LOS ANGELES _ Comedy was serious business on the Sunset Strip in the '70s. It was a time when the person with enough commitment to comedy could hone his craft in small clubs and maybe, just maybe, get the ultimate break � an invite to be on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." If all the muses were in line, that "Tonight Show" appearance would come with the ultimate achievement of being waved over by Carson to sit on the couch.
This was the path that gave the world legendary comedians George Carlin, Andy Kaufman, Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Richard Pryor.
Getting to the top took years of hard work, disappointments, betrayals, small successes, big failures and some luck. The new Showtime series "I'm Dying Up Here," with Jim Carrey as one of the executive producers, offers a look at the struggles of a group of unknowns during the '70s looking to use an appearance at Goldie's, the hottest stand-up club in Los Angeles, to launch their careers. To make it, they first have to survive Goldie (Melissa Leo).
Carrey's career path came a little later than those in the series. He started doing stand-up comedy in the '80s, first in Canada and then in the United States. It was his work on "In Living Color" from 1990-1994 that put Carrey among the comedy elite.
He had always wanted to do a project looking at the comedy world of the '70s. He worked with David Flebotte who created the series inspired by the William Knoedelseder book, "I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up Comedy's Golden Age" (PublicAffairs). The book was the spark but the series is heavily based on Carrey's own stories about his early comedy struggles.
"At that time, there was a beam that was could catapult people to the stars and that was 'The Tonight Show.' We all came out and gathered around the heat of that and were hoping for the best," Carrey says.
While he waited for his shot, Carrey lived what he calls "incredible experiences" that should have killed him. He laughs when talking about how when he first arrived in Los Angeles, a guy he met at the Improv said he had a room to rent and it ended up being a closet. Carrey's year living in that small space is reflected in two of the characters in the series.
Carrey's career start was almost the end. He had been very popular in Canada before making the move to Los Angeles with an invite to be on "The Tonight Show" in his pocket. Before going on the late-night talk show, Carrey did a showcase at The Improv that got a lukewarm reception. Soon after that flat show, Carrey was told he had lost his "Tonight Show" invite.
"It could have been the end of me and I could have perceived it that way," Carrey says. "But my brain has always had this fail safe space that goes, 'I don't know how, but it's going to happen a different way.'"
It did and he ended up on "The Tonight Show" six months later.
Executive producer Michael Aguilar says he and the staff would listen to Carrey talk about his experiences in such a picturesque way that they would have the fodder for a full episode. These stories weren't just about the people and places but the emotions that Carrey was facing at the time.
"There's also just big-picture things about the emotions of it, about the feelings of chasing that dream and the pressures of chasing that dream and what it means and why and the pain and all of that. He shared everything with us," Aguilar says. "So sometimes it's a specific detail, like the closet, but sometimes it's an attitude and it's a way the story sort of will find itself out of an attitude that he's telling us. So it was invaluable."
Carrey's imprint on the series doesn't stop there. He worked closely with all of the cast � Leo, Ari Graynor, Clark Duke, RJ Cyler, Al Madrigal, Michael Angarano � particularly those who didn't have any stand-up comedy training. It was Carrey's plan to make sure the cast understood that the world of stand-up comedy isn't about who's the funniest on stage but who could be the funniest at the bar or in the parking lot. Moving to the front of the comic pack meant being able to impress the club owners, as shown through Leo's role as the demanding Goldie.
Graynor attacked her role based on something Carrey told her at the kickoff dinner for the series. He told her that it was the responsibility of the comic to take the pain and alchemize it into something beautiful.
Setting the series in the '70s not only looks at the golden age of stand-up comedy but lets the stories unfold in a world before a person could get global exposure with one popular YouTube video. Carrey sees the modern world of comedy both winning and losing a bit with the online element.
"There's been a lot of great advantages for people who would never get a shot. It's not just 'The Tonight Show' now," Carrey says. "There's a lot of different avenues.
"But the cream rises to the top in every venue. The talent shows up and stands out and those are the people that go on to have longevity wherever they come from. So I wouldn't say it cheapens it. I'd just say that there's a lot of garbage to sift through. If there's a lot of junk, you've really got to cut through the clutter with your stuff."
Being an executive producer of "I'm Dying Up Here" is helping Carrey cut through the clutter of his own life. He has no plans to work on any other project while he gets the premium cable series up and running.
As Carrey calls it, in the process of "shedding layers of persona at this time in my life."
