Rebecca Redshaw

What better way to start the new year than with a laugh? Actually even though the following three reviews feature well-known comedic names, these documentaries may bring to mind Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown,” or if you’re more operatically inclined, “Pagliacci.” Either way, it will become clear upon viewing that “funny is as funny does” may not be an adage you’ll quote any time soon.

“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”
Sometimes it feels like there are cameras everywhere nowadays. Sports figures and celebrities dominate YouTube and the headlines with unscripted moments but anyone caught in an embarrassing moment of some kind is fair game for the tag at the end of the evening news.

Joan Rivers has lived a very public life for the past 40 years performing as a stand-up and hosting (or guest hosting) late-night talk shows. Who knows why she agreed to a documentary film crew following her for a year, but she did and the result is an intimate and revealing portrait.

Interspersed with actual performance footage (with far more adult language than you may be accustomed to hearing in her television appearances), Rivers is candid about her need to work. When the movie was filmed, she was 75 years old, an age when many seniors have kicked off their work shoes and put on their retirement slippers. Yet she’s constantly driven to “fill” her calendar, schlepping her own suitcase around the country to gigs large and small.

“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” is a film that should be of interest far beyond her fan base. It offers insight into the life of a stand-up; constantly writing material, balancing family and working relationships, and striving to keep relevant to an ever-changing audience.

“Good Hair”
Chris Rock is a funny man who has the reputation of targeting social and racial inequities with a barbed wit that is appreciated by audiences of diverse backgrounds. The documentary “Good Hair” should not be compared to his cutting edge HBO Comedy Specials since exploring the movie’s premise appears not to have been triggered by injustice in the world but rather what the future may hold for Rock’s two preschool daughters.

If you’re unfamiliar with the unique world of the hair challenges that African-American women encounter, consider that the 95 minutes you spend watching “Good Hair” is only one sixth the time required to “weave” in locks of real hair to get the desired look.

Rock questions various women and hairstylists with more than a tinge of disbelief in their responses. The $9 billion industry of products aimed at this niche market began years ago with “relaxers,” a chemical compound that straightens the tight curls most black women (and men) come by naturally. Sodium hydroxide, in fact, does straighten or “relax” the hair follicles. Unfortunately it also can burn and blister the scalp, a heavy price to pay for beauty.

The aforementioned “weave” can give a woman with short hair the Farrah Fawcett “look,” but the price tag can be hefty since most of the added natural hair ranges in length from 10-14 inches and is imported from India.

One of the funnier segments (and where Rock appears most comfortable) takes place in one of the last safe bastions for the African-American male — the barbershop. The men agree that a woman’s hair is not only important to her but to their relationship as well, whatever the cost.

“Good Hair” is proof that you don’t need to travel to far away lands to learn about unique practices. Sometimes you need only to look in your own neighborhood.

“I Am Comic: An Ode to the Art & Occupational Hazards of Stand-up Comedy”
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, comedy clubs were the rage and there was none bigger than The Comedy Club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. A great place to take out-of-towners, I watched young comedians with aspirations for bigger gigs tear it up. One night Jay Leno, Paul Rodriguez and Robin Williams were on the same bill emceed by an unknown from the Midwest — David Letterman.  

Flash forward three decades. A new crop of comedic hopefuls, and more than a few icons, opine about their need to perform and slip in more than a few funny moments in “I Am Comic.”

Writer/director Jordan Brady gives plenty of face time to a plethora of working comics including Sarah Silverman, Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Foxworthy, Kathy Griffin and at least two dozen others who share their reasons for doing stand-up.

Among them is an vaguely familiar face. Ritch Shydner was riding the wave of success in the 1970s when he stepped away from the spotlight to be a writer. Brady follows Shydner as he inches his way back into the spotlight as a comedian — even when the spotlight is pretty dim.

“I Am Comic” let’s the comics express their need to perform in an entertaining and insightful way.

Rebecca Redshaw is an author and playwright who worked for 25 years in the film industry in Los Angeles. Copies of her book “SOFA CINEMA: An Easy Guide to DVDs” may be purchased at the Sequim Gazette. She can be reached at r2redshaw@hotmail.com.