Sexy vs. Not, Woman vs. Man, and other things
This is all brought on by last night's 30 Rock. It was talking about women and women's own views on women and women comedians, etc. And it, ya know, it was really interesting, because I'm kind of one of those woman-hating feminists that makes no sense? LOL. I don't hate women in general, just, ya know, most of them. No. I'm kidding. I don't
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I tend to prefer what I kind of think of as conversationalist comedians. I generally like my comedians to come across like "if i were to sit across from him at the dinner table, he would be just as funny." Not, okay, turn the switch on, I'm Comedy Guy. Not as many American comedians are like that these days, I don't think. We got tired of them too.
Are you familiar with Denis Leary? Louis CK? Those are two I can think of off the top of my head, but those guys are more like what I'm a fan of. There's one dude that I think is absolutely hysterical and he's got a lot of stuff that on paper, I wouldn't like, but he's just so damn cute that he pulls all of it off and I ADORE him, Gabriel Iglasias. I'm sure I spelled it wrong.
Denis Leary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q7kUFS-0XQ
He actually got his break in the UK rather than here, so that should probably say something: Then again, he is "mean" and "brash" so perhaps that's not what you mean? I'm not sure what you mean by aggressive. He's aggressive in a way that you think he's going to bitch himself into having a heartattack on the stage, not agressive in the "setup/punchline" sense.
Louis CK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0rSXjVuJVg
Lois CK isn't as well known as he should be, because he's pretty low key. He's actually one of those comedians that everyone steals from, and makes it big off of his shit, and he just sits back and goes "ok then, apparently I didn't say it with a big enough accent so..."
Gabriel Iglasias
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6j_13-qzDY
Of those that I do like that are joke joke joke tend to be very Old School, like Rodney Dangerfield, just because he's just so damn classic. But yeah, give me that smarmy, lizard suit, "joke, I'm going to laugh at my own joke, and set up/punchline, setup/punchline." No. I pretty much don't like any comedian that has a "set up/punchline" these days. VERY few pull it off anymore.
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Denis, I like sometimes. His older stuff was good, but the newer stuff doesn't grab me as much. Same as Sarah Silverman actually, though with her it's a combination of her stuff not changing much, and her sometimes straying too close to the offensiveness for offensiveness's sake side of the coin. (It's the same with Tommy Teirnan, who's a really famous Irish stand-up; his old stuff is great, but now it's all shouting and vague racism) Louis CK I love, I'd say him and Patton Oswalt are my favourite stand-ups working out of the US right now.
My favourite UK/Irl people right now are
Dylan Moran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-dTgR1BR2c
He has this totally shambolic style, very I-just-walked-on-stage-and-now-I-appear-to-be-doing-comedy, but he's hilarious. Very stream-of-conciousness.He has long bits that my friends and I can quote almost perfectly, so his theories about gin tend to come up late at night.
Dara O'Briain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYBWA7wX_LM
I love this guy! He's big on audience interaction, but it's never in a mean way, so it doesn't get uncomfortable. It also means that a lot of his stuff is improvised, and I love that, when you can see a comedian actually working for it on-stage. I also love that on his DVDs, he usually includes a recording of an Irish show as well, because he tells jokes over here that just wouldn't make any sense to an English audience.
Stewert Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGAOCVwLrXo
This guy is amazing. Have you heard of Jerry Springer, The Opera? He wrote that. He's just so freaking intelligent and considered, and he manages to make it all hilarious. His delivery style is pretty slow, but it's all so good that you're actually kind of hanging on your seat, waiting for him to finish. He has whole bits on political correctness that just conclusively proove you don't need to be offensive to be funny.
I don't know about the US scene (there probably isn't a single scene over there, really) but the UK scene is good at examining itself sometimes. Probably because the country's a lot smaller, so the popular guys are comparatively way more famous, and lots of them have tv shows or newspaper columns, and they're willing to talk about various issues brought up by comedy. And then there are people like Frankie Boyle, who rely on the whole 'it's just a joke' thing, which I'm not a fan of at all.
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Thank you for those links! Tomorrow when I'm more awake I'll give them a look-see and let you know!
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