Time to Watch The *&%$#@! Aristocrats!

There are currently only four theatres in the Chicagoland area showing the new documentary, "The Aristocrats" As you know, AMC Theatres backed out of their contractual agreement to run the film and it will be harder for this film to succeed. At least for now, it will be difficult.

However, based upon the success of "March of the Penguins" I am confident my constant badgering and ranting will encourage my readers (both of them) to run out and find a screen brave enough to run this film.

What's that? You're a total pussy-prude freak? No problem! Let me give you a more clinical explanation as to why you might want to watch about 100 different comedians tell the same dirty, often filthy joke.

The joke is not the real story here. The beauty of a film like this has little to do with the joke and more to do with the telling of the joke. In short, it is not the destination, it is the journey that matters.

The set-up and punch line are always the same. What makes this a brilliant concept is knowing that there's a certain jazz feeling happening within the telling of the joke. Each comic, creating their own dirty interpretation off the cuff, gives their own nuances to the world's oldest and dirtiest joke. Sometimes the joke works. Sometimes it fails. In all cases you, the layman, are privy to a unique glimpse into the science behind comedy itself.

Watch the comics interpret, create, and sell their wares. Study the delivery and the method behind each sentence. Ask yourself why one person's version is funny and another's isn't. You can use the same techniques in any form of public speaking, whether it is a social conversation or a big business proposal. You will learn something valuable if you watch this film.

In my many years as a performer I've come to find that most every idiot on the planet likes to think that he or she is funny. They also like to think that anyone can do my job. Those people are usually WRONG! Funny isn't easy and by watching a film like this you should get a beautiful look at the mechanics behind telling a joke well, even if it is a stupid and disgusting one.

This film will prove to be both educational as well as hysterical. You're told ahead of time that there is nothing but profanity represented here. You have nothing but your own asinine puritan lunacy keeping you from watching the film. Of course, your gut instinct and uncontrollable curiosity will win in the end. I would just prefer that you watch it in the theatre and help support the documentary film.