Discussion Forum

Last night, my wife, son, and I went to go see Jeff Dunham. He's the ventriloquist who does Walter, Peanut, Jose Jalepeno (on a stick), and Achmed the Dead Terrorist (look them up on You Tube if you are unfamiliar with his work).

It was possibly the most gut splitting three hours of my life!

I've seen three of the four Blue Comedy guys, Gallagher, Michael Winslow, and many other stand up comedians in person over the years. This was, however, the funniest of them all.

If any of you ever get a chance to see him, don't miss him.

That said, who is the funniest you've ever seen in person?

(Rule #1, Morse and Skoob can't say each other. Rule #2, Duncan, Helium, and Monkey can't name any of their dozens of aliases).

Richard Pryor, without a doubt.

Richard Pryor is a legend. I'm so jealous you saw him live.

Never heard of Jeff Dunham, I will look him up.

I've seen two live comedy shows recently. One was the Chuckle Brothers in their Chuckle Trek show at Blackpool Winter Gardens, and I saw Bill Bailey doing stand-up at The Lowry in Manchester.

The Chuckle Brothers were, as always, terrible - but still funny all the same. They're a duo, and their claim to fame is the Chucklevision slapstick comedy children's TV show.

In the shows Paul, the taller one, gets a hairbrained scheme, Barry, the shorter one, usually sees the flaws in the scheme, but goes along with it anyway, and chaos usually ensues. It's pretty much like Laurel and Hardy meets the 80s. It's a good programme.

They're getting a bit old now, and fat, and they had too much makeup on - Paul looked like he should've been doing Aladdin.

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Bill Bailey is a stand-up comedian, musician, and actor.

His stand-up show was based on his Tinselworm tour, but had quite a lot of new stuff thrown in. It was, as always, very, very funny.

What was interesting though, was the cross-section of society which was in the audience. I had a couple of glue sniffers sat next to me (they may have been art students I suppose), sat two rows in front were a group of chavs, in front of me was an old-ish looking business man, behind were some normal looking thirtysomethings, and that pattern sort of resounded around the auditorium.

Pretty special how comedy brings people together.

I had a great moment too where I laughed when no-one else did. And it was the biggest guffaw you ever heard.

Bill's real name is Mark - like me

Jeff Dunham is funny.

Check out, Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

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Quote: Mark Lowton

Jeff Dunham is funny.

Check out, Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

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Jack Dee and Eddie "big dick" Murphy!!!

How was Jack Dee?

I've never seen him do stand-up, only on TV, mostly quiz shows, except that god-awful show where he had a Polish cleaner (that's all I remember from it). I never find him all that funny, but to get where he is, he must be...either that, or he really does suck.

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Quote: Mark Lowton

How was Jack Dee?

I've never seen him do stand-up, only on TV, mostly quiz shows, except that god-awful show where he had a Polish cleaner (that's all I remember from it). I never find him all that funny, but to get where he is, he must be...either that, or he really does suck.

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Mark he heads "Live at the Apollo" and the Polish cleaner is magnificent, you like Beethoven, I love Joy Division, it's all a matter of taste!!

I saw Bill Bailey at the Lowry - I didn't see you there....are you sure you went?

Oh hang on, no I saw him at the Apollo, carry on.

Funniest comedians I have seen live...
1. Dara O'Briein (a little bit of wee came out, I laughed that hard)
2. Rhod Gilbert (I pulled a muscle in my shoulder laughing)
3. Billy Connoly (sheer genius)
4. Newman and Badiel (neither particularly funny on their own, but together...)
5. Michael Mackintire
6. Eddie Izzard
7. Ed Byrne
8. Jeff Green
9. Bill Bailey
10. Ross Noble (I saw him in a small club in Chester, very funny, don't know how well he'd do at a huge venue, but close up, very funny because of his interaction with the audience).

I've also seen quite a few others, but that's the top 10.

What I find weird, is when you look back on a gig, they very rarely make you laugh again, or indeed, make anybody else laugh when you repeat what you found hilarious at the time. Though I still giggle when I think of Rhod Gilbert's routines, and still laughed out loud when I saw him repeat the routines.

I must have seen 20/30 comedians on stage, but only one band.

Iain

Hands down - the late, great prophet, Richard Pryor. Early 80's, Arie Crown Theatre, Chicago. Post-burning himself up. Husband du jour and I laughed until we needed oxygen. I mean actual oxygen from a metal bottle with a valve on it. Pryor nearly killed me! Pure, true, unadulterated genius. I miss him dearly.

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Quote: Geneva Slim

Hands down - the late, great prophet, Richard Pryor. Early 80's, Arie Crown Theatre, Chicago. Post-burning himself up. Husband du jour and I laughed until we needed oxygen. I mean actual oxygen from a metal bottle with a valve on it. Pryor nearly killed me! Pure, true, unadulterated genius. I miss him dearly.

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For me, there are two comedic geniuses who stand head and shoulders above the rest.

The Marx Bros and Laurel and Hardy were fantastic. Shit, how much would those guys earn today?

But we're talking recently here.

Richard Pryor and Billy Connelly.

La creme de la creme.

If I could be just one tenth as funny as these guys I'd be the best Spoof writer ever. But I'm not, so I just live with it.

Not quite sure what I'm trying to say here, but Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Billy Connelly and the late and much loved Richard Pryor,

Simply the best.

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Quote: Geneva Slim

Hands down - the late, great prophet, Richard Pryor. Early 80's, Arie Crown Theatre, Chicago. Post-burning himself up. Husband du jour and I laughed until we needed oxygen. I mean actual oxygen from a metal bottle with a valve on it. Pryor nearly killed me! Pure, true, unadulterated genius. I miss him dearly.

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Hey Geneva

Why the fuck you need oxygen?

What the fuck is the matter with you?

You can't breathe?

Shit, I had enough already of non breathing motherfuckers.

RIP Richard Pryor.

A true comedy hero.

My kindest regards in mutual appreciation.

Skoob.

I haven't seen him 'live', but I've seen him on Mock The Week, and I think Frankie Boyle is a funny bloke.

He takes over the show, and puts everyone else in the shade, whoever 'everyone else' is.

He's disgustingly funny.