Large Ham/Music



Hams who chew microphones instead of scenery.

"King Ferdinand: "I don't like the way the crew is acting!" Columbus: "You're overplaying it a bit yourself there.""
 * I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat! Everybody look at me, 'cuz I'm sailin' on a boat!
 * LIKE A BOSS.
 * THIS IS THE TALE OF CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW
 * A lot of rock frontmen have this sort of stage persona.
 * David Lee Roth is probably the best example.
 * So much he gets his own soundboard.
 * I see your David Lee Roth and raises you Scott Weiland. That's not including his concerts, where the dancing gets more over-the-top and he does stuff like getting naked onstage, dandyman suits, etc..
 * When Axl Rose fans bash you for being too hammy, you know you've reached an entirely new level of ham.
 * Speaking of which, Axl Rose: "YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE? YOU'RE IN THE JUNGLE BABY! YOU'RE GONNA DIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!"
 * Shirley Bassey's singing style is the musical equivalent of Chewing the Scenery.
 * And in the same vein, may I present kd lang's performance of "Surrender" "TOMORROW NEVER DIIIIIIEEEEESS!"
 * From the classic Stan Freberg album "Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America":

"This is not the greatest ham in the world, this is just a tribute. Couldn't remember the greatest ham in the world, no this is a tribute. You can't kill The Metal. Metal will HAM on. LEE! LEE! LEE! LEE! LEE! LEE! WE'RE TALKIN FUCKING LEEE!. "I do not neeeeeed \ A Microphone \ My voice is FUCKING POWERFUUUUULLLLL!" "What powers ya ask? \ I dunno, how about the power of flight? \ That do anything for ya? \ That's levitation, Holmes. \ How 'bout the power to kill a yak, from 200 yards away, with MIND BULLETS?! \ That's telekinesis, Kyle! \ How 'bout the power... to move you? He asked us, *snort* "Be you angels?" And we said "Nay! We are but MEN! ROCK! OOOOON!!! "
 * Jack Black is very much this persona in his films and as part of Tenacious D.

""LIFE IS A LEMON AND I WANT MY MONEY BAAAAAACK!""
 * Not to mention the song Kickapoo, which is basically Ham-to-Ham Combat between Jack Black, Meat Loaf and the late great Ronnie James Dio.
 * Despite singing about sexual addiction, rape, murder, love gone wrong, and a host of other messed up horror movie-inspired situations, Ludo as a whole is about as Hammy as Hams can get. Hell, Andrew Volpe alone qualifies the entire band.
 * All the proof is right here.
 * Meat Loaf's performance style suits a different form of meat than his stage name, that's all I'm sayin'.

"I WANT IT ALL! I WANT IT ALL! AND I WANT IT NOW!."
 * Jim Steinman's monologue "Wasted Youth" in Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell has enough ham to feed a family of four. For a week. "So...I...took...my...guitar...and I SMASHED IT AGAINST THE WALL! I SMASHED IT AGAINST THE FLOOR! I SMASHED IT AGAINST THE BODY OF A VARSITY CHEERLEADER!"
 * Jim Steinman is the King Midas of ham. Just listen to his work with Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply ("Making Love Out of Nothing at All"), and Celine Dion ("It's All Coming Back to Me Now").
 * Freddie Mercury.

"HOLY DIVER! You've been down too long in the midnight sea! Oh what's becoming of me?"
 * Then there's this video.
 * "FLASH! A-AAAAAH! SAVIOR. OF. THE UNIVERSE!.
 * You know a song is a monument to hamminess when even John Deacon and his bass are thick and porky and what not.
 * Ronnie James Dio.

""SCREAM FOR ME, !""
 * Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden.

""CANNONS TO THE RIGHT OF THEM! CANNONS TO THE LEFT OF THEM!""
 * Taken to the obvious extreme - Bruce Dickinson's official website? www.screamforme.com

"MY NAME IS MISTER MACPHISTO!"
 * RUN! TO! THE! HILLS! RUN! FOR! YOUR! LIIIIIVES!
 * "BRIGHTER THAN A THOUSAND SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNS!"
 * His appearance on the single version of Wheatus' Wannabe Gangstar is definitely this trope. His sole contribution is "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-OWWWWWWWWW"
 * X Japan. The entire band except for rhythm guitarist Pata. Specifically, lead singer Toshi and drummer/pianist/bandleader Yoshiki, though in this band's case, the ham, especially when engaged in by late former lead guitarist hide (Freddie Mercury, eat your heart out!), just added to the awesome. It's just not the same without him. :(
 * The Who's Keith Moon
 * Sir Russell AllenNot to mention his air-guitaring and sword fights with inflatable swords on-stage during guitar solos when with Symphony X.
 * Or Star One, Russell Allen, Damien Wilson and a few other Ayreon singers Ham it up large over such subjects as Star Trek VI, Blakes Seven and Dune. There's something surreal about two singers recreating a Blake/Avon conversation in song and making it more OOT than the original.
 * The lyrics of any given DragonForce song can quite easily be hammed to oblivion.
 * Miyuki Nakajima, at times when performing songs in her Yakai concerts.
 * The infamous O Holy Crap.
 * Pretty much every member of JAM Project. Masaaki Endoh and Hironobu Kageyama not only have lots of fun onstage, but pretty much compete with Ricardo Cruz to see who is the hammiest.
 * "Weird Al" Yankovic has parodied this a few times. "I'M CALLIN' IN SICK TODAAAAAAY"
 * Candlemass lead singer Messiah Marcolin in the music video for "Bewitched."
 * In fact, Messiah hams it up in nearly every song he sings.
 * Bono, from 1990 onward. Particularly during the Zoo TV Tour.

"SHE'S A LADY WOAH WOAH WOAH SHE'S A LADY TALKIN ABOUT MY LITTLE LADY AND THE LADY IS MINE!. AND HE STRIKES! LIKE THUN! DER! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!"
 * Tom Jones, of course. His entire body of work makes one big example.

"Heeee hee! Shamone!"
 * Alice Cooper. 'LOVE ME! YES WE LOVE HIM! LOVE ME! YES WE LOVE HIM!.
 * Morrissey, dear lord, Morrissey. "TO DIIIIIE BY YOUR SIDE IS SUCH A HEAVENLY WAY TO DIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!" Especially that falsetto of his.
 * Michael Jackson was possibly the biggest ham in the universe.

""My brothers, my sisters, my blood... SPEAK TO M-E-E-E-E!!"."
 * Divine's I'm So Beautiful is simply hammy. CAN'T YOU SEE!? LOOK AT ME!!
 * Rhapsody of Fire is this trope combined with the most in-your-face epic and fast symphonic power metal this side of Dragonforce teaming up with the London Philharmonic.
 * Two minutes and ten seconds into "Tears of a Dying Angel," prepare for the tons of ham.
 * Any band that gets Christopher Lee to narrate one of their albums is worth several times their weight in ham.
 * Adding to the list of power metal singers, Tobias Sammet of Edguy definitely counts. "Lavatory Love Machine" is a joke song, but even so ...
 * Elvis Presley could occasionally evoke this trope in particular the song "If I Can Dream" from the 68 Comeback special which could be considered Crowning Music of Awesome.
 * Luciano Pavarotti.
 * Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Not just for his bizarre leather outfits, but the fact that he used to arrive at Judas Priest concerts driving a motorcycle on stage. Seriously.
 * Still does for encores, in fact. At least up until their apparent last world tour in 2011.
 * My Chemical Romance in general and lead singer Gerard Way in particular. The video for Helena is probably the campiest funeral you'll ever see in your life.
 * "Helena" got nothin' on Famous Last Words. Delicious campy-ness all around.
 * "Famous Last Words" slides right into Nightmare Fuel territory--especially if you've seen the leaked version of the video.
 * Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator.
 * Carl Smyth's opening line at the beginning of One Step Beyond by Madness: "HEY YOU! DON'T WATCH THAT! WATCH THIS! THIS IS THE HEAVY HEAVY MONSTER SOUND! ONE... STEP... BEYOND!" And the rest of the otherwise totally instrumental piece is interspersed with him yelling, "ONE STEP BEYOND!"
 * Hojotoho! They don't call it Wagnerian for nothing.
 * Matthew Bellamy of Muse. His lyrics are made of falsetto and awe-inspiring quantities of ham. ESPECIALLY in the album Origin Of Symmetry.
 * Why split these states when there CAN BE ONLY OOONE?!!!
 * EURASIA! SIA! SIA! SIA!
 * "Give meeeeeeeeee-yerrrrrr! All of the peace! And joy in your mind! I want the peace! And joy in your miiiind. Give me the peace! And joy in your mind! Oooooooooooooooooh!" - from Bliss. We get it, Matt.
 * For Matt's ultimate escapade in hamminess, listen to this, specifically 2:36.
 * The titular character of the Devin Townsend album Ziltoid the Omniscient definitely counts as one, delivering almost all his lines in an overly grandiose manner. Such gems include "You have not convinced mighty Ziltoid!! I am so omniscient, if there was to be two omnisciences, I would be both! Prepaaare yourseeelves for the subjugation!!" and "Fetid!! How dare they present this to me?! Foul! They hide their finest bean! Prepare the attack!!"
 * "They must have jumped into Hyperdrive! FOOEY! ...Indeed-dah! FOOEY!"
 * Kamelot's Roy Khan has some hammy tendencies thanks to his theatric performing style and odd mannerisms.
 * Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Especially live.
 * Nightwish is completely over-the-top, with Heavy Mithril lyrics, Epic Rocking, and a truly passionate opera-trained female vocalist. And it is totally awesome.
 * Pain Of Salvation's Daniel Gildenlow does this quite a lot, but when he plays the character of Mr. Money in the BE live stage show, he takes it into overdrive.
 * Phil Anselmo, back in his prime, was very, very animated and hyperactive while performing, even for a metal musician, in addition to his frequent use of Metal Scream and his various interactions with the crowd.
 * David Draiman of Disturbed is known for his ability to move crowds with his hamminess. This can include dramatic speeches about empowerment, Giant Cow-milking and drawn-out screams. Observe.

"WAY DOWN INSIDE! WOMAN! YOU NEED! LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!"
 * Elton John has had his moments, especially (and most appropriately as befitting the character in the song) in the promo clip for the 1978 single "Ego".
 * Venom's Cronos, at least when it comes to stage banter. Enough so that a bootleg consisting entirely of his banter during one somewhat unlikely set opening for Black Flag became something of a cult phenomenon for it's quotability and sheer over the top Narm ("You know what this is? This comes from where Venom come from, it's called Newcastle Brown Ale! IT KNOCKS YOU ON YOUR FUCKIN' BACK, LET ME TELL YOU!!!").
 * America has Gerard Way and My Chemical Romance; Norway has Kaizers Orchestra and Janove Ottesen. The whole band embraces campy-ness. Helge Risa plays a pump organ with a picture of Martin Luther and a lamp on it. While wearing a gas mask. And they use oil barrels and crowbars as percussion instruments. And they sometimes dance on top of said oil barrels.
 * A Capella singing. Depending on the music and the song, a garnish of Ham can make the difference between a So Okay It's Average performance and So Cool Its Awesome show.
 * Voltaire. Listen to When You're Evil and Snakes for reference and prepare to be blown away...
 * The band Electric Six has basically made their career on this. GIRL! I WANNA TAKE YOU TO A GAY BAR!
 * In Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War of the Worlds, Phil Lynott eats pretty much anything which isn't nailed down as Parson Nathaniel ("A SIGN! I have been given a SIGN!") and is easily the biggest ham in the entire production. Which is quite impressive when you consider that one of the other cast members he's up against is Richard Burton. Richard Burton, people.
 * "The Overtly Melancholic Lord Strange", singer of The Lamp of Thoth, is one of the largest hams around.
 * Cab Calloway was perhaps the largest ham in the 1930's jazz scene.
 * When it comes to extravagant nuttiness in pop music, Lady Gaga is pretty hard to beat.
 * Which explains her choice of having her old friends from New York, Semi Precious Weapons as the opening act on her tour. Lead singer Justin Trantor is one of few people that can give her a run for her money in the Crazy Awesome department.
 * Robert Plant. Legend has it that at one of their first shows, the amps cut out, and the people in the back of the auditorium could still hear him.

""HUNT YOU DOWN WITHOUT MERCY! HUNT YOU DOWN ALL NIGHTMARE LONG!""
 * James Hetfield: HATE! HATE! I'M YOUR HATE! I'M YOUR HATE WHEN YOU WANT LOVE!

"DRINK UP, SHOOT IN!! LET THE BEAT-INGS BEGIN!! DIS-TRIB-U-TOR OF PAIN! YOUR LOSS BECOMES MY GAIN!!!
 * Even after losing good friend and bandmate Cliff Burton, Hetfield still maintains the ham:

ALL HAVE SAID THEIR PRAYERS - INVADE THEIR NIGHTMARES!!! JUST SEE INTO MY EYES, YOU'LL FIND WHERE MURDER LIES!!!!!!"

""Some people are hams...I'm the whole pig" - Paul Stanley "FEEL MY HEAT, TAKING YOU HIGHER", "SHOUT IT! SHOUT IT! SHOUT IT OUT LOUUUUD!" & "I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIIIIGHT""
 * Hell even Jason Newsted got in on it: "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKER DIE!"
 * THIS I SWEAR! THIS I SWEAR! THIS! I! SWEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!
 * Jim Morrison: Father? Yes, son? I want to kill you. Mother? I want to...FUCK YOU!
 * Kiss -- they even dressed up and put on make-up, to amplify the hamminess.

"Why...you...act...crazy?!? Not...an...act...maybe?!? So...close...a...lady! Shif...ty...eyes...shady! IF! I! WOULD! COULD! YOU?"
 * The late Layne Staley:

"¡ES - CÁN - DA -LO, ES UN ESCÁNDALO! ES - CÁN - DA -LO, ES UN ESCÁNDALO!"
 * David Thomas from Pere Ubu is what would have happened if Brian Blessed was the frontman of a rock band. Just watch him here as he manages to steal the scene from Deborah Harry with his manic antics.
 * The Spanish actor and singer Raphael. Who has been hamming it up for fifty years.

"''VIVIIIIIIR ASI ES MORIIIIIIR DE AMOOOOOOOR! POR AMOR TENGO EL ALMA HERIIIIDAAAAAA! POR AMOR, NO QUIERO MAS VIDA QUE SU VIDA, MELANCOLIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
 * Ever since at least The Sixties and The Seventies, some Spanish singers managed to ham it up even more (Come ON, they have the famous Serrano hams, why would they be less?). Raphael is one of the biggest examples, but Camilo Sesto was no slouch either. (Guess that becoming famous by playing Jesus in the Spanish version of Jesus Christ Superstar was a good start. Too bad his health problems have made him less hammy than he used to be.)

"COME AND HAVE A TASTE!!! A RARE VINTAGE!!! ALL THE FINEST WINES!!! IMPROVE WITH AGE!!!"
 * Isabel Pantoja. Just... Isabel Pantoja.
 * I see your Isabel Pantoja and raise you a Lola Flores!
 * Generally speaking, Flamenco singers are among the hammiest hams ever coming from Spain. Gypsy Kings? Oh yeah. Camaron de la Isla? You bet!
 * Rockers don't do it that bad either. Enrique Burnbury from Heroes del Silencio was (and it looks like he still is) an epic rock ham in Entre dos tierras - though let's be fair, with a voice like that, it couldn't be less.
 * Bryan. Ferry. Can be understated even with that vibrato, but when he wants to be, like in If There Is Something, where he gets rather... enthusiastic and shouty about GROWING POTATOES, he is very hammy indeed.
 * Serj Tankian of System of a Down. Watch his live shows. He dances, throws out random vocalizations, and just generally messes around. Much of the tomfoolery stems from a desire to make the taciturn drummer, John, laugh onstage and get off rhythm.
 * Bruce Springsteen. Notable in that there are people who bash hammy singers - and still like him because they say his point is to be hammy.
 * Dream Theater 's James LaBrie, mostly on the Count of Tuscany track. He's singing about an experience John Petrucci had as a kid, and he's screaming it like it's the scariest fucking thing in the world:

"LET ME INTRODUCE!!! MY BROTHER!!! A BEARDED GENTLEMAN!!! HISTORIAN!!!"

"WHAT DO YOU GET for pretending the danger's not reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll"
 * Drummer Bernard Purdie. "Weeeeeeell Well! Samba time baby!"
 * Ex-Lareine, Now in Versailles, I present Vocalist Kamijo, who has a habit of swooshing about in over the top stage costumes whilst being as ridiculously dramatic as is humanly possible. Expect the giant cow to get a good milking when he's in full flow.
 * The infamous Trapped In The Closet by R. Kelly, ESPECIALLY when it comes up to the climatic discoveries on each part. He's being completely serious about this too!
 * When he was fronting Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman was as hammy as they came, especially during live performances. And if Jack Skellington and Mr.Bonejangles are anything to go by, composing hasn't done anything to stop him.
 * While capable of delicate subtlety, David Bowie has long been this...and once music videos took off, it opened up a whole new world of hamminess. Let's consider some of the evidence...
 * "Time": The television special this came from was effectively the last hurrah for his Ziggy Stardust persona, and what a sendoff!
 * "Suffragette City": A Ziggy-era song, but here filtered through the Thin White Duke persona. His trills and yelps in the final stretch are kooky fun. (And this was just a rehearsal...)
 * "Boys Keep Swinging": Oh, one might argue those ladies singing backup are bigger hams -- wait a minute....
 * "D.J.": A Stepford Smiler has quite the meltdown.
 * "Dancing in the Street": Watch out for the infamous Ham-to-Ham Combat with Mick Jagger in this one...
 * Roger Waters of Pink Floyd sometimes qualifies for this, especially on "The Gunner's Dream:" NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, GOING 'ROUND AND 'ROUND MY BRAIN...HIS DREAM IS DRIVING ME INSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE...in the corner of some foreign field, a gunner sleeps tonight...

"TEAR! DOWN! THE WALL! TEAR! DOWN! THE WALL!"
 * Waters' solo albums frequently make his Floyd work look positively restrained. Especially "Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin."
 * He's pretty hammy on much of The Wall, but "The Trial" takes it Up to Eleven, with Roger hamming it up in six different voices.

"BY-TOR! AND THE SNOW DOG!"
 * You might have noticed that given the examples, Waters only started to ham up as he took over the band and had more tracks to sing.
 * One word: Kitananx, he even admits that he's directly inspired by Serj Tankian, mentioned above.
 * Latin-American singers from The Sixties, The Seventies and The Eighties really loved to ham it up to absolutely epic levels, relaying on lots of stage antics and upbeat music. Some of the most radical cases are: the Mexican Juan Gabriel, the Venezuelan Jose Luis "EL Puma" Rodriguez, the Argentinian Jairo and the recently deceased King of Latin-American Singing Porks, the also Argentinian Roberto "Sandro" Sanchez alias "El Gitano".
 * Tango singers are extremely hammy, as it befits a genre with songs about very passionate love affairs and extremely firey declarations about past, love, and Argentina. Roberto Goyeneche is a great example, though the legendary Carlos Gardel was no slouch on that either.
 * Joe Cocker - to the point where John Belushi did an over the top, and brilliant, parody of him.
 * Kanye West and Jay Z just went HAM!!!!!!
 * DMX has been doing ham!
 * Henry Rollins: CAUSE I'M A LIAR!!!
 * Geddy Lee, especially in the early days, before he learned to take his register down a notch.

"HEY YOU, YOU ARE TRYING TO BE MEAN? YOU LIVE WITH APES MAN, IT'S HARD TO BE CLEAN!"
 * Alex Lifeson is an even bigger ham. And Neil just goes Up to Eleven in his drumming without total hamminess.
 * King Diamond: GRANDMA WHAT WAS IT LIIIIIIKE?!? TO BE ON THE HOLIDAY SIIIIIITE?!?
 * Fred Durst
 * Tom Araya, most notably in the stages of the earlier albums.
 * RAINING BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!
 * WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
 * If you thought that the only good edible things coming from Belgium were chocolates, beer and waffles, think again. The absolutely magnificent and bombastic ham provided by Jacques Brel is so thick that it'll give you lots of chills. After his death.
 * Many Italian singers from The Seventies and The Eighties were larger than life and as hammy as they could. Riccardo Cocciante, Humberto Tozzi (with epic dancing in the first one) and Franco Simone provide us with thick, delicious, tasty Italian pork that apparently still lasts to this day. (Simone has taken it down some notches, but AFAIK Cocciante and Tozzi are still hammy now).
 * Harvey Danger. Especially Flagpole Sitta: PARANOIA, PARANOIA! EVERYBODY'S COMING TO GET ME!
 * Kate Bush.
 * Lil Jon.
 * Peter Schickele's narration for "Bach Portrait" does this as a parody of what Aaron Copland instructed narrators of his "Lincoln Portrait" not to do.
 * Scott Walker once compared himself to Orson Welles, in the Bogdanovichian sense that he's become popular music's most acclaimed former musician, unable to bring his visions to life... so he already counts as a Large Ham. But when you hear that impossibly deep and booming voice set to his very, very symphonic arrangements and compositions, he reaches a truly breathtaking level of Ham.
 * The Band's Robbie Robertson is one of these throughout the Martin Scorsese-directed concert documentary The Last Waltz.
 * Ronnie Radke of Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse.
 * Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails could get pretty hammy.
 * Oh, and Marilyn Manson too. Given he follows the footsteps of two artists listed above (Alice Cooper and David Bowie), and adds some weird imagery to boot...

"It's so insane 'cause when it's going good it's going great; I'm Superman with the wind in his back, she's Lois Lane! But when it's bad, it's awful, I feel so ashamed; I snap, "who's that dude," I don't even know his name..."
 * Chester Bennington can get quite hammy, especially in songs like "Crawling", "Blackout" and "The Messenger"
 * Surely Rammstein, with their firestarting, firework-setting and gimp-humping performances, qualify for this trope?
 * A common fan sentiment during NSYNC's heyday was that while Justin Timberlake was the Large Ham in their songs, Joey Fatone was the Large Ham during their public appearances.
 * Hansi Kürsch. His lyrics could be written in all caps and not even begin to make a difference, and it seems that the older he gets, the hammier and livelier his stage persona gets.
 * Eminem comes across as this from time to time.

"RUN, RUN, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN! YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION, PAYING ATTENTION, PAYINATTENTION!"
 * Ozzy Osbourne. He's The Quiet One offstage, but onstage, he is possibly the biggest ham in music.
 * Thom Yorke is usually subdued. But when the song requires passion, he'll get over-the-top impressively.


 * Kung by Phish.
 * Stjepan Hauser of 2CELLOS. He's the one on the left if you couldn't tell.
 * Captain Maggots of Emilie Autumn's Bloody Crumpets is incredibly, intentionally hammy. And the fans love her for it. Emilie also gets in on the fun sometimes, like in the "Girls! Girls! Girls!" live performance.
 * Wagner writes about gods, dragonslayers, Rhine Maidens, and of course Valkryies. And Ride of the Valkyries is sort of a Memetic Mutation of ham.