When Stand Up Stood Out

About.com Rating

Stand-up comedian Fran Solomita’s love letter to Boston comedy, When Stand Up Stood Out, wants to capture and reflect upon the moment when stand-up comedy exploded, first across the city and then across the country. He uses recent interviews with comics such as Steven Wright, Denis Leary, and Kevin Meany, combined with archival footage of those comics performing in clubs like The Comedy Connection and the Ding Ho – the two most successful comedy clubs in Boston at the time.

Solomita also throws in a lot of lame stock footage (stuff like a building being demolished to reflect the drug-and-booze crash of the scene in the 1980s) to pad the movie out and provide transitions for the already scattershot narrative. The trick is transparent and ineffective, as the finished movie is rambling and unfocused, but I guess I can’t blame the guy for trying.

A great deal of When Stand Up Stood Out’s running time is spent on comedian Lenny Clarke, who most of the film’s participants seem to regard as the unofficial “leader” of Boston comedy at the time – he was the superstar, voted most likely to break out. When the breakout finally occurred, it was deadpan king Steven Wright –- not Clarke –- to hit it big, though the movie suggests that all of the comics couldn’t have been happier about this. It brought the city new attention, and they were happy to see one of their own make a name for himself. They supported Wright; not so a few years later, when pudgy throat-shredder Bobcat Goldthwait exploded onto the scene.

Goldthwait’s popularity left dozens of comics (Clarke chief among them) believing that they had been overlooked in favor of a novelty, and the camaraderie that once united the movement –- exacerbated by increasingly excessive drug and alcohol use –- was torn apart.

The film does an ok job of chronicling the Boston “scene” of the late 1970s and early 1980s –- as well as the standup boom of the same era -– but it doesn't achieve any context. The movie never gets outside of Boston; fine, since it chooses to focus on just that city, but it makes the “phenomenon” difficult to place and the film becomes too insulated. We also fail to see the effects of either movement, whether on comedy or on the country as a whole. When the movie cuts to interviews or stand-up footage with Janeane Garofalo, it doesn’t make sense –- she wasn’t around for the boom that’s being focused on, and the movie never gets around to looking at the Boston comedy scene that followed. The assumption, then, is that she’s included because she’s another famous comic from Boston. But this movie isn’t just about Boston comics. It’s about Boston comics of a certain time. Now, don’t get me wrong - any Janeane Garofalo is welcome as far as I’m concerned, and her few comments (specifically those about the sexist double standard of comedy clubs) are a valuable inclusion. It’s just that she really doesn’t belong in this movie, and her screen time speaks volumes of director Solomita’s lack of focus.

DVD Bonus Material

A handful of extras have been included on the disc, though there’s nothing to get very excited about. Some bonus stand-up material has been included from the likes of Bobcat Goldthwait, Lenny Clarke, Steven Wright, Don Gavin, and Kenny Rogerson, but it’s all been culled from the Don Crimmins benefit done in 2000 (or shortly thereafter); we don’t get extended cuts of any of the bits that gave these guys their names back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. There’s also a short “making of” featurette, and some extra “Meany on the Street” footage –- a bit that Kevin Meany used to perform in his stand-up act. This may be great news for Kevin Meany fans, but I am not among them. The last significant extra is also the most shameless: popular comic Dane Cook reflects on the Boston scene and on his own humble beginnings. He seems like a nice enough guy and his comments are sincere, but at no point does he say anything remotely funny. There is no reason for the interview to be included on the disc except to get Dane Cook’s name on the jacket, which, admittedly, may lead to a few more sales among the college crowd.