Interview 7 with Lee Camp

Lee is the head writer and host of the national TV show Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp on RT America. He’s a former contributor to The Onion, former staff humor writer for the Huffington Post, and his web series “Moment of Clarity” has been viewed by millions. He’s toured the country and the world with his fierce brand of standup comedy, and George Carlin’s daughter Kelly said he’s one of the few comics keeping her father’s torch lit. Bill Hicks’s brother Steve said Lee is one of only a handful with Bill’s “message and passion.”
In a recent interview Bill Hicks’s brother Steve Hicks was asked whether he had favorite comedians who were inspired by Bill. Here is what he said:
“I know Doug Stanhope is often cited as someone in the vein of Bill; Lee Camp and Jamie Kilstein are two others in the US that are carrying on with the message and the passion. Although I know they are admirers of Bill, it is important to note that they are their own people doing it their own way. All three of these are very good and I think anyone out there who is actually ‘trying to do Bill’ falls very flat. You can’t copy someone that was such an individual and these three guys aren’t doing that. It’s just in the spirit maybe but they are all excellent doing it their way, which is how it should be.”
“This up-and-coming US star is already developing a reputation for fearless political comedy, with some calling him an heir to the crown of the late, great George Carlin. He gets our seal of approval.”
–Time Out Sydney
“Gets the crowd roaring!”
–Rolling Stone
“For those comedy fans still in mourning for Bill Hicks 18 years on, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in the work of DC-born stand-up Lee Camp. Like Hicks, Camp has a visceral disregard for big business and big politics, and speaks his mind on everything from abortion rights to the evils of the modern media. However, where Hicks was more of a commentator who stayed above the fray, Camp is much closer to British activist-comics like Mark Thomas, a real-life serial protester.”
–The Guardian
“Like Jon Stewart from the Daily Show but with sharper teeth.”
–the Herald
“What if all the baggage and bullshit of our society were absorbed into the conscience of one man? A man who refused to accept this ‘Normality’ we wade through…what kind of time-bomb would emerge? Well, as Evolution would have it in its process of Self-Correction, Lee Camp is that embodied ‘Time-Bomb of Reason’ – ready to destroy anything that seeks to pollute our culture and restrict our possibility as a species.”
–Peter Joseph (creator of the Zeitgeist Movement)
“Lee Camp is an integral part of a longstanding satirical tradition. He has the rare ability to make you laugh and think simultaneously.”
–Paul Krassner
“Lee is the Che Guevara of comedy. Congrats to him on his balls and integrity. Everything he does is SO good. We need more comedians with his kind of fearlessness. It’s so rare to find such artful, thoughtful passion in comedy these days. …or in life. He’s waiting for a generation to catch up with him.”
–Paul Provenza
“Lee is totally inspiring. I kinda wanna be like him when I grow up.”
–Rain Pryor (actor, comedian, daughter of Richard Pryor)
“Lee Camp has found the hole in America’s brain where reason has been replaced by Wal-Mart. Lee’s rants channel the gunk oozing out. You have to admit, that’s why he’s so fucking funny.”
— Greg Palast
“One night I attended a Laughing Liberally comedy show. There was one funny comedian there – Lee Camp.”
–Matt Labash (Conservative reporter for the right-wing publication The Weekly Standard)