The story of stand up comedy, from clubs, bars, rooms and theatres. From icons, treasures, familiar faces and award winners. These are faces you know and might love. Our it could be a face that you loathe and find unfunny. They have a tale to tell and it is told by stand up comics. We find out where the faces you know and love began to discover what makes us laugh. They walk through many questions. How do you tell a joke? what makes an audience react? Can you be a naturally funny person? All these questions are asked and answered by talking heads.

Comedy is an art form and one that can be appreciated,examined, analysed and evaluated. It can allow a viewer to see that a funny person needs to build humour, like a house needs foundations. Comics are a rare and sometimes absurd bunch. We discover in this documentary, just how absurd that life is and also how hard. I didn’t know how often it is so complex to make people laugh and just how resilient they are when this fails. It dies three things well. From first starts, when you hear Seinfeld joke about audience size to when Frankie Boyle seems uncertain of his next step. These are touching and explorative of the mind of a comic. Jerry Lewis explains how you make something personal and mix it with a joke. This is powerful and potent. Then you have Chris Rock define his setting up of a joke to make an audience have layers of responses. This is gold.

The films purpose is effectively stated and then directly approached. However it isn’t as good a film as I may have suggested about. It does fail to break new ground. Everything mentioned here has surfaced before. It doesn’t do enough to make it new and it relates to much to the stand up as a vehicle or device. They are treated as a force that is captivating and complex (which they are) but also as omnipotent and saintly (which they are not. )