Dying Laughing

"The 1984 Los Angeles Comedy Competition with Host Jay Leno," the first stand up comedy special featuring Jay Leno with 25 minutes of never-before-seen footage of Leno's classic comedy club. act that made him a star. The show took an "American Idol" approach to stand-up comedy with Jay Leno hosting a competition that features competing stand up comics Ray Combs, Howie Gold, Jeff Gerbino and Steve Oedekerk performing in front of a live crowd and a panel of celebrity judges that includes funnyman Fred Willard.

HECKLER is a comedic feature documentary exploring the increasingly critical world we live in. After starring in a film that was critically bashed, Jamie Kennedy takes on hecklers and critics and ask some interesting questions of people such as George Lucas, Bill Maher, Mike Ditka, Rob Zombie, Howie Mandel and many more. This fast moving, hilarious documentary pulls no punches as you see an uncensored look at just how nasty and mean the fight is between those in the spotlight and those in the dark.

Exploring the gritty underbelly of the stand-up comedy scene in Los Angeles.

This stand up special features material from five of the most famous Hispanic standup comics of their era. Paul Rodriguez, George Lopez, Cheech Marin, Alex Reymundo, and Joey Medina deliver material on a variety of topics that will seem familiar to audiences of every race.

Through unprecedented backstage access and candid interviews, the film weaves through the absurd world of the working comedian and reveals a crazy and hilarious psychological profile of its practitioners. We also follow retired comic Ritch Shydner's attempt to climb back on stage after a thirteen-year hiatus. At the top of his game in the 1980's, Shydner had HBO specials, shot five pilot TV shows, and numerous late night appearances (Carson, Letterman, Leno, etc.) but the big time eluded him. Equipped with the collective wisdom and nutty musings of over 80 of his peers, he gives it another shot. Does Ritch have what it takes to connect with today's young crowds and still get the laughs?

In his final comedy special, Norm Macdonald ponders casinos, cannibalism, living wills and why you have to be ready for whatever life throws your way, all done in front of a camera, without an audience, and in one take. After his set, Norm's friends and fellow comics gather to salute him.

American: The Bill Hicks Story is a biographical documentary film on the life of comedian Bill Hicks.

In his excellent Someone Likes Yoghurt, Herrring shares with us his world of gonorrhoea-transmiting magpies, his attempts to become successor to Pope John Paul II, and his local supermarket's utterly humiliating new checkout service: the grocery interrogation.

ISMO – Breaking Bad English is a cinematic version of the saying “through hardships to the stars.” Ismo, who grew up in Jyväskylä, is a shy boy with a vivid imagination who has trouble fitting in. As a student in his twenties, he stumbles upon a new form of expression in Finland, stand-up comedy, which suits him perfectly. Ismo quickly rises to become one of Finland’s most successful stand-up comedians, but that’s not enough for him. He decides to pursue a career in the United States, the homeland of the world’s most famous comedians.

An intimate documentary that follows Tig Notaro, a Los Angeles based comedian, who just days after being diagnosed with invasive stage II breast cancer changed the course of her career with a poignant stand-up set that became legendary overnight. It explores Tig's extraordinary journey as her career ignites and as her life unfolds in grand and unexpected ways, all the while continuing to battle a life-threatening illness and falling in love.