• About Kathy Shaidle
  • Kathy Shaidle: Donate
  • Kathy Shaidle: Privacy policy

5 Feet of Fury

Kathy Shaidle's blog. Est. 2000

Will Kevin Pollak’s comedy doc meet its Kickstarter goal?

September 19, 2013 By Kathy Shaidle

I hope so, but over at PJMedia, I express my concerns:

…before Lenny Bruce became the “Bird” of comedy and inspired too many stand ups to shoot up, funny men had reputations as either twisted, self-destructive misanthropes or inconsolable Pagliaccii, too fragile and wounded to survive in a harsh, shallow world.

It’s a theme that runs through Always Leave Them Laughing (1949) and HBO’s Louie, and through The Comic (1969) to the Marc Maron “WTF” podcast.

The difference between those older pieces and contemporary ones is that, sometime in the 1960s, professional comedians no longer felt obligated to “turn their frowns upside down” when they went on stage, lest they disillusion their audiences.

That brand of artifice (and self-control) went out with the cheap tux and the Catskills.

More from my site

  • If I have to get a real job, the Taliban have wonIf I have to get a real job, the Taliban have won
  • ‘My kid’s names are Harper, Brody, and Rafferty’‘My kid’s names are Harper, Brody, and Rafferty’
  • James E. Miller: ‘I hope and pray that October 17, 2016 will be remembered as the day press credibility in America died’
  • You’re all completely wrongYou’re all completely wrong

Filed Under: conservative blog

« You already know the activist lies behind ‘Roe’ and Matthew Shepard, but…
Gavin’s new style muse: sophomore-album-era The Specials (sort of). »
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in