Comedians! Somebody listed comedians! How did I not think of that?
Steve Martin, about 1971, when he was doing the arrow-through-the-head gag, not long before he became a huge star...
Jerry Seinfeld, in a little improv place, about a year before his show went on the air...
Robert Klein, complete with a band so he could sing his doo-wop songs -- just fabulous, even though the microphone kept electrocuting him...
Robin Williams, back when he was still doing so many drugs that you literally couldn't listen as fast as he could think, and if the audience missed the joke, he'd go all serious for an instant and say, "Keep up!" before he went on...
Stephen Wright, at an improv in Austin, wonderful, but too lowkey for the room that late at night -- he had a hard time with some drunks.
George Carlin, three times, back when he was really really good.
Bill Hicks, at the Comedy Workshop in Austin. Does anyone else remember him? He died of cancer just as he was about to become a huge star. He was so brilliant, so intense, so totally on target about life in America... he was without a doubt the most righteously angry person I've ever been in the same room with. Hicks was on fire, and he had something to SAY. What a loss.
After Bill Hicks's set, the manager of the place came out and said we had a surprise guest who wanted to try out some material on us -- and Sam Kinison staggered onstage. He was unbelievably drunk or drugged or both, and he had nothing funny to say at all -- it was just raging, top-of-his-lungs hostility directed at the audience. Most of it was unintelligible. My friend and I were the first to quietly make our way toward the side door. Kinison started screaming at us personally, calling us filthy names... and that triggered a mass exodus. The poor guy was just melting down. I was surprised he lived as long as he did.
Steve Martin, about 1971, when he was doing the arrow-through-the-head gag, not long before he became a huge star...
Jerry Seinfeld, in a little improv place, about a year before his show went on the air...
Robert Klein, complete with a band so he could sing his doo-wop songs -- just fabulous, even though the microphone kept electrocuting him...
Robin Williams, back when he was still doing so many drugs that you literally couldn't listen as fast as he could think, and if the audience missed the joke, he'd go all serious for an instant and say, "Keep up!" before he went on...
Stephen Wright, at an improv in Austin, wonderful, but too lowkey for the room that late at night -- he had a hard time with some drunks.
George Carlin, three times, back when he was really really good.
Bill Hicks, at the Comedy Workshop in Austin. Does anyone else remember him? He died of cancer just as he was about to become a huge star. He was so brilliant, so intense, so totally on target about life in America... he was without a doubt the most righteously angry person I've ever been in the same room with. Hicks was on fire, and he had something to SAY. What a loss.
After Bill Hicks's set, the manager of the place came out and said we had a surprise guest who wanted to try out some material on us -- and Sam Kinison staggered onstage. He was unbelievably drunk or drugged or both, and he had nothing funny to say at all -- it was just raging, top-of-his-lungs hostility directed at the audience. Most of it was unintelligible. My friend and I were the first to quietly make our way toward the side door. Kinison started screaming at us personally, calling us filthy names... and that triggered a mass exodus. The poor guy was just melting down. I was surprised he lived as long as he did.
