Talking Funny

I'm not a big fan of stand-up comedy in the sense of someone who closely follows the scene, but I am interested in the creative process and here we have four guys who are top in their business exchanging views about the mechanics of the craft.

About the craft itself, of all the narrative forms comedy is the one which aims the most at short-term effect. Laughter sanctifies all. So you will not glean much here on 'long' structure, but within the 'short' framework you will find some valuable stuff here with general application.

I discuss the four guys in order of how they rubbed me here, which is also how I rate their insights here and work on the stage. A valuable lesson right on the start is that these two things are deeply interwoven. 'Putting on an act' can't help but mean channeling yourself a certain way.

Each of the four can be said to represent a certain way of thinking and channeling self.

Gervais comes across as needy and a bit of a jerk. Maybe because he is supposed to be the host directing the discussion, maybe because that's who he can't help but be, he keeps butting in, has no chemistry with the rest and forces laughter to ingratiate himself. Indicative of his character, of the four he is the only one who keeps trying to logically explain how it all works.

Next is Seinfeld, cool and composed as usual. But both himself and his art are entirely too clean and smarmy, he nicely frames but will not put his own self in the life he frays, he's there but ironically sits above, better than you. (Louis chalks it up to Jewishness, I think in the context of secrecy). It's why his sitcom never appealed to me one bit.

The other two guys I like. Chris Rock is spontaneously present, full of alertness and vitality but not a jerk. A cool tidbit here is 'making fun of what they do and not who they are'.

Louis CK is my favorite. Oh I am not big on his scatological outbursts, but that is one of several ways he has of putting himself in the thing as worse than you, usually fat and disgusting. He combines a spontaneous stream-of- consciousness, conveys the exasperating life around the joke and (as you listen to him talk here) he has the best insights.

Incidentally, of the four he is the one who renews his act the most, the opposite of that is the conservative Seinfeld who rarely does.

Even more revealing difference between the two; Seinfeld (and Gervais) believe the audience comes for the man on the stage, Louis (and Rock) believe we come for the act.

Watch this folks with an eye on learning about your own self.

Comics share a language that sounds much like our own but is somehow heightened to a more sophisticated level of communicative release. It's smart that this one-off special opens by fading up as these four contemporary comedy giants---left to right, Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Louis C.K.---are already talking. Just lounging, talking about nothing important. Then Seinfeld poses a question to Louis, who earnestly answers. Seinfeld elaborates, then Rock interjects.

They effortlessly tackle subjects inimitably true to a stand-up comedian's life. Are you more likely to sustain an audience by doing your signature bits, or by constantly churning out new material? What first drew them each to the microphone and why did they keep coming back to it? Is it a professional comedian's inherent responsibility to keep the public's standards for comedy high, or is it OK to get a few cheap laughs? Does one's style of humor necessarily dictate one's sense of humor? We begin to see the many fine lines these guys have to walk in order to be as funny, successful and memorable as they each are.

It's fascinating watching them argue with each other from experience, and see the distinctions and associations between them. Gervais initially seems like an inquisitive moderator, which informs his subsequent intellectualizing on the nature of comedy, artistic integrity and one's audience, while the other three draw upon decades of history. The selection of these four high-fliers is clever in that it inevitably brings out contrasts, such as Rock and Louis' raunchy envelope-pushing as opposed to Seinfeld's old-school joke-telling and the overall polish of his and Gervais' routines. That difference likely involves what socioeconomic backgrounds they do or don't have in common, which in turn is intriguingly elucidated in how they interact. The quintessential distillation of this element is in Louis' priceless reflection on Seinfeld's analogy for the F-word in comedy.

Little has felt more candid and charming recently than Seinfeld doing one of Louis' lines, and we realize that he's instinctively taken Louis' stream-of-consciousness and made it a well-packaged, bona fide joke. Or when he riffs on Rock's old bit about the difference between black and white porn, taking a gag all about black and white stereotypes and sponging out Jewish ones. Yet still distinctions come purely from their innate styles: Seinfeld and Louis work with a dry, unadorned wit, while Rock and Gervais present erudite ideas in intricately crafted routines and on-stage personas.

A crucial conversational thread that weaves its way through the four-way exchange is the debunking of the myth that "anybody can do it." Early on, they recall childhood when they had friends who were much funnier than them, who led average lives while they became comedy superstars. Why did one kid become a comedy legend while another kid, very funny, didn't? The answer is in various points, as when Rock highlights the importance of premise in comedy, which not every young stand-up on TV knows much about, and not many of them we see much again. Or when Louis recalls old Seinfeld advice on handling laughter and keeping it going without losing focus, by using whatever mood got the laugh and holding onto it, or as he put it: "Stay in the bit." Discussing cheap laughs, Louis recalls one. Gervais believes it's ironically funny. Seinfeld admits it's viscerally funny. Gervais makes a valid case, but all Seinfeld has to do is give one off-the-cuff retort to this cheapie gag to crack the room up. And he does it with pure form. There's no explanation for why it's funny. It just is. And like a pro, he proves it. Even still, it's impressive to see Gervais, who's been doing stand-up for the shortest time of the four, hold his own in debates on fundamental comedy trade principles with Seinfeld, by far the group's veteran.

There's something equally valuable to glean from each guy. Though they may disagree on approach or principle, their individual thoughts on those subjects are what makes them each singular performers. Louis devotees, myself included, return to him to be surprised by curveballs he hurls with wry, down-to-earth talk. So, as he explains, he always opens with the end of his last act in order to force himself to churn out a new hour. Seinfeld admires this greatly, but we love Seinfeld because we know his jokes already and love to hear them. So, as we learn, he essentially evolves and does variations on the same basic act. Talking Funny is a rare chance to see present-day talents who've nailed down how individually to be effective, self-sustaining personas in their vocation. And to see four great comedians getting weak at each other.

Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais sit around a table to discuss their comedy acts and routines. They talk about the way they develop their acts, how they view jokes, and how they perform on stage.

I really enjoyed this talk show because it brings out the comedians' different personalities, and how their personalities affect their respective acts. You will recognize that Ricky Gervais is very analytic and academic, that Jerry Seinfeld is self-righteous and "pure", that Chris Rock is educated yet vocal about ethnic and social issues, and that Louis C.K. is a very down to earth everyday man. Some people may not like the attitudes of any of these comedians, namely Gervais and Seinfeld.

Despite any flaws in character or personality that any one of these comedians may have, I think that these four really interact well with each other, and the communication of ideas flows well. I think that if they had prepared discussion material for this, as opposed to talking at will, they would have been able to articulate their ideas way more effectively. Gervais is notable for not being able to effectively express his thoughts. While most of the time he has good points, his choice of words puts him at odds with the other comedians. Nevertheless, they are still able to express their thoughts well enough to have a conversation and they do bounce ideas backs and forth. This is especially true when one of them says something that the others don't agree with.

Some of the topics involved in the talk show include swearing, killer bits, how they develop acts and jokes, their relationship with the audience, and the reasons why people love certain jokes. They cover a multitude of topics that showcase their similarities and their differences as comedians. You will see the fundamentals of stand-up comedy brought to life and discussed.

I really enjoyed this discussion on comedy. There was barely anything, if anything at all, to detract from my enjoyment of the talk show. I hope that they may be able to come back to do this again, and add more to the discussion.