Word: comicalities
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...hear the one about Jon Lovitz banging Andy Dick's head into a bar last week? How about the one about Dave Chappelle being hospitalized for "exhaustion" over the weekend? Even by the forgiving behavioral standards of show business, an industry that treats DUIs like parking tickets, stand-up comics manage to stand out as problem performers. Lots of them are moody, prickly and perfectionistic; many struggle with depression and substance abuse. And, as evidenced by the March suicide of comic Richard Jeni, some comics never get loud enough laughs to bring them peace...
...fight itself, the pleased reaction of many to Dick's thumping (gossip site Gawker's headline: "Andy Dick Gets the Beat-Down We've All Craved") reveals what a harsh business comedy really is. Dick, whose public displays of weirdness have included licking other celebrities' faces, is a comic other comics love to hate. "Andy doesn't really care for anybody except Andy," Masada says. "If he has to get a laugh at the expense of all the other comics, he doesn't care." In other words, in a profession full of narcissists, Dick is often the last...
There's also the comic's lifestyle, a recipe for isolation and drug abuse. "Working comedians who do the circuit have to do a lot of travel," says Jenn Berman, a Beverly Hills, Calif. psychotherapist who treats performers. "That makes it hard to stay connected and have intimate relationships." Successful comics, meanwhile, may have plenty of the wrong kind of relationships. "The more money you have, the more handlers you have, the more people whose livelihood depends on pleasing you," Berman says. "Everyone is invested in keeping you happy rather than making you face your demons...
...syndrome feels, ranging from "tortured limbs" to "bugs crawling in my legs at night" to "the bone itch." The website also contains the term "Jimmy legs," referring to a popular Seinfeld episode in which Kramer dumps a woman for constantly thrashing her legs in bed -a common, comic treatment of the syndrome. "It's such a trivial-sounding disorder," says Dr. Mark Buchfuhrer, a sleep specialist who is working on his third book about RLS. "People say they've got restless legs and you go, 'Well, calm them down and get over it,' right...
...take that to be just a typical spot of second act trouble, something to be triumphantly overcome in the movie's third act. Except that it isn't. The implication is that Dewey, now his full-time manager, believed Petey could be turned into a stand-up comic, a black guy spouting one-liners designed to titillate a white audience suddenly attuned to the black outrage they had never before heard. That, however, was not Petey. And he knew it. He could talk fast, all right, but he was at heart a free-associating yarn spinner...