Matt Pandamglio desperately wants to be a stand up
comedian but his lame material sucks so bad that he gets booed off the few
rather sad gigs he can muster. He’s in
total denial not just about his ‘career’ but also about his struggling
relationship with Abby his vivacious girlfriend, but when he actually starts to
talk about this on stage, he suddenly finds his métier and some success. The problem is that this happens when he is
out of town touring University Campus Clubs that he has been booked into by his
second-rate mad Agent and eventually he will have to come back to New York and
face the fact that Abby is not going to be too thrilled with being the butt of
his new routine.
Matt is also in denial about his sleepwalking
disorder, and the more he fails to confront his true feelings about Abby in
particular, the more his anxiety comes out in increasingly funny and dangerous
sleepwalking incidents.
It’s a blissfully funny story, and even more so
because it is true. Mainly. Director/ actor/writer/comedian Mike Birbiglia
(Matt) completely engages us right from the opening shot with his talking
direct to camera narrating the plot and soon has us hooked in his corner so we too feel the pain as he gets heckled night after night. We even wince when one night sleepwalking
Matt throws himself out a 2nd floor hotel window (something that Mike really
did one night and ended up needing 33 stitches in his leg). Matt’s obsession with becoming a successful
comic has all the energy and passion that he equally lacks to try and really
make Abby happy, which is rather sad but makes for a good story. Abby incidentally, is rather wonderfully played
by Lauren Ambrose ('Six Feet Under') who steals most of her scenes
I loved being out on tour with Matt and the seemingly
endless round of poky clubs and desperately drab budget hotel rooms that contrasted
so vividly with the wonderful humor of his act.
It was a great insight on how very tough the life of a stand up comic
can really be.
Mike Birbriglia originally wrote this as a one-man
show which played Off Broadway to great acclaim before it became a best-selling
book, and then after that this movie which premiered at Sundance earlier this
year. It is a very successful gloriously
funny first film, I just wonder what is next for the multi-talented Mr Birbiglia (apart from some
treatment from his REM behaviour disorder)?
★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★
