Bill Cosby, Richard Prior, Flip Wilson, Jerry Seinfeld, Funny Frankie Olivier, Michael Davis, the Butterfly Man, and Frank Starsini

I'll second that about Monty Python - not funny now, not funny back then.

Python genuinely crack me up. Funny thing, humour.

I love Python as well, but found the banana man painful to watch!! Stewart Lee has been a huge influence on me - I love jokes that go too far and are repetitious to the point of being annoying.

Stewart Lee is something special.

I've read his book three times and listened to it read by Steve Martin himself several times.

What is amazing is that he seems just like all of us performing, except of course the huge success. But I could see so much of fellow performers and it was sort of like talking shop or reading good posts here as I read and re-read his book.

I've been trying to think up an honest answer to this thread. I was originally going to list all the entertainers I love but I was trying to think if any of them have actually influenced my act.

I was going to say Harry Hill (check out his stand up, best joke writer out there) but I think I just already had a similar out there kind of style so I don't think he actually influenced me. Same with Steve Martin, Tony Law, Andy Kaufman, Pythons, goons, Vic and Bob etc

I would say the acts that I actually looked and learned from and influenced my act would mostly be old school vaudeville types and silent film stars Chaplin, Keaton, Marx Brothers, Stooges etc

I do also remember learning something from watching Phil Kay do stand up about controlling energy in a room which I use in my kids show too.

I first saw The Banana Man on Captain Kangaroo, as a kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfJqLKM3d......lateding audiences

I enjoy watching Bill Hicks, but to do similar stuff doesn't work for the audiences I often perform for - they continue to "drink the Kool-Aid". Either the audience gets angry or they just don't get it. Maybe, it's time to try some new adult markets.

Benny Hill, Rowan Atkinson, Victor Borge