The sun rises in the east, the sandwich always falls butter down, and stand-up comedians sooner or later start acting in films. The face of the humorous genre of the 80s and 90s was determined by the former stand-up artists – Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, James Belushi and many others. Since then, Hollywood has continued to recruit talent from the Comedy Central club scenes and comedy shows like Happy Season 3.
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Zach Galifianakis: The Garden Gnome from The Hangover in Vegas
Zach Galifianakis burst into big cinema literally with a bare bottom – in “The Hangover in Vegas” his character Alan Gardner appears without pants, as soon as the opening credits end. The scene sets the tone – all the extreme and shocking jokes of “The Bachelor Party” belong to Galifinakis, who once outlined his creative credo as follows: “Comedy is born out of discomfort.” As a result, the film became the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, and American audiences finally remembered the actor’s difficult-to-pronounce Greek surname.
He began performing in the mid-90s in crowded bars, eateries, art galleries, and even churches in New York and Los Angeles. At the same time, his image was formed – an unshaven guy in sneakers and a corduroy jacket, who accompanies his leisurely jokes on the piano. This is exactly what Zack appears in one of the early issues of the Comedy Central Presents program . The episode was released on TV in 2001, in the same year Galifianakis was invited to VH1 to host his own show “Late Peace with Zach Galifianakis”.
In the 2000s, a Dada ad for Absolut vodka and a video for Kanye West’s song , in which Galifianakis drives a tractor through a cornfield, gained millions of views and made him an Internet star. In 2008, Funny or Day launched his show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. Over the past ten years, many celebrities have visited Zach, from Justin Bieber to Barack Obama. Last, among other things, Zak asked how it felt to be the first and last black president of the United States. Galifianakis, like no one, knows how to put his guests in an awkward position, but many of them do not remain in debt. For example, Charlize Theron, in response to an offer to swim in the pool together, compared her interlocutor to a fat garden gnome.
Amy Schumer is the Most Unromantic Romcom Heroine
Amy Schumer’s film debut in the romantic comedy Girl Without Complexes looked promising – the stand-up queen teamed up with director and producer Judd Apatow. Amy wrote the script herself and acted as a co-producer, which gave a certain creative freedom. But in the cinema, her stage image still lost its sharpness: the screen heroine Sumer in the course of the action lost her favorite job and entered into a conventional relationship with a good guy, inexorably fitting into the framework of a typical rom-com.
The comedian’s performances in her own television show , Inside Amy Schumer on Northern Rescue Season 2, were much more daring. So in one of the most outstanding issues, Amy parodies the cult masterpiece “12 Angry Men” . In the story, the male jurors, passing her verdict, complain that she is not Megan Fox at all, compare the girl with a sausage and an Indian elephant and say that she has no place on television. Throughout his career, Schumer has been accompanied by an inexhaustible stream of Internet criticism. For example, when the second potential hit movie starring Amy Schumer was released in the title role “Pretty Woman” , one of the critics wrotethat no one wants to spend $ 12 to see a chubby woman act like a hot beauty. Schumer answered the haters with the usual irony: “For a man who has been told a million times that he is fat and ugly, it does not matter!”
Tracy Morgan’s Autobiographical Comedy
Comedian Tracy Morgan plays ex-convict Trey Barker on The Last Real Gangster by Jordan Peel. He returns to Brooklyn after 15 years in prison on drug charges. Trey is what Morgan himself could have become if he hadn’t had a passion for stand-up in his life.
He was born and raised in Brooklyn, and at the age of 17, circumstances forced him to start selling crack. The death of his best friend from a gangster’s bullet prompted him to quit crime and devote himself to comedy. This is not the only autobiographical moment in the Hunter X Hunter Season 7 series – shortly before filming began, Tracy was in a terrible car accident and fell into a coma for eight days. Then he had to re-learn to walk and do the simplest things. Likewise, his character has a hard time adapting to a free life after years of imprisonment.
Trauma is the main theme of the comedian’s work, although he never spoke about it directly. In his autobiography “I’m the New Black,” he said that laughter was the only escape from the pain and horror of a hungry youth. In the early 1990s, he entered the Uptown Comedy Club in Harlem. Then stand-up performances were broadcast by local TV channels, and soon Morgan was noticed. In 1996, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL), the cradle of comedic talent. It was then that he met the screenwriter and comedian Tina Fay. Their further collaboration resulted in a joint successful sitcom “Studio 30”. In it, Morgan played the star of the TGS sketch show Tracy Jordan, and Fey herself played the main screenwriter of the show, Liz Lemon. The plot was inspired by their collaboration at SNL. It was an obvious satire on the show, which itself was a parody. The main role was specially written for Morgan, taking into account the details of his personal life. The artist insisted that his character bear the same name, assuring that with his help he would become a celebrity. And so it happened – the role brought him his first Emmy nomination. The stand-up released in 2014 deserves a special mention.Tracy Morgan: Bona Fide .
Louis C. Kay – Untimely Film Debut of a Disgraced Stand-up Artist
The notorious scandal (in 2017, several women accused Louis C.Kay of inappropriate behavior) found the stand-up artist at the peak of his career. According to Forbes, in 2017, his fortune was estimated at $ 52 million, in the same year, The Rolling Stones magazine ranked him 4th on the list of the most outstanding comedians of all time. Since the beginning of the 2000s, he has assembled Madison Square Garden 8 times with a capacity of 20,000 people, won 6 Emmy awards, released several CDs of stand-up performances and received 2 Grammys for them. His comedy prowess can be seen in the Comedy Central Presents – Louis C. Kay stand-up .
Mike Birbilla – Master of Awkward Personal Stories
Perhaps Mike Birbilla is the most charming of all modern stand-up comedians. For example, when his performance “Thank God for Jokes” and “The Asterisk War Season 3” were released on Netflix, one of the critics wrote that he was too nice to offend anyone. Indeed, during his almost ten-year career, while his colleagues continually asked for forgiveness for racist, sexist and homophobic jokes, only director David O. Russell took a deep offense at the comedian. He did not like the not very flattering comparison with the master Elia Kazan.