Review: Odenkirk’s “Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama” is an often funny look at the difficulty of being funny
,” in which he plays a patriotic country singer in a lampoon of lunkheaded American populism. That last one lands even better now than it did in 1997.
Though Odenkirk, 59, has had plenty of successes, “Comedy” is largely a study in the sad-clown paradox, a story about moody tenacity in the face of either fear of failure or failure itself. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Odenkirk was enchanted by the city’s robust comedy scene, which in the ’70s and ’80s was masterminded by improv coach and impresario Del Close. Odenkirk was caught off guard by Close’s consumption of all manner of intoxicants, but he loved comedy’s culture.
But mostly, his frustrations involve the more mundane limbo of what he calls “development heck.” “Mr. Show” wrapped up in 1998, and Odenkirk didn’t land the role of Saul Goodman till 2009. That means he spent more than a decade wandering the Hollywood wilderness, and “Comedy” suggests that he labored every second to navigate his way out. He directed movies that didn’t take off. He made pilot after pilot that wasn’t picked up.
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