Ten Great Comedians

Out of all the people on this list George Carlin's take on life and people is the closest to my own. His use of language and love of words, his views on religion, governments and big business so closely parallels my own interests and fascinations it's quite spooky. His social commentary is second to none as is his wordplay and verbal inventiveness. He's the most articulate man on this list and he does pissed off with more flair than anyone alive, targetting hypocrisy, stupidity and elitism with laser precision. Some of my favourite routines of George's are 'It's Not A Sport', 'Baseball and Football', 'Religion Is Bullshit', and 'The 10 Commandments'. It seems to me that Carlin produced such a large body of work on the major issues in life of which so much was of such a high quality that he's kind of wasted it for future generations of comedians - George has already said it all and said it better than you ever will. Surely the best stand-up comedian ever.

Jimmy Carr has an air of the public schoolboy about him. He doesn't look like your typical stand-up comic - he looks more like an accountant or some sort of civil servant. However, once he gets started into his routines you'll realise there's a quick and very sly wit at work. He plays heavily on the fact that he doesn't look like someone who would say anything too offensive by matter of factly uttering the most outrageous things now and again to throw you off balance. Some of the jokes he makes at celebrities' expense are so pointed and cutting that I can't help but be tickled because even though he's known for that kind of acerbic wit a lot of these comments still come from left field and shock you into laghing at their sheer audacity. Likes to play on people's natural uneasiness with embarrassment and inappropriateness and has played some excellent high brow practical jokes in national newspapers which serves as a great source of material in his gigs.

I believe every good comedian shares one thing in common and that's an unconventional way of looking at the world and the people in it. Some comedians distance themselves from the foolish goings on in the world and some just dive in and bare all. Billy Connolly is wholeheartedly of the latter group. He basically tells the audience stories of the things he's done and the stuff that happens to him and he does it in such a hilarious way that you can't help but be swept up in the madness of these situations and the larger than life characters that seem to be circling him constantly, ready to swoop down and mess with his head. Frequently has himself in stitches remembering the daftness of the situations he's recounting. Wanders off the point a lot but somehow always makes his way back eventually.

Dave Gorman may go down in history as the inventor of an entirely new type of stand-up comedy that combines journalistic reporting, drunken pub bets, international travel, and a dash of maths. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing that many comedians are currently lined up to emulate so for now he's ploughing a lonely furrow. Dave Gorman appeals to the geek in me; the concept of searching for and meeting 54 Dave Gormans for a pub bet then giving a powerpoint presentation on the results, complete with graphs and pie charts to represent Miles Per Dave Gorman to me is pure genius. His Googlewhack Adventure was a timely and fascinating odyssey and his least publicised venture Dave Gorman's Interesting Astrological Experiment where he had to live his life following astrological advice was also inspired. Gorman's a true original.

Bill Hicks was something of a crusader. He had a fierce intelligence and was a keen observer of life. He was fascinated by people and was convinced there was a better way to live and get along with each other, but despaired sometimes that it didn't seem to be possible the way things were. He never stopped railing against corporate America and the greedy, self-serving politicians that run the country. Bill Hicks had a knack of tickling your funny bone by pointing out the absurdities all around in a really scathing manner. I've never heard any comedian before or since be so enraged about the things he was saying as Hicks was in his Rant In E Minor gig - he was really passionate about getting his message across. He really didn't deserve to die so young, and the world's a poorer place without him.

Eddie Izzard is something of a rennaisance man. He's a very successful stand-up comedian, part-time film star and now star of his own television show The Riches. He speaks at least 3 languages - and is fluent enough in French to do his whole show in front of a Parisian audience in their native tongue. Added to that and despite what you might think looking at his photograph he's quite a keen transvestite: truly a modern man. His take on the world is oftentimes bizarre, frequently surreal, yet always somehow down to earth, if you can imagine that. A very British comedian - kind of pythonesque at times. Excellent at looking at universal themes in a completely off-kilter way. He often has a sort of free form jazz style of delivery and ad-libs a fair amount but always hits on some inspired lunacy to carry on his insane wonderings. Another comedian who has obviously a great love of language and it's idiosyncracies.

I remember listening to 'Wanted' on vinyl many years ago and it's still funny today. Richard Pryor reminds me a lot of a black version of Billy Connolly. He was another comic from the baring your soul school of stand-up. He was unflinchingly honest about his background and the mistakes he made in his life. Even if the things he was confessing were reprehensible, or at the very least extremely inadvisable he got you on his side by putting such a simple comic spin on things and allowing you so much access to his private life and feelings that you couldn't help but sympathise with him. Had a penchant for anthropomorphising animals to hilarious effect in a lot of his routines. Was also a pleasure to watch in films such as Brewster's Millions and Stir Crazy.

Chris Rock seems like a pretty angry guy. For a long time I bypassed him when it came to stand-up because I considered him to be pretty racist, and I wasn't interested in someone who only ever told jokes about black people and how they were kept down by the white man. A lot of his routines revolve around that premise, but the observations Rock makes about the various aspects of racism in America are actually very astute and thought-provoking aside from being very funny indeed. Chris Rock is not stupid; he understands the heirarchy that exists in America and he calls it as he sees it. He's not racist; in fact he's despairing of racists, bigots and idiots in general regardless of their creed or colour. Chris Rock is excellent at cutting right to the heart of an issue with a devastatingly accurate observation, then running with it. One of the very best comedians currently doing stand-up.

Steven Wright is like an espresso to every other stand-up comedian's instant coffee. Watching a 60 minute Steven Wright gig is equivalent to watching about five hours of any other comedian because Wright crams about five jokes into the same time as any other comedian takes to tell one. He has stripped down a stand-up gig to it's essential element; the one-liner. I haven't counted them but the gig I saw which lasted no more than an hour must have had in excess of 200 one-liners, one after another. The ultimate lateral thinker, a lot of Steven Wright's jokes are pretty esoteric, and it takes a few seconds to get them, but he's right on to the next one before you've even got a chance to laugh sometimes. Where most comedians look at the world slightly askew, Steven Wright is hanging upside down in the lotus position, looking through a cracked kaleidoscope at a point far away over the horizon.