Did you love him or hate him?
IMHO he was THE best comedian ever.
I love Sam Kinison because I grew up listening to him on Stern which was far more interesting than his later touring act or his last few comedy specials. Plus he gave great tips for cunnilingus which I have taken to heart and applied successfully. I wish that I wasn’t in Tulsa for less than a day because I would’ve stopped by his grave to pay respect to this man.
Thae guy was a genious.
I saw the E! True Hollywood Story on Sammy, and while I had a lot of problems with some of his homophobic and misogynisitc attitudes, the guy could be funny as hell.
It’s just so tough yet so easy to believe that this guy was once a bible-thumping preacher.
heptapod
[Sam Kinison “female voice”] More capital T, more capital T [/Sam Kinison “female voice”]
God I miss him.
i thought he was one of the best! was lucky enough to catch him live at the universal amphitheater. excellant show!
he said out loud shit most folks were too afraid to even think about, and said it in a way that made you wet your pants laughing!
hes dead, and carrot-top makes a comeback. this ain’t right. 
This gives me my chance to tell the morbid Sam Kinison story.
The night Kinison died a bunch of us were driving back from an Odessey of the Mind tourney. Sam’s version of “Wild Thing” came on the radio, so of course we all sang along. No mention of his death then…two later we switched to another station, which broke in with the news. OK, maybe the DJ had already heard about it when he put “Wild Thing” on, but it was strange no less.
I loved him. I organized a bunch of my friends to see him in Chicago one year - I was the only woman in the group. And IIRC, I was one of the few women in the theater who seemed to be having a good time…
Friend of mine said when he was a kid, he was taken by his parents to one of those travelling tent revivals, and Kenison was one of the preachers. He remembers that Kenison had a gun and was yelling at people to put more in the collection plate.
“Lick the alphabet!”
Amazingly enough, it worked for me everytime.
Even my gay and female friends found him funny when he was doing some of those routines that, you’d think, such people would find offensive. Just goes to show you: great delivery can let you get away with a lot of stuff. Which is why it’s a shame that Sam is dead and Andrew Dice Clay is still alive.
(Sam told the story once on talk-radio that ‘Dice’ was working as an Elvis impersonator at a club Sam was doing a few nights. ‘Dice’ comes up to Sam and says how much he enjoyed Sam’s show. Next that ya know…)
My all-time fave: his take on Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount, with the Five Thousand:
[Jesus]
“What? Five thousand of ya and none of you brought a sandwich? NO, LET ME GET IT!!!”
[dumb-hick voice, supposedly one of the faithful]
“Well, you said you wuz the Son o’ God…”
[Jesus]
“You’re missing the point, asshole! I didn’t come here to be Jesus the MIRACLE CATERER!”
Truly, we shall not see his like again.
I first saw Kinison back in the late 70s when I used to go watch my friend Bill Hicks at the Comedy Workshop in Houston. They were both getting started in comedy back then. (Bill was still in high school). They were both brilliant! Later, they toured together as the Outlaw Comics. It was great watching Kinison become so popular. He deserved it. Bill was a bit edgy and ranting for mainstream America. I understand he became quite popular in England though. Now they have both been dead for almost ten years. Its sad. I miss them and often wonder how far they could have taken their comedy if still alive.
Isn’t Bill Hicks the guy that was sampled on Tool’s Third Eye?
Colin
Top this: my SO and I saw Sam in concert on a Valentines day.
How romantic can you get?
I can no longer listen to “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” without hearing Sam’s take on it. He starts out doing it straight, then he gets to the spoken interlude, which rapidly builds into one of his “you ruined my life you crazy b****” rants (with the music still softly playing behind him). Then he finishes with the last verse perfectly straight.
Can anyone believe that it’s been 10 years since he died! And the comedy world has still not seen the likes of him!
I too went to see The Outlaws of Comedy with Sam and Bill Hicks. Both of them were the most intelligent, brilliant stand-ups I’ve ever seen. I’ve heard that after the shows, Hicks and Kinison would stay up all night arguing about biblical theology!
Orbit, you were friends with the late, great Bill Hicks?!!? Do tell! There are a lot of Bill Hicks fans here on the SDMB, I’m sure we’d all be interested in hearing about him. Maybe you can start a Bill Hicks Appreciation Thread??? Have you read the new Biography (**American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story**) about him? What do you think of it? I’ve heard that he had a lot of writings he was working on when he died, do you know anything about any plans to publish them?
More importantly do you know where I can get a copy of “Ninja Bachelor Party”?!?!??
Hicks was great. Kinison was slightly less so. I still sing his version of “Mississippi Queen” sometimes while bored.
I can sum up Kinison’s genius in two words:
LEPER WHORE!!
And I’m afraid we never will. Does any comedian on the scene today have the kind of guts he did?