When I interviewed comedian Lewis Black a few years ago I asked him if television had ruined stand-up comedy, which seems to thrive on live performances. He believed that television was actually a good thing and created a larger audience. Well, I can't argue with that, and neither should you, darn it. So, TV viewers, give us your favorite stand-up comedians of all time. Here's five o' mine:

Mitch Hedberg. Brilliant, inexplicable, often stoned. Unfortunately he was taken away from us way too soon.

Emo Philips. "I think of my body as a temple. Or at least a relatively well-managed Presbyterian youth center."

Bob Odenkirk (with or without David Cross). I really like David Cross, who worked alongside Bob on stage and on the HBO series Mr. Show. However, Cross' comedy is a bit too condescending at times. Odenkirk, however, is all about being silly. His melodramatic recanting of spending one hour in jail is brilliant: "I stepped outside and was nearly blinded by the light of the moon."

Eddie Izzard. I can't do it justice here, but this cross-dressing Englishman does a hilarious riff about how the word "awesome" has lost its original meaning. It ends with this line: "Awesome? You mean like a hot dog?" Trust me, in context it's hysterical.

Eugene Mirman. I have yet to see this man live, which is a shame. I have caught him on Conan and Letterman before, and while the audience never really seems to "get" his humor, he always cracks me the hell up. His Web site is also fabulously surreal.

And yeah, there's about a thousand others, but I limited myself to five. Now go nuts.