If you made a list of all the comedians that have succeeded, you can probably split them into those that find comedy in real-life and those that find comedy in the absurd. Sam Kinison was the type of comedian that succesfully mingled both and found comedy in all parts of life. (Can't you tell I liked him?)

I don't know of any comedians (OK, probably George Carlin) that would find comedy in the birth of Jesus, but Kinison does. When he jokes around with how Joseph must have felt with Mary's pregnancy ("He just said he was an angel and you guys went into the garden??!!), he transceds any blasphemy and makes us connect with Joseph's feelings - which, if you've read the Bible, were not always the purest. Not only that, but he also is able to reveal how far apart some TV Evangelists got from Jesus ("I never said build a water slide and use it as a tax write-off!!!").

He also manages to poke holes into the anti-drunk driving campaign ("I hope I slide into a family of six tonight!), safe sex ("What's the ski mask for, boss?") and Jim Bakker's fall ("Hey, honey, it's him!!! Hahaha!). His timing in moving from topic to topic is incredible--though a bit undercut by the CD.

Above all, Kinison manages to sound very honest in all the topics he tackles. When he speaks of his failed marriages, he sound completely like the guy who knows what he's talking about. When he manages to rile up all of the guys into declaring their love for their wives, he does it in the funniest of manners - by asking them if they love their wives enough to sleep with another woman. Finally, as he speaks of screwing the next guy whom your current girlfriend might go out with - "be the nastiest, darkest, chapter in her sexual diary" - or when he talks about homosexual necrophilliacs ("It never ends!"), he infuses it with both an impish sense of humor as well as a shock that someone might even think of doing things like that.

To top it all of, there's the classic rework of "Wild Thing." Though by now this type of music might sound outdated, the loud scream of Kinison firmly cements the humourous/angry tone of the song. As a girl in one of my classes said, it's the guy's version of Alanis Morrissette's "You Oughta Know." (I think this is a MUCH better song).

It's so sad to know that someone with such talent ended so tragically or that he found very little joy in his own life. But Kinison would have liked us to laugh and not cry--and this CD will do that. Like Sam says, "People at the back must be thinking, 'Jesus, this is the sickest, most disgusting thing I've ever heard in my life. WRONG! I can top it!!!!!"

Rating: A

User Rating: A-

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