![\"joan_piece_mff\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/joan_piece_mff.jpg\" "\\"Joan")
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Comedy is not pretty.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t believe the saying popularized by Steve Martin during his standup years, then take a gander at movies Hollywood has given us about comedians. In most cases, they are lonely, neurotic, insecure, sad people.\u00a0 And from these personality traits \u2013or disorders– comes humor.<\/p>\n
The latest movie to focus on a comic is Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, a fascinating warts-and-all bio-doc about the queen of mean, following one topsy-turvy year in her life. The downs (she fires her longtime manager, a play in England bombs, she\u2019s heckled by an audience member in Milwaukee) and ups (she scores in a tribute to George Carlin, wins the reality series Celebrity Apprentice, has a book published, keeps audiences rolling in live shows)\u00a0 are captured for the camera, while Joan comments on her career and frenzied life.<\/p>\n
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She lives in a Manhattan apartment fit for a queen, but worries about money and schleps from gig to gig, whether it be a casino booking, getting roasted on Comedy Central (mostly for the cash), shilling products on cable TV or delivering food (mink coat on shoulder) on Thanksgiving morning to needy people with her grandson. Throughout the film, filmmakers Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback) remind us of Rivers\u2019 roller coaster career with wonderful archival footage, culled from early TV appearances with Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan, and with clips from her own afternoon and late night shows that bombed (Her 1978 film directing debut Rabbit Test with Billy Crystal as the world\u2019s first pregnant man is conspicuously absent). \u00a0Joan also comments on her obsession with plastic surgery and what she views as being blackballed from NBC after she decided to compete against The Tonight Show, where Johnny Carson had made her the regular guest host. We\u2019re also treated to segments of Joan\u2019s raunchy, politically incorrect nightclub act and get offhanded opinions about show biz, her late husband Edgar and her daughter Melissa. Love or hate Joan, this is one Rivers that can be called many things, but certainly not lazy.<\/p>\n
Onscreen, a more complete, inside look at a comedian\u2019s life would be hard to come by, be it fiction or documentary. But there certainly have been films that have attempted to expose the psyches of those who try to make others chuckle for a living. Here are some of the films that mix laughter and tears to show us what transpires before the spotlight comes on.<\/p>\n
Funny People<\/a> (2009): Fans of Freaks and Geeks, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up were divided about comic godsend Judd Apatow\u2019s move into more serious territory. On the one hand, Apatow was admired for trying something new and quite bold, but many viewed this mix of farce and darkness uneven and, at 148 minutes, overindulgent. It seems like the filmmaker was trying to find the James L. Brooks touch exemplified in Broadcast News and Terms of Endearment with this saga of a successful comedian (Adam Sandler) discovering he has a blood disease, and how he deals with the health crisis. As expected, top-notch supporting actors\u2014including Seth Rogen as a struggling standup comic, Jonah Hill as an aspiring actor-writer, Jason Schwartzman as a pompous sitcom star, Leslie Mann as Sandler\u2019s now-married ex-girlfriend\u2014and lots of cameos from real-life comedians round out the formidable cast.<\/p>\n The Jimmy Show<\/a> (2002): A precursor of sorts to last year\u2019s Number One Fan and a salute to the British \u201ckitchen sink films\u201d of the 1960s, this downbeat existential drama was directed by actor Frank Whaley (The Doors, The Freshman) who also stars as the lead character. He\u2019s a major screwup who lives with his grandmother and works at a North Jersey grocery store with pothead pal Ethan Hawke. He dreams of becoming a standup comic, but his open mike night appearances at local watering holes don\u2019t seem to cheer anybody up.\u00a0\u00a0 His situation becomes even more complicated when girlfriend Carla Gugino becomes pregnant, which you would think would make Whaley end his slacking and ridiculous aspirations and smell the reality.\u00a0 His standup is depressingly bad, but the movie is effective in conveying the reality behind the dreams of working class non-heroes.<\/p>\n Funny Bones<\/a> (1995): Eccentricity of a whimsical sort abounds in director Peter Chelsom\u2019s underappreciated follow-up to his wonderful debut Hear My Song. Oliver Platt plays the comedian who bombs in Vegas in from of his comic legend father Jerry Lewis, and thereafter flees to the small town in England where he was born. His goal is to buy a routine he can call his own, so he auditions a group of entertainers and learns secrets about making people laugh as well as his father\u2019s past. This offbeat, poignant look at the world of comedy boasts another fine and uncharacteristically straight performance by Lewis.<\/p>\n This\u00a0 Is My Life (1992): In this sometimes schmaltzy, sometimes sweetly observed first film helmed by Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, Julie & Julia), Julie Kavner plays a department store cosmetics salesperson\u00a0 who sacrifices her home life as\u00a0 a single parent to daughters Samantha Mathis and Gaby Hoffman for a shot at comedy success. At first the daughters are behind Mom\u2019s pursuit, but when she starts to garner attention and her career takes up more of her time, the girls are left to a series of babysitters and, usually, to their own devices when it comes to questions about growing up. Dan Akroyd plays Kavner\u2019s agent, Carrie Fisher his resourceful assistant.<\/p>\n Mr. Saturday Night (1992): Billy Crystal is practically a one-man band here, writing. producing and directing, and, while one can admire his ambitions, this epic look into the life of Catskills comic Buddy Young, Jr. may have worked better with less Billy. The film goes back and forth in time, chronicling the life of the jokester from the early days (when he teamed with brother and future agent David Paymer before going solo) through his elder years, when he\u2019s bitter from missing out on superstardom. A fine supporting cast, including Julie Warner, Helen Hunt and Jerry Orbach, takes a back seat in Billy\u2019s club in a film one critic accurately labeled \u201cA Jewish Roots.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dark Backward<\/a> (1991): Give writer-director Adam Rifkin (Detroit Rock City) credit for being bold, but smack him, too, for being repellent and depressing. Judd Nelson, of all people, plays a terrible comedian who can\u2019t get a break\u2014and frankly, doesn\u2019t deserve one. Then an arm starts to grow out of his back, followed by a hand. Smarmy agent Wayne Newton gets him jobs in clubs and kiddie TV shows, but Rob Lowe, talent scout for a late night TV talk show, attempts to take Nelson to the next level. Set in what appears to be an alternative universe crummy enough to give Terry Gilliam fever dreams, The Dark Backward is one odd duck; a film that appeared intended to attain cult status and never quite caught on. There are similarities to the more acutely satirical How to Get Ahead in Advertising and a terrific supporting cast that includes James Caan, Lara Flynn Boyle and Bill Paxton.<\/p>\n Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling<\/a> (1986): Even though co-writer-director-star Richard Pryor claimed this film was not based on his own story, you can\u2019t get much closer than this serious but flawed survey of the life of a troubled standup comic. Almost everything in Pryor\u2019s life is in place here\u2014from growing up in a brothel, his womanizing, his career arc from seedy clubs to superstar, his drug binging, and his near-death experience after setting himself on fire. He relives it all in flashback after the latter incident, as he lays incapacitated in a hospital. While the film won\u2019t win many points for subtlety, and never gets to the crux of Pryor\u2019s , er, Jo Jo\u2019s demons , Pryor the filmmaker does a decent job in depicting the events. His obvious inspirations were Fellini\u2019s 8 \u00bd and Bob Fosse\u2019s All That Jazz\u2014not a bad thing\u2014but a filmmaker and screenwriter with objectivity may want to take another whirl at Pryor\u2019s amazing life.<\/p>\n The King of Comedy<\/a> (1982): Misunderstood when it was first released in theaters to microscopic audiences, Martin Scorsese\u2019s film is now considered by many as a brilliant meditation on fame and the lengths people will go to find it. Robert De Niro is Rupert Pupkin, a North Jersey messenger obsessed with talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), whom he stalks and eventually kidnaps in hopes of forcing the entertainer to give him a shot at stardom. Joining Rupert is Masha (Sandra Bernhard), another obsessed Langford fan, as an accessory to the scheme.\u00a0 When Rupert finally gets to do his routine, it is pathetic and unfunny, but the fact that he has recognized his lifelong dream\u2014or has he?\u2014underlines the film\u2019s stinging satire. Like Network, The King of Comedy seems even more pertinent today than when it was released, because of America\u2019s obsession with the media spotlight. Written by the late Paul D. Zimmerman, a former Newsweek film critic (and Movies Unlimited customer).\u00a0 Scorsese also touched on standup comedy in Raging Bull, his previous film.<\/p>\n Mickey One (1965): While never available on video in any form, this effort from the post-Miracle Worker Arthur Penn is worth seeking out. Noting that with this film he attempted \u201cto push American movies into the realm where Truffaut and Fellini have moved,\u201d Penn delivered a European art film with English dialogue. Strikingly shot in black-and-white, boasting a jarring editing style and Stan Getz on the soundtrack, the film stars Warren Beatty in the title role, a heavy gambling, piano-playing Polish comic whose paranoia gets the best of him, as his belief that the mob is calling in its markers causes him to ditch his home turf for the west side of Chicago. His feverish pursuit of stardom, however, may come back to bite him in the behind. A revolutionary film in many ways, Mickey One proved a tune-up for Penn, who next brought his European sensibilities\u2014and star Beatty\u2014to the smash Bonnie and Clyde.<\/p>\n Joan Rivers is not the only comic who has been the subject of their own full-length documentary. The enjoyable Comedian<\/a> (2002) draws parallels between a comedian who has made it (and then some) in Jerry Seinfeld and an up-and-comer in Orny Adams, whose ultimate goal is to get a spot on Late Night with David Letterman. Chris Rock, Robert Klein and Jay Leno offer insight and advice. Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project <\/a>(2007) is John Landis\u2019 highly entertaining survey of the career of \u201cthe Merchant of Venom,\u201d whose lifelong love of lambasting is saluted by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman and Sidney Poitier. \u00a0Jamie Kennedy\u2019s Heckler<\/a> (2007) shifts focuses at a certain points, concentrating first on how comedians deal with hecklers in nightclubs, then on how artists deal with critics, then on Kennedy being ripped on his film Son of the Mask. To My Chagrin: The Unbelievable Life of Brother Theodore (2007) mixes a standup routine and commentary on the life of one Theodore Gottlieb\u2014aka Brother Theodore\u2014an oddball comic regular in Greenwich Village and late night TV who was either a genius or a wacko, depending on your taste. Woody Allen, Dick Cavett, Joe Dante (who cast him in The \u2018burbs) and others give you their take on the good Brother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Comedy is not pretty. If you don\u2019t believe the saying popularized by Steve Martin during his standup years, then take a gander at movies Hollywood has given us about comedians. In most cases, they are lonely, neurotic, insecure, sad people.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":11563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1480],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-notes","tag-joan-rivers"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"man_on_the_mff\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/man_on_the_mff5.jpg\" "\\"man_on_the_mff\\"")
Man on the Moon<\/a> (1999): The perfect matching\u00a0 of actor and material\u2014Jim Carrey playing iconoclastic comedian Andy Kaufman in a biopic directed by Milos Forman\u2014proved to be a box-office bomb and didn\u2019t get Carrey the Oscar nomination he well deserved. The sadly abbreviated life and times of comic genius Kaufman\u2014complex master of confrontational and experimental shenanigans, co-star of Taxi, pro wrestling fanatic\u2014are perfectly realized, thanks to Forman\u2019s tried-and-true touches (the cast of Taxi play themselves, save co-producer Danny DeVito, who plays Andy\u2019s manager George Shapiro)\u00a0 and a knowing script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood). But why should we care about Kaufman and his bizarre antics? That\u2019s the question that left audiences indifferent, shrugging their shoulders.\u00a0 Well, at least REM\u2019s haunting theme song caught on.<\/p>\n![\"punchline_mff\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/punchline_mff.jpg\" "\\"punchline_mff\\"")
Punchline<\/a> (1988): Released in the era of the comedy club craze where three or four laugh factories were opening in middle sized cities at a regular clip, Punchline captured the desire of everyday folk to take their act onstage. Tom Hanks is the former med student in serious financial trouble bringing his hip, self-loathing persona to a Manhattan dump where he hopes to get discovered. Sally Field is a real housewife of New Jersey who goes as far as to buy jokes in hopes of making it in standup. It\u2019s not until she realizes her own family life can provide a fountain of material for her routine that she takes off (think Roseanne Barr). Punchline is an admirable attempt to get into the heads of comics and see what makes them tick, but it\u2019s lacking real laughs, as you might expect from writer-director David Seltzer, screenwriter of The Omen.<\/p>\n![\"lenny_mff\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/lenny_mff.jpg\" "\\"lenny_mff\\"")
Lenny (1974): Life was certainly not a box of chocolate or a bowl of cherries for Lenny Bruce, the envelope-pushing comedian who became entangled with drug addiction, personal demons and obscenity charges by the authorities. In Bob Fosse\u2019s stunning black-and-white biopic, Dustin Hoffman turns in a mighty performance as Bruce, who we follow from the early part of his career as a Catskills tummler to meteoric success to the depths of depravation. Valerie Perrine plays his wife, former stripper Honey Bruce, in Fosse\u2019s powerful tribute to a late friend.<\/p>\n