Mandel records friend’s quest for comedy career
Howie Mandel likes to describe his latest film project as his version of Boyhood.
There are marked differences; while Richard Linklater’s acclaimed film chronicled 12 years of a boy’s life, Mandel’s documentary Committed is a 13-year portrait of friend Vic Cohen’s struggles to make it in show business.
The Canadian funnyman says he spontaneously put a camera on Cohen as he poured his heart out one day, and kept on capturing Cohen’s earnest attempts at a comedy career. No matter how flawed.
“I don’t know why I was doing it, it was just a fun little side thing to do and I just did it,” says Mandel, noting he’s as surprised as anyone that he now has a director’s credit on a documentary film.
The two met some 17 years ago when Mandel had his own talk show and began receiving unsolicited joke pitches from Cohen. Impressed by his determination, Mandel hired him to write.
Within hours of meeting, Mandel says Cohen poured out intimate details of his failing marriage and dream to be a comic. Mandel pulled out a camera and a bizarre mentorship was born.
Committed is a compilation of their documented conversations, as well as Cohen’s outrageous auditions and attempts at finding his creative voice.
Mandel’s documentary has debuted at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival and will screen again on Saturday. Mandel discussed meeting Cohen and the secret to happiness.
What is it about Vic that keeps him so focused on making it in comedy?
Here’s a guy who’s totally committed each and every day to just doing something he wants to do. Now, what he wants to do, will it garner him fame? Will it garner him notoriety? I don’t think it’s really important to him. In each moment he just does what he wants to do and when you watch the movie you’ll see he gets such joy from it.
Regardless of how people react to it ... The lesson in life, in making it, is finding whatever it is in life that makes you happy. ... I’d be doing comedy regardless of whether it pays the rent or not and nobody is a better example of that than Vic.
What does Vic think of the film?
Negative is positive — it’s attention. He wants attention, he wants people to notice him, whether it’s negatively or positively. And he gets that. So this is, for him, a dream come true.
Has this done anything for his career?
No. And I don’t know that it will.