Quote: ablurga @ December 17, 2006, 10:57 PMI loved him when he was around at the time but he's a bit like Peter Cook now in that every single bit of material's been mined to death.
Just before he died he was working on a show called Counts of the Netherworld for C4 which was going to be pretty much a debating salon with all kinds of leftfield guests like Noam Chomsky.
It's interesting to imagine how he would've developed, I think it would've been in a very innovative direction though he'd probably explode with righteous indignation if he were around in these troubled times.
They actually made a few of those Counts of the Netherworld which you can find if you look hard enough. An absolutely shocking programme. Awful, well certainly the bits that I saw. And I'm a fan of his. It was said that he thought stand up was an end unto itself and that he didn't do it just to get his own sitcom, but that's not true. He'd wanted his own show for a long time and tried his best to make it happen but for one reason or another, (drink, drugs, attitude, quality) he wasn't picked up. Which I'm relieved about, because as a stand up he was untouchable, he didn't need to do anything else.
For me he is second only to Richard Pryor in the stand up stakes. I don't think he would have been huge but with the internet he would certainly have been more well known than he was. The same kind of people run the networks now that did then so he would probably be going through a lot of the same shit now, ie; getting elbowed from Letterman at the last minute. He probably would have done some great specials on HBO though.
Some of the Guys routines were majestic. I'm thinking of the 'wiping entire civilisations off my chest with a grey gym sock' routine, or pretty much anything from 'Rant in e minor'.
John Lahr put it best, "he was the best kind of comedian, he was essential'.
