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COMEDY
HUFFINGTON
12.02.12
GARY GERSHOFF/WIREIMAGE /GETTY IMAGES(GAFFIGAN); SUSAN MALJAN (KINDLER) MICHAEL SCHWARTZ/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES (MARON)
JIM GAFFIGAN
I’d say the best performance I’ve seen
was Dave Attell on any night when
I first started stand-up in the 90s. I
would watch in amazement as Attell
would do a new 20 minutes of material
every night at the Comedy Cellar. You
would only hear the new material once. I
remember thinking, “If only I could write
at the level of the daily material he threw
away.” His daily new material would
do all the work. It’s not that he wasn’t
trying, he was, but it was the strength
of the material that blew me away. Even
audience members that didn’t like what
he was talking about laughed. Dave
Attell was, and is, undeniable.
ANDY KINDLER
The set I remember was one that
Brian Regan did on the old Dennis
Miller show. This was when Dennis
Miller had a network show, in the
‘90s... not that I want to give him
any kind of positive notice in a story.
[Regan] told a story about donuts,
and he did a bit where he was doing
that Brian Regan thing where he’s
constantly confused, where he’s
pretending he’s not that bright. But
he is that bright; he wouldn’t be able
to tell the story if he weren’t bright.
Oh, and any recent set by James
Adomian has been so funny. He’s
the next coming of Jesus.
MARC MARON
Sam Kinison at The Comedy
Store. When he conceived the
“homosexual necrophiliac” bit,
it was beyond anything I’d seen
before. He’d found some news
article about two dudes who were
paying mortuary owners to have
sex with the freshest male corpse.
He would lay face down and start
speaking as the dead guy. Then he
starts rocking back and forth as if
someone’s fucking him. And then
[he’s] like, “What’s this? Is that a
dick in my ass?” The vulnerability
of him taking the point of view
of this dead guy who thinks he’s
going to heaven, and then he
just gets fucked — that one had
a profound effect on me. There
were no parameters other than the
one’s you make yourself for what
you can and cannot do onstage.
TIG NOTARO
MIKE BIRBIGLIA
One that pricks out [to me] is not stand-up, it was a sketch
group. They’re called the Pajama Men. They both do unbelievable
characters, and their bodies and faces morph into things I
couldn’t believe. I remember just thinking, where is this going?
But having all the faith in the world they were way too smart for
this to not pay off. And Jon Dore. I was unfamiliar with him, I saw
him in Portland the first time. I felt like he had that utter silliness
that really gets to me. It’s so hard to get excited about comedy
when you see it so much. But Jon Dore and the Pajama Men gave
me such a thankful moment.
My wife and I once went to see Doug Stanhope at
Caroline’s. He’s so fearless the audience settles into
this level of connectedness with him that I’ve never
witnessed before. I was w