#876 50 top comedians - Let me bore you to sleep - Jason Newland (5th August 2022)

Hello and hello again and hello thrice. Welcome to Let Me Bore You to Sleep. Please only listen when you can safely, safely close your eyes.

I want to say a quick shout out to Heidi, Mike, Sky, Ben and Molly. So thank you there and also Barry and Kissy. Yay! Just want to say a quick hi to those that have been active on my my private group, my private fake book group, Jason Newland Hypnotist Group.

And so Molly, Molly posted something today that made me laugh. It's seven hours ago. And it's a post saying, welcome all new members to the most exciting group on the internet.

That's funny, very, very funny. Because, well, if you listen to me, you know that I'm probably not the most exciting person in the world, actually. Yeah, probably not quite the most exciting.

Probably a little bit less exciting than exciting people that you've previously listened to. Oh, and so all 57. So now it's 67.

Oh, wow, 67 people. 67. So what was it? That was 25th of July, we had 57.

And now on the 5th of August, we've got 10 more. So yeah. So hi, Molly.

Thanks for that. And there are a few more people. I was going to have a little look, see who's, who's joined lately.

Oh, it doesn't say. It doesn't say when they joined. Oh.

Oh, I don't mind. But there's one name I think is fairly new. If you just joined, welcome.

Hi. 21. Oh, only 25 of them are my friends on Facebook.

The rest are people that joined. So it's not showing me who's actually in the group. That's weird.

Why wouldn't it do that? New people and pages that join a group will appear here. Friends. New to the group.

Oh, okay. Okay. New to the group.

Faye joined seven hours ago. Hi, Faye. Thanks, Faye.

Hello. Sky joined 13 hours ago. Hi, Sky.

Jenny joined 13 hours ago. Hi, Jenny. Patty joined 13 hours ago.

Hello, Patty. I'm not saying surnames here. I'm just saying the first names.

But chances are, if you are listening and you joined the private group, and your name is one of the names that I just read out, it's probably you. You know, I mean, there may be another Faye in the group. But this probably not right now.

You know, maybe when it gets massive, maybe when it's, I don't know, 10 years time and we've amassed maybe over 100 members, then yeah, there might be I guess, a couple of names similar to each other. But so Jonah or Jonah. Hi, welcome.

That was 13 hours ago. Stephen joined on Wednesday. Welcome, Stephen.

Gail joined last Friday. So I won't go any further back than that. But yeah.

See, I, Jason Newland's Titmatist group. I don't even remember making this group. Did I make this group? Or did someone else do it? I honestly don't remember.

But anyway, it's kind of a place that you can go and meet other other people that also get bored by my super exciting voice on a regular basis. And that's it really. It's kind of it.

There's not many people on there. And I don't post, generally post my recordings on there, because this is more for people that are already listening to my recordings and just want to maybe get together and have a chat or whatever. Yeah, I do post my recordings on the other podcast pages.

I did post, I did post a recording the other day, because Mike, it's Mike, wasn't it? Mike mentioned I hadn't posted anything for a while. So I just posted my latest recording just to let him know that it's, there is a new one. So what I've started doing, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep this consistent, because consistency is not my middle name.

Is it anyone's middle name? Hmm. And what I've been trying to do, and the last I'm not going to try to do today, and tomorrow, and the next day is make my recordings, the new recordings available, the Let Me Boy To Sleep recordings. The first one without any music will be available at 11pm.

So I will upload it and make it so it publishes, it's released or whatever, released. It sounds so professional, doesn't it? Or criminal, I guess, if it's released criminals. And these things you do release, you release movies, you release albums, and you release criminals.

Maybe release birds. But anyway, that is what I'm planning to do. And then what's going on here? Oh, a tribute to Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen hasn't passed away, has he? Leonard Cohen. I didn't know he was, blimey, he is gone. He left in 2016.

That was weird. I just didn't know. I tried to listen to Leonard Cohen when I was younger because pretty much everything happened when I was younger.

But I was a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big fan of Bob Dylan when I was in my early 20s. No, 30s. Yeah, 20s.

I'm so many decades old now that I forget which one's the young one. 20s. Yeah.

And yeah, in fact, I might, I might not even be 20. But I think I was about 20. Maybe 21 when I first discovered Bob Dylan.

Now, I'd heard of Bob Dylan. I'd heard some of his songs, you know, over the years. But, you know, when you consider Bob Dylan, technically, his, should we say his best days, his most prolific, most successful part of his career would have been completed by the time I got to the age of buying records, let's say, by the age of, when did I get my first record? I think I, I had, see, when I was, I'm trying to think back, when I was about nine, maybe 10, my parents bought me an album, like a, you know, vinyl album.

And it was, I think, ABBA's greatest hits. Now, at the time, ABBA were, I think they kind of just come into the end of their, their lifespan, you know, as being like, current, just come into, yeah, I'm pretty sure. So I think after that time, they stopped making hits.

And, but of course, their songs lived on for thousands of years afterwards. And then they came back when they were in their 90s. That's good.

So I got the album, but it was, it scratched, it jumped. So, because I had this, do you know what jumped means? Scratched. Well, I had this record player.

It wasn't a new record player, I don't think, unless I got a new one. I might have got a record player for my birthday. But I had an old one to start with, like a hand-me-down.

And it was proper, like had a case on it, a lid. And you open the lid up, which I guess is most cases, when there's a lid involved, you, to get inside, you have to open the lid up. I'm trying to help with the visual of this, but, um, I mean, did I need to mention that you need to lift the lid up, if it's got a lid? Like the door's got a lock, and you've locked the door.

In order to get back in, you need to unlock the door, but you wouldn't necessarily say that, would you? Like, I came in with a shopping. So I opened the front door, got through there, you know, like, well, I unlocked the front door with a key, because the key, the lock was locked, because it's a front door with a lock, and I locked it when I left. You might leave that bit out.

Even though it's a fairly important aspect, because, you know, first of all, if you didn't unlock it, you wouldn't be able to open it, unless you were super strong, or it was a very, very, very weak door. Other than that, you just walk through the door. I mean, not many people could do that.

But does it need to be mentioned? I mean, it's like, I went and had a lovely meal with my husband last night. We had a great meal, and we had steak, and caviar, and champagne, and, you know, like, I had a dessert, and there was vegetables, and, you know, and then we went dancing. Of course, I must be going back in time.

I don't know if stuff like that happens anymore. And someone could be really pedantic and say, well, that's nice, but you missed out some important details. You know what? Did you chew the food? Did you swallow the food? Did you swallow the wine? Like, that's just assumed, isn't it? Perhaps it doesn't need to be included.

But if we did include that kind of stuff, wouldn't it make the stories very tedious? Wouldn't it make the stories more like me? More like these recordings, where information that doesn't really, not necessarily relevant, to life, doesn't always need to be included, perhaps. Anyway, I was really into Bob Dylan. I have no idea why I'm talking about caviar and champagne.

And I think because at that time, back in the early 90s, I was in London, working in a very, very, very low paid job. But I didn't care because I was going to comedy clubs in the evening, and at the weekend, and I was, I was going to be famous, man. I was, I was going to be famous.

And I never was funny enough. Literally, I was not funny enough to be famous. That's funny, isn't it? No.

And, but during that period, I was reading. And I got, I kept up my hobby of reading books and collecting books and stuff. And, you know, generally books have always been fairly cheap, you know, and there's some, I've got some books that aren't cheap.

But generally, you know, it's £10 for a book, or £7.99, or, you know, back then, it's not a huge rise in prices. Even 30 years ago, you know, about a tenner, maybe now they're 15, 16 quid, I don't know. I haven't, I haven't bought many like new books, fiction books or anything lately.

Although I do sort of, I try to add to my hypnosis collection, gradually bit by bit. Anyway, I was really into, I'm not quite sure how I got into it. How did I get into it? Just trying to think.

So the early 90s, what was I interested in? Comedy. There wasn't much in the way of books on comedy. I found, I got a couple, talking about the old comedians from the 50s and the 60s, Lenny Bruce, but I'd already discovered Lenny Bruce years before that.

I had albums of his. So I had a collection of, I had a really good comedy collection before I moved to London, and I sold it all so I could afford to move to London. So I collected throughout 1990, 89 and 90, all these videos, audios, albums, and yeah, I sold the whole lot.

There was, there's a lot of stuff there. There was, but there you go. And so I discovered a lot of people like Lenny Bruce, because we didn't have the internet back then.

And it's not something that you, well, where I lived, couldn't really go into the library and find out the history of stand-up comedy, because there was very little in the way of books on the subject. There's, there's a few now, and there was a couple back then, and I bought them. There wasn't a huge amount.

There, you know, this is autobiographies from comedians, and I didn't, didn't really bother so much with that. But I did have a book that was, it was like a script of the bits that Lenny Bruce did. And I had it for years, but I haven't got it anymore.

And as I said earlier, I had this book, what was it called? The Last Stand or something. If I remembered that rightly, that is, how weird would that be? The Last Stand book. The Last Stand.

There is, but it's not. Book about comics. The Last, no.

Superheroes are coming up. You put in comics, then comedians, if I put in comedians. The Last Laugh.

Yes. I wasn't that far off, was I? The Last Laugh. And I bet you, if I look at it, it's going to be, the year is going to be around the time that I bought it.

Maybe, well, it's going to be earlier than when I bought it. It says here published in 2000, but it was definitely published before that. Originally, because I bought it.

Oh, maybe I'm wrong then. Oh, no. The Last Stand.

The world of stand-up comics. Phil Berger. This 100% was written.

He also read, he read a book about Joe Frazier as well. Might. Oh, come on.

If it's the same bloke, this is quite prolific. Smoking Joe Frazier. Right.

I need to find this out. I need to find out exactly when this book came out, because it was not 2000, because I had it in 1991. And this is going to bug me.

It is, honestly. I want to find out when it originally was released. The Last Laugh.

The world of stand-up comics. Book by Phil Berger. Originally published in 1975.

Wow. So it was published 16 years before I bought it. I didn't realize it was that old.

It makes sense that it was that old, because oh, that's what they've done. That's what they've done. They updated it, because they've added more of the comedians that are around now.

Eddie Murphy. Robin Williams. The people, what's his name? Steve Martin.

They weren't famous in 1975. So that was a little bit before their time. Although Steve Martin, maybe.

I'm not sure quite. Woody Allen. He was in the late 60s.

I've got some records. I used to have some recordings of him from 1968 doing his stand-up comedy. Yeah.

So the original picture on the book was a picture of, let me see, Sandra Bernhardt, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin. So maybe he was around then. Okay.

And the bloke from Taxi. What's his name? You know what? I don't think that was. I don't know.

No, I'm not sure if that was the. Oh, okay. Now it's saying here, Albert Brook's famous school of comedians is reprinted by Permission of Enquire.

1971. So. Okay, got you.

So by the looks of it, The Last Laugh, the world of stand-up comics was originally, oh no, Albert Brooks's famous school of comedians is reprinted. So that's part of the copyright stuff that he put in there. So yeah, originally 75, then 85, then 2000.

So I, well, I imagine I had the 1985 version because I got mine in 91. So the picture might have been different on the original 1975 one. And the reason I'm mentioning it is, it was so good.

Ah, okay. The original is showing me now, The Last Laugh, yeah, didn't have pictures of comedians on there. It was just a plain cover.

And just The Last Laugh, the world of stand-up comic, blah, blah, blah. And no pictures of comedians. The 1985 version has Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Woody Allen.

Just make the picture a bit bigger. And a couple of other people on there as well. So yeah, that, that makes sense.

Make sense, I reckon. Don't you reckon? Reckon. And so they basically, the comedians they talked about like Cheech and Chong, because they were really famous in the early 70s.

Andy Kaufman, that's who I was thinking about from Taxi. Andy Kaufman. There was a lot.

And I learned a lot about some of the early days of stand-up comedy in America. So it was focused on American comedians. And so it was talking about people like Lenny Bruce, Richard Cline, Robert Cline.

So stand-up comedians from the 50s. I just want to see, come on, just give me a list, man. Give me a list.

Stand-up comedies of the 50s. 50 best stand-up, you know what, this is saying 50 best stand-up comics of all time. This is the Rolling Stones.

This was from February 14, 2017. Okay, so let's have a little look. I was going to quickly go through it.

Number 50, Wanda Sykes, according to this. Number 49, Aziz Anzara. I don't know him.

Number 48, Margaret Cho. 47, Elaine Boosler. I have no idea who she is.

46, Reggie Watts. Reggie Watts. Freddie Prince at 45.

Now some of you may know Freddie Prince Jr., but not Freddie Prince, the original Freddie Prince. Now I didn't know him because he died before I was, I think he was like in the 70s. He was very famous in America.

Is it Choco and the Man or Chochi and the Man or something? Let's have a look. Chico and the Man. It doesn't give any dates here.

Okay, so he was Mexican American and he talked about that. I think that's what he sort of talked about. He used to explain he's Mohangarican.

Maybe he wasn't. No, he's Puerto Rican. And so yeah, he was very famous in America.

Russell Peters, number 44. Amy Schumer, 43. Phyllis Stiller, number 42.

Bernie Mac, number 41. I'll tell you what, I liked Bernie Mac. I liked his sitcom that he did because it was very, very dry, very sarcastic.

Like he almost played the opposite. Well, not the complete opposite, but a bit more vicious version of Bill Cosby. Just as those words came out of my mouth, I started to realize maybe that's the wrong phrasing.

I'm talking about in terms of the sitcom, okay? In terms of the sitcom, not outside life. So I used to find it funny. Number 40, Gary Shandling.

I loved his show. Absolutely loved. I love both of his shows, actually.

There was a Gary Shandling show. He was young in that, wasn't he? I used to watch that. And then he did... What was it called? Why is it not mentioned in there? Isn't it weird? Watch any Gary Shandling show, especially Alone in Vegas.

It's charming, erotic, boring as it looks. And what was the name of his show? He basically played a show host, a talk show host, and it was brilliant. I think it was HBO, and it was really, really funny.

It's really good. Very hard to see it anywhere. Nowhere streams it, for some reason.

So Gary Shandling, he was in that. So he's not been with us for about five years. So who's next? Mums Mabley.

Oh yeah, another thing. The Gary Shandling show, we had someone here, and he passed away as well, Steve. Oh man, it's gone out of my head.

His surname's gone out of my head. But there was comedian, and he did a kind of a similar kind of thing in the 90s. But I think the Gary Shandling show used to be on in the 80s.

And it was sort of like, I think it was kind of a mixtape out of some of the sort of children's shows, you know, where they're just talking to the audience, and then someone comes to the door. And it was like that. It was, I don't know, it was quite good.

I liked it. 39's Mums Mabley. I don't know who that is.

Number 38, Roseanne Barr. And yeah, I used to, I never really, I did watch her stand up. It wasn't really something I was that into.

But I did love her show. Like the Roseanne show. Absolutely loved it.

I wasn't fortunate to get to see the new, you know, rebooted version, with all the same actors coming back. I watched a little bit on YouTube, because it was banned because of some tweets she put out. And they just stopped the show.

So that's the, that's the, that's the world we live in these days. But it's, it's weird, because apparently, it's really popular in America. Never got to see it here, didn't show it here.

And apparently, they've also taken off all the old shows as well. They don't even stream the old shows anymore. What the heck is that about? So I think in the early days of the Roseanne show, the funniest people were the kids.

They had the funniest lines. Especially the two girls, they were just like, having a go at each other all the time. And it was funny.

That's what I thought. But to be fair, I was just a kid myself when I was watching it. I was, what was I, 17? So number 37, Sam Kinison.

I'll just go just quickly. Roseanne, the TV show, used to be on a Friday evening on Channel 4. And I think it was on after Cheers. Cheers was on first.

Maybe Roseanne was on first, but they were kind of... Channel 4 did this thing for years and years and years and years and years and years and years. And every Friday night, they even call it Friday night, it's comedy night. And for a long time, that was almost something to look forward to.

Like, you could just guarantee a nice hour or two of chilling out, watching some sitcoms. Not necessarily American, the It crowd was on, the various different sitcoms, but it was just a nice sort of period between about nine and 10. That just, maybe it's only an hour or maybe nine to half 10 or something.

And it was nice. I liked it. So we've got number 37, Sam Kinison.

Now, some people might not know who Sam Kinison is. Some people may very well know who Sam Kinison is, who's listening. I discovered Sam in 1990.

And I basically, I went, I was living, I was actually living with my dad at the time for a little while. And I moved back from London. And I was, I think I was working two jobs, night shift, full time.

And I had another kind of full time job that was part time in the afternoon, late afternoon. So when I had my weekends off, which I did, I'd sat in Sunday off. And I'd go to the next town and sort of see about, see if I could buy some albums and stuff or videos.

And I did, I found this video in the comedy section, but no, it's an album rather, vinyl. And I didn't know who he was, but I liked the cover. And I took a punt.

If it, if you know, I couldn't just get my phone out like today and just put in Sam Kinison to find out who this bloke was. There was no way of finding out unless I asked someone, I said, excuse me, I don't suppose you could tell me who this person is, can you? You know, I couldn't do that. I could have done that, I suppose, but I didn't.

And so I took him home with me, took Sam, Sammy baby home in my bag. And I laughed. Seriously, I laughed, I did.

Absolutely loved Sam Kinison. And the album, the first album I got was called Have You Seen Me Lately, I think. That's the one, Have You Seen Me Lately, which was his second album, like live album of stand up.

And then I got the first one, which was Louder Than Hell, which is the one he released, I think, in 1986, 85, maybe, maybe 84. I don't know. He'd been around.

Yeah, because, yeah, I discovered him in 1990. And I think he was gone by 1991. He was, he left the planet.

So he'd already had his career really before I discovered him. And he had been on TV in the UK. But I just hadn't seen it.

Hadn't seen him. We didn't have a huge amount of American comedians come over here. Like on TV, I mean, I mean, there were there were comedians, but there's not a lot of TV shows at the time that would be a good showcase for the new American comedians.

And I think the Jonathan Ross show, we had the Saturday Night Live or Friday Night Live and Terry Wogan show. And that was about it, maybe the word that wasn't that wasn't until the 90s, or maybe 89, 90. So there wasn't much.

And the comedians would come on to those shows and stuff. And but they do. One thing American comedians and other comedians from other countries do do is come to the Edinburgh Festival.

And the reason I mention that is because it's just started today, apparently. Why is it started on a Thursday? Surely a Monday would be the proper time to start. I'm very angry about that.

In fact, I've never been so angry. So I yeah, Sam Kinison, I think his first album was 84. Second album, probably 86.

And he released a couple of other albums after that. And yeah, I forget the names of those ones, but I bought all of them. And then yeah, and then 1991, he was, I think it was 91, it might be 92.

He was gone. If you haven't seen and check him out. I mean, it's not it's not for the faint hearted is material.

But you won't see another comedian like him. You know, he's definitely one of a kind. Now, the next comedian on the list is actually an English comedian, or British comedian.

And I used to know him, actually used to know him as a person. Number 36, Daniel Kitson. And I remember before he even started, well, not before he started comedy, but before he was like a name on the circuit.

He actually used to be come to the comedy club. And he was he used to get my friend given loads of gigs loads of before, you know, chance to perform. I think he used to host a Wednesday open night mic night thing, as well as comparing or performing at the weekends.

Not every weekend, but it was quite regular. And then my my friend started with another person, a comedy agency. And Daniel Kitson joined that agency.

So they were the management for him for a few years. I don't know how long, don't know how long. And so I used to see him a lot.

So yeah, it's very, very, very funny. And the thing is, he kind of went in a different direction. So he's, for him, it was more about the art of doing it is more about the actual stand up rather than stand up wasn't a stepping stone for him to get into television or movies or acting or anything like that.

He was really, although I think he had gone to drama school, I think I might be wrong. But he's, he loved stand up comedy. And he wanted to be a stand up comedian since he was a kid, I do believe.

I remember here reading that somewhere. And he went on to win the Perrier Award at Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Festival Comedy Award. And that was 2001 2002, something like that.

Maybe 2003. Early 2000s. And that that is like the it's kind of the Oscars of comedy in well, at least in the UK.

I don't know if there might be equivalents in other countries. You got the Montreal Comedy Festival in Montreal, where is it was in Montreal, isn't it? And there's, I'm afraid there's a there's a comedy festival in where is it? Is it Amsterdam? Sure, there's a comedy festival in Amsterdam. There's a comedy festival in South Africa, I think.

So there's a few comedy festivals around. I don't want to sort of make out that Edinburgh is the top out of all of them, but it might be classed as the top. And the Edinburgh Festival isn't just about comedy either.

It's performance. And I'm just only interested in the comedy. You know, because that's what I'm what I used to enjoy.

There's lots of different things going on there. So Daniel Kitson, number 36. I might be wrong.

I think he's the only English person so far, but so far in the list. Number 35 is Tig Notaro. I don't know who that is.

Is that? I don't know if it's a woman or a man. Oh, it's a lady. Okay.

Patton Oswalt. Now he's an actor I've seen on TV. He's been in loads of movies and and he was in Two and a Half Men in the last couple of seasons.

He's like best friends with what's his name with the long hair. So he was in that. That's the only thing I didn't realise he's also in.

What's it called? The Early Morning Comedy Show that's on. That's the film. I'm trying to remember all these different things that there were.

Not House of Cards, obviously. What's it? King of Hearts. King of Queens.

Is it King of Queens? He's in that, isn't he? I think. So number 33, Janine Garofalo. Right, I've heard of her.

And then Patrice O'Neill at 32. Sarah Silverman. Yeah, I know her.

So that was I've seen. She's famous, isn't she? Number 30, Woody Allen. See, I think this is an impossible list to make personally, because you're spanning through decades upon decades of comedians.

Some of which are super famous now. Some are still remembered for being previously super famous. And some who were super famous have almost been forgotten.

People that were super famous. It seems I like saying the word super famous, but you know, someone like Mort Sarl or Brrrr kind of thing. So I want to come to a name.

I'll tell you. But what's his name? Klein. But there's people from the 50s that were huge stars.

There was people in the 30s that were huge stars that would travel around. And they were never on television. They'd do their stand up and they'd do their maybe part of a vaudeville act even.

And a lot of those acts didn't want to perform on television because they said if they did that then they wouldn't be able to use their jokes anymore. Because they've basically told millions of people their acts, they've done their acts. And I guess, I know there are some, well just from my own previous experience of what I've seen with my own eyes over like 20 years of sort of being around comedy.

Some acts do like to stick to the same act for years on end. You know, most don't, but some. There's the odd occasional one.

And yeah, if they go on telly then everyone's seen their act, haven't they? But you can't just stick with the same act. It changes because as you get older, you know, you've got new life experiences and stuff. I mean, if I was doing stand-up comedy I would have a very different act to the one I had when I was 20.

Very different. Number 30, Woody Allen. I think part of the reason I was talking about how do you like really put people in the category of the top 50.

Woody Allen was hilarious. So if you've never ever, if you only know Woody Allen from his films, let's forget the other stuff. If you only know Woody Allen by his movies, the later movies, then you might think, oh, if, even if you know him from his early movies like Annie Hall and Radio Days and things like that.

If you like to read, I would suggest reading some of those books. Is it White Feathers is another one, I think. I read White Feathers and Radio Days, Waiting for a Plane in 1989.

I had like 13 hours to wait for the next plane and I laughed my socks off. It was honestly, that was so funny, funnier than the movies and the movies were funny. Like the way he writes, he's a better writer than he is an actor.

And I think he's a great actor, but he kind of plays, it's sort of plays himself, kind of, you know, that character. And I don't know what he's like in real life. I've got no idea.

And chances are I'll never meet him, but you know, he's, as far as comedy goes, I was surprised. I don't know why. I haven't seen quite a few of his movies, growing up and reading some of his books.

In fact, I had the, I had a base, I've read every single one of his books over the years. And I don't know why, but I didn't expect his standup comedy to be particularly great. It might sound strange considering what a genius he is.

He's got to come into the category of a comedy genius for the, like the amount of stuff he's done, how funny he is and what he's done, what he's performed, you know, what he's accomplished. Again, I'm not focusing on his personal life. I don't know what's real and what's not with that stuff.

I imagine he really is ginger, but I don't know. He might have freckles, he might not. That's what I'm focusing on.

And his stand up, I think it's the, it's Woody Allen, 1966 to 68, something like that, tapes or CDs. And it's, it's just basically stand up. And I think they just like basically edited.

So you've got a whole, a mixture of live shows he did during that period, and they just put them together. Very funny. Very unique.

Well worth a listen. You could probably, I imagine if you just look it up on YouTube, it'll probably be on there. Lenny, Lenny Bruce's comedy years 1968 or something.

In fact, should I search it? Should I do that? Let me do all the work for you. Lazy. Okay, Woody Allen, Woody Allen's stand up.

Okay. There's stuff on here on YouTube. It's like when he first appeared on the Steve Allen show.

They're all like small clips, stand up, 10 minutes, three minutes. Oh, found it. Woody Allen, stand up comic, 1964 to 1968.

My memory's not that bad, is it? Really, when you consider I bought that in 1990. I haven't got it still now, but I had a tape, like a double tape. I think it was two tapes.

And yeah, it's funny. Very, very funny. Whether or not it's on YouTube, I don't know.

I can't be bothered to search. Number 29, Dick Gregory. I like Dick Gregory.

He didn't get the same kind of I don't know what the right word is, appreciation or whatever that Richard Pryor got, but he was, he tackled that stuff that Richard Pryor tackled before Richard did. He had a big influence on Richard Pryor. Robert Klein, that's another person.

So Robert Klein was a huge star. I mean, so was Dick Gregory. I'm just thinking Robert Klein, like mainstream TV in, I don't know what year it was.

He did his HBO special in 1975. Wow. 1975, Robert Klein's stand up, the HBO stand up was the very first stand up concert that HBO ever aired.

How amazing is that? Or the premium channel. So maybe they did a different channel. Red Fox, Red Fox.

Now I discovered Red Fox, not from Sanford and Son, although I might have seen Sanford and Son on telly and just not really remembered it. So I think it was probably a bit too adult for me when I was a little possibly wasn't allowed to watch it. But I discovered him again in 19, it might be 90, it might be 91.

And I found his tapes, like stand up albums. And it was in either HMV or Virgin record stores, because in London, they were, I think they were both right next to each other. Huge, huge, huge, huge in Tottenham Court Road, opposite Tottenham Court Road tube station, massive places.

And I go in there, I used to travel up there in 1990. Every time I got paid, I'd go up there. And I'd have a day out.

Basically, I was working the night shift, and I'd get home, I'd leave at six from work, get home at a half six, have something to eat, have a breakfast, and then just head up to the train station. And I'd get to London by about, I don't know, 10, depending on what time I left or whatever. And then I'd do everything I need to do.

And I'd be home by about three with a bag full of comedy goodies, like albums and books and stuff, whatever I could get really videos. I like Red Fox because these albums I had were him. It's very, a lot of them are very laid back, just chatting, really.

And I don't know how many of them were, they're like more very jazzy. I've watched some of his stand up since like on YouTube. But this stuff I had, it wasn't like that because that was very sort of jokes.

This was more talking, the ones I had. So let me have a look. Red Fox albums.

Albums. Red Fox Discogs. Blimey, go away.

Do you allow cookies? You're going to follow what I do anyway, so why ask? Oh, the laugh of the party. Albums. Yeah, he had, um, okay.

I can't remember. Honestly, because these are from like 1960s. He had a lot of albums, a lot of albums.

So I'm not sure. No, I can't, can't remember. 26 is Rodney Dangerfield.

And I want to tell you about, as I'm running out of time, I'm trying to make these an hour long. Rodney Dangerfield, he actually was around in the 50s. And I think he started to make it in the early 60s.

Got on telly, said something that the TV host didn't like, or made a physical gesture with his hand. I think it was to Steve, Steve Allen, TV host Steve Allen. This is just from memory.

Steve Allen thought he was being offensive to him. And it was banned. Like his first appearance or whatever.

And then he was banned. And he wasn't allowed on telly. Because Steve Allen was so influential in American television.

He was almost blacklisted for a decade. Then he came back in the 70s or late 60s. Wow.

True story, apparently. Eddie Murphy number 25. You know, I used to watch again, that's another thing.

I watched Eddie Murphy in his movies, like most people like my age. Beverly Hills Cop, Golden Child. Blimey, what just coming to America.

It's just there's there's loads when he did a lot of movies, right early on, like in the early 80s. He was brilliant. He was brilliant.

I don't think anyone in some ways can match how he was. It was different and everything. But he was so natural in movies.

You know, he just smiled. He was. It was always natural.

He didn't have to put on any comedy persona. I don't know how to explain it. But yeah, I think it was great.

And then he did. I watched his album. I might have bought it or got it from the video shop, which was the first live album he did.

No, the live video he did, rather, which was delirious. He also did no one called Raw, I think in 1989 was it? I remember watching delirious. And this is in 1988.

And I was sitting in my room watching it. And I laughed, could not stop. I also could stop laughing because I was still laughing.

But I really laughed. It was hilarious. Loved it.

And I kind of didn't expect it to be as good as what it was. But a friend at work recommended that he said, you got to watch that is really worth it. So I did.

I wasn't old enough. I think when it was released, I wasn't old enough to go and see it at the cinema. Because, you know, I was only 17.

Eddie Izzard, number 24. He's an English comedian. Huge, huge star over here.

He, he was like, it was a comedy, comedy, but most people kind of know who he is. He's branched out into different things, politics and stuff. He, there was a time he was kind of the godfather of comedy.

In the 90s. He wasn't the most famous comedian. But he was the most famous comedian on the comedy circuit.

If that makes sense. You know, if he was basically him and Sean Locke were comedians, comedians, people would come and see him. Like comedians.

They probably didn't need to, but they would be willing to pay to watch Eddie, what's his name? Eddie Izzard or Sean Locke. They would actually pay. They probably didn't need to because they're comedians.

So they could just get into gigs anyway. But they would go to see them. They were the comedian's comedian.

More so Sean Locke. And Sean Locke went on to be a TV star. Eddie Izzard kind of stuck to the stand up comedy, really, and just became well known by touring continuously.

And he's traveled all over the world, making, doing gigs. And so Don Rickles, Don Rickles, yeah, Don Rickles. That's another one from the 60s, isn't it? Jonathan Winters.

I listened to Jonathan Winters album, like lately, last, a few months back. He was very good of his voice. He was amazing with his voice.

I loved him in Mork and Mindy. He was, he played Murph, for those who don't know. He was, I think what happened with Mork and Mindy, that's the one, Robin Williams was Mork.

Pam Dorber was Mindy. It's really weird that I remember their names. Not his name, but hers, because it was not weird, but just, I couldn't tell you what my telephone number is right now.

I don't know what that is, but I can tell you who played Mindy in a TV show that ended in 1981. Strange. So Mork and Mindy, I don't know what series it came in or season, but they brought Jonathan Winters in as Mork's son, or Mork and Mindy's son.

And he basically hatched out of an egg and he was a grown man, like in his 50s or 60s or whatever. So funny. Really completely different character to Mork.

And it worked. Really, really worked. I loved it.

Number 21, Bob Newhart. That's another one. He was a huge star.

Huge, huge star in America. He sold probably millions of albums as well. Mitch Hedberg, 20.

I don't, I know him, but I don't know him. Every book has a few kids. Yeah, I don't really know him.

I don't think I've seen him. Albert Brooks, number 19. Don't know.

Kevin Hart, number 18. I think everyone knows Kevin Hart these days. He's around.

Now, I discovered Bill Burr recently. I've known of him, but I didn't realise how great he is. And I think he's one of these comedians that's become better as he's got older.

Most comedians don't generally become better. You know, they have their peak. And most comedians don't get to the level of someone like Bill Burr that are still performing, you know, 30 years after starting or whatever.

Some do. But, you know, he's one of the exceptional ones. He's kind of in the same league, I guess, as people like George Carlin when it comes to being able to put a show together and tour and then a couple of years later put another show together with new material and tour.

And, you know, there are comedians that can do that, but a lot of people couldn't. And maybe they don't have the opportunity. That's why, maybe.

But I think it's phenomenal to be able to write an hour-long show and then do another one and film it. And you can't really do that material anymore once it's been put on television. Number 16 is Billy Connolly.

Did you know that he started off just being a singer? He was in a little band and he just sang in pubs. And people started, and he'd talk between the songs and people were laughing. And that's how he kind of turned into being a comedian.

I listened to some of his early albums and, you know, it's like funny songs and then just talking between the songs. But he is arguably, arguably the most famous, say British because I know Scottish, but most famous worldwide comedian from this island that I live on. Probably the most famous worldwide because he's known everywhere.

He's very, you know, he's very, very famous. I mean, you could say, well, what about John Cleese? But he's not comedian. John Cleese is a comedy writer, comedy, you know, he's very famous.

But as far as being a comedian that's reached over the pond, he's one of the few that's really, really made it big both sides. Stephen Wright is number 15. He's a deadpan comedian.

Very, very funny. I'm sure his album was I Have a Pony. Stephen Wright, I'm going to check that because again, that's like 30 years ago, or 31 years.

Stephen Wright's album, I Have a Pony. Well, that's clear. Oh, dear.

1985. That's good to remember, isn't it? I'm pleased with myself. Andy Kaufman is number 14.

Bill Hicks, number 13. He was really big in London, like in England. He was selling out shows in London in the, like 1991.

And yeah, he left very early. He passed away very early, but he was a great comedian. Very, very, very good comedian.

Number 12, Robin Williams. Don't we need to say anything about Robin Williams? We all know Robin. Lovely Robin.

Let's have a look. Steve Martin, number 11. Number one that I don't think needs to be mentioned.

He's just, I love Steve Martin's early movies. Like the early ones, Man With Two Brains. And I forget some of the names of them, but they were really, Lonely Guy, that's one, isn't it? So funny.

Really, really funny films. And his albums, the first two or three of his live albums from the 70s. Really funny.

I've listened to all his albums, I've listened to, I've watched his stand-up shows, and I've seen most of his films. The thing is, he was, he became, he really kind of became famous here when he did Roxanne. Like, I know in America, he was already famous.

But he, like about 1988, 87, 88, Roxanne came out, and he was suddenly, you know, really well known in the UK, and everyone loved it. And then he did Trains, Planes, Automobiles, and all the different films he did were all big hits in this country. But before that, maybe The Jerk was a hit, I don't know, in this country.

But all the other films, they, you know, it's only Roxanne that really turned him into a big star here, anyway, in the UK. Mort Sarl, number 10. Number nine, Dave Chappelle.

I kind of discovered Dave Chappelle recently. He did a stand-up show on HBO, not on Netflix. And it's really good.

It's really, really funny. Number eight is Bill Cosby. Number seven, no, let's move on to the next one.

Number seven, Jerry Seinfeld. And I'm not really so much into his stand-up. I did like his show.

It was just different, very different to the kinds of stuff that I've seen. I've never seen a whole stand-up performance of his. I really should do that one day.

Joan Rivers, number six. She was around for about 90 years. And she's probably, as far as female performers, she's got to be the most long-life female comedians ever.

But number six on all comedians. I don't know if I would put her number six, if I'm honest. But again, it's hard.

Chris Rock, number five, I wouldn't, I probably wouldn't have him in the top 10. Brilliant, but I think of some of the people that just, it's all down to who you like, isn't it? That's the thing. My Eddie Murphy, I'll put Eddie Murphy way above Chris Rock.

However, Chris Rock's done more stand-up performances, like that's been recorded, than Eddie Murphy. But then Eddie Murphy was a much bigger film star than almost anybody, actually. He was a huge star, wasn't he? In the 80s, absolutely massive.

For Louis CK, one of my favourite stand-up comedians of all time, Louis CK. Love him, absolutely love his stand-up. Number three, Lenny Bruce.

Now, that's a controversial one, because Lenny Bruce, I could talk about Lenny Bruce for hours. He was very controversial, and he kept getting arrested for saying the wrong things, purposefully as well, but saying words you weren't allowed to say. And he really pushed the censorship laws in America.

And he paved the way for comedians, stand-up comedians for the future. So he is hugely important for future comedians. Although it's kind of going in a different direction now.

The best, I love Lenny Bruce just because of what he accomplished. And he was funny, but it's very different. He was like a hip comedian, and he's very jazz.

And it's not easy listening to, necessarily. I used to like listening to him, but it's not easy, because he's not talking about anything that's necessarily relevant now. I guess he is, but he isn't.

I'm sure there was a lot of crossovers. But see, if you look at, let's say, what's his name? Bill Cosby. So Bill Cosby is talking about stuff in the 60s that we would still talk about now, like having little kids, growing up, you know, things that like general day-to-day things that people experience.

Though they will be different, we'll still be similar. And if you've never seen any of Bill Cosby's early stand-up shows, I really, you know, if you can move past certain things, it's definitely worth it, because he was brilliant at stand-up comedy. He was a great TV show person as well.

But his stand-up, he was a huge, huge star in America. He would fill auditoriums and stadiums and whatever in the 60s and the 70s. Huge, huge.

You know, I grew up knowing him being in the Cosby show, not realizing that he already had a career. He didn't just do comedy, stand-up comedy, and then become an actor or do it to become an actor. He had a proper career as a stand-up comedy star.

Mega star in America, huge. For those, I know people in America listening to this, but some might not know that. They might not realize how famous he was before he was on television.

Does that make sense? Of course, he was one of the biggest TV stars of all time anywhere in the world, Bill Cosby was, as is Oprah Winfrey. They were two of the biggest all-time television stars of all time in the history of television. So George Carlin is number two.

Love me some George Carlin. And Richard Pryor's number one. Love me some Richard Pryor.

Now, George Carlin and Richard Pryor, kind of similar in some ways, in the sense of both brilliant comedians. Both did lots of albums. Both were adult content, 18s only, you know.

I think in a way that, you know, their style and the stuff is very different. Their performances are very different, but they were both brilliant. And George Carlin, I think, is probably one of the greatest.

I know it says he's number two here, but forgetting this, this is just a website. I would say he's one of the greatest comedians ever for a few reasons. One of the reasons is he still was doing it, you know, in like, I don't know, I don't know how many decades he went through.

The 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s. And, you know, he went through like six decades as a stand-up comedy comedian, maybe more even. And he was in his 70s or something, and he was still performing, and he was still brilliant.

And just how many people couldn't do that? How many people have ever done that? I can't think of any. I can't think of any other than, what's her name? Joan Rivers, I guess. She did it for about nine decades.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So, and Richard Pryor, he's just, he's classed as the king of comedy, pretty much.

In most top 50 stand-up comedians of all time, nearly everyone will have Richard Pryor as number one. But I think is they don't even think about it. They just put him as number one because it's just standard.

George Carlin, a little bit of thought goes into that when you realize he really was amazing. And he accomplished more as far as output goes than Richard Pryor did, as a stand-up comedian, I mean. Richard Pryor, of course, became a TV, a movie star, didn't he? He was at one point, I think, this might have been during Superman 3, Richard Pryor was the highest paid Hollywood star.

And this is like 1980, what? 84? 1983? Something like that. 82? Something like that. So he was the highest paid Hollywood star at the time.

So, you know, George Carlin was in some movies, but he was, I would even argue that perhaps he should be above Richard Pryor as the greatest comedian. But then I wouldn't put anyone at the top. I could say, who are my 50 favourite? And just do it, but in no particular order.

Because, you know, Louis CK, phenomenal. But then if you go back to Stephen Wright, hilarious. If you hear Stephen Wright for the first time, I've never been a big fan of Billy Connolly.

I've heard his albums and just, I don't know, just wasn't really my kind of comedy when I listened to them. But Bill Burr, it's about timing as well, because I might not have liked Bill Burr 20 years ago, but now I just love him. I think he's hilarious.

Kevin Hart. Yeah, I don't really listen. He's good on films.

I've not watched his stand up. Then I used to have Bob Newhart albums. Very funny.

Very, very funny. Jonathan Winters. I've listened to some of his albums as well.

Very funny. But his funniest performance, I think, well, for me, that I ever got to see was as Murph in Mork & Mindy. Eddie Izzard.

I've seen him live a few times over the years, you know, in the 90s. And brilliant comedian. And he had an audience, a fan base that loved him.

It's quite hard to get that kind of audience performing in comedy clubs. But he did. And this is before, I like to say, this is before the internet.

You know, if the internet had been around when he was around, he would have been, he would have been even bigger. Because, you know, he had such, he would have been selling out Wembley Stadium. It was that kind of level of popularity.

But he garnered it, he gained it from being great on stage. So people would see him and they'd wonder, like, who is this man? We want to see him again. And then they'd go to see him.

I know it sounds like an obvious thing, but that's how it worked. But some comedians, you know, they'd be brilliant. But an audience would be drunk or they'd be just like out on a comedy night.

Like, that was great. Who did you see? I don't know. Even though they might have seen Lee Evans or Jack D or the people that were really famous here.

I don't know who it was. I mean, to be fair, you would know now because, well, you might not know who Lee Evans is, but he's retired recently. He was one of the biggest stand-up comedians.

I'm surprised he's not on this list, actually. But I guess they're looking at the world and they're looking over time, of all time. Who would I place in there that hasn't been listed? I think Jimmy Carr is one of the best comedians because he does something that no one else can really do.

He's offensive, but he does it nicely. He almost asks the audience for permission to say the next horrible thing. And he's funny.

He is very, very funny. And I used to know him and he's a nice bloke as well. He used to be managed by the comedy club as well.

And other people, who do I think? Sean Locke should have been on there because although he didn't do that many live performances for television or for video or whatever, he was brilliant. A brilliant comedy mind, Sean Locke. If you search Sean Locke on YouTube, you'll see.

Very, very, very funny. I'm trying to think who else. American comedian, Emo Phillips was hilarious when I remember hearing and seeing him for the first time.

Emo Phillips. Very, oh man, I laughed. I laughed.

I can't think of anyone else. There's loads I used to like to listen to. But that's probably enough for now.

I'm not sure how I got onto that subject, but how do I get onto any subject? To be honest, how do I ever get onto anything? So I'm going to go. So thank you very much for listening. And remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy.

Be gentle with yourself. Lots of love. Bye.