This British effort about men’s magazine journalist James Mullinger (James Buckley from The Inbetweeners) who wants to be a standup comic at least deserves some credit for daring to make it hard for itself. After all, how does one make a comedy with a protagonist whose defining feature is that he’s not very funny?
Director Mark Murphy, working with a semi-autobiographical script by him and journo-turned-joker James Mullinger, tries to solve the problem by surrounding his lead with proper comedians whom James meets or interviews about the secrets of standup. Omid Djalili, Jimmy Carr, and Gilbert Gottfried consequently all play either themselves or variations thereof, while Paul Kaye and Vas Blackwood take on more substantial roles as the lead character’s magazine-editor boss and a famous success story, respectively.
Unfortunately, the gambit only works up to a certain point, since clearly no one is using their best material, and Lord knows the lead character’s patter, about standup sex toys at garage sales and how horrible his boss is, represents an embarrassment. Please, don’t stand up on our account.
