I've been hearing Eddie Pepitone on Dana Gould's podcast for a while now, loving his thoughts, jokes, and take on the world. When I saw that this doc was on Amazon Prime, I had to watch it and man, was I rewarded.
It's well worth it to see this for Pepitone's stand-up alone, but the peaks behind the curtain to get a feel for the real struggles this guy is going up against are really what pulled me in. Hilarious but tortured is a common statement for a lot of stand-ups and Pepitone fits that perfectly. Yet, while he's struggling with a lot of different aspects of life and himself, you do get the sense that he's making progress, understanding and coping to the extent that he can and getting better or at least trying to. Some of the people interviewed cast him in lesser light or go after him because of his level of success hasn't reached their level of respectability which shows their own lack of understanding in our niche media world. If he's able to be successful enough to live in LA by just doing stand-up and bit parts, then he's on a level that most people who dream of doing that will never achieve. Perhaps some of his recovery would be stronger if he dropped the friends that seemed to just use him as a punching bag.
Soapbox aside, I heartily laughed at the comedy and the by the numbers "working my way up to a big show" end was easy to give yourself over to since the charm helped you believe in it more. His show-stopping heckler bit at the end was genius and the highlight of the show.
Watch this one now.
It's well worth it to see this for Pepitone's stand-up alone, but the peaks behind the curtain to get a feel for the real struggles this guy is going up against are really what pulled me in. Hilarious but tortured is a common statement for a lot of stand-ups and Pepitone fits that perfectly. Yet, while he's struggling with a lot of different aspects of life and himself, you do get the sense that he's making progress, understanding and coping to the extent that he can and getting better or at least trying to. Some of the people interviewed cast him in lesser light or go after him because of his level of success hasn't reached their level of respectability which shows their own lack of understanding in our niche media world. If he's able to be successful enough to live in LA by just doing stand-up and bit parts, then he's on a level that most people who dream of doing that will never achieve. Perhaps some of his recovery would be stronger if he dropped the friends that seemed to just use him as a punching bag.
Soapbox aside, I heartily laughed at the comedy and the by the numbers "working my way up to a big show" end was easy to give yourself over to since the charm helped you believe in it more. His show-stopping heckler bit at the end was genius and the highlight of the show.
Watch this one now.