Hey hey! Buckle up folks. Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis are a crazy foursome setting out on a wacky adventure to see America. The madcap comedy troupe is on a take-no-prisoners mission to Make You Laugh. There's no telling what you'll see when you tag along for this wild ride. These people are serious. Serious about comedy that is!And if that sounds like the intro to something you'd like to see, then don't bother The Comedians of Comedy: The Movie. A better selling point might be the sexual tension between Zach and Brian.
At the beginning of it all, Oswalt claims to see himself at a level just below any grand blossoming of an indie/punk comedy scene.
[David] Cross has a hairy ass-crack. I have womanly man-boobs. We're not the two to do it. Someone's coming that will do it. It's not us. We're the ugly mother-fuckers that are setting it up. Someone's gonna spike it. It's not gonna be us. Sorry. I'm setting up the next guy. That's my purpose.
The movie is about five years old: not recent enough to represent the comedians' current acts or stature, but not early enough to see how far they've come.
Right now, Oswalt and Galifianakis are at the head of their lines. Oswalt, with a recognizable and mainstream presence in sitcoms and films has lost not a bit of credibility as a stand-up. Galifianakis' film trajectory is still accelerating, and his characters are getting so much love and attention that his stand-up—still respected; still sharp—is maybe the second tier of his current renown.
I have no greater shame in my history of following comedy, than my embarrassing phase of not appreciating Bamford's genius. I was convinced she was faking her voice, and I thought her entire act was "gimmicky." That's hard for me to admit. But at least it was a long time ago. Let's call it a decade. Now I love her act. I look back, and it was good then too. Even the gimmicky violin stuff.
And Posehn has moved from being "the guy on Just Shoot Me!" to one of the gay guys on The Sarah Silverman Program. But he's so much more than that. He was also on a couple episodes of NewsRadio. Hellooo? Oh yeah, also Mr. Show, Reno 911! Human Giant, Everybody Loves Raymond, and many more. He's a fellow metal head, and I think we would find each other equally awkward, even without a great set of tits.
The movie isn't about stand-up comedy. It's not really even about stand-up comedians. It's about being stand-ups. The footage switches quickly between stage, backstage and road footage. Occasional staged interviews and even some mini-film stunting fill in to shake up the pace. Oswalt's visit to the Portland morning radio show, where he's greeted with a whoopie cushion, is hard to watch, but mercifully short. Artificial interactions like that are balanced by footage at meals, in hotel rooms, of conversations on sidewalks and in the van. In those moments, not every joke that someone cracks gets a burst of laughter. The lame jokes don't elicit sheets of relentless and clever scorn. Sometimes a joke or comment just falls over, and a quiet beat passes before someone dutifully changes the topic. If you ultimately don't trust that you're seeing the comedians be themselves, the footage is at least very lifelike.
If you haven't seen much of their stage acts, there are other videos in the Comedians of Comedy series. One presents them at "the El Rey." Another at the "the Troubadour." The the El Ray show is available for instant viewing, but it doesn't include a Galifianakis set.
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