What's new and unique in comedy, folks?
I'm a HUGE stand up comedy junkie and I'm always on the lookout for new and unique stuff. I'm not looking for run of the mill observational or story telling, but things that are unique if you know of them.
What else is out there that rides that perfect line between being amazingly unique and pulling a cringeworthy gimmick? I'm talking about stuff along the lines of Bo Burnam's style or perhaps the quirky slide shows of James Veitch.
Any ideas? I need someone new to watch.
I'm a stand up junkie as well... a few I love...
Bill Hicks
Doug Stanhope
Jim Jeffries
Jim Norton
Bill Burr
Patton Oswalt is one of my favorite comedians. Also, he's atheist and very liberal. His humor is mostly about nerd culture, his family, and his own personal mental and physical issues.
John Pinette is hilarious though sadly he died a few years ago. Most of his humor centers around food and his obesity.
Gabriel Iglesias is a very latino comic who jokes about his own weight, food, ethnicity, and his travels as a comedian.
Jim Gaffigan is funny and most of his routines are fairly clean. He jokes about food, his wife and multitude of children, eating, being lazy, bacon, and hot pockets.
Hannah Gadsby. Or maybe Dave Goreman's Modern Life is Good-ish.
I was also gonna throw in Hannah Gadsby as a suggestion. Nanette was hilarious AND powerful.
Iliza Schlesinger
She is hilarious.
Josh Blue, not new but unique and hilarious.
I read today that Ellen has a new stand up comedy special coming out on Netflix after all these years. I can hardly wait!
If you like James Veitch, you might like Joe Lycett also. I find them to have certain similarities in the type of humor, though they have different styles overall.
If you don't mind really off-color comedy, I recommend Ali Wong. She has no filter, which I usually find off-putting, but she makes it work and is among my favorite new-to-me comedians.
Bo Burnham is one I hesitate to even call a comedian anymore, not because he isn't funny but because he has grown so much as a performer that it hardly seems adequate to limit him with that label. He's one of my favorites, though.
Anthony Jeselnik is able to throw me curve balls consistently, which is great because so often comedy is too transparent to me and I see the direction of the joke long before it arrives. With Anthony Jeselnik, I'm frequently caught off guard.
And here's a treat for you. If you don't know who Jessa Reed is, this is a pretty good introduction:
This is not stand up comedy. But, it is funny, and unique. Check out the documentary on Amazon Prime Video called, "Chicken People." Hilarious....set in Branson, Mo. As one of the guys in the video says, "Where entertainers go to die". Maybe because I'm from that neck of the woods, I hate Branson, it's the effing most religious vacation destination you would ever not want to go, and because these people are so serious about their chickens....I don't know! I've watched it more than once, and I laughed even harder the second time around when I was actually in Branson with my 13 year old granddaughter at her state archery competition, with two of her friends, and they fell off the hotel bed into the floor when the birds started having "chicken sex". .....,,Another really funny documentary, also on Amazon is "The Barkley Marathons," a race based on a prison escape set in the mountains that barely anyone can ever finish...well, they barely even get entered. You must check these out!
My first suggestion was going to be Bo Burnham until I looked back and saw you use him as an example. Have you heard of Bill Bailey? He and Tim Minchin are my other favorite piano comedians.
The wackiest musician comedian that I know of is Reggie Watts. He's a vocal chameleon / Foley artist and uses a loop pedal and keyboard and beat boxes. Then improvises and sings or raps about really cerebrally intense and sometimes absurd, surrealist bullshit. He spins it in the most entertaining way possible.
Other favorite newer comedians:
Jim Jeffries; not really gimmicky but a great aussie comedian.
Anthony Jeselnik; the most transgressive no fucks given comedy I've heard in a long time. No tragedy is off limits and he gives a brilliant explanation why in his special "thoughts and prayers." great stuff, probably still on Netflix.
Chappelle's newest series of comedy shows on Netflix was great too.
Also check out "this is not happening" on YouTube. Started by Ari shaffir it's a bunch of comedians telling their most fucked-up real life stories.