Jay Leno; Conan O'Brien; Steve Carrell; Dennis Leary; Amy Poehler; Lenny Clark; Dane Cook; Patrice Oneal; Steven Wright; Louis C.K. (age 7) and on and on, were all born in Eastern Massachusetts and grew up around here. Not a bad list, but why? Easy. With the hypersensitivity of some on the wrong side of the political spectrum, a world where words mean everything and actions nothing; only three groups remain who are acceptable targets for comedic routines. Italians; Jews and the Irish are the only acceptable targets in todays wah, wah world, most likely because all three groups find their own groups pretty damn funny themselves and don't cry when dissed. Unsurprisingly Eastern Massachusetts has huge populations of all groups and therefore comedians are born and thrive here because of the nature of the populace here. I wonder what the list from Portland and Minneapolis looks like........just sayin
I've lived most of my life in the south west and west, so I don't have a dog in this fight. But if "Boston beanies" is an example of New York's finest, I have to side with the people from Boston.
Patrice O'Neal was the best crowd worj guy I ever saw live. I'd put Rich Vos just behind him. These were from being there. Bill Burr and Robert Kelly are two if the best both Boston guys. I think the New Jersey guys tend to be better than NY guys. Jim Norton, Jim Florentine, Rich Vos, Artie Lange (when not coked to the gills) all kill.
nyc has a decent group:
don rickles
dice clay
chris rock
martin lawrence
dave attell
george carlin
gilbert gottfried
edde murphy
andrew schulz
damon wayans
My list of funniest comedians would include Foxworthy, Engvall, Larry the cable guy, and Ron White not from Boston, and no politics in their humor, I’d include Louis Black from Philadelphia and the funniest man ever to take the stage George Carlin of NYC and honorable mention to Richard Pryor and Chris Rock none of your beantown guys make my list
No doubt there are lots of NY guys but I think right now the biggest names kind of shifted away.
All the old O&A guys were great when they would just sit around and crack on each other. Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer, Vos, Patrice, Burr , Norton, Kelly, Otto and George, Jim Jeffries. I never listed to Stern much but O&A some of the best shows were just them all fucking with each other.
Last night I met a drunken female ventriloquist. She told me that she wanted to sleep with me, but I wasn’t sure if it was her or the bottle of tequila talking.
Joe Rogan talks about this a lot, how there were so many great comedians coming out of the Boston and NYC areas. There's probably a lot of factors going on there. I would never want to try to be comedian in today's world, FUCK THAT. The already established guys, they could be somewhat safe and get away with saying something off color but an up and comer? Forget it, in today's world they will make sure you never work again anywhere. Not worth it. I don't see another great wave of comedians for a while, it's too risky and hyper PC right now.
one main reason why about 85% of the comedians are funny is that they are from cities like nyc, philly, chicago, and boston. those cites are cold as fuck 5 months out of the year. you develop thick skin and a sense of humor under those conditions.
^^ you know I thought Louie Anderson has some great stand up material back in the day. He won several awards early in his career without all that shit talking, and he was from cold as fuck Duluth, MN. His dry sense played well in Half Baked with Dave Chappelle as working up to manager from being a fry guy at the burger joint. It set up for a funny ass punchline when his coworker got on the mic and told everybody to fuck off.
Best comedians are Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, but Sam Kinnison was best at stand up.
Penn (gillette); Steve Sweeny; Jimmy Tingle; Paula Poundstone; Dana Gould (wife's former neighbor); Boston Area College grads - Howard Stern; Rosie O'Donnell; Jason Alexander; Paul Reubens; Jane Curtin; Hank Azaria; Presidential impersonator Jim Morris (only person on either list that I went to junior high with); and on and on. Its so tough to live here our choices are laugh or kill each other; hence the comedians.
There was a comedy club/Chinese restaurant in Boston called Ding Ho where new comedians were nurtured, maybe a little like 2nd City in Chicago. At one point the owner of Ding Ho lost the club in a poker game -- in a moment the primordial soup of comedy in Boston disappeared forever
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dane cook - 2-3 decent jokes over several years onstage does not qualify one to be considered on par a comedian as those listed.
don rickles
dice clay
chris rock
martin lawrence
dave attell
george carlin
gilbert gottfried
edde murphy
andrew schulz
damon wayans
All the old O&A guys were great when they would just sit around and crack on each other. Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer, Vos, Patrice, Burr , Norton, Kelly, Otto and George, Jim Jeffries. I never listed to Stern much but O&A some of the best shows were just them all fucking with each other.
Best comedians are Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, but Sam Kinnison was best at stand up.