Sam Kinison
Outlaws of Comedy
Geneon Entertainment
47 minutes
This is not a good stand-up comedy DVD. Granted, the people at Geneon Entertainment do flash a warning on the screen about the sound and picture quality of Sam Kinison Outlaws of Comedy but more could have been done about the numerous peaks and lows of the sound quality.
Sometimes billed as the heavy metal comic, Kinison was irreverent, crude, loud, and not particularly funny. For example, he does five minutes on Dr. Ruth and the joke is that she is old. Well, duh! This stand-up comic proves that if you talk about sex and swear enough somebody is going to think you are funny even if there is nothing behind it.
Another example is his take on Jimmy Swaggart. If you take the time to actually listen to what he is saying, all the while constantly adjusting the volume of course, you will realize there is no joke anywhere in that bit. It is just a series of facts, observations, comparisons to what he, the great Kinison would have done, but there is no joke, no punch line, no humorous moment, nothing. If you can’t really make television preachers funny, what can you do?
This comedian proves that once you have established a reputation all you have to do is follow the recipe that made you successful and people will laugh only because they are supposed to: content no longer matters. Kinison could just have shown up on stage with a couple of scantily clad women, used all the swear words and sexual references he knows, and screamed the phone book at his audience. The result would not have been much different than this painfully long 47-minute stand-up comedy DVD.
It is obvious Sam Kinison had preacher roots and was rumored to be planning on returning to the ministry when he was killed by a drunk driver. Like any television preacher’s act, this is all loud smoke and mirrors designed to get your money.
