He’d gotten banned from “Saturday Night Live,” where he’d done actual stand-up sets, for a joke about Christ’s final words – and then was invited back three weeks later to host. Johnny Carson loved him David Letterman loved the back and forth. vinyl release, play an overly intense professor in Dangerfield’s “Back To School” feature film and late night spots. Kinison had set the world on fire with 11 minutes on “Rodney Dangerfield’s Young Comedians” special several months earlier cause controversy with Louder Than Hell, his first Warner Bros. Walter Miller was directing “Breaking All The Rules,” Sam Kinison’s first comedy special. “That’s not much of a name,” he replied.“Right now, my name doesn’t really matter,” I smiled. “Sam’s friend,” I said, moving a little further down the dressing table so the man who was clearly in charge could get closer to the comedian. Steam was rising in part from the comic who’d just blazed through a ferocious 75 minutes, in part from the overheated celebrity guests coming to pay homage, including Hugh Hefner, Linda Blair and seemingly every Outlaw of Comedy. “Who are you?” he said in the overcrowded dressing room at the Roxy, the iconic rock club next door to the Rainbow Bar & Grill. He craved genius he responded with everything he had. He wasn’t afraid to fight for what he believed in. It was like exhaling, or maybe inhaling.Īnd it didn’t matter what kind of music, either. To say that he “got” them was like saying that Bill Gates understood computer codes. Walter Miller loved artists in every way possible: intellectually, creatively, cellularly.