There's tons of those. Chaplain, George Burns, George Carlin, Joan Rivers...
Believe it or not, the idea has been explored to do some kind of CGI effect, using footage of dead comedians to get them in the car, and then we would write dialog around it. It was a total disaster, but you're not the first person to think of it!
Dave Attell, Doug Stanhope, Patrice O'Neal, Maria Bamford, Sarah Silverman, Louis CK (he funded my special), Andy Kindler, many more who I'll think of later.
When people like Norm Macdonald, Will Ferrell, Martin Short, Charlene Yi, Kevin Hart, Bill Burr, Sarah Silverman, etc come on, it always makes me laugh.
What happened, Victoria, was, I opened for Bill Cosby. I told him my dad was a big fan. He said he would have my dad backstage when he went to Ottawa where my dad lives. But my dad has been dead for 15 years. So he asks me for my dad's phone number, and i Just write some numbers down on a piece of paper. He was such a nice guy, I didn't want to say he was dead. So I did hear from Cosby after that, because Cosby is so nice, I told that story one time on Letterman and the next day at SNL I received like 200 things of flowers, and then about 2 weeks later I found on one flower way in the back a little card and it was from Bill Cosby and it said "I'm sorry to inform you from this, but your dad i...
Favorite standup comic of all time. (I hate the word favorite. It's too exclusive). But for one special, Sam Kinison was fucking perfect. One special. Then it went to his head and the rest of his career served as a warning to me on what to avoid.
And then currently, I'll never miss the chance to watch a set from Bill Burr, Dave Attell, Rory Scovel and Kurt Metzger.
I started doing comedy in 2002 and I had a VHS tape of one of my first few sets. I took it to my RA, Open Mike Eagle. He watched it and said you sound like this dude, he played some Hedberg for me. I thought it was amazing.
Mitch played Zanies in Chicago in 2005. I was brand new and I went up to his green room and asked for a spot. (This was really obnoxious but I was hungry and ambitious.) The next night he let and 3-4 other Chicago comedians that he never met perform on a sold out show of his fans. That's unheard of. Comedians just don't do that type of shit. I won't do that shit now. I can be in the greatest mood ever and I won't let a stranger on my show. It went well and he let me open...
Phil was a pure sketch performer, his commitment in every scene was only matched by his talent. Having someone who could pretty much fill any role allowed for everyone else to do whatever they did best. I should add that Jan Hooks, who named Phil the Glue, actually fulfilled the same role on the female side.
I love so many comics. I love Maria Bamford and everything she does. I'm inspired watching Richard Pryor documentaries and his stand up obviously. Opening for guys like Brian Regan and Bert Kreischer taught me a lot. I think John Mulaney is brilliant. Dave Chappelle keeps putting out incredible hours. There's so many.
The Marx Brothers. I'd be really afraid to meet them because they're dead. Albert Brooks. He's not dead. I met some of Monty Python and only yelled at one of them.
Bryan Callen