The Comedians of Comedy (2005)
The video revolution seems to have
met the stand-up comedy slump in this year's SXSW
Film Festival, resulting in the screening of at least
three, new somewhat edgy "films" by stand-up comedians:
Paul Provenza's "The
Aristocrats," Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic,"
and this film featuring Patton Oswalt, "The Comedians
of Comedy."
Oswalt is attempting to break new
ground by playing gigs in untraditional comedy venues,
like Emo clubs and punk rock bars. Here, he goes on
a five city tour of such clubs in late 2004 and brings
along fellow comedians Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford,
and Zach Galifinakis as well as a camera crew. The
result is a part documentary, part goof-off, part
performance film that is often funny but equally hollow
and pointless.
The performance moments in the film
are some of its best parts, even if the film was lensed
in 2004 and a lot of jokes about the "upcoming" election
are included. Each one of the four comedians has a
unique style and there are several bits by each one
designed to give us an idea of their stage presentations.
It is obvious from the film that seeing a show by
any one of these people would be a laugh riot.
There is even time spent in the
documentary segment discussing the formation of a
joke that we later see performed on stage. In this
way, like "The Aristocrats," we have the feeling that
we are insiders, seeing how these comedians work and
how they work out their material.
A large segment of the film is spent
discussing gay jokes and this theme later comes back
to be relevant as Galifinakis and Posehn spend one
drunken night engages in the process of trying to
create some sort of crazy homoerotic comedy piece
on video with some minor nudity going on. After this
happens, Galifinakis leaves abruptly the next morning
finding the producers struggling to get him to sign
a release before he goes and to understand why he
has left. To be honest, the whole thing, to me, smells
like a set-up, a "Andy Kaufman- esque" joke on the
part of Galifinakis to appear upset in order to do
an extended comedy bit about his sexuality which purports
to question our perception of homosexuality and homosexual
feelings between supposedly straight men. Galifinakis
never comes back and never tells us the bit was a
joke though. Like Kaufman often did, he leaves it
up in the air, hanging, giving us much time to consider
what is truly going on here.
Filmed with horrible shaky camera
work and bad sound, "The Comedians of Comedy" isn't
the best film out there by any stretch of the imagination.
But it does make you laugh. Hard. And for hardcore
fans of the four main comedians here, there's a lot
of material to enjoy, including footage of some of
their earliest performances. In the end, however,
all we really want to do is see these guys live, which
is more a testament to the performers themselves than
to this film.
Notes:
Some comments are subtitles in case
the audience cannot hear the voices off camera.
Score by Michael Penn.
