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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Family Entertainment Hour

Sam Kinison

HBO · 1991 · 49 min

Sam Kinison's music-heavy final stand-up performance before his death.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sam Kinison’s final recorded stand-up release is a document of pure rock-and-roll excess. Abandoning the simple stage setup of his earlier work, Kinison opts for a chaotic, indulgent variety-show atmosphere. He arrives on stage holding two women in leather on literal leashes, screams his way through rock covers with a live backing band, and executes an unhinged bit where he brings a betrayed audience member to the microphone, calls the man’s ex-girlfriend, and berates her live over the phone. Filmed at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles in 1991, the set captures the comedian a year before his death in a car crash. Kinison trades his signature beret for a bandana, presenting a hardened, bloated image while insisting to the crowd that he has finally kicked drugs. The traditional stand-up material targets televangelists, cable television, and rap music, the latter delivered with Ice-T sitting in the crowd. Retrospective reviews often view the hour as a portrait of a comedian in decline, relying heavily on loud swagger and musical stunts rather than the tightly crafted rage that defined his peak.

The set list

3 bits

  1. Slagging off rap music

    Kinison aggressively attacks rap music, noticed by audience members such as Ice-T.

  2. Richard Simmons routine

    A bit making fun of Richard Simmons that wanders as Kinison works through the material.

  3. On-stage phone call to a woman with her ex-boyfriend

    Kinison and a man on stage bring up an ex-girlfriend on the phone, verbally berating and calling her the C-word.

How it plays

Tone
Vulgar, raunchy, irreverent, aggressive, and chauvinistic.
On stage
Primal, screaming comedic force delivering rage-filled tirades and abrasive shock humor.
Pace
Loud, high-intensity screaming delivery punctuated with rock band accompaniment.
About
television, religion and preachers, drugs, relationships and oral sex, rap music

What the critics said

Considered inferior to his earlier work 'Breaking the Rules', with critics noting that his trademark bitterness slipped into ugliness, homophobia, and misogyny, while some fans still praised individual standout bits.

In the room: Mixed reception with attendees including notable figures like Ice-T in the crowd alongside fans of his loud rock-and-roll standup atmosphere.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: themoviedb.org, letterboxd.com, netflix.com, tubitv.com, vulture.com, premiumhollywood.com, kinison.com, en.wikipedia.org, rottentomatoes.com.

Backstory

Concert special featuring a live rock performance with the Randy Hansen Band and stage dancers, including his partner Malika Souiri.

Details

Released
Taped
Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles
Runtime
49 min
Where
HBO
Director
Walter C. Miller
Topics
Before
Leader of the Banned (1990)
After
Live From Hell (1993)

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