Nipsey Russell at Circus Circus, Las Vegas, 1976
I’ve seen both Jerry Seinfeld and Trevor Noah several times. Both hilarious, but in different ways. Noah told a story about meeting some friends at an Indian restaurant in Scotland that had me rolling in the aisles. His accents are amazing.
I saw George Carlin twice while at college.
Once, when walking past the ballroom in the student union building on campus, I saw they had a free comedy show going, so I stopped to watch for a bit. There was this young guy with a puppet named Peanut who was a woozle. This was between '89-'91, so it must have been very early in Jeff Dunhams career.
To be fair, Pee Wee’s original concept was that he was a stand-up comedian who had only been doing it for 2-3 weeks and was supposed to be bad. Eventually he came into his bigger personality, but the original joke was that he was supposed to be bad at it.
I remembered a few others.
The Flying Karamazov Brothers twice.
Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me been to two tapings
Says You! Also two tapings. For those who don’t know it, it was a radio quiz show similar to Wait, Wait, but focused more on trivia and wordplay than current events. In one of the shows you can hear me yelling out an answer.
Reminds me, we went to a taping of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me too. In the same theater we just saw Jim Gaffigan last Friday, in fact. The special guest was Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
I often like the ironic meta-humor of comedians who are pretending to be bad on purpose. Like Norm McDonald’s legendary set at the Bob Saget Roast where he told unbelievably stale, cheesy jokes he got from an old joke book of his dad’s (so I heard somewhere).
I, too, have been to two tapings of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. I guess I didn’t think of them because I was only thinking about standup or improv shows. The first was circa 2003, during the Carl Kasell era. The second was a few years ago when I was in Chicago, when Bill Kurtis was scorekeeper.
Here it is-- every act that was mentioned more than once, with number of mentions in this thread. Only acts that posters mentioned as actually seeing live, not ‘I’d like to see this act live someday’.
Bill Cosby and George Carlin in a tie:
Bill Cosby 8
George Carlin 8
Lewis Black 6
Suzy (Eddie) Izzard 6
Kids in the Hall 5
Penn and Teller 5
Steve Martin 5
Steven Wright 5
Dave Attel 4
Demetri Martin 4
Jeff Dunham 4
Robert Klein 4
Eric Idle/John Cleese 3
Jim Gaffigan 3
John Hodgman 3
Louie Anderson 3
Nate Bargatze 3
Patton Oswalt 3
Paula Poundstone 3
Peter Schickele 3
Rodney Dangerfield 3
Ron White 3
Sam Kinison 3
Bobcat Goldthwaite 2
Jerry Seinfeld 2
Mitch Hedburg 2
Nick Swardson 2
Gallagher 2
Amy Schumer 2
Flight Of The Conchords 2
Willie Tyler 2
Mike Birbiglia 2
Tig Notaro 2
Cheech and Chong 2
Anthony Jeselnik 2
Monty Python 2
Weird Al 2
John Mulaney 2
Broon and MooNiE the Magnif’Cent 2
Margaret Cho 2
Illana Glazer 2
Marcel Marceau 2
Henry Rollins 2
Sarah Millican 2
Maria Bamford 2
Emo Philips 2
Amazing Jonathon 2
Tim Allen 2
Howie Mandel 2
Steve Landesberg 2
Second City xx
Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts 2
Jim Jefferies 2
Carrot Top 2
Mark Russell 2
Rita Rudner 2
Victor Borge 2
Trevor Noah 2
The Flying Karamazov Brothers 2
Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me 2
Add me on as a one-time Penn and Teller attendee.
(That is, if you’re going to keep the list updated.)
I might keep it updated if this thread gets many more posts, but it seems like it’s winding down naturally.
I was mainly just curious how the acts with several mentions actually did. Actually surprised Bill Cosby did so well, but then, he was considered a well-loved, family-friendly comedian for many, many years before he was revealed to be a monster. I would like to see George Carlin get another mention or two if it’s in the cards, to break the tie with Cosby so Carlin ‘wins’ the thread.
Fair enough. The thread will probably continue on, but I guess there would be a rate below which it just seems like it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
And I, too, would be pleased to see Carlin emerge on top.
Love those guys. When we were in California, we’d be sure to catch both their solo shows and come back for the one they did together.
You should see what Stewart Lee does to latecomers.
(The whole lecture lasts about 2.30)
j
The funniest people (to me) that I’ve seen are:
Rodney Dangerfield - He was doing some candid work after the main part of the act and casually said it wasn’t easy being him. I yelled out, “how not easy is it?” He stopped for a second and said back, “you’re funny kid”.
Franklyn Ajaye - I’d seen him on Carson where he had to work clean and I liked him. So when I saw he was visiting the local comedy club I caught his act. His blue work was much funnier.
And the funniest guy I’ve seen in person - Greg Giraldo. Here he is roasting 'The Hoff".
Three i didn’t see on the list that suprise me by not being listed. Seen each in the last 18 months or so.
Comedian Bob Marley. . .based in Maine but does tour nationwide, although infrequently. The only stand up show were I was convinced I peed myself from laughing so hard ( Upon inspection, I didnt!)
Charlie Berens. . .from Wisconsin, the jokes have extra meaning if you know anything about Wisconsin life or culture.
Henry Cho. . .also a show where I came close to experiencing a “Bob Marley” like event!
That is quite the list! Makes me even more excited you complementing my Bass Boat joke.
I neglected to put them on my list too. Probably because I consider them magicians first.
Thought of one more for me: Bob Hope.
Not at a comedy club; he was taping one of his NBC TV specials. Maybe I can count two of his specials, since I saw him twice at his TV tapings, once in 1980 and the other in 1988.
Each time, he did about 45 minutes of a standup routine to start the show. Some jokes were gut-bustingly funny, some were amusing, others fell flat. That was fine, as when I watched the TV specials when they aired later, the editors pared those 45-minute routines down to ten minutes of the gut-bustingly funny stuff. Great studio audience reactions to those, so that’s why they were selected.
Yeah, he was good, especially in a roast. And, unfortunately, another reminder of how many of the comedians mentioned here passed too soon.
That’s got to be a tricky name to have, coming up as a comedian-- if a comedy club advertises “Bob Marley Live!”, I have to imagine that’s gotta confuse a lot of people. Maybe they word it “Bob Marley Live! (not that one)”.
It’s as if an up-and-comer in the music business was named Robin Williams. “Hey, ever consider changing your stage name, maybe go by ‘Rob Williams’ at least?” “No! This is my birth name, and I’m proud of it, dammit!”.
I’m not familiar with his standup, but I have seen a lot of his comedy skits on youTube shorts, which are, yes, very centered on Wisconsin life and culture. I enjoy them, since as a lifelong Michigander I’m more than Midwestern enough to ‘get it’.