12-18 Aug 2017 guide 12on your own; it only works in
front of an audience.”
“That’s what makes it very
exciting,” enthuses Crashing
creator Holmes. “There is no
Google Hangout version of
standup. I mean, there is; you can
do a VR standup show, but it’s a
little bit like sex, in th e sense that
there’s no digital substitute for a
real, live audience.”
For makers of scripted drama,
standup also offers a useful
vehicle to elucidate the social
and political context, without as
much heavy-handed exposition.
David Flebotte, a former
comedian himself who now
heads up the writing team for
I’m Dying Up Here, says: “When
Cassie does her big blowjob
routine on stage, we are not
saying: ‘This is great standup’,
but we are saying that for a
woman to do this onstage in 1973
was a big freaking deal.”
“There is something very
confessional about standup
comedy, it’s as if you
were in therapy,” notes
Michael Showalter,
director of The Big
Sick. “So you have
an environment
in which your
characters are
entitled to speaktheir truth in a way that doesn’t
feel contrived.”
Showalter also believes the
comparative lack of glamour
makes standup a better fit for
on-screen entertainment than
music. “The banality of comedy
is not sexy, but it’s very relatable,”
he says. “I can’t relate to the life
of a rock star. I can’t relate to
what it is like to sleep all day, play
a show and then party all night.
But I can relate to a comedian
like Jerry Seinfeld, where every
little thing is funny to him but
his life is really quite boring.
He’s not doing cocaine off
supermodels’ butts. At least,
not that I am aware of.
“I think there is a fair
amount of vanity in
musicians; they care
deeply about how
they look, about
the image that
they project,” he
continues. “That is not‘As Chris Rock says
in the fi lm: It sounds
corny, but we are thelast philosophers’
an appealing thing; people can’t
relate to that idea of: ‘I’m so sexy,
I am so comfortable with my
sexuality, look at my body.’”
Comedians, he posits, are very
much the opposite, lampooning
themselves for laughs and
stripping back vanity in favour
of raw vulnerability. “Comedians
shine a light on their own
insecurity. So for an audience- at home or in a club – there
is an invitation there from the
comedian saying: ‘Don’t worry,
however insecure you are, I am
a thousand times worse.’”
It’s a cleverly subversive way
to get girls, I note: playing up
your weaknesses. “Yes, you’re
shy, you are socially awkward,
and you go onstage and tell jokes,
and suddenly everyone wants to
talk to you,” Showalter agrees.
“You are using your insecurity as
a weapon, as a tool.”
For television and film
scriptwriters, too, what could
be a better tool for drama than a
physical venue that serves as a
showcase for human frailty and
roiling insecurity?
Of course, most punters
don’t queue round the block at
The Comedy Store consciously
hoping to witness hours of
raw vulnerability. But in a year
characterised by anxiety, despair
and political chaos, they are
almost certainly seeking more
than simply a belly laugh. “Music
is about letting go of inhibition,
about escaping the bondage
of everyday life,” continues
Showalter. “Whereas I think
comedy, on a lot of levels, is about
making sense of everyday life.”
And, goodness knows, we
need all the help we can get
with that right now
I’m Dying Up Here starts on
Wednesday, 10.10pm, Sky
Atlantic; Dying Laughing is on
Amazon Prime, iTunes and other
streaming services; The Big Sick
is on general release; the pilot for
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is on
SARAH SHATZ Amazon Prime
Comic cuts Amazon’s
Marvelous Mrs Maisel;
and (inset) Kumail
Nanjiani in The Big Sick