He always appeared sober on stage.
He really fucked his wife over and I can’t get past that, so I’ve stopped watching.
Exactly. EVERYONE has something that pisses them off, or that they dislike about themselves, or that they suck at. Even people who are pretty content with life. The comedian will emphasize that. Burr has very clearly mellowed out with age and domestic bliss but his on stage persona is a guy who can’t control his anger and frustration. It’s funny, it works, so he does it.
Fern Brady can be dark. “Sad Clown” is not her persona, but her comedy is clearly based on the obstacles she’s had to beat.
ETA: I think she’s hilarious, and loved her on her season of Taskmaster - “Oh, nooooo!” But her humor does trend toward the black.
George Carlin seemed sad and angry. Taylor Tomlinson doesn’t seem very happy, either. Sarah Silverman is another one.
Beating obstacles I would thought = uplifting rather than sad. I’m still struggling to think of “sad” standup - I seem to remember an Alan Davies special which focussed on some of the grimmer aspects of his young life, and which was at some points pretty downbeat. But really, I’m struggling.
I wouldn’t call black humor sad (necessarily).
j
I wouldn’t say he came across on stage as sad? Angry and pissed off at human stupidity, yes.
His personal life does not seem to have been very serene, mind you.
Steve Martin was mentioned. I know you can’t really judge someone’s joyousness by their facial expressions, but I’ve never seen SM have what I would consider a sincere smile. Always looks fake and forced.
Good documentary that deals with this topic directly.
I’ve known several standup comics and even worked for one at one point, and by and large they were pretty happy people. Specifically, they get to travel the world doing something creative that they love. But that isn’t enough for some comics, or maybe it’s too much for them to deal with.
I tend to watch a lot more British/Irish comedy than North American these days, and the impression that I get is that the Brits aren’t (generally) as morose as a bigger percentage of American comedians whose work I come across. Anger is one thing: Rhod Gilbert’s stage persona is someone incredibly frustrated and driven to paroxysms of rage over the stupidities of life. He even had a special in which he read from the diary his therapist asked him to keep on how he resolved fustrating situations. But ultimately there’s a certain joy bubbling over in his performance, I find. Frankie Boyle is incredibly scabrous and pessimistic, but he also strikes me as bemused by the silliness of the world. Michael McIntyre fills stadiums with his audiences, and he’s increibly upbeat. But who knows what life is like offstage…onstage persona is one thing, panel show persona is another, on the couch with Graham Norton is a third…unless I were to sit Dara Ó Briain down for a chat, I wouldn’t be able to read if he’s as joyous off camera as he is on.
Speaking of Dara Ó Briain …Okay, I thought of a special case, which was a very unusual show. Dark places and sad stuff aplenty.
We saw Dara Ó Briain last year. The show (“So Where Were We?”) is available on video, so you can probably stream it. The second half of the show details the horrifying Irish Adoption Scandal, the brutal and inhumane treatment of unmarried mothers (including Ó Briain’s mother), the hurdles put in place for decades to prevent children from contacting their birth mothers, and ultimately his own search for his birth mother and a family he had never met. There were, I grant you, stretches of that show which were sad (you could, as they say, have heard a pin drop), but it was never less than compelling. And, for all the anger and tragedy of it, there was hilarity and joy. I mean, that’s his job.
Do many comedians impress me as sad on stage? Not at all – it was a sad story, but Ó Briain didn’t strike me as sad. I don’t think you can simply call comics talking about tough times sad. Stories of tough times are naturally more interesting, and this fits in with the modern trend towards true (or “true”) stories as comedy. Billy Connolly and the poverty of his youth was an early example. Tom Allen struggling through teenage years with his sexuality. Sarah Millican looking back on her divorce. Alan Carr and his (it turns out disintegrating) marriage. Compelling stories, material for comedy.
j
Background: Irish Times article
Dara Ó Briain interview – meeting his birth mother
Covid devastated comedians. Not physically - I don’t remember any major name dying - but psychically. Comedians live off the energy of performing in front of live audiences. A year or two without that must have seemed like a living death.
When they were able to emerge they did so in times where the divisions and public hatred were at historic levels, along with a sour economy that afflicted their prime audiences the most. Dealing with that reality required connecting themselves to that reality, and finding humor in humorless days.
Covid is receding, the economy is getting better, and audiences are packing stadiums. I’ll bet* that we’ll see a zany comic suddenly rise to national status, in much the same way that Steve Martin went against the grain with his comedy in the late 70s.
* Nobody take me up on this bet! Not allowed!
I’ve been listening to a lot of celebrity auto-biographies (mostly read by the authors). And I’m impressed by how positive some of my favorites are: Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Seth Rogan, and the master of “Holy cow, I got to be funny for a living! How great is that?!?”, Dick Van Dyke.
Comedians… Getting Coffee is a series of conversations including a lot about how Comedians feel about other comedians, comedy and many specific topics. In a way, the book is more interesting than the show since it edits out the bountiful fluff.
Seinfeld and Amy Schumer discuss how there are very few “successful comedians who are extroverts in real life”. They can only think of Colin Quinn. Of course that is not the same thing as an impression of mood or a medical diagnosis.
Everything I’ve read or seen about George Carlin (including his own statements) was that he was very much someone who liked individuals on a one to one basis but by and large hated “people”.
I kind of wonder if that’s true for entertainers in general. It takes a special kind of person to try to make their living as an actor, musician, or stand up comedian. I remember someone (an actor or musician) say that you had to have a screw loose to try to make a living in entertainment.