Interviews with dozens of different comics offer lots of perspectives on what's funny and how hard comedians have to work to write good material and keep the audience at a high level of entertainment and laughter. Everyone thinks it's so easy because they can make people laugh on occasion, but this documentary shows how angst-ridden, frenetic and intense these people's minds are.
Spoiler below, if that's even possible with a documentary that has no plot:
Easily the most painful and curious part of this bittersweet documentary is watching the film's co-writer, Ritch Shydner, a writer trying to return to standup after more than a dozen years away, bomb on stage. Watching him struggle is like seeing a pitcher who's lost his fastball and relentlessly trying to search for something, anything that works. It's interesting because I'm sure Shydner had the right to include his stuff or not, so knowing he included this somewhat agonizing material personalizes the onstage struggle greatly. It's effective conveying that scrambling to find something that'll spark the audience; hearing a bunch of people talk about how hard it is to connect just wouldn't have the same effect.
Well worth watching.
Spoiler below, if that's even possible with a documentary that has no plot:
Easily the most painful and curious part of this bittersweet documentary is watching the film's co-writer, Ritch Shydner, a writer trying to return to standup after more than a dozen years away, bomb on stage. Watching him struggle is like seeing a pitcher who's lost his fastball and relentlessly trying to search for something, anything that works. It's interesting because I'm sure Shydner had the right to include his stuff or not, so knowing he included this somewhat agonizing material personalizes the onstage struggle greatly. It's effective conveying that scrambling to find something that'll spark the audience; hearing a bunch of people talk about how hard it is to connect just wouldn't have the same effect.
Well worth watching.