Neil Hamburger
More Willy Loman than Will Ferrell, Neil Hamburger is the current poster boy for un-comedy. Some audiences assume Hamburger is the worst stand-up comedian they've ever heard. Others pick up on the fact he's a gifted performance artist engaged in a lingering hoax. Hamburger's material is chiefly tied to the music scene, beyond just the frequent targets of his awkward barbs. (What did the Red Hot Chili Peppers do when their management informed them that they were not all happy with the band's latest tracks? They went out and bought long-sleeve shirts.). In 2008, Hamburger (who is actually the alter ego of musician Gregg Turkington) performed lead vocals on an album by Australian band The Hard-Ons. He followed that up with an album of country and western tunes called "Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners," which featured such hits as "How Can I Still Be Patriotic (When They've Taken Away My Right To Cry)." In 2015, he starred in a movie titled "Entertainment," loosely based on his career.
"I did a show in Brisbane, Australia. It was a big rock festival with a lot of the younger bands. For some reason I got on this bill, which I can't complain about because it was 20,000 people. But they were there to see these angry bands like The Offspring and Garbage. So the kids were worked up and in a rage. So I started to tell a few jokes to warm the crowd up. And the five minutes that I was onstage we counted 24 shoes that had been thrown. They were never the same shoe. It was 24 different shoes. So that can't be good. I tried to keep the shoes, but the security people wouldn't let me do that. Because you do wear out shoes in this occupation -- especially the right shoe because you're using that to drive."
— Neil Hamburger