DVD Review: The Comedy Store by Mike Binder

The Comedy Store
written and directed by Mike Binder (DVD 792.76 Com)

This five-episode documentary originally aired on the Showtime network in 2020, and came out later on DVD in 2021. The Comedy Store is a legendary club in Los Angeles, which opened its doors in 1972, and was expanded/renovated in 1976. The original facility has three different performing spaces — a main room and two smaller spaces, and all the rooms played host to many of the stand-up comedy legends of the past 50+ years.

 

Each hour-long episode of this documentary takes a look at a different era in The Comedy Store’s history. Shortly after it launched, Mitzi Shore received The Comedy Store from her husband in a divorce settlement, and she then spent the next several decades mentoring hundreds of comics and providing for an atmosphere that fostered the development of stand-up comedy.

 

Writer/director Mike Binder managed to conduct dozens of interviews with past and present comics, as well as unearthing tons of rare footage from past performances. What results is a fast-paced melange that is part “historical documentary” and part “personal remembrance”.

 

Because The Comedy Store was produced for a pay-cable network, the language is…colorful, and unfiltered…to say the least. But if you’ve only ever heard about The Comedy Store, and never had the opportunity to visit it, this will be an educational experience. Whether you’re a fan of old-school comics like Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Pryor, Jay Leno, Andrew Dice Clay and David Letterman, or you lean more towards today’s comics, like Whitney Cummings, Joe Rogan, Andrew Santino, Ilza Shlesinger and Marc Maron, you’ll find something of interest in this look back at stand-up comedy history. I was particularly moved by the fact that this documentary not only pays tribute to so many comedians that have left us (Williams, Pryor, Sam Kinison, etc.), but also features recent interview segments with artists like Bob Saget and Louie Anderson, who’ve passed away just in the past few weeks.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Showtime TV series, “I’m Dying Up Here“, which preceded this documentary, and addresses (in a fictionalized setting) the 1970s comedy club scene. This has NOT been released to DVD at this time.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official The Comedy Store documentary page on the Showtime web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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Laughter Therapy CD sets from NPR

Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living and Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious
released by National Public Radio [Compact Disc 817 Nat]

Laughter Therapy is two sets of audio recordings from National Public Radio, featuring interview clips with comedians covering decades of NPR broadcasts. One 3-disc set — Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living — is hosted by Ophira Eisenberg of NPR’s Ask Me Another, and the other is a 2-disc set — Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious — hosted by Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me‘s Peter Sagal. Both sets follow the same formula — interview clips, interspersed with performance snippets from many of today’s and yesterday’s most noteworthy comics. Often, the comic was on tour to promote a “new” (at the time) book or DVD release, so some of many of the interviews cover the content of those books. But, often, the comics and interviewers are just riffing on the life of the comic. Entertainers including in “Funny for a Living” include Lucille Ball, Louis C.K., Sid Caesar, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Crystal, Dick Van Dyke, Jim Gaffigan, Buster Keaton, Groucho Marx, Bob Newhart, Carl Reiner, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Kristen Wiig, Jonathan Winters and more. I really appreciated hearing the voices of both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in their segments! The “…Chronically Serious” volume features Mel Brooks, Drew Carey, Stephen Colbert, Eugene Levy, Martin Mull and Fred Willard, Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca, Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers and more.

Both sets are highly entertaining — my only complaint is that the snippets for each artist are so short that you’re left wanting more. Fortunately, in the case of many of these comedians, the libraries own their comedy routines on CD, or you can find their bits on YouTube as well!

[If you like this item, you might like these too – See each of the related artists in our catalog — we are likely to have some of their comedy albums available on CD, or through our Hoopla downloadable/streaming service!]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up
by Steve Martin [Biography Martin]

The book ranges from his youth working at Disneyland — handing out guidebooks, working in a joke shop, putting on magic shows, — then on to acting in shows at Knott's Berry Farm. During these years he also branched out, performing at a variety of clubs integrating comedy and magic. Once he got the hang of it he was hired and wrote jokes for the Smothers Brother Show and also the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. After performing many times for Johnny Carson he was hired to host Saturday Night Live where he was famous for being a Wild and Crazy Guy — among other things. Once that started he realized that he was getting too famous and began feeling isolated — he couldn?t go anywhere without being recognized and when he couldn't take it anymore, he quit standup completely. He got closer with his parents who health was quickly declining and began working on movies because they were less stressful. It's an excellent read, less than 200 pages, so it goes by quickly. It also has a lot of cool photos of Steve through the years. You learn a lot about his personal life which I don't want to spoil for you but I would highly recommend it. -- recommended by Carrie K. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Ten, Make that Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make that Ten, also by Steve Martin, which is a collection of his Tweets and some of those written by his followers.]

[Also available in book-on-cd format.]

[ official Steve Martin web site ]

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Rowan Atkinson Live!

Rowan Atkinson Live!
[DVD 817 Atk]

Having been a tremendous fan of British comic actor Rowan Atkinson since his Blackadder days, I quickly snagged this DVD of his live standup comedy when it passed across the desk at the library recently. I'm more a fan of Atkinson when he's being bitingly sarcastic or droll, and not so much a fan of his "Mr. Bean"-style physical comedy. This hour's worth of stand-up routines, recorded in 1991, leans a bit more toward the physical comedy end of his style. None-the-less, I found myself laughing hard at many of the bits he's collected here, and wishing the show was even longer. Short bits like these don't allow for the viewer to be quite as emotionally invested in continuing characters, but allow for very quick punchy comedy. Definitely worth checking out, and definitely falls into the PG-13 level rather than the R level of comedy. This entire show is also available on YouTube, with additional footage. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the library's complete set of Atkinson's Blackadder series, as well as his Mr. Bean -- all on DVD.] -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [Subscribe to Scott's monthly booklist newsletter It's All Geek to Me! - on the Books, Movies & More newsletter sign-up page].

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ Rowan Atkinson page on Wikipedia ] | [ Complete show available on YouTube ]
 
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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop
[DVD 817 Obr]

This DVD provides a behind-the-scenes look at the creation and making of Conan O'Brien's summer tour after leaving "The Tonight Show" and during his contractual ban from television. While this documentary contains snippets of the tour show, be advised it is NOT an entire filming of the show itself. The DVD provides an interesting perspective of a Conan O'Brien we don't see on his late night show. It is hysterical how funny Conan can be, even when not in front of an audience. While his crass attitude can be offensive, even to his own support team of colleagues, you really see the commitment and loyalty of his staff that have stuck beside him through thick and thin. The DVD shows Conan really as his raw self- a man who eats, sleeps, and breathes humor every day in almost every situation. This DVD ultimately shows the true master of improvisation at his lowest moments trying to turn lemons into lemonade...while apologizing for really bad hair. -- recommended by Jeremiah J. - Bennett Martin Public Library
[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Conan O'Brien Can't Stop web site ]


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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Born Standing Up

Born Standing Up
by Steve Martin [Compact Disc 791.432 Mar]

Based on friends' recommendations, I listened to the book-on-cd version of Steve Martin's recent autobiography, narrated by Martin himself. This book is a look back by Martin at his life during the period in which he was performing stand-up comedy, which he hasn't done now for over 20 years. It was fascinating to see the intense work that went into creating his routines, and the evolution of those routines over the years. My earliest memories of Martin are from just before he became the "wild and crazy guy" with the bunny ears or arrow through his head. He seemed like such a natural humorist that it is interesting to hear him describe how much practice and development went into creating that kind of performance persona. In reference to the audiobook -- Martin is a fine narrator, although in the early portions of the book he seems rather emotionless and speaks in almost a monotone. The further into the book he goes, though, the more animated and energetic his narration becomes. Also, a benefit you get from the audio version rather than the print version is that between chapters you get short bits of Martin playing his own original banjo music -- one of his passions. I found it particularly interesting that Martin felt as if he was writing a "biography" rather than an "autobiography" -- he says he felt as if he were writing about another person, since he hasn't been that "stand up guy" for over two decades. [Martin's sense of humor also comes across well in his novels and other printed books, including Cruel Shoes. The libraries have a couple of his comedy albums from the time period he discusses, as well as a Saturday Night Live compilation, The Best of Steve Martin.] -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [subscribe to Scott's monthly booklist newsletter - It's All Geek to Me! - or any of our other custom email newsletters!]

[Also available in traditional print format.]

[ official Steve Martin web site ]

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I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This...

I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This...and Other Things That Strike Me as Funny
by Bob Newhart [817 New]

I've always been a fan of Bob Newhart, ever since getting hooked on The Bob Newhart Show back in the 1970s, and subsequently tracking down his Grammy-winning Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart comedy album(s). So...when this autobiography/memoir appeared back in 2006, I couldn't pass it up. Bob's book is a very entertaining read, filled with lots of recollections of high points in his comedy career, but after finishing it my first feeling is that the book didn't really add up to much. It's very light-weight as biographies go, and even fairly weightless in comparison to other similar humor books. While a lot of page space is taken up with his earlier comedy career in standup, and his first real breakthrough on television (The Bob Newhart Show), his later hit, Newhart, although long-running and tremendously popular, only gets a few pages -- about the casting and about the unforgettable final episode. And his two lesser-know shows, Bob, and George and Leo get less than a paragraph combined. The book came out before he became involved in the recent series of made-for-TV-movies about The Librarian, in which he has a major role. Overall, although this book is a fun read, I don't know that I'd recommend it for anyone but a die-hard Bob Newhart fan, and even then if you're a big fan you've probably heard most of the stories he tells already, in his many talk-show appearances. On the other hand, it will bring back fond memories of seeing him chatting with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in Large Print format.]

[ official Bob Newhart web site ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.