"Funniest Comedian STEVE STEEN vs DAVID STEINBERG"

STEVE STEEN

Steve Steen (born 26 December 1954) is a British television, radio and theatre actor and comedian, known for improvisational comedy works. Whilst a...

Steve Steen (born 26 December 1954) is a British television, radio and theatre actor and comedian, known for improvisational comedy works. Whilst a pupil at Clapham College in London, Steen became friends with Jim Sweeney, and they joined Oval House theatre club in 1972, performing improvised comedy. They wrote and performed in a show that parodied much of the other shows being held in London that year. Then they formed their own theatre company and wrote and toured its productions around the United Kingdom through the 1970s. In the 1980s Steen and Sweeney moved into television production, appearing together for the first time in 1981 on the ITV children's show CBTV, followed by one of Channel 4's first comedies, Little Armadillos. Around this period Steen appeared in the Ben Elton comedy Happy Families. Rory Bremner recruited them as resident support performers on his first sketch show for the BBC. In 1987 they starred as the Romantic poets Byron and Coleridge (Steen playing Byron) in an episode entitled "Ink and Incapability" of the comedy series Blackadder the Third. Along with Sweeney, Steen appeared in the Channel 4 television improvisational show Whose Line Is It Anyway? for six episodes. He also was a guest on the BBC's comedy panel-game Have I Got News for You in 1992. In 2000, Steen played the voice of cartoon gerbil El Nombre.

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DAVID STEINBERG

David Steinberg CM (born August 9, 1942) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late...

David Steinberg CM (born August 9, 1942) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known comics in the United States. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more than 130 times (second only to Bob Hope in number of appearances) and served as guest host 12 times, the youngest person ever to guest-host. Steinberg directed several films and episodes of television situation comedies, including Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women. Since 2012, Steinberg has hosted the interview program Inside Comedy on the Showtime network. One of Steinberg's most notorious performances was in October 1968 on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he gave satirical sermons. The sketch caused CBS to receive a record number of complaints, and, as a result, the network instituted a policy of providing local stations with a closed-circuit telecast of each episode ahead of time so they could choose whether or not to air it. The Smothers Brothers were told by the network that they could have Steinberg on the show again on the condition that he would not repeat the sermons. Nevertheless, Tommy Smothers asked Steinberg to do it again, and he gave a sermon in which he said "The Old Testament scholars say that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The Gentiles, the New Testament scholars say, 'Hold it, Jews, no.' They literally grabbed the Jews by the Old Testament." This incident contributed to the cancellation of the show. The Jonah sketch was never aired by CBS. Steinberg appeared in two Broadway flops, Little Murders and Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights, which both closed within one week in 1967 and 1968, respectively. Steinberg was the most frequent host of the pop and rock music ABC television show, The Music Scene, 1969–1970. The show featured performances by Joe Cocker and CSN&Y. In 1972, Steinberg wrote and starred in The David Steinberg Show in the United States as a five-week summer replacement sketch comedy show. Around the same time, TV Guide labelled Steinberg "offbeat, racy, outrageous, and establishment-baiting – all of which makes him a particular favorite among the young and disenchanted."

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