When Stand Up Stood Out | |
---|---|
Directed by | Fran Solomita |
Written by | Fran Solomita |
Produced by | Chad Sahley |
Starring | Fran Solomita Lenny Clarke Janeane Garofalo Bob Goldthwait Denis Leary Paula Poundstone Colin Quinn Steven Wright |
Distributed by | THINKFilm (DVD) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
When Stand Up Stood Out is a documentary film by former Boston comedian Fran Solomita which chronicles the explosive popularity of the Boston Stand-up comedy scene in the 80s and early 90s. It was released on DVD on June 20, 2006 by THINKFilm, the distributor behind the documentary The Aristocrats .
Produced by Chad Sahley, the film portrays the smart yet gritty comedy of Boston, a veritable melting pot of people of very different backgrounds: the multi-ethnic working class and the hip, learned college crowd. In an interview for the film, Solomita commented that "Those two things right next to each other created an odd vibe - really smart people who also understand a dollar earned. The comedy just sort of percolated."
Along with its joyful 'insider' look at comedy (Solomita performed at the Ding Ho for 2 years in his youth), the film also explores the darker side of the scene. Cocaine, the glamor drug of choice of the 1980s, was a problem in the circles of performers and club owners. Equally bad was the cut-throat competition between the clubs themselves.
One of the film's most gripping sequences is the story of Steven Wright's appearance on The Tonight Show on 6 August 1982. [1] Apparently, Carson was so impressed with Wright that he invited him to sit down on the couch, an occurrence almost unheard of for first time guests. [2] The event is presented as a boiling point; when the brash, rowdy, innovative Boston scene of the early 80s finally broke into the national spotlight.
The film features original footage from two of the Boston area's most renowned comedy clubs: The Comedy Connection in Quincy Market, and the club which operated at The Ding Ho in Inman Square in Cambridge. Some of this footage was obtained via one of the film's producers, Doug Miller, who worked for Channel 5 and frequented the comedy clubs with his camera. Still other footage from the era came courtesy of DJ Hazard.
Also notable are the interviews with many comics who got their start in Boston, including Kevin Meaney, Denis Leary, Steven Wright, Janeane Garofalo, Bobcat Goldthwait, Paula Poundstone, Don Gavin, Kenny Rogerson, Jimmy Tingle, Barry Crimmins, and Lenny Clarke at locations which include The Comedy Studio and The Comedy Connection.
A mockumentary, fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary.
Steven Alexander Wright is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and film producer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes, paraprosdokians, non sequiturs, anti-humor, and one-liners with contrived situations.
Lenny Clarke is an American comedian and actor. He is known for his thick Boston accent and as the role of Uncle Teddy on the series Rescue Me.
Godfrey Ho is a former Hong Kong-based prolific film director and screenwriter, sometimes considered the Ed Wood of Hong Kong cinema. Ho is believed to have directed more than one hundred films, including over 80 movies from 1980 to 1990 before his retirement in 2000. Many of his works are now regarded cult films by aficionados of Z movies as being among some of the most "so bad it's good" entertaining movies ever created.
David Cross is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show (1995–1999), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix sitcom Arrested Development.
Night Flight is an online visual-arts magazine and variety television show that originated on cable TV network USA Network. It originally aired from 1981 to 1988 before moving to syndication in the early 1990s. The show relaunched online on nightflight.com in 2015 with original episodes that can be streamed on the subscription channel Night Flight Plus. In April 2018, it returned to cable television as a short form program airing late Friday nights/early Saturday mornings on the network IFC. It includes a mix of mainstream and alternative music videos, artist interviews, B movies, documentaries, short films, stand-up comedy and animation.
Steve Sweeney is an American comedian.
The Aristocrats is a 2005 American documentary comedy film about the famous eponymous dirty joke. The film was conceived and produced by comedians Penn Jillette, Paul Provenza and Peter Adam Golden, and edited by Emery Emery. Distributed by THINKFilm, it is dedicated to Johnny Carson, as "The Aristocrats" was said to be his favorite joke.
Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known as the "Roastmaster General" for his insult comedy, his multiple appearances at celebrity roasts held by the New York Friars Club, the Comedy Central Roast television series, and the Netflix historical comedy series Historical Roasts. In 2009 the Chicago Tribune called Ross "the new millennium Don Rickles." His directorial debut, the 2006 documentary Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie, won the prize for Best Film at the Comedia film festival held at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.
Martin Olson is an American comedy writer, television producer, author and composer. He is known for his unusual subject matter, and is an original member of the Boston Comedy Scene. He is the father of actress Olivia Olson.
Bill Braudis is a writer, voice actor and script writing instructor from Boston, Massachusetts who has also done stand-up comedy.
Funny People is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Judd Apatow, co-produced by Apatow Productions and Madison 23 Productions, and starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman. The film follows a famous comedian who is diagnosed with a terminal disease and tries to fix the relationships in his life while befriending an aspiring comedian.
Found footage is a cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary. For added realism, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were "raw" and complete or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it.
Steven James Brody, known professionally as Brody Stevens, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in the Comedy Central reality series Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!, and was known for appearances on Chelsea Lately and other comedy shows as well as roles in films such as The Hangover (2009) and Due Date (2010). His scenes were cut out of Funny People (2009).
Noel Murphy is an American stand-up comedian and a film director. He managed the New York Comedy Club from a failing venue to one of the top showcase clubs in New York City. He currently lives in California.
DJ Hazard is an American writer, actor, musician and standup comedian.
Barry Francis Crimmins was an American stand-up comedian, political satirist, activist, author, Air America Radio writer and correspondent, and comedy club owner.
Julia Reichert is an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and feminist.
Murder in the Front Row is a documentary film which chronicles the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene. The documentary premiered on April 20, 2019. Directed by Adam Dubin and produced by Jack Gulick and Rachèle Benloulou-Dubin, the film contains over fifty interviews with various metal stalwarts, and is told through a mix of first-person interviews, animation and narration by comedian Brian Posehn. The film was released on DVD and digitally on April 24, 2020.
George Carlin’s American Dream is a 2022 two-part documentary film about comedian George Carlin directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio.