Kinison made his film debut in Rodney Dangerfields 1986 film Back to School, playing short-tempered Contemporary American History professor Dr.
#SAM KINISON BREAKING THE RULES CONCERT LICENSE#
On several videos of his stand-up routines, a shot of the personalized license plate on his 1986 Corvette reveals the words "EX REV." Kinisons daring comedy helped shoot him to stardom.
Kinison played on his former role as a Bible-preaching evangelist, taking satirical and sacrilegious shots at the Bible, Christianity and famous Christian evangelist scandals of his day. Kinison specializes in a grotesque animalist howl that might be described as the primal scream of the married man." Later, during Kinisons appearance on Late Night with David Letterman in 1985, Lettermans introduction of Kinison warned his audience, "Brace yourselves. After noting the performance of Bob Nelson, reviewer Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "the most interesting of the other eight comedians is the savagely misogynistic Sam Kinison. His big break came on HBOs Rodney Dangerfields Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special in August 1985. He soon developed a cocaine habit, quickly progressing to the freebase form, and struggled to make a foothold in the business until his brother Bill moved to Los Angeles to help manage his career. Hicks cited Kinison as a major influence on his comedic style, noting that "He was the first guy I ever saw to go on stage and not in any way ask the audience to like him." In 1980, Kinison moved to Los Angeles hoping to find work at The Comedy Store, but was first employed as a doorman. He became a member of a comedic group at the Comedy Workshop, known as the Texas Outlaw Comics, that also included Bill Hicks, Ron Shock, Riley Barber, Steve Epstein, Andy Huggins, John Farneti, and Jimmy Pineapple. Kinison began his career in Houston, Texas, where he performed in small clubs.
After he and his first wife were divorced, he abandoned preaching and took up comedy as a profession. His brother Bill, however, noted that "ironically, he had no stage presence" and he was not very successful at making money from preaching. 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 mother married another preacher and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Kinison lived for a while.
Kinison attended Pinecrest Bible Training Center in Salisbury Center, New York. Kinison and his brothers emulated their father by becoming Pentecostal preachers. Sam later attended East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria. Bill described this as the root of much of Sams anger. His parents divorced when he was 11 and his brother Bill went to live with his father while Sam stayed with the rest of his family against his protestations. Kinison had two older brothers, Richard and Bill, and a younger brother, Kevin. His father pastored several churches around the country, receiving little income. The family moved to East Peoria, Illinois when Kinison was three months old. Samuel Burl Kinison was born in Yakima, Washington on December 8, 1953, the son of Marie Florence nee Morrow and Samuel Earl Kinison, a Pentecostal preacher.