Dark show, few laughs
Showtime series tackles bigger issues beyond stand-up
Cast has much to offer viewers
Comedy isn’t always a laughing matter.
That’s the central theme of Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here (Sunday, 10 ET/PT,
out of four), which follows a fictional group of stand-up comedians trying to make it in the L.A. club scene in the 1970s. While you might expect a sitcom based on this concept, the drama, created by Dave Flebotte ( Mas
ters of Sex) offers a bleak portrait of its comedians dealing with poverty, drugs and death. While that’s an accurate portrayal of starving artists, it’s a bit of a drag for a show about funny people. Most of the time, however, Dy
ing’s appealing cast is able to smooth over its tonal dissonance.
Based on the book by William Knoedelseder, and executive producer Jim Carrey’s time on the stand-up grind, the show is set at Goldie’s, a club run by an exacting mentor (Melissa Leo) and a group of comics hoping to “kill” (as opposed to “dying ”) on stage and catch the attention of Tonight
Show bookers. It takes a few episodes for Dy
ing to establish its rhythm, and its messy pilot struggles to establish its tone.
While die-hard fans may remember the path to success for comedians like Carrey — from L.A. clubs to Johnny Carson — the show ham-handedly explains the intricacies of “getting the couch” from Carson after a standup set.
An early death erases much of the scarce laughter in the episode. And the rest is so self-serious it borders on parody, especially in moments such as one in which the group, organizing a memorial, asks Goldie about booking a church. “(Expletive) no, we’re in one,” she says. Comedy is sacred. We get it.
But Dying finds its voice when it moves beyond the death and fo- cuses on its diverse and charming cast. In addition to Leo’s scenerychewing matriarch, Ari Graynor grounds the show as Cassie, the only female comic in the bunch who’s heckled by men asking her to strip onstage and believes she has to work harder than the boys to get to the same place (aspects of the comedy world that are largely unchanged today). Stephen Guarino also stands out as Sully, a menschy comic who is trying to balance his ambitions with the wants and needs of his wife and newborn.
The series takes on the racism and sexism in comedy’s past and present, challenging the idea that people offended by jokes just don’t get them. Although it’s wellintentioned, the barrage of racist, sexist and anti-Semitic jokes can be jarring. But, like the other bleak aspects of its aspiring comics’ lives, the show doesn’t gloss over this less than flattering part of their the world.
While Dying has few real laughs (even when the comedians are on stage) the show succeeds when it stops trying so hard to prove that it’s important. While some viewers may be turned off by a dark show about comedians, most would be turned off by a boring show about comedians. When it finds ways to have a little fun, I’m Dying Up Here kills.