Great comedy stand up and skits
- Thread starter Zoot Allures
- Start date
This is from Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, (2007-09), which had three seasons of six episodes on ITV in the UK. I've watched most of the episodes more than once.
You can watch it online, or download the episodes, (CINEPACK - Xvid .avi video file type) by clicking here
Each episode has several sketches, often with recurring characters, plus a song parody at the end. Some of the recurring characters are in all three series, others only in one or two.
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In October/ November, 1984, I performed on Amateur Night at Yuk Yuks in Yorkville three times. Amateur Night was Monday, and cost $1.05, ('1050 CHUM' radio was a sponsor). Tuesday-Thursday was 'the small showcase', (as lesser-known headliner, on less busy nights), and Friday-Sunday was the main attraction for the week.
Ten people plus a Yuk Yuks employee as host performed on Amateur Night. That would be the first five people who phoned in at 11:00 AM on Monday, and five people being 'groomed' by Yuk Yuks as future employees. In late 1984, the Yuk Yuks farm team included Jeremy Hotz, Tim Sims, Harland Williams and Tim Progosh, (he was later a cast member on the 1996 Canadian TV series The Adventures of Sinbad). I am 100% certain than none of those four remember me. There was also a guy named "Tramov" who had a bizarre act, while wearing an auburn-coloured wig. A heckler yelled 'Where did you get that hair?', and Tramov improvised 'This hair? Why... I got it...FROM YOUR MOM'S CUNT!' - you had to be there.
Club owner Mark Breslin had hired a guy for the small showcase who was completely unknown outside of the Houston, Texas area. Mark knew the guy was funny, but he was concerned that the club would be empty, since no one else in Toronto knew who the guy was, so they brought him out on Amateur Night to do a half-hour of his act. That's the true story of how I 'opened' for the first-ever Toronto live performance of Sam Kinison.
This was almost a year before Sam appeared on HBO's Rodney Dangerfield's Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special in August 1985. I had never laughed so hard before, nor since. If anything, Sam's act was more 'blue' early in his career, and always more dark in a club performance as opposed to something filmed for television or home video. It's also an unique experience when the entire audience is seeing Sam's act for the first time, live, with no prior knowledge of what to expect. In many ways, the performance was painful, sort of like 'tickle torture'. The entire audience would be laughing hard, then he'd hit us again, before we had a chance to collectively catch our breath.
In today's climate, Sam would have been 'cancelled' before he ever left Houston. To me, it's really sad when I see a modern 'woke' comedian/ comedienne performing, and the audience applauds, because they agree with what's being said, but there's no laughter, because none of what's being said is funny.
To me, April 10, 1992 is 'the day the laughter died'. In my entire life, I think I've met two or three Millennials or younger people who have even heard of Sam. The Left would like to pretend that he had never existed.
There would be no Howard Stern Show today without Frank Zappa and Sam Kinison. They cancelled Louis CK, what chance would Sam have?
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