Forgotten Stand-Up Comics of the past

Flip Wilson. I dare anyone to listen to his routine about Christopher Columbus discovering America and not laugh.

Redd Foxx. Need I say more?

Bill Cosby is hardly forgotten.

All I've seen is Bill Cosby Himself, and it's fantastic. I love the bit with the dentist.

Himself is one one of the greatest stand-up concerts ever committed to film. I agree with Patrick, though, that you rarely hear Cosby mentioned among the greats anymore. He's now seen as kind of quaint and clean and safe. Pryor and Carlin get all the honors now; not that they don't deserve them in any way, but I don't think edgy or political necessarily trumps just plain funny either. It was refreshing in Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian to hear Seinfeld and Chris Rock discussing how great Cosby is; Rock sounded like he hero-worshipped the guy, as well he should.

I think it's unfair that Pryor receives so much credit for opening doors for black comedians when Cosby was there first. Yes, Cosby's stuff was tamer, and Pryor lead the way in frank discussions of race and contraversy. But the sheer fact that one of America's top comedians through the 60's and 70's was a black man is not inconsequential.

Oh yeah, and Lenny Bruce. When you listen to his stuff and keep in mind that it was the 50's and 60's, you cannot believe the balls on the guy.

You want forgotten, try Godfrey Cambridge. There were some wonderful excerpts of his standup routine in a recent Jack Paar documentary, but I know him best for his astounding monologue at the beginning of The President's Analyst.

That is a great film.

"For the first fifteen-years of my life I thought my name was Jesus Christ and my brother's name was Dammitt!"

"Dammitt, turn that music down!"

"But Dad! I'm Jesus Christ!"

Solid stuff.

I' recommend Cosby - Himself as well. Hillarious from start to finish, even more so if you have kids. And 1 swear word (I don't count "Damnit") the entire bit, used to perfect effect.


Someone also needs to mention the late, and incredibly great, Bill Hicks. An amalgmation of Lewis Black and George Carlin mixed with a little Johnny Cash. The guy rocked.

Thread should be changed to great, influencial stand-up comics. Cosby? Hicks? Lenny Bruce?

Who next - Eddie Murphy?

Jeff Stilson is an example of a forgotten stand-up comic. Dana Gould, maybe.

You have a point there, but then Soy is just out of high school. Cosby, Hicks, Lenny Bruce are not so much forgotten, but never heard of, to him.

How about just "Commedians who were great prior to 1996"?

Because he hasn't done it in about 40 years, people forget what a great stand-up Woody Allen was. I have a CD that collects three of his albums and they're fantastically witty.

Steven Wright is another one. He was a king back in the 80s, and now more people probably remember him from Reservoir Dogs.

I'd put Richard Jeni in there too. He was comedy gold in the early 90s, but he's kinda dropped off of the radar. He probably gets more recognition for his bit part in 'The Mask' than for his comedy career. I think he had 4-5 Showtime/HBO specials that were pretty damn funny.

I'd also put Larry Miller in there. Sure, he's funny as hell in the movies as the funny supporting guy, but his stand-up is pretty first rate. His bit on the 5 levels of drinking is a classic. I think he only concentrates on movis now and has dropped his touring standup career.

Patrick, you have listened to Bill Hicks.... right? Right?

I've been getting increasingly into his work lately. I just found some awesome public access show he was on back in 93 (a year before his death) where he's just ripping on everything- and it's pretty funny how people are calling into a show with a comedian for his thoughts on politics.

EDIT: oops.

<insert Al Franken joke here>

That's the 1. I don't count "Damnit" as a swear word.

....I can read. Really I can.

My wife adores The Firesign Theater comedy troupe, but just don't get it.

I don't know how big he got nationally, but as a kid I used to love Bob Zany.

And Carol Burnett needs more love. Bill Cosby even gives her props in Himself, when he mentions her joke that if men want to feel what childbirth is like, take your bottom lip and pull it up over your head.

I'm partial to "Dad is great, he gives us chocolate cake!"

Indeed. Some of her jokes are some of the first I remember.

Actually, my favorite bit is when his daughter's born...

"Darling...I love you very much. You've just given birth to.....a lizard."

That's a good bit. Get the salad spoons, man!

Judas' mention of Richard Jeni reminds me of a time I laughed myself sick watching one of his specials. He did an extended rant about being stuck in a hotel room watching Jaws: The Revenge, and just ripped the film to shreds. You don't often see comedians use their stage time doing movie reviews.

Just to get some female stand-up love in here, I'm going to mention Judy Tenuta. She was just plain weird, but she had some great stuff, particularly her country-western love song about the Pope. I also really liked Rita Rudner; "I had a friend who was in labor for thirty-six hours. I don't even want to do something that feels good for thirty-six hours."

Ugh, I hate both of them, especially the former. Not that Rudner's shtick was that bad, but I found the way she spoke very annoying.

The HBO (One Night Stand) comedy specials that I had on tape from highschool that still hold up very well:
Damon Wayans, Larry Miller, Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), Kevin Pollak

I'd also love to see a new Dennis Leary stand-up.

My sister and I watched Cosby's Himself more times than I can count.
I said to a guy, "Tell me, what is it about cocaine that makes it so wonderful," and he said, "Because it intensifies your personality." I said, "Yes, but what if you're an asshole?"

Anyone remember when Comedy Central was the Comedy Channel and used to show revolvong clips of standups, ala MTV? I recently watched an old tape from '93 and saw a promo clip for Jamie Kennedy doing Jim Morrison as a school teacher.

I remember a guy named Elan Gold who did an impression of Charles Grodin interviewing James Spader ("Thank you, Charles. A kid on my soccer team once died").

Oh, and Dennis "bug eyes" Wolfberg.

Another late-80s HBO stand-up special that I loved was that of Rick Ducommun, the go-to guy for comic relief in action movies for years. You may remember him as the city power worker in DIE HARD, or the guy whose pool Milo crashes into in THE LAST BOY SCOUT. Or, of course, alongside Tom Hanks in THE BURBS.

Robin Harris' HBO One Night Stand is one of the all time greats, and his part in House Party is equally fantastic.

I think Himself is pretty funny, but I heard it after some of Cosby's early stuff, which is legendary. "Noah and the Ark" (Riiiiiiight), "Revenge", and the epic "To Russell, My Brother, Who I Slept With."

My favorite stand up is probally Hicks, followed by Carlin. Lately I've been getting into Richard Pryor.

The first name that came to my head when I clicked on this thread was actually Jeff Stilson and then I saw people mentioning the most famous comedians of all time so I just aborted mission. Stilson's "we were gonna win, until Jesus made me fumble" line I consider a classic.

I will also second Steven Wright with his laid back style. Although I would say he might be most famous as the guy on the couch in Half Baked.

Robin Harris was good, an older better version of Bernie Mac.

Dennis Leary hacked part of his act off Bill Hicks.

Ah yes, "Revenge". My friends and I still yell "You gunky!" at each other to this day.

I hear Bob Zany on the radio almost every morning thanks to the Bob & Tom Show. Still very funny.

Robert Wuhl was a stand-up back in the day. He wasn't terribly good at it, but he did this impression of Bing Crosby getting a blowjob that was just hilarious.

I've been trying to remember this guy's name for YEARS, so let's see if someone remembers him. It could have been someone who later became famous, but I think it's a relative unknown.

He performed in one of the early Aspen Comedy Festivals in the 1980s. He started by saying how he hates photo booths, then the rest of his act was as a guy getting tormented by this malfunctioning photo booth, but he mimed it with zero dialogue.

Maybe it's nostalgia playing tricks on me, but it was one of the funniest stand-up acts I had ever seen.

Anyone know who this mystery comic is?

I don't know who the photo booth mime is but Norm MacDonald has a good standup back in the day. And I remember this guy Emo Phillips' standup was some of the illest shit I've ever seen. He had a really fucked up haircut and was from a different planet. I have only seen it when I was in about 5th grade and not ever since but I remember it was all the rage for a few months in elementary school.

Cosby and more

[QUOTE=RathBandu]I think Himself is pretty funny, but I heard it after some of Cosby's early stuff, which is legendary. "Noah and the Ark" (Riiiiiiight), "Revenge", and the epic "To Russell, My Brother, Who I Slept With."

I was one of the lucky 2,500 people that attended the taping of Himself. We were in the first row of the balcony, and laughed so much we missed most of the show. I bought it when it was released on VHS, and lived the evening over and over again. It was a great album, but as RathBandu says, not as good as his early stuff. My favourite Cosby material is when he talks about being a kid, and yes, "Russell" was his best ever. A week or two later, we were back in the same venue watching Red Skelton tape one of his Funny Faces videos. What a month that was.

A forgotten comic, in my mind, is Rich Little. He imitated everyone in show biz, and did them all very well. It's too bad so very few of his skits exist on video. You had to watch him, as well as listen.

I think Rich Little has become forgotten for the same reason that all impressionists eventually do. The people he did impressions of are no longer relevant to a modern audience. People can listen to Pryor talk about racism, and it still resonates. Listening to Little do an impression of a celebrity who's dead now doesn't ring a lot of bells with people. Still, it's hard to deny the man's ability. His voices were uncanny.

The Firesign Theatre is like unto gods in my world. I could (and used to) go into lengthy dissertations on their genius, but have learned to let it go. Too much selling can spoil anything, and the FT is definitely an acquired taste. Especially since after a dozen years and a thousand listens there'll still be new stuff discovered on their best albums. (Who wants a list? I'll give you a shopping list!) Silly or subtle, literary references (who works in multiple Faulkner jokes, or reads from Ulysses for a laugh?) and dumb-ass groaner puns; sublime.

Major influence on Matt Groening, actually; more apparent in the intelligently absurdist Futurama, I'd say, than the Simpsons (or Life in Hell), but there for sure.

My sibs and I listened to Cosby's "To Russell..." so many times, over and over, we had it memorized and would act out the entire Side A. "The police brought you here..."

Another great that shouldn't be forgotten: Jonathan Winters. His act was so visual (like Rich Little) but his albums could still rip to shreds. I hear his style and pacing in so many comics after him, to this day, but he had it 40 years ago.

So I guess more than jokes, I'm just a sucker for great voice acting. An underappreciated talent.

"Call me Mr. Butter-Fingers" from UHF.

JW was aces.

Stop saying 'was' about Winters. He may be forgotten but he ain't gone. He just popped up on Kimmell, doing the first half of the interview in character.

Other guys from the days of '60s improv that bear remembering: Shelley Berman ("Stand there with the phone in your little claw and holler "Mommy!") and Lord Buckley, who was also a huge influence on Williams.

Yeah, their humor is really odd. Some of their albums are fairly straightforward sketch comedy, but then there are albums like I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus, which is just...weird. And, actually, is my favorite of the half-dozen-or-so of their albums I have.

There was one guy I used to love in the 80's, around the time of Emo Philips and Steven Wright. He had a similar delivery to Wright, but was a prop comic. He had one bit where he pulled out two dolls sewn together and sang the Patty Duke Show theme, but changed the lyrics to make it about "Siamese cousins" connected by the spine. Anyway, I saw him last year on one of the old HBO Young Comedians Specials that they rerun all the time, and it was so unfunny. I guess your taste in comedy is just not that sophisticated when your a kid.

How about Rusty Warren?

My brother and I did that too. "I don't want you touchin' my side of the bed..."

Well, now I'm digging through the old LPs tonight.

"...and we'll be arriving here. What do you think, Bob? Sober up, Bob. What do you think?"

Why does the Porridge Bird lay its egg in the air? ...With FT I'll lay off for a year and then binge on em for weeks. Bozos is definitely in the pantheon of their classics, along with (and what wonderfully uncommercial album titles) "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All" "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers," "In The Next World, You're On Your Own" (dedicated to Jorges Luis Borges and Raymond Chandler, evoking both), and my favorite-this-year, "Everything You Know Is Wrong," which today feels like a proto-X-Files (predating the show by 15 years) with its True Believer conspiracy-hunter hero and aliens live among us! plot.

Oh, fuck me, I went off again.

Another lost great, BUDDY HACKETT. Holy shit, he had one act for the TV crowd that thought his voice was cute, and a whole 'nother for the night clubs.