I Am Road Comic (2014) Reviews

• Decent slice of life doc, bit of a muddled ending

  danbrnst2014-09-06

  I enjoyed the director's previous documentary, I Am Comic, which was a grab bag of clips and comments on the life of a comedian. I Am Road Comic tries to apply a similar approach to Doing Comedy On The Road, a vocation many comedians never take on. It focuses on a single weekend of shows at a gritty club in Washington State. The director, a former/sometimes comedian himself, is trying out life as an opening comic on the road for the first time this weekend. Despite this odd setup, we do get a decent glimpse of the road comic experience. The crowds are actually pretty friendly and he doesn't seem to bomb (as was hinted might occur). The club had been in the news for its violent bouncers, but those bouncers are well behaved this weekend. Everything goes pretty well. At the end, the director/narrator says he'll never "work the road" again, but it's hard to see why he's so negative about it. Enjoyed the ride, though. Just a bit confused by the ending.