Frankly, with Why Did We Laugh? already on the market, I wasn’t quite sure that the world really needed another “documentary” style film about Sam Kinison. But as a longtime Kinison nut, I had to see it and I’m glad that I did. While the various talking heads (from Denis Leary to Lewis Black) don’t add anything extremely interesting (although brother Bill Kinison has a great Billy Idol story regarding the “Wild Thing” video), the classic Kinison standup footage makes Back From Hell: A Tribute to Sam Kinison must-see material.
Like Why Did We Laugh?, there’s plenty of footage from many of the Kinison videos/specials that have been well circulated through the years. But predictably, there’s also a good amount of “previously unseen” standup footage from the Kinison archives and it makes this tribute special a power hour of viewing for Kinison fans. All of the classic bits are here (move to where the food is!) and Back From Hell exposes once again what a unique comic talent Sam Kinison was and it’s another reminder of how much his presence is missed.
Back From Hell premieres tonight at 10pm on Comedy Central. The uncut/uncensored DVD will be in stores on Tuesday.
Oh, Sam, how we miss you. I was lucky enough to see him live in concert about a year or so before he died, when he was at the top of his game. And as much as I dislike organized religion, some of his most captivating moments were when he “channeled” his preacher-from-the-pulpit past as part of his comedy routine … to me, that was proof that he was put on this earth to make the world laugh.
I really enjoyed Why did we Laugh so after reading your review, I’m off to Amazon to order this, thanks !
Seeing him live New Years Eve in LA as he called some guys girlfirend and racked her over the coals on speaker phone to thousands at the Universal Theatre was a highlight of my life. This is just good memory pain.
That’s one of his classic bits, for sure! There are a couple of samples of
that on this new DVD..