I have brain fog from getting sick but so many thoughts rattling around for this one. Watched this with Leo, my comedy partner in this life, and that enhanced the viewing so much. At the beginning of RRR's making-of documentary they show a quote from the Bhagavad Gita "You have the right to work only, but never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction." Comedian is the story of two insecure guys with wildly different statuses in the comedy world, both completely tortured by trying to get some damn fruits from their action. They're the same guy really. They both suck ass at comedy, crave external validation, claw at something beyond their grasp, and when they eventually catch a glimmer of it, they're completely unsatisfied and empty. Never seen two people more gridlocked in the game of needing external validation. Orny Adams is trying to brag to a server that he's in the newspaper or whatever, and her reaction is "your name is Orny Adams? Who would name their kid that?" He has the name of someone who is branded the fool in this life, and probably the next. Seeing that play out in this documentary felt like watching somebody torturing a Sim, he kept winding up in situations where he's getting the gentlest hints of feedback for how he moves through the world, and he lashes out in the most entitled way possible. Another letterboxd review mentioned that there was no climax in this movie, but the climax was really Orny's depressing anti-climax after his Tonight Show performance. He spent his whole life trying to get to this moment, and realized that there was no fruit to taste in the end. When the movie hit credits abruptly I yelled "No!! It's over??" I could have watched that for double its runtime.

I have brain fog from getting sick but so many thoughts rattling around for this one. Watched this with Leo, my comedy partner in this life, and that enhanced the viewing so much. At the beginning of RRR's making-of documentary they show a quote from the Bhagavad Gita "You have the right to work only, but never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction." Comedian is the story of two insecure guys with wildly different statuses in the comedy world, both completely tortured by trying to get some damn fruits from their action. They're the same guy really. They both suck ass at comedy, crave external validation, claw at something beyond their grasp, and when they eventually catch a glimmer of it, they're completely unsatisfied and empty. Never seen two people more gridlocked in the game of needing external validation. Orny Adams is trying to brag to a server that he's in the newspaper or whatever, and her reaction is "your name is Orny Adams? Who would name their kid that?" He has the name of someone who is branded the fool in this life, and probably the next. Seeing that play out in this documentary felt like watching somebody torturing a Sim, he kept winding up in situations where he's getting the gentlest hints of feedback for how he moves through the world, and he lashes out in the most entitled way possible. Another letterboxd review mentioned that there was no climax in this movie, but the climax was really Orny's depressing anti-climax after his Tonight Show performance. He spent his whole life trying to get to this moment, and realized that there was no fruit to taste in the end. When the movie hit credits abruptly I yelled "No!! It's over??" I could have watched that for double its runtime.

comedians are so insufferable lmaooo it’s actually kind of a miracle that seinfeld came out of this looking even a little sympathetic

comedians are so insufferable lmaooo it’s actually kind of a miracle that seinfeld came out of this looking even a little sympathetic

Hard to put into words how well crafted this is

Hard to put into words how well crafted this is

That was a very good documentary, needed more Orny Adams though

That was a very good documentary, needed more Orny Adams though

I thought this was gonna be stand-up comedy... it wasn't

I thought this was gonna be stand-up comedy... it wasn't