls?

Jasper is/was fucking hilarious.

Yeah I know, but similarly to how I have to call Iggy Pop "that car insurance guy?", and Jonny Rotten "That butter guy?", I have to call Jasper Carrott "The guy off Golden Balls?".

http://www.gofasterstripe.com/

Lots of swearing though. Except for Munnery, but he's a fine whiskey of a comedian.

Dimmers

I can't recommend GoFasterStripe enough. They take brilliant comics who would never get a "proper" DVD release and make better DVDs for them than a mainstream company would release. The only downside is they come in a small sleave like you get with free DVDs in papers.

Stewart Lee & Richard Herring are of course stand outs. I'll be picking up Robin Ince and Porter when I get a chance.

The Herring "Oh Fuck I'm 40" DVD is in a nice CD style digipackish thing, though, so that may be a changin.

Bill Hicks

Eh? Mine isn't... It's just a Free with a paper DVD sleeve but for 2 disks...

Also: Fuck yes hicks.

I used to love Bill to bits, but I've heard nearly every concert he did now and the lustre's worn a bit thin.

Yeah, but it's significantly bigger than the sleeves they used before. It irritates me because it looks out of place with my other GFS releases. Plus Herring's crotch when I have to remove a disc.

Sean Lock never fails to make me laugh.

You obviously listened to them far too quickly. I'm saving some for when I'm a bit older.

The early-mid Izzard stuff is still my favourite stand-up ever.

Bill Bailey, Dylan Moran, Bill Hicks, Dave Gorman, Mark Thomas, Stephen K Amos, Ardal O'Hanlon, Al Murray, Chris Rock

That'll do for starters

I'd argue that Gorman wasn't stand up, but I have not the energy.

My current faves (apart from the obvious Lee, Herring, Hicks combo)



Dom Irrera - an American/Italian chap who's a little mainstream but blisteringly funny at times.
Sam Kinison - dead pre-Hicks shouty type.
Arnab Chanda - excellent but hard to find his stuff.
Tony Law - one of the GoFasterStripe comedians - hilarious.
Dennis Wolfberg - dead chap who was on Quantum Leap, stunning material delivered by a genius.

and, despite the almost truism that is 'women aren't very good at stand up', Sarah Kendall.

Ive seen al murray and russel howard recently, and both were very good, I'd say howard was better, as he was a bit less caberet, but it was still good.

Ian Cognito
Mick Ferry
John Bishop
Jason Cook
Stewart Francis
Gary Delaney
Ivan Brackenberry
Paul Sinha
Martin Bigpig

I've got a soft spot for Mitch Hedberg, he can be a bit hit & miss but he tells jokes so fast it doesn't matter.

Oh, I could crush a grape!

Indeed

Stewart Francis makes me chuckle every so often, but not proper belly laughs. The latter is what I want from comedy, not the odd titter to myself.



I usually hate one-line jokes, but Mitch Hedberg cracked me up.

Tim Vine's still not funny.

Yeah, I saw him on that Edinburgh BBC show last week. It was like he was reading from the Smart Alec joke book. He's fortunate the compère was so crap, as he was immolated by all the other proper comedians.


Not literally.

George carlin

Larry the cable guy.

I just ordered Git 'R' Done. I think he's fucking hilarious and my entire family and friends seem to agree.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Larry-Cable-Guy ... 394&sr=8-5

Just over 3 quid delivered, but make sure you can watch R1 films. The guy is basically a parodial redneck with a really funny southern accent. Blue collar comedy at it's best IMO.

Peter Kay's first stand-up video, Live From the Top of the Tower, is properly, genuinely good IMHO. Everything else he's done since has been utter dogshit, mind.

Tim Vine is very good but you really have to like one-liners. Lee Mack is good, too. Oh, and Harry Hill as well. I haven't seen either of Dara O Briain's DVDs but I've seen him live and he's great also so they're probably worth getting.

Just to echo what Curiosity said, Eddie Izzard's earlier stuff is great. Basically, if he's wearing a dress then it's guaranteed to be fantastic. Dimmers is right about Sean Lock too, his DVD is great and I've got a(n MP3 of a) CD he did years ago which is similarly ace.

Just a thought: there are a shitload of rips of Live at the Apollo over at thebox.bz, might be worth grabbing some of those?

TV never does justice to standup. It can't. Seriously, instead of paying £10 for a DVD, go down your local comedy club for a fiver. I'm always willing to help find a local club or pass on reviews of comics.

You get a much better night out for your money.

Yes Mcintyre is an incredibly irritating performer with top notch material (I recently said I "get irritated by everything about him except the words that come out if his mouth") but in a live context, it works.

Ivybridge, Devon...

Malc

Tiverton is an hour down the road, according to Google.

Monday July 6th.

Ian Cognito
Chris Lynam
MC Craig Campbell
£10.

Cogs is one of my all time favourites. Shouty and angry, really clever one minute and then dark and evil the next.

Chris Lynam has been going for years. Very funny, with a finale that cannot be missed.

I gigged with Craig Campbell at the Comedy Store, wonderfully laconic Canadian.

All three are Store quality headliners. 10 quid is a complete bargain.

Friday 26th June
Ivybridge Watermark
PATRICK MONAHAN - "My Kind of People"

Very funny Iranian/Irishman. ("Which makes it a bugger to get through Customs").

July 3rd, Plymouth Pavilions - Russell Howard

More Here. I started out the same time as Dave Twentyman. He's pretty damned good these days.

If you know of one near Chester, I'd be very grateful. I'm quite eager to see some comedy live, having never done it before, but I'm not aware of anywhere near here. Granted, I've barely looked.



I like Mcintyre. He's exactly the sort of person I'd usually find extremely annoying, but he hits my funny bone brilliantly well. Rhod Gilbert, too.

Ben Norris is great.

Ian Cognito can be screamingly funny, but is prone to being a little temperamental, and I think I've seen him too many times now so he doesn't have quite the impact he used to.

Yes, going to see comedy live is much better than watching it on telly. The whole audience feeds off the laughter of everyone else - it's infectious, after all.

The first time I saw Cog (About 10 years ago) - he walked on stage, silent for a minute then shouted (without Mic) 'Doesn't Posh spice just have a face you want to rape, then slap to teach the cunt a lesson?'

Not of itself screamingly funny, but throw it out in the Glastonbury Cabaret tent on a lazy sunday afternoon, waking up the guys reading their guardian and watch their reaction, amazingly so. Second time, not so funny. And he hasnt actualy changed his act in 5 years.

Shame Alexanders has stopped. Good gig, that.

Crewe M Club has a superb bill on the 26th June. Justin Moorhouse, Roger Monkhouse and Silky is worth 9 quid of anyones money.

In Liverpool, try Liverpool Comedy Central at Baby Blue at the Albert Dock. This Tuesday, Reginald D Hunter (£8). Friday/Saturday is Caimh McDonnell and Jonathan Mayor.

Liverpool Royal Court has Brendan Riley and Neil Fitzmaurice.

Cogs has what is widely acknowledged to be the all time greatest opening line in XS Malarkey history.

Before introducing Cognito on stage, the compere, Toby Hadoke, was chatting to a guy in the audience. To paraphrase

"Haven't seen you for a while."
"No, er, haven't been for a few weeks"
"And you normally have this fit bird with you."
"She's not coming"
"Dumped you, eh?"
"Er.. no."
"You dumped her? Brave man."
"Er.. no."
"Where is she then?"
"Er... she died."
"What?"
"She died..."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Shit... er... well.. err.. sorry to hear about that...er.."

Toby then recovers the crowd a bit. And then introduces Cognito, who strides up to the stage and doesn't bother with the microphone.

"I'm sorry to hear about your girlfriend, mate."
"That's OK."
"But thats what happens when you try to steal my pint."

I remember that pub before it became XS... it was my local!

*sobs*

While I agree that you're more likely to laugh at a comedy gig than telly, I reckon it's more a demand characteristic thing. You expect you'll laugh, so you do (to a greater extent than the context of watching TV).

Saw Reginald D. Hunter over the weekend and man alive is he a big man. Bladdy hell. But yeah, funny. Great delivery. It's just a shame he seems to have been saving his new jokes for Edinburgh: the set on Friday was largely the same as his set at the Playhouse in December.

Really want to see Rhod Gilbert.

Michael McIntyre
Jimmy Carr

Indeed. That would be incredibly local for me, and easy enough to turn up on a whim. Crewe and Liverpool are a decent distance away, but still possible with a bit of planning each time. Cheers, chap.

Tim Vine, though he isn't to everyones tastes. He's ggot the world record for most gags in a minute. Really quick silly one liners.
Ross noble is another big fav of mine, more rambling nonsense than actual gags
George Carlins Seven words you can't say on TV sketch
Sean Locke
Alun Cochrane
Glen Woole
Woody Bop Muddy, if there is anything on you tube for him, watch it. a very unique act.
the mighty boosh

There should be a special act of parliament passed to stop Tim Vine ever talking ever again. His jokes are the sort of thing that you had in a big bog-paper book when you were seven.

Glen Woole is very good, but I've seen him 3 times in 8 years and the act has been exactly the same every time.

Sean Locke is very funny indeed.



Get out.

I love Eddie Izzard and I don't think he is too outrageous if there are youngsters around although I could be totally wrong about that. I also really like Michael Mcintyre and Dylan Moran. Of course there is always the brilliant Billy Connelly but he swears almost as much as Gordon Ramsay.

I like Sean Locke on 8 out of ten cats (is it him who's on that? yeah?) but I havent seen any of his stand up.

I love the Mighty Boosh. Series 3 was quite disappointing though.

Yeah, Dylan Moran is great, although I think I preferred his stuff about ten years ago. He's gone off the boil somewhat.

I agree with that, his most recent DVD wasn't as great. Although my little sister saw him live last year and said he was brilliant. I wish they made more Black Books.

The bookshop owner in that lives in the same building as me.

Who, Dylan Moran?

That'll be Dylan Moran, then.