Shandling honoured in documentary

JUDD APATOW, one of Hollywood’s top cinematic directors ( Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), once told his friend and mentor Garry Shandling: “You’re either the happiest person I know or you’ve completely lost your mind.”

Shandling responded: “That’s about right.”

When Shandling passed away in 2016, he was widely remembered as a top stand-up comic, and the star of two of the most innovative sitcoms in TV history. But to those who knew him, the ‘real’ Shandling was a far more complex person.

Now, Apatow has created a remarkable portrait of this iconic comedian in the four-and-a-half-hour documentary, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling ( right), which premieres in Asia in two parts on Aug 1 and Aug 2 at 9pm on HBO (Astro channel 411 / 431 HD).

This Emmy-nominated documentary will also be available on HBO on Demand (via Astro GO).

The Zen Diaries features conversations with more than 40 of Shandling’s family and friends, including James L. Brooks, Jim Carrey, Sacha Baron Cohen, David Coulier, Jon Favreau, Jay Leno, Kevin Nealon, Conan O’Brien, Bob Saget, Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Silverman.

It includes four decades’ worth of TV appearances, along with personal journals, private letters and candid home audio and video footage that reveal his brilliant mind and restless soul.

“Give what you didn’t get,” wrote Shandling in a journal late in his life, the mantra of a self-proclaimed ‘spiritual warrior’ still challenging himself to transcend his own insecurities, despite achieving so much in the face of loss, betrayal and tragic twists of fate.

From childhood tragedy to heartbreak, professional betrayal and unexpected physical trauma, to his emergence as a powerful teacher, friend and guiding spirit for a new generation of talent, Apatow’s documentary not only chronicles one man’s ability to survive the ups and downs of a life in show business, but also offers a profound investigation into the power of comedy to elevate the human spirit.