Comedies about stand-up comedy are difficult to pull off. How do you capture the highs and lows of performing live on film? How do you capture the buzz of the good gig, the despair of the bad gig? How do you capture a world that is simultaneously niche and mainstream? The Comedian’s Guide to Survival comes pretty close.
The film is based on the career of James Mullinger, who did OK as a club comic in the UK but has latterly relocated to Canada where he has made it rather big. Comedian’s Guide homes in on the early years of struggle. The bad gigs to one man and his dog, the tedious carshare journeys (Richard Sandling and Luisa Omielan are among the passengers), the arguments about joke theft. As I said, it is based on Mullinger’s own experiences, but I can read about all of these things on my Facebook feed most nights. I’m clearly friends with too many struggling comics.
Inbetweeners star James Buckley plays Mullinger, who by day works on a magazine called COQ. In real life Mullinger worked for GQ. The foulmouthed editor, played by Paul Kaye, sends him off on a mission to write a feature about the stand-up business, which means we see him meet lots of real-life comics including Brendon Burns, Omid Djalili and Mike Wilmot.
Mullinger/Buckley’s story eventually takes him to America where he has to land an interview with a comedy big shot or get the chop. Kevin Eldon - always a good sign to have him in the cast – plays his slightly bemused American driver and an unrecognisable Mark Heap plays a trucker who gives him a lift when Buckley is down on his luck. Comedians Mike Ward, Jimmy Carr, Pete Zedlacher, Derek Seguin, Carly Smallman and Maff Brown also pitch up (sorry if I've missed anyone).
The film, directed by Mark Murphy, has an episodic feel and the pace and tone is a little uneven. But when it works and feels authentic, such as when it is following Murphy’s early gigs, it is very funny and Buckley does have the air of a genuinely desperate wannabe. The interviews with other comics are very entertaining. The American scenes – the real Mullinger himself has a cameo as a successful stand-up – are less convincing.
But does he make it as a stand-up? By pursuing his dream Mullinger does seem to find some success, although it does stretch credibility a little at times, such as when he lands by chance a lucrative corporate gig, which naturally goes horribly pear-shaped. You don't get much insight into the psychological mindset of a stand-up (the underrated film Punchline, starring Tom Hanks, did that better) but you do get laughs, which is pretty essential for a comedy film as well as a film about comedy.
The Comedian's Guide To Survival is far from perfect. Comedians might nitpick about details, the public might not recognise some of the cameos. But at its best it neatly captures the horror and the glory, the highs and the lows, the agony and the ecstasy of this weird, weird world.
The Comedian's Guide To Survival is released on Friday.
Watch a trailer here.
