Do you have to be miserable to be funny? More than sixty comedians—including stand-ups, writers, actors, and directors from the US, Canada, and abroad—take on this question, sharing anecdotes and insights with lively enthusiasm.
We hear plenty of engaging anecdotes, though, taken together, they don't do much to illuminate a subject that has been thoroughly explored elsewhere ...
– Glenn Whipp,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Apr 2015
rotten:
Are they miserable? No; everyone seems to be having a great time. Are they funny? Um, not so much.
– Moira MacDonald,
Seattle Times,
30 Apr 2015
rotten:
For the most part ... this is a pretty safe discussion about a very unsafe art form. We can only imagine what's in the outtakes.
– David Lewis,
San Francisco Chronicle,
30 Apr 2015
rotten:
An evident labor of love and also a work of grating amateurism.
– A.O. Scott,
New York Times,
23 Apr 2015
fresh:
While there's no single, monumental insight here-no a-ha moment that cracks the code of comedy-there are a ton of stories and opinions that comedy nerds should love.