A Comedians Guide To Survival

A comedian’s guide to survival

Plot

James Buckley plays James Mullinger a real life comedian in a loosely based biographical film about the time before his big break when he was a down on his luck aspiring comedian dyeing on stage every night. After a series of shows end in him wetting himself on stage he has a crisis of confidence and considers abandoning his ambition of stand-up forever. Meanwhile at his real job at a comedy magazine he is tasked by his boss Phillip (Paul Kaye) to got to LA to interview several high profile comedians under threat of being fired he is also given the condition that he quits doing stand-up forever.

Themes

The main theme of the film is the journey of following one’s dreams the tagline of the film in many ways is the Winston Churchill quote “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”. It’s quoted in the opening marquee and his quoted during one of the films cameos, it sets the scene perfectly for the main conundrum facing James throughout the film, facing the decision to give up on his dreams. I found myself really sympathizing with James’s struggle this is as far as I’m aware James Buckley’s first solo leading role and although his character isn’t particularly multi-faceted the performance conveys a deep sadness during point of adversity and I was personally rooting for him if nothing else.

Comedy

Criticizing Comedy is a difficult process of course any genre is subjective, there are however objective elements that can be pointed to with other types of film. Elements such as: poor pacing, plot holes, rushed exposition, etc. with comedy however these points are mostly ignored as the film lives and dies on the one question, is it Funny and in this point nobody can really give a right or wrong answer. The way I personally gage a comedy’s quality is in the variety of humour it showcases and in this regard the film does very well. The film is not just a film about stand-up comedy it acts as a love letter to classic stand up. I found allegories for almost every kind of stand-up in different characters. Paul Kaye plays Phillip, James’s boss at the magazine and his performance is a delight to view and is comparable to the aggressive insult driven comedy associated with such comedians as: Jim Jefferies, Bill Burr, and even himself in his character of Dennis Pennis. Neil Stuke’s character although only appears in the film briefly gives a memorable performance and is comparable to the cynical irreverent style of comedy similar to: Doug Stanhope, Sean Lock, Dylan Moran, etc. James Buckley himself plays a lot to the cringy awkward style of humor similar to the style of "the Inbetweeners" only less crude. This is probably why they hired him in the first place. James Mullinger himself appears in the film as one of the comedians that he himself is interviewing he plays it very crude and sexualized probably the most in your face the film gets with its comedy. The rest of the film being a lot more subtle and down played, However it makes for welcome contrast and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

The film makes good use of its cameo's, several comedians such as: Omid Djalili, Jimmy Carr, Gilbert Gottfried, and Mike Ward, all make appearances as themselves in the film. They usually appear in interview scenes with James Buckley they have great on-screen chemistry and all work as appealing double acts.

The film plays a lot with comedy archetypes an amusing running joke is that everyone can hear James’s narration, at several points in the film James will start narrating in the similar style to “High Fidelity” except whenever he does it any of the characters around him will call him out. This leads to in my opinion one of the funniest lines in the film when he gets called out for talking to himself by Paul Kaye’s character, Phillip.

Conclusion

If you ask anyone who knows me they’ll tell you that I am notoriously difficult to please when it comes to comedy and off the top of my head, I can’t think of all too many comedies that I would consider favorites. This I by no means an exception to this I wouldn’t put this film within the same solar system as films like “Withnail and I”,” Worlds end”, or “Calvary”, but it’s a fun and amusing romp, well worth a watch.

#review #comedian #comedy