Doc Watch: Comedy Gold

 

ALBERT BROOKS: DEFENDING MY LIFE (B) - This is a friendly, by-the-numbers chronological march through the life of the funniest man of my lifetime. Albert Brooks sits down for coffee and poundcake with his childhood pal, Rob Reiner, as they kibbitz and introduce classic clips from Brooks' career.

 Brooks was a legend of absurdist standup routines going back to the '60s, a heavy influence on the likes of David Letterman and Judd Apatow, who appear here along with a bevy of admirers, including Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Nikki Glaser and Conan O'Brien. (Odd choices include fangirl Alana Haim and disgraced newsman Brian Williams.) 

Reiner and Brooks are fun to watch together, including in a clip of Reiner hosting the "Tonight Show" with Brooks and Penny Marshall as guests. All the touchstones are here -- the "Comedy Minus One" album, the foundational "Real Life" mockumentary, the beloved "Modern Romance," the ground-zero "Lost in America" and his star-making turn in "Broadcast News." (He has only eight directing credits in his career.)

The documentary, streaming on HBO's Max, spends a little too much of its 92 minutes on Brooks' show-biz parents. His dad Harry Einstein was a comedian's comedian known for his ethnic character Parkyakarkus and for dropping dead onstage immediately after slaying the crowd at the Friars' Club in the late 1950s. His mother was a singer and actress who gave up her career to raise their boys, though not without a dollop of bitterness.

If you're not a fan, little of this will register. If you are a fan, you might feel cheated by the chopping up of his best bits, such as the fumbling ventriloquist routine. Brooks trafficked in high-concept material, and 30 seconds of the Speak-n-Spell routine in front of Johnny Carson simply doesn't do justice to one of the funniest one-offs in the history of comedy. But a seat at the table with Brooks and Reiner is often a delight. Brooks' closing statement before the credits -- about why he never took the easy road -- offers a rather profound encapsulation of a great comic's career.

THE IMPROV: 60 AND STILL STANDING (B-minus) - This is not so much a film as a standup special extended to feature length, featuring the cream of the cop among the comics who have graced The Improv in Los Angeles for six decades. Your mileage will vary with each comic, ranging from the icy observations of Deon Cole from "Blackish" to -- yes, I'm actually typing this -- ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and that curmudgeonly old dummy of his.

We get about 10 new sets (though some of the comics do call-backs to their early years at the Improv) over 80 minutes, with interstitial classic clips from back in the heyday, featuring the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Wanda Sykes, Ray Romano, and impossibly young versions of Sarah Silverman and Adam Sandler. Those archival videos are astoundingly hit and miss considering they are to have been deemed the cream of the crop. Silverman and Sandler are great, but Seinfeld's brief excerpt is not among his best. Neither are Dave Attell and Margaret Cho. And if David Spade was ever funny, his baby-faced routine here is not evidence of it.

But, back to the present day, Whitney Cummings brings the heat. And Kevin Nealon is surprisingly sharp (until he descends into his hoary signature routine). Craig Robinson is on his own planet with an alluringly vulgar turn at the piano. Some of the younger comics have their moments, but none of them are very memorable.

It might have been fun to explore the venue's history a little more. A night of chopped-up comedy bits and some scattered greatest hits makes for a passable evening.