In a land before time.
So I was spelunking around YouTube (as I'm wont to do) and found the trailer for Comedian. I like this documentary, and a riff popped into my head:
Comedian is kind of the anti-The Aristocrats, Gillette and Provenza's wildly-overrated attempt to craft a comedy-as-jazz expose with a mind-deadening barrage of largely-uninspired filth talk. (ALERT: Yes, Bob Saget works "blue". We've heard about that dark little secret for years. The dude from Full House loves the dirty talk! Ha ha.) There was certainly fun to be had in the film, but mostly not in the way it was intended. For me, the real kick was seeing all of my old teevee friends from the late-1980s to early-1990s comedy BOOM -- all those cats who appeared in front of the brick wall on the ubiquitous clip shows on The Comedy Channel and HA! (pre-merger!), MTV's Half-Hour Comedy Hour, HBO specials, etc. Sue Kolinsky and Cathy Ladman are still at it?! Taylor Negron is alive! Jake Johannsen! The Amazing Jonathan! Etc. The Aristocrats was a slideshow of my nascent, mid-teen comedy mind.
However, Comedian, which shares a few performers, narrows its focus and dives deep down into the dark NYC wee hours -- nestles into the back rooms of the clubs, veterans poking at pasta dishes and cheesecake, exhaling smoke and working on their craft. Hearing Chris Rock marvel at seeing Cosby do three hours of new material or seeing a post-Seinfeld Seinfeld bomb with new material is a far more thrilling and interesting comment on the art of stand-up than Andy Dick telling me about stapled scrotums or a parade of b-grade journeymen sloshing around in human waste and inter-family activities. And while Orny Adams is a bit of a goofball and thoroughly mediocre, his dedication to the game -- his meticulous joke-filing system, his delusional dreams -- is quite endearing. Comedian shows that if it's 1 a.m. in Gotham, you better bring it even if you've got 39 Porsches in a private garage because after five minutes, even the most beloved performer will have to earn the laughs of a real, paying audience. And that's a lot harder than impressing your peers with depraved backstage riffage.