What Up Yo.
Sam Kinison.
The genesis of this article, this post, is pretty simple.
I got pissed off yesterday.
I wanted to scream.
So I did.
Then I thought of Sam Kinison.
A smile came across my face immediately and I thought to myself:
“I need to put Sam Kinison on Voices ASAP.”
I enjoy watching people yell and scream.
Watching people flip the fuck out.
Just do.
I identify with it.
Especially if it’s a performer.
Actor. Comedian.
Farley,
DeNiro.
“Serrano’s Got The Discs!!! Serrano’s Got The Discs!!!!!”
Don’t matter to me. I love it. I eat it up.
But Sam Kinison…
How many comedians are as instantly recognizable…from their screams?
I used to be able to imitate it pretty well.
The first part is like a stutter.
“OW!!”
Real quick. As soon as it starts it ends,
But it’s just the sound of the levee breaking from the pressure building behind it.
The second part, is the flood.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
It sounded so damn good.
He was like this 1980’s Rock Star/Comedian/televangelist preacher hybrid mutant.
There was this unabashed honesty in his performance.
Offensive, no one was spared, on point.
He spoke from his heart and he made no apologies.
He had a strong foundation of faith in his life, a deep relationship with God.
And when he got onstage he told it like it was.
That’s refreshing for a lot of us.
When someone stands there and has the balls to strip the bullshit away from the world and to say the shit we were taught never to say.
Kinison would say the shit we’ve been taught not to think.
And he wouldn’t just say it, he would rage.
He would go on a tear and he would get fucking angry.
That was why we would double over with laughter.
I’m no headshrinker, but there’s something comforting in watching a man step up, pick apart the mundane, and rage at convention every once in a while.
People started to pay a lot of money to see Kinison get pissed off.
“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”
I think the best comedians get you to laugh at either the subjects you’re not supposed to laugh at, or the common issues we all face daily and aren’t able to confront.
That’s not an easy thing to do. Morally or intelligently.
How to know what lines to cross and which not to.
That was the intelligence and bravery of Sam Kinison, the genius in his comedy and the reason he is still revered.
You don’t walk that fine line of comedy and truth by accident.
Kinison earned his perspective, he didn’t mimic other comedians, he stood on stage and told you what was on his mind.
Right or wrong.
“In another time and place he would have been called prophet.”
A few videos of Sam’s brilliant and unforgettable rage below.
R.I.P. Sam Kinison.