comedians of comedy

The Comedians of Comedy

I pretty much go through the entire month of December feeling like

there is an anvil hanging from a fraying rope right over my head. Deck

the halls, and all that f*ckin' falalalala...

Forgive the pseudo-profanity. It' s just that I heard more of the "f"

word last night than I probably have in the past ten years. All while

watching the DVD, "The Comedians of Comedy."

Oh yeah, and I laughed my butt off along the way. A well needed escape

from the holiday-prep hysteria.

I believe this DVD may only be available for rental from Netflix. And

because I'm not only stressed, but I'm also lazy, here is their

summary:

"A crew of documentary filmmakers follows stand-up veteran Patton

Oswalt (of "King of Queens" fame) and fellow "alternative comics"

Brain Posehn and Maria Bamford on the Comedians of Comedy Tour. Along

with clips of performances, the film offers a behind-the-scenes look

at the comedians and the challenges of presenting material that's not

necessarily "masses-friendly" and of playing rock clubs and indie

venues rather than the usual comedy clubs."

What this Netflix blurb doesn't tell you is that there a heaping

helping of male nudity in this little documentary. All for comic

effect -- but evidently it haunted me enough to inspire a rather

frightening dream last night that I would rather not go into at this

point...

I was not particularly familiar with any of these comics before.

Patton Oswalt is especially hilarious (and you get the impression that

perhaps he is the least, um, unbalanced of the bunch.)

Not to infer that Brian Posehn isn't also extremely funny. He is.

Mixed feelings about Maria Bamford -- although her standup was

amusing, she creeped me out more than made me laugh. Her act revolves

around impressions...the novelty is that her "normal" voice is this

high-pitched cartoony voice, and her impressions are conventionally

voiced women. But all I could think was, "If you can talk in a normal

voice, why don't you?"

Another comic, Zach Galifianakis, joins the trio for a good part of

the film. He's probably the most avant garde in his comedic approach

-- although he's not above fart humor.

The film focuses more on behind-the-scenes than standup. There are

comic book runs, bad radio interviews, and the comics' attempts to

crack each other up. More than anything, the film exposes the monotony

and lack of glamour in life on the road.

One MUST watch the extra features -- some funny stuff buried in here

-- especially one entitled something like "The Mayonaisse Incident."

Yes, these are some very seriously disturbed mfs.

Michael Penn scored this film -- providing incidental music (very

effectively -- especially in an arcade scene.) And his version of

"Down By the Riverside" plays in part during the film and in full

through the credits (and continues after the credits end -- with a

completely black screen, which was a bit bizarre, but seemed to be

done out of respect for his music.) It's a lovely, updated version of

the song, which underscores several of the film's themes.

This song is contained on an EP "Cinemascope," a compilation of Mr.

Penn's soundtrack work, which was packaged with the CD "Mr. Hollywood

Jr., 1947" as a Border's exclusive. I have no idea if it's currently

available retail.

Oh, just discovered Comedians of Comedy is currently on Showtime (that

link will show you when it's airing...) Of course, you won't get the

extra DVD features if you go this route.

There's also a series based on the movie on Comedy Central. Must do my

best to catch it...

Now, I just have to get the mental picture of a nude Brian Posehn out

of my head. ASAP.

posted by Cyn @ 11:38 AM 4 comments links to this post

4 Comments:

At December 06, 2005 11:36 PM, Blogger Spencer said...

Another Michael movie I haven't seen. He actually sent me

Melvin goes to dinner and I haven't watched it yet. Bad me.

At December 07, 2005 12:29 AM, Blogger Cyn said...

If I recall properly, that one pretty much starts out with a

sex scene...enough motivation for you?

(Oh, it's a very interesting movie too -- slightly contrived

plot, very talky, but never boring.)

At December 07, 2005 9:35 AM, Blogger radiocynic said...

I'm not exactly sure what this says about me, but I don't even

recall any sex scenes in that movie at all; only a bunch of

interesting dialougue.

Nonetheless, I'll second the recommendation for both of these

films. Melvin was a cool movie overall, and Michael's score

really clicked, especially the sudden entry of the end title

theme (I think it was "Phyrogiants".) Very memorable for some

reason.

At December 17, 2005 2:07 PM, Blogger Matthew Sterling said...

I got a comment in my blog from Cyn (I didn't know comments

were even possible) because I dropped Michael Penn and

Jellyfish references in my ramblings. C.O.C. is a great movie

(the TV show on Comedy Central is even better). I'm a huge fan

of MP, have some radio appearances and stuff like that if

anyone ever wants to trade...

www.tapetrader.com/boblamonta

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