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Name the best stand-ups currently working in the biz: I'll go first and say it's (in no particular order) Jeselnik, Chappelle, Norm, and Burr. Open to other nominees.
John Mulaney and Sebastian Maniscalco are two others I could easily have mentioned.
Mrsoteric's list would have some overlaps with mine (Mulaney and Maniscalco in particular) but she has never been able to get into Jeselnik's dark style. Meanwhile she loves some like Maria Bamford who rub me the wrong way. So this is definitely de gustibus non disputandem est.
If the responses are any indication, I suppose I'm going to have to give Tom Segura a shot.
Let me explain a little bit about what I like about my favorite comics: Jeselnik may actually compete as one of my favorites, because he mines the blackest of black humor, but also works in the hardest stand-up genre: the one-liner joke. His timing and delivery is what kills it.
.@anthonyjeselnik is so well-CALIBRATED as a comic: the art isn't just in the dark punchlines and grim humor, it's in the timing and delivery. It's ballet. And he often acknowledges this onstage, not as a brag, but as a low-jey "I'm not actually a monster IRL" cue. And he isn't!
Chappelle is the opposite of Jeselnik's style: he's not going for deadpan shock-jokes, he's a storyteller who is cracking you up along the way. It's a narrative style of creating a set that sets up some "Chekhov's guns" and then fires them at the end, though that's not the point.
I've watched Chappelle since he was a young (REALLY young, pre-CHAPPELLE SHOW) comic, and his evolution is fascinating. Started as a "mach schau!" joke-telling guy as a kid, but he's really found a strength as a *storyteller*. You want to listen to him talk, it feels real.
"Working clean" is a discipline for comics, and one I respect immensely, even though my favorite comics work blue (Jeselnik, Chappelle, Burr, etc.). Other comics and people who love stand-up understand this too.
Gaffigan is a man who literally opened for THE POPE when he came to visit America, and *he was funny*. That's HARD, man. He does a lot of riffs about food, and I don't care, I'm impressed he can make me laugh without going vulgar.
He's not the only one: Seinfeld and Brian Regan (two other absolute giants of stand-up) never work blue, you could put your 10yo in the front row of their shows and not be worried. Believe me, Seinfeld is aware of the word "fuck." He choose to avoid it b/c it sharpens his writing
While I'm at it, just let me say: RIP Mitch Hedberg. Worked clean for the most part, and worked one-liners as well (a double discipline). God, everyone who loves comedy should miss him as much as I do.
If I could have rubbed a lamp and turned myself into a legendary stand-up comedian, I would have turned myself into Mitch Hedberg, or, if he was already taken by the previous dude who'd rubbed the lamp, Steven Wright.
