Sam Kinison | |
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| Born | Samuel Burl Kinison (1953-12-08)December 8, 1953 Yakima, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | April 10, 1992(1992-04-10) (aged 38) Needles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Memorial Park Cemetery,Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Comedy career | |
| Years active | 1978–1992 |
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| Website | samkinison |
Samuel Burl Kinison (/ˈkɪnɪsən/KIN-iss-ən; December 8, 1953 – April 10, 1992) was an Americanstand-up comedian and actor. A formerPentecostalpreacher, he performed stand-up routines that were characterized by intense sudden tirades, punctuated with his distinctive scream. Initially performing for free, Kinison became a regular fixture atThe Comedy Store, where he met and eventually befriended such comics asRobin Williams andJim Carrey.
Kinison's comedy was observational humor, especially towards women and dating, and his popularity grew quickly, leading to appearances onThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,Late Night with David Letterman, andSaturday Night Live. At the peak of his career in early 1992, he was killed in a car crash, aged 38.
Kinison received a Grammy nomination in 1988 for the single "Wild Thing" from hisHave You Seen Me Lately? album, and a posthumous win in 1994 for Best Spoken Comedy Album,Live from Hell.[1][2]
Samuel Burl Kinison was born inYakima, Washington, on December 8, 1953, the son of Marie Florence (née Morrow) and Samuel Earl Kinison, aPentecostal preacher.[3] The family moved toEast Peoria, Illinois, when Kinison was three months old.[4] At the age of three years, Kinison was hit by a truck, which left him with brain damage and epilepsy.[5][6]
His father pastored several churches around the country, receiving little income. Kinison had two older brothers, Richard and Bill, and a younger brother, Kevin. His parents divorced when Kinison was 11, after which his brother Bill went to live with his father, while Kinison stayed with the rest of the family, despite his protests. Bill described this as the root of much of Sam's anger.[7] Kinison later attendedEast Peoria Community High School in East Peoria.[3]
Kinison and his brothers emulated their father by becoming Pentecostal preachers. Between 1968 and 1969, Kinison attendedPinecrest Bible Training Center, aninterdenominational, unaccredited, three-yearBible school located inSalisbury Center, New York.[8] His mother married another preacher and moved toTulsa, Oklahoma, where Kinison lived for a while.[7]
He preached from the age of 17 to 24 and recordings of his sermons reveal that he used a "fire and brimstone" style, punctuated with shouts similar to the ones he would later use in his stand-up routines. His brother Bill noted, "ironically, he had no stage presence", and he was not very successful at making money from preaching, as he was more concerned with making the sermons more informative than entertaining. After Kinison and his first wife divorced, he abandoned preaching and took up comedy.[7]
Kinison began his career inHouston, where he performed in small clubs. He became a member of a comedic group at theComedy Workshop, known as theTexas Outlaw Comics, that includedBill Hicks,Ron Shock, Riley Barber, Steve Epstein, Andy Huggins, John Farneti,[9] and Jimmy Pineapple.[7][10] Hicks cited Kinison as a major influence on his comedic style, noting, "He was the first guy I ever saw to go on stage and not in any way ask the audience to like him."[7]
In 1980, Kinison moved toLos Angeles, hoping to find work at The Comedy Store. He was first employed as a doorman. He soon developed a cocaine and alcohol addiction, quickly progressing tofreebasing cocaine, and struggled to gain a foothold in the business, until his brother Bill moved to Los Angeles to help manage his career.[7]
In August 1985, his big break came onHBO'sRodney Dangerfield's Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special.[11] After noting the performance ofBob Nelson, reviewerStephen Holden ofThe New York Times wrote, "the most interesting of the other eight comedians is the savagely funny Sam Kinison. Mr. Kinison specializes in a grotesque animalist howl that might be described as the primal scream of the married man."[12]
In 1985, in Kinison's debut television appearance onLate Night with David Letterman,Letterman's introduction of Kinison warned his audience, "Brace yourselves. I'm not kidding. Please welcome Sam Kinison."[13] Kinison played on his former role as a Bible-preaching evangelist, taking satirical and sacrilegious shots at theBible,Christianity, and famous Christian evangelist scandals of his day. Kinison's daring comedy helped shoot him to stardom.[3] On several videos of his stand-up routines, a shot of the personalized license plate on his 1986Corvette[14] reveals the words "EX REV". He was associated with the Los Angeles rock music scene and was occasionally accompanied by a touring band.[15]
In 1986, Kinison appeared in Rodney Dangerfield's filmBack to School.
Howard Stern purchased the film rights to Kinison's biography, written by Kinison's brother, reporting in 2008 thatHBO would makeBrother Sam with Kinison being played byDan Fogler.[16] In an interview with Sam's brother and manager Bill Kinison, Bill mentioned film deals that were in development at the time of his death; one such deal was a film withArnold Schwarzenegger and another withRick Moranis.[17]
In May 1988, his youngest brother Kevin shot and killed himself at the age of 28, which devastated Sam.[18]
Kinison acquired much of his material from his first two marriages, to Patricia Adkins (1975–1980) and Terry Marze (1981–1989). He began a relationship with dancer Malika Souiri toward the end of his marriage with Marze.[19][20][21]
In 1990, Souiri alleged she was raped by a man Kinison had hired as a bodyguard while Kinison was asleep in the house.[22] The bodyguard stated that the sex was consensual. The jury deadlocked in the subsequent trial, and the charges were later dropped.[23][24] The incident inspired Kinison to try to go straight with Souiri and join an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter. By March 1990, he was saying to audiences that he was no longer getting high.
Kinison frequented rock shows and often hung out with musicians. In May 1991, Kinison got in a fight with guitaristSlash at a hotel after Slash missed a planned appearance at one of Kinison's shows. Slash stated that Kinison nearly "choked [him] to death" before Slash's bandmateDuff McKagan intervened. Slash and McKagan declined to press charges after the incident.[25]
On April 4, 1992, six days before his death, Kinison married Souiri at the Candlelight Chapel inLas Vegas.[4] They honeymooned inHawaii for five days before returning home to Los Angeles on April 10 to prepare for a show that night at theRiverside Resort Hotel and Casino inLaughlin, Nevada.[26]
Souiri sued Kinison's brother, Bill, in 1995 for allegedly defaming her in his bookBrother Sam: The Short Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison. Souiri sued Bill Kinison a second time in 2009, alleging he forged Sam's will, but claiming she did not discover the fact until 2007.[27][28]
In February 2011, theToronto Sun reported that Kinison had fathered a child with the wife of his best friend and opening act,Carl LaBove, who had been paying child support for the girl for nearly 13 years. LaBove filed legal papers claiming the girl was Kinison's.DNA tests taken from Kinison's brother Bill show a 99.8% likelihood that Kinison was the father of the unnamed woman.[29]
On April 10, 1992, Kinison was driving hisPontiac Turbo Trans Am[30] when it was struck head-on on Needles Highway northwest ofNeedles, California, by a pickup truck driven by a juvenile, who had been drinking alcohol.[31][32][33] The pickup truck crossed the center line of the roadway while trying to pass another vehicle and moved into Kinison's lane.[32] Kinison and his wife were on their way to Laughlin, Nevada, to perform at a sold-out show at the Riverside Casino.[26]
After the crash, Kinison appeared stable, with only minor visible facial wounds.[26] He got out of his vehicle and sat down on the side of the road, where he soon died from internal injuries.[26] His head had smashed the windshield, because he was not wearing his seat belt.[3] He was 38 years old. His wife received a concussion in the collision, but later recovered after being taken directly to a hospital in Needles for treatment.[30] Kinison's last words were reportedly stated to no one in particular at the crash scene as, "why now?", then after a pause he asked, "but why?", and after another pause, said, "okay, okay, okay." A friend who was with him at the time later recalled, "Whatever voice was talking to him gave him the right answer and he just relaxed with it".[34]
An autopsy found that Kinison sustained multiple traumatic injuries, including a dislocation in the cervical spine, a torn aorta, and torn blood vessels in his abdominal cavity, which resulted in his death within a few minutes of the crash.[35][36][37]
The pickup truck driver pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and was sentenced to one year of probation and 300 hours of community service. He also had his driver's license suspended for two years in connection with the collision.[31]
On April 15, 1992, atForest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, his funeral service was held.[38] Kinison's body was buried in a family grave plot at Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His gravestone is inscribed, "In another time and place, he would have been called prophet."[39]
ComedianGeorge Carlin's eighth HBO stand-up comedy special,Jammin' in New York, was dedicated to Kinison's memory. At the beginning of the broadcast, the words: "This show is for SAM" appeared on the screen.[40]
After his death, Kinison was fondly remembered by his friends and costars.Ozzy Osbourne said:
Apparently when Sam had the accident, I heard he got out of the car and looked up to the heavens and said, 'I don't want to die,' and then just said, 'Oh, okay,' and laid down and died. It sounds crazy and will probably offend a lot of my fans, but I believe there's ahigher power. Some people may think Sam Kinison's in one place, but I know where he is. He's upstairs; he's next toGod.[41]
On May 23, 1993,FOX aired a special,A Tribute to Sam Kinison.[42] The special contained archival footage of Kinison and stand-up comedy performances by comedians includingRobin Williams,Rodney Dangerfield, andJim Carrey.[43][44]
Between 2008 and 2013, some press releases indicated a possible dramatic film to be based on the memoirBrother Sam: The Short, Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison, by Kinison's brother Bill Kinison and Steve Delsohn.[16][45][46]
Kinison's comedy was at times accused of containingmisogyny andhomophobia, according to a retrospective on Kinison's career in theLos Angeles Times.[47] For example, the groupQueer Nation Nebraska demonstrated on a sidewalk in front of a Kinison show inLincoln in February 1991, chanting "Antiwoman, antigay, Sam Kinison, go away!"[48]
HisHave You Seen Me Lately? album carried a disclaimer sticker stating, "The Material On This Album Does Not Reflect The Views Or Opinions Of Warner Bros. Records." Employees at Warner Brothers requested that their bosses not release it due to the controversial material on Kinison's first album.[49]
In a 2016 article by John Hugar inNew York, Hugar contended that the comedy of past comedians, including Kinison, was not positively embraced by younger generations, perhaps because their material has come to be viewed as anachronistically sexist and misogynistic with time. Hugar noted that a modern reevaluation was complicated by the possibility that Kinison could be considered as playing an intentionally shocking character rather than speaking as himself.[50]
Kinison is a main influence on comedian andlive streamerPerry Caravello, best known for starring in the 2003Comedy Central tv movie,Windy City Heat, and for hosting his own livestream show,Perry Caravello Live (2020-Present). Caravello has emulated Kinison's energy and mannerisms, particularly his tone of screaming, in various stand up acts he's performed, and will usually rage in a style similarly to his whenever he gets agitated by someone, in modern times usually by his stream viewers and/or moderators, during of which he also uses homophobic, sexist, & misogynistic language similarly to Kinison's.
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [52] | |||
| "Wild Thing" | 1988 | 19 | Have You Seen Me Lately? |
Sabrina Stephan (formerly Souiri), comic and Vegas native: Initially (sister Malika and I) were bored on tour, so I came up with a shtick to get us on the show. I go, "He has a water glass. Notice?" She goes, "Yeah, so?" I go, "We're Vegas performers. We can do this." So he reaches for his water glass and it's not there. He looks in the wings and me and Malika are dressed in these ridiculous costumes. I came out with the pitcher; she comes out with the glass. We did it all showy, like the Arabs do, you know, they pour the water high. And he's like, "Malika and Sabrina, ladies and gentlemen!" Then he's like, "That was just too funny. Let's keep doing it!" The costumes became more outrageous.
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