Published on Sep 14, 2000
He was loud. He was obnoxious. He was offensive. He was
downright scary at times. And, through most of it, Sam Kinison was
as funny as hell.
You had to check your sensitivities at the door when you
listened to Kinison’s combination rant/performance style, and
possibly no release captured it best than his debut comedy album
Louder Than Hell. No subject was safe from Kinison’s venom,
from Jesus to the plight of African starvation. And while Kinison
might have rubbed on some people’s nerves like a piece of
sandpaper, he did know how to hit the funny bone – hard.
Within two minutes of the start of this album, he leaves no
doubt that this is not a release for the kiddies, as evidenced in
the routine “Blind”. And, once the floodgates were opened, there
was no stopping the torrent coming from Kinison’s mouth. If this is
the first time you’ve ever been exposed to Kinison, keep your
nitroglycerine pills handy, and grab onto the arms of the chair. If
you’re more well-schooled in all things Kinison, keep a box of
tissue handy for when you laugh so hard you cry.
Oh, sure, I can understand where people would be offended by
comments Kinison directs at homosexuals (“Big Menu”), African
starvation (“World Hunger”), God (“Jesus,” “Devil”) and married
life (“Relationships”), but in a sense, you have to be blind not to
realize that much of what Kinison spews onstage is meant to shock
his audience. Once you get past that (and if you know a little
about Kinison’s background, it helps as well), it’s easier to see
the humor for the jokes.
And it’s hard not to see the humor in such subjects at times.
Case in point: when Kinison talks about famine relief and the
commercials asking for help feeding the typical young waif, Kinison
yells, “Why don’t
you feed him? You’re only
five feet away!”
Kinison certainly faced more than his share of personal demons
in his life, and his death in an auto accident came apparently as
he was finally getting his life back together. But
Louder Than Hell is a fascinating, funny portrait of a man
who may have been one of the more misunderstood comics of that
generation. If you can still find this tape anywhere, snag a copy,
hide it from the kids… and listen to it with headphones at full
volume.