I heard that Sam Kinison hated Bobcat Goldwaith for some reason. There are references to an angry Howard Stern show call but no details available.
Also, I remember hearing interviews with Kinison who said he didn’t like Goldwaith and “you know how I feel” but I never figured out why the hate.
Same as with “Dice” Clay and Rosanne Barr - perceived or suggested theft of material was the apparent reason. IMO, having “arch enemies” may have just been part of his angry schtick and it may be a pointless exercise to look for anything concrete.
IIRC Marc Maron’s WTF podcast interview with Bobcat addressed this at some length.
for those of us who are too lazy for the podcast, could you summarize?
Yes please. This appears to be a “premium” podcast.
Just listened to it. It’s not a huge part of the conversation. It just comes up as an aside.
Maron noted that Goldthwaite had never participated in any of the backbiting going on and didn’t, for example, publicly answer to things that Kinison said about him.
Some excerpts from the conversation –
Goldthwaite: … Kinison would say that I stole my act from him … What thing in my act did I steal from him? …
Maron: There was some kind of weird feud …
Goldthwaite: Well, he had a feud because, you know, he was coked up … and he invented everything. “I invented interchangeable parts!” …
Maron: … I invented water! Steve Pearl used to do a joke about that. I used to say “When are you coming up, Steve?” … “Why, to listen about how Sam invented the printing press and water?” …
Goldthwaite: So, I made the mistake of being popular at the same time but I mean my act … yeah, he screamed and I screamed … but I never really saw his act. And I think he was a little influenced by me at one point and I think he had a hard time living with that. And because I didn’t, like, challenge him and say “fuck you! I’m the kind of screaming comedy!” … because he was pursuing things that I never thought was important … chasing after celebrities and having your picture taken with porn stars. You’re the king of screaming? What the fuck? It just seemed so infantile.
I don’t know if it’s in that interview or the other Goldthwaite interview, but in one there is a fairly lengthy discussion (several minutes long) of his early life as a standup and his interactions with Kinison, and how (in the end) utterly batshit, paranoid and insane Kinison was WRT to people around him.
In thinking abot it now it actually might have been Maron himself who mentioned he had to leave town because he felt Kinison was threatening his life at some point.
I think I recall the one in which Maron talks about his early history with Kinison, but I don’t think Goldthwaite was part of that one. But, yes, Kinison was insane. If I recall correctly, Maron admitted that a lot of his reaction – fleeing town – had to do with the fact that Maron himself was coked up and paranoid. He admitted that looking back on it, it was really unlikely that Kinison was actually threatening his life.