I am a huge fan of this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj5qQtxn1GE

love me some robert schimmel.

We try to get to Montreal every year for Just for Laughs. Caught Dave Chappelle this year who did close to a 90 minute set that was fantastic. About half of it was his act and the other half just random musings.

Hannibal Burress was fine but, while much more popular now, his act wasn't as strong as when I saw him a couple of years ago. He's certainly graduated to a bigger room though. John Mulaney - saw him a few years ago in the same 100 seat theatre as Burress and this year they played the same larger room. Unlike Burress, Mulaney's new material is very strong.

Watched at least 20 comedians this year - a few other notables: Whitney Cummings (not particularly clever but incredibly filthy and she has great charisma on stage), Kyle Kinane, Robert Kelly, Bridget Everett (the definition of bawdy and has to be seen to be believed), Adsit and Lutz, Judah Friedlander, Nick Kroll (missed half his set because Chappelle started late/ran long), Colin & Brad, Derek Seguin, Neil Brennan.

Did not like Brian Posehn, Bobby Moynihan/Taran Killam, Bobby Slayton, Debra Digiovanni (the worst).

Anyone who loves stand up would be doing themselves a huge favor to make the trip to Montreal for the festival.

Gonna do mine like DC11GTR who I agree on a lot.

Dead:
Carlin
Giraldo
Rodney
Pryor
Hedberg
Hicks
Patrice
Honorable Mention - Lenny Bruce just for what he did

OLD Guard:
Cosby
Steve Martin

Tried and True:
Louie
Chapelle
Bill Burr
Brian Regan
Patton Oswalt
Gaffigan
Maria Bamford
Paul F Tompkins (maybe not as well known, but been doing it and doesn't seem to belong in my group below to me)

Newer and or lesser known names but love them:
Kyle Kinane
John Mulaney
Eugene Mirman
Dan Mintz
Mike Birbiglia
Pete Holmes
Hannibal
Kumail Nanjiani
Tig Notar
Honorable Mention - Chelsea Peretti (think she is hilarious, but doesn't have much other than a 30 minute CC special available and haven't seen her live so can't vouch as well)

British:
Stewart Lee
Jimmy Carr

People I like, but don't really laugh that much at:
David Cross
Doug Stanhope

Also, comedy is like a million times better live at a club then on CD/TV. Even when **** is good on TV it doesn't come close. Saw Mulaney, Pete Holmes and Louis all this year and watched their specials too and it was crazy how much better they were live then edited up on TV.

I'm sure there are some I'm missing and some I just haven't listened or seen yet that are great. Gonna have to check some people out based on this thread.

Since there is a 2nd on Paul F. Tompkins (thanks jhall23), I'm going to push him a little harder for a sec.

He started out with more quick bits and one liners, but he's evolved into one of the better storytellers. His riffs on whatever are funnier then a lot of people's well prepared bits. He has that same quality and charisma as those "pure" comedians, where he could walk on stage and just talk and it'd be worth the price of admission. He genuinely loves to be on stage and it shows.

His latest "Laboring Under Delusions" on CD is outstanding. He has a couple of EP's that are the riffs from the beginning of the sets that actually became the main release. All of his stuff is worth checking out. A really old 30min special Driven To Drink is somewhere on youtube and seemed to be where his act started to evolve into what it is now. But even his old CCP specials are great. Those are more of the quick bit/one liner type of material.

daniel kitson is the king and simply on another level entirely. not much point linking to youtubes because there isn't much, and what there is is not representative of his work.

you can buy some stuff here though : http://danielkitson.bandcamp.com/

and he's on in NYC for a month later this year with a play : http://www.stannswarehouse.org/curre...php?show_id=88

having said all that, for pure laughs and enjoyment, nobody touches louis in my eyes.

Thanks for reminding me Yeti, I had only been able to find one hour long special of Kitson's and a few odds and ends. He doesn't release much (anything?) and mainly tours over in your neck of the woods so it is hard for American's to get exposed. I just remembered his email list sent me something about him saying basically "his friends thought he should let people know that he has stuff available on band camp". I forgot to follow up on it.

More regarding Paul F.T, dude is just clearly a funny mofo. He frequently destroys on his appearances on any podcast (but mainly his many appearances on Comedy Bang Bang). He is very quick and observant which helps a lot in his off the cuff stuff. Basically any podcast he is a guest on is an instant download for me.

Need more Werner Herzog, which is one of the funniest things I've heard, and less Cake Boss.

Stanhope is fantastic, one of my favorites. Carlin, Pryor, Rock, Dennis Miller, Rodney are all great. One I have not seen mentioned is Andy Andrist. He is hilarious also. Sam Kinison, Hedberg were brilliant too.

Why Jimmy Carr is not appearing on these top tier lists I'll never know.

George Carlin GOAT

Oh my god thank you for alerting me to this. Werner was hilarious. And I **** lost it when that other guy asked if Dracula was in the studio after he heard Werner's voice.

He's even funnier on Doug Loves Movies.

this month i'm seeing:

Aziz Ansari
Bill Burr
John Mulaney
Mark Little and Kyle Dooley
Janeane Garofalo

Girlfriend and I got a ticket pack for the Just For Laughs thing where we picked one headliner (Aziz) and then we picked four other ones. Aziz Ansari, Bill Burr and John Mulaney should all be amazing. Never really heard of Mark Little and Kyle Dooley, but the place they are performing at is only two minutes from our apartment. Girlfriend wanted to see Janeane Garofalo... i'm hoping it's not a bunch of jokes about getting your period or something.

I'll be a bungload of comedians at the Festival Supreme in October. I absolutely cannot wait. I'll be bringing a crazy amount merch money too. There could be some sick unknowns there.

Janeane is really not that bad, but she is kind weird now and I'm not sure how much that effects her current work. Some of her older material is really damn funny and not overly annoyingly insightful.

actually... we still have time to change our mind. we don't watch much stand up comedy, so we didn't really know who was good.

we obviously wanted Aziz. we picked bill burr mainly cause of breaking bad. we picked John Mulaney cause we watched one of his old sets on youtube and thought it was really good. my girlfriend had seen Mark Little and Kyle Dooley a number of years ago and enjoyed it and it's close by. and we picked Janeane Garofalo cause we know who that is and hadn't heard of anyone else.

is there anyone else on that list that we should see maybe instead of Garofalo or Mark Little and Kyle Dooley?

http://www.jfl42.com/the42/

Lenny Bruce
Don Rickles
Jonathan Winters
Carol Burnett
Buddy Hackett

All great in their day.

Bill Burr is top 5 current, so even if he wasn't on my all-time favorite show, I'd run top speed to see that.

For the rest of the calendar, I'd say:

Mulaney is great. His joke construction is outstanding.
Silverman is well worth seeing.
Andy Kindler is not for everyone, but he can be hysterical from time to time.
Jeselnik would be good.
Colin Quinn is an amazing standup comedian. Didn't really dig his 1-man show, but regular standup is awesome.
Hannibal Buress is also well worth seeing.
I'd go ahead and see Janeane. Enough has happened since her last special that she might really have some **** to talk about.
Jerrod Carmichael could be good.
Kyle Kinane is amazing.
As is Marc Maron
The show I'd want to see the most on that list is Maria Bamford. If you ever have a chance to see Maria Bamford live, GO GO GO GO GO!!!!!

For the start of the football season i'll post this absolute classic from George Carlin:

Baseball Vs. Football

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmXacL0Uny0

+1

He's was the man and Pryor was a very close 2nd

When I saw him live he did a bit where he pulled a guy out of the audience that had a bad break-up, called her on a speaker phone setup, called her a bitch, etc, etc.

+1,000 to Bill Burr. Specifically his "Why do I do This" special.

Lessor known comic...

Greg Hahn. I saw him twice and laughed nonstop the entire show both times. He's like a dood with Super A.D.D. that is on LSD for 30 min. straight. Not a lot of him on youtube but there is some.