Hi there. The Cap'n here. As you've noticed, this is also not a review. There wasn't a review on Monday, which is weird, I suppose. It might not be, since the Blogorium is always at the whim of the Cap'n (that being me), and I shouldn't feel as though I've locked myself into some pattern of "reviews now" or "feature then." Anyway, here's what I've been up to, which ought to help in some ways explain why I'm not specifically reviewing something.
I've been watching several stand-up specials (and at least one released theatrically): Louis C.K. - Hilarious, Ricky Gervais - Live Science, Aim Low - The Best of Dylan Moran, and HBO's Talking Funny, which is a sit down discussion between Gervais, C.K., Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld. The problem is that, Talking Funny aside, I don't actually have a good way to review stand-up specials.
Comedy is very subjective, so it's hard to recommend one comedian working through their newest routine in front of an audience unless you know readers are predisposed to liking that comedian. Louis C.K. does a very blue, very working class, non-politically correct set that you either really take to or you don't. A good litmus test would be to watch a few episodes of Louie, his show on FX; it's very much an episodic form of his bits. The same applies for Gervais, who likes to push his comedy into very uncomfortable territory, comment on the uncomfortable nature of the comedy, and move forward. Dylan Moran is going to be a bit confusing for people who haven't seen Black Books, the show I knew him from (his role in Shaun of the Dead doesn't really prepare you) - his rambling, disheveled delivery can be off-putting, I suppose, even directionless at times, but the jokes are solid.
Again, without commenting on specific routines - and thereby spoiling the reason you're watching the special - it's hard to comment on them. You either already know who these comedians are and would be inclined to watch their specials, and if you don't, I can sort-of point towards shows or films they've appeared in to give you a general idea. But that's not actually reviewing the special, per se.
The other problem, at least from the perspective of someone who reviews films as a visual medium, is that there's not much to say about the aesthetic appearance of these specials. They are, with minor variations, exactly the same - two or three camera angles on the comedian standing against a curtain or set with the occasional audience reaction shot. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but it is the formula of this kind of filmed performance, and I can't say I've seen many people attempt to alter or toy with it. There's no cause to - the specials are designed to replicate the experience of seeing them live, and as someone who's seen Patton Oswalt in person and on DVD, they do the subject justice. Having said that, you've seen the limit of what I have to say about stand-up specials from a technical standpoint: I can see them and hear them clearly.
Talking Funny is at least worth mentioning because the summit does something I really wasn't expecting from comedians ever: an actual conversation about the construction of "bits" of how jokes work and the motivation behind them, or why audiences respond to certain versions of material. Jerry Seinfeld explains why he stopped using "the 'F' word" in his routine by demonstrating the last piece he used it with, and why he felt it was more of a crutch than part of the routine.
And then something fascinating happens - Gervais, having listened attentively to the "bit," explains that the reason it didn't work without language is less about the word than the audience's ability to key in on his frustration, necessitating its use. I'm so accustomed to seeing comedians dodge discussing comedy, or to simply be "on" all the time, that Talking Funny was both revelatory and still hilarious. The section explaining why a stupid song parody being funny isn't ironic on the part of the audience, but how it actually works on a level the comedian didn't plan for, is both fun and surprising. The show is a rare glimpse behind the curtain of what makes comedy funny, of how the really talented comedians do what they do, and how they crack each other up in the process of discussing it.
At the same time, I have no idea if people would want to watch this. I suppose it's a question of whether you're predisposed to be interested in Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Louis C.K., or Ricky Gervais. If you aren't, then there's not much Talking Funny can do for you, because so much of the discussion is centered around their particular approaches to stand-up. With most movies I can at least steer readers in a number of directions, of points of entry into the film that you can use to build on when watching the rest of the movie. Stand-up is so performer-centric that while I've enjoyed all of them, I have little idea how to give you a point of entry for these specials. I guess you could look for them elsewhere (for example, Louis C.K. wrote a number of Chris Rock's films, most notably Pootie Tang), and then see if their approach to comedy is something you'd like to spend 70-90 minutes with exclusively.
The other thing I've been doing is starting movies and not finishing them yet. Most of them have been bad, like Season of the Witch (which I'll get to at some point in a review) or disappointingly bad, like Burke & Hare (the first John Landis movie in thirteen years, that hasn't been released stateside, and with a good reason; let's just say they could put "From the Director of Blues Brothers 2000" above the title and it would be appropriate). I'm halfway through The Dungeon Masters, a very good documentary that's cringe-worthy in the same way Trekkies is, which doesn't make me feel good about eventually reviewing the film.
I have seen a very recent, large-budgeted summer tent-pole release, and it was pleasantly surprising and more than "just good," but I don't know when I'll get around to writing that up. Let's just say if you were on the fence about a certain Norse God turned Comic Hero, your money will be well spent, just don't see it in 3-D. So yeah, no real review today, but it's not such a bad thing that I switch things up around here. It'll keep me from getting into a rut, and hopefully will give you something unexpected to look forward to.
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