Stand-up comedy is a form of comedy performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehearsed scripts but often include varying degrees of live crowd interaction. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ props, music, impressions, magic tricks, or ventriloquism.
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
David Khari Webber Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in and co-created the satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) before quitting in the middle of production during the third season. After a hiatus, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the U.S. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time".
James Anthony Patrick Carr is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer and actor. He is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of one-liners which have been known to offend some people. He began his comedy career in 1997, and he has regularly appeared on television as the host of Channel 4 panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Joseph Glenn Herbert, known professionally as Jo Koy, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was a frequent panelist on E!'s late night show Chelsea Lately. He has since had a total of six comedy specials released by Comedy Central and Netflix. In 2024, Koy hosted the 81st Golden Globe Awards.
John Edmund Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mulaney first rose to prominence for his work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous sketches and characters, including Stefon, a recurring character that he and Bill Hader co-created. Since his departure from SNL, Mulaney has hosted it several times, becoming a member of the SNL Five Timers Club in 2022.
Anthony Jeselnik is an American comedian, writer, actor, and producer. He is known for his dark comedy style, which emphasizes ironic misdirection, non sequiturs, biting insults, an arrogant demeanor, and a stage persona that frequently takes amoral or psychopathic stances.
Max Amini is an Iranian comedian, actor, producer and director. Max is known primarily as a world touring stand-up comedian, and has appeared on shows such as NBC's Heroes, Netflix's Real Rob with Rob Schneider, and Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia. On an episode of Spike's Car Radio Podcast, Jerry Seinfeld named Max Amini one of the top comedians to watch. Max established his production company, Abstraction Media in 2010, and has sold projects to networks such as Voice Of America, Discovery, and more. Other projects include directing a Netflix original stand-up special, Enissa Amani: Ehrenwort, and the feature film, James The Second, set to release in 2022.
Nathanael Bargatze is an American comedian. His comedy is characterized by references to his family, comedic encounters, and life anecdotes.
Andrew Cameron Schulz is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. In addition to his stand-up, he is known for his work on MTV2's Guy Code and its two spinoffs, the Flagrant podcast with Akaash Singh, and The Brilliant Idiots podcast. Schulz's first Netflix special, Schulz Saves America, premiered on December 17, 2020.
Taylor Elyse Tomlinson is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and television host. She has released three Netflix stand-up specials: Quarter-Life Crisis (2020), Look At You (2022) and Have It All (2024). She is the host of the CBS late-night show After Midnight, which premiered on January 17, 2024.
The filmography and discography of Brian Volk-Weiss consists of numerous stand-up specials, comedy albums, films, and television shows. Volk-Weiss has largely acted as a producer or executive producer on these projects in his role as CEO of the production and distribution company, Comedy Dynamics. He has also directed select stand-up specials and television episodes, including those for his own Netflix series, The Toys That Made Us. Over the course of his career, Volk-Weiss has served as a producer for comedy albums and stand-up specials for many comedians, including Jim Gaffigan, Kevin Hart, Ali Wong, Tom Segura, Marc Maron, Doug Stanhope, D.L. Hughley, Bob Saget, Tiffany Haddish, Bill Burr, Brian Posehn, Mike Birbiglia, Kathleen Madigan, and numerous others. Two comedy albums he has produced have gone on to win the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
You People Are All the Same is a 2012 stand-up comedy film directed by Jay Karas and written by and starring the American comedian Bill Burr. It is his first stand-up comedy special exclusively for Netflix, and Netflix's first venture into comedy specials, not becoming a trend until at least a year later. In You People Are All the Same, filmed at Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Theater, Bill Burr talks about race, gun politics, the politics of domestic relationships and more.
Sticks & Stones is a 2019 American stand-up comedy television special starring comedian Dave Chappelle and directed by Stan Lathan. It was produced by Chappelle and Lathan and distributed by Netflix, the special is detailed as "a provocative perspective on the tidal wave of celebrity scandals, the opioid crisis, and more".
Shane Michael Gillis is an American stand-up comedian. He is co-host, along with fellow stand-up comedian Matt McCusker, of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, the most subscribed-to podcast on Patreon. In 2019, the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal named Gillis one of its "New Faces".
Stavros Halkias is an American stand-up comedian and podcaster. Active since the early 2010s, he is a nationally touring comic who came to prominence as a founding co-host of the podcast Cum Town. He currently co-stars in the Netflix comedy series Tires.
Dave Chappelle: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was a ceremony presented on October 27, 2019. The show honored comedian Dave Chappelle who was being awarded with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor which was presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Those who helped celebrate his accomplishments included Neal Brennan, Jon Stewart, Lorne Michaels, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Bradley Cooper, and Morgan Freeman.
Matthew Steven Rife is an American comedian and actor. Rife is best known for his self-produced comedy specials Only Fans (2021), Matthew Steven Rife (2023) and Walking Red Flag (2023), as well as his 2023 Netflix special Natural Selection, and previous recurring role on the sketch improv comedy and rap show Wild 'n Out.
This is a timeline documenting events and facts about English-speaking stand-up comedy in the year 2024.
