I Am Comic!

Last night I finally watched the docu-comedy by Jordan Brady, “I Am Comic”. It’s the story of a former comedian, Ritch Shydner, loosely woven through a collage of interviews and film snips of a wide range of standup comics. Shydner had been a top performer, but quit performing to concentrate on writing jokes for other performers. It is interesting to watch him as he struggles through the wasteland of open mikes and one night stands to see if he can work his way back to his former plateau.

It has great spots by:

Sarah Silverman

Tim Allen

Jeff Foxworthy

Kathy Griffin

Jim Gaffigan

Chris Hardwick

Louis C.K.

Janeane Garofalo

Andy Kindler

Carrot Top

Nick Kroll

Larry Miller

Lewis Black

Margaret Cho

I’d been following its’ progress since before its’ release last winter, and was particularly interested in some of the controversy it stirred up. The controversy centered around a computer program developed by former stand up comedian, Steve Roye. He was interviewed about how his, ‘Comedy Evaluator Pro’, was an essential tool in the development of any comedian.’ Comedy Evaluator Pro’ simply breaks down your set, based on a recording or video, on a minute by minute basis, and informs you how many seconds of each minute you spent talking, and how many seconds of each minute were used up by the audience laughing.

This is essential as a Headliners’ routine must average, at a minimum, eighteen seconds of laughter per minute. And eighteen seconds is a minimum; a good comedian should have minutes in their act that attain thirty or more seconds of sustained laughter. The program itself allows you as a comedian, to evaluate each performance you deliver, and instantly see which areas of your set need to be, ‘punched up’, and which material might best be deleted and replaced with stronger stuff.

Some people thought that this was an, ‘artificial’ way of improving comedy. I just don’t get that; to me it was just a high tech way of doing what comedians have been doing since the beginning. However, instead of relying on memory, hours after the fact, you have the results before you on screen or paper, whenever you like. Cold, hard data rather than the output of a foggy memory, which, in many cases, will be biased.

It was a great show; highly entertaining and informative. Later this week, when I have time, I will watch it again. In the meantime, tomorrow night I am comic, (hear me roar!)