Here comes the Judd
One of the major plot points in the new romantic comedy The Big Sick has a struggling Chicago-based standup trying to impress a talent scout from the Montreal comedy festival. The comedian, played by Kumail Nanjiani, is unsuccessful in winning over festival scout Bob largely because his girlfriend is sick.
Irony abounds in Montreal. Nanjiani has performed several times at JFL. So has the film’s producer, Judd Apatow, who will be back at this year’s festival in Montreal to do five solo shows.
Apatow appears to be taking a fork along his career path. True, he did do standup as a 17-year-old and has occasionally popped up at clubs over the years, but he is far better known as the director, writer and producer of some of the most successful contemporary Hollywood comedies.
Among the more than three dozen films Apatow has directed, written and/or produced are The 40-Year- Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Trainwreck, Superbad, Bridesmaids, The Cable Guy, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
So why, pray tell, is the 49-yearold so keen on returning to his standup roots and to put filmmaking on hold?
“Good question,” Apatow cracks. “I miss (standup) and I miss the camaraderie of it. My dream was always to be a comedian, but everything else happened as an offshoot.
“There’s nothing like the thrill of telling a joke in front of an audience and getting immediate response. When you make a movie, the actors are there for maybe three months, and then you’re just alone in a room with an editor for half a year. Then in one night, you show your movie and you know if you’ve done a good job or if you’ve screwed up.”
Apatow would have had no qualms about giving up seven-figure paydays for three-figure ones to try to prove his standup mettle.
“I wanted to be a Jerry Seinfeld or a Garry Shandling. I didn’t think about anything else. But in order to make a living as a standup, I started writing jokes for other comedians. I couldn’t make my rent with what I was getting paid. Then suddenly those people I was writing for were getting HBO and Showtime specials. And the writing work overtook my standup work.”
Another irony: most stand-ups would kill to be where Apatow has been. Not to detract from their love of live comedy, but the ultimate goal is typically to land work in film or TV. As a result, the standup world is highly competitive, even nasty.
“I’m lucky that I don’t have to feel the pressure,” Apatow says. “I know what it’s like when you’re young and when you’re trying to bust down the door and you’re trying to have enough money to live. So now I can do it for the pure joy of it all and I can be as creative and bold as I want to be, because I’ve already paid my kids’ tuitions.”
Much of his standup material deals with both his family and professional life.
“The point of view of many stand-ups is that they have all the answers,” says Apatow, who is married to actress Leslie Mann and has two teenage daughters. “My standup is about me not knowing if I’m doing anything correctly.
“One of my daughters doesn’t like my comedy at all, and she says, like a true teenager: ‘Dad, I hate your comedy so much that sometimes my friends make jokes that are funny and I can’t laugh because you make jokes.’ I think every kid thinks their dad is goofy.”
Regardless, Apatow pledges he will persist: “I will get to lower my salary and my self-esteem at the same time.”