Garry Shandling: Stand-Up (1991)

Starring: Garry Shandling
Grade: B-

Why did the Weather Channel win the CableACE Award when all they really have to do is look outside? Once again, Garry Shandling is asking the real questions.

Summary

After milking the loud applause from the crowd until it quiets down, Garry Shandling looks at his watch and quips that the audience just missed the record on the longest he’s ever had sex. Once he acknowledges someone complimenting his hair, he starts off with a bang by explaining his lateness as being pulled over by cops and getting the shit beat out of him, not so subtly referencing the Rodney King beatings. Following this, he goes onto bits about the show Cops, hosting The Grammy Awards (“Garry got a job!”), how he doesn’t listen to metal because it’s depressing and he’s already too close to the edge, mistaking Steven Tyler for Carly Simon, and Cindy Crawford, where he hysterically points out the insecurity of his girlfriend who says she doesn’t “See it” regarding Crawford’s beauty. When he sarcastically quips, “Yeah, she’s a pig”, I cackled. Moving on, he talks about loyalty, how this extends to his mother, and how he doesn’t look at other mothers when he’s out, admitting he was looking at another woman when he’s with his girlfriend, and justifying it well by comparing it to looking at someone else’s meal. You’re not going to dive over the table and start eating it. You’re just looking. Honestly, you can’t argue this. Then, he talks about how everyone tells him he needs to get married, especially because he’ll get a lot of comedy material out of it. Without missing a beat, Shandling talks about how big of a risk this is because “What if I don’t?”.

Next, Shandling transitions into talking about couples therapy (though it’s just two therapists dealing with him), commitment, losing freedom because of the relationship, keeping the sex fresh in a relationship, comparing the foot pain he had during sex to the guy who had a heart attack during sex, and how his girlfriend doesn’t keep track of her cycle. This leads into his vacation on Hana (“The most romantic place to have a fight”) with his girlfriend and how they were followed by stray dogs the entire time they were there. Though Garry isn’t a fan of the idea, his girlfriend brought the dogs with them in the car on their trip to a nearby waterfall. One of the dogs becomes known as “Shep”, a herding dog. Eventually, Shep runs out of the car on a stop and tries to herd a bull, and it forces Shandling to chase after him. Unfortunately, the bull turns and starts chasing him, with Shandling saying, “It’s turning into a Jerry Lewis movie at this point”. Referencing the “Digging a hole to China” joke seen in Garry Shandling: Alone in Vegas, he explains the deepness of the hole he fell into while being chased by the bull and he broke his leg because of it. It gets even better. Kevin Nealon went to the same place on vacation, and they saw Shep with a broken leg, leading to Nealon and his girl bringing the dog back to Shandling and his girl in Los Angeles. Of course, this leads to some bits about dealing with pet dogs like a dog licking you, the difficulty of giving a dog a pill, getting neutered, how his dog watches him when he’s on TV, and older dogs not being able to play.

Following this, he talks about how the cable companies could have got to Saddam Hussein first if he had illegal cable, how well President George H.W. Bush did, getting invited to the White House Correspondents Dinner, getting recognized by Bush during a White House tour, and getting invited to do some material at the dinner with him. For the record, he doesn’t get political. He just seemed grateful for the opportunity. Following this, Shandling talks about growing up in Tuscon and gives us the perfect response to the “dry heat” argument.

“(mocking the phrase) ‘It’s dry heat’, so is a welding torch”.

Going back to the dinner, he talks about a Marine escorting his date to a different table, meeting Marilyn Quayle who had no idea who he was, after dinner ballroom dancing, and Bush laughing at him dancing with his girlfriend with Shandling annoyingly stating, “…Like his date is so fucking hot”. On the way out, they steal silverware because they don’t make you go through the metal detector when you exit.

The final stretch is an odd portion where he fields questions from the audience. Someone asks if he has a new show lined up since It’s Garry Shandling’s Show ended in 1990, but he compares his situation to going to four years of college and having it prepare you for nothing. Thankfully, The Larry Sanders Show would come out a year later, but no one knew it at the time. After a few more questions that go nowhere and one guy asks how much he weighs, he cuts this section short because of the weirdness of it all. Lastly, he admits he’s not sure when he will be touring again because he hates flying, which leads to an amusing joke about answering a phone call from his mother on the plane and cutting things short by saying, “I got to go. Someone is at the door”. He dodges a question from the crowd about his clothing because it comes from a guy, and then he ends things by calling Shep on the stage, proving his elongated anecdote earlier in the special to be true.

My Thoughts:

When in comparison to Garry Shandling: Alone in Vegas, this special doesn’t come close, but credit is still given on a few different aspects. For one, he sticks to the actual stand-up. Though I appreciated the different approach to Alone in Vegas, it took away from the best portions of the comedy and brought it down if anything. In Garry Shandling: Stand-Up, he’s on stage for ALL of it, for better or worse. Though it may not be as consistently funny as the other special, Stand-Up has a lot of highlights. Unfortunately, it’s just a lot less this time around. Two major sections of his set revolve around the story of Shep and Shandling’s meeting with President George H.W. Bush. From a storytelling perspective, accompanied with Garry Shandling’s second-to-none delivery, you are interested in every beat of it. Sadly, it’s just not as funny as we’d hope it to be. It stays at the level of amusing, but it doesn’t rise above it, sans for a few occasions. With the exception of a few quips within the story (like saying he thought Bush did such a great job stomping through countries in the Middle East that he thought he was just going to rename the area Texas, or the White House bowling alley being hell on league nights because there’s only one lane), the payoffs don’t really warrant the amount of time taken to tell the jokes.

Much deeper into his relationship at this point in his life, a lot of humor revolves around sex and trying to keep his partner happy. Though this is typical of Shandling’s material, it was only mildly funny this time around, only being highlighted by a few jokes worth noting like how he sarcastically responded to the fact of women having multiple orgasms by saying, “Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it”. Furthermore, there was the funny observation of his friend complaining that his wife pays more attention to their kid than him with Shandling’s expertly responding, “Well, she has a blood relationship to him. That’s her son. You’re just some guy she met in a bar”. On the other hand, some jokes seemed like he was trying too hard to hold onto his persona instead of trying different angles and coming out of nowhere with unexpected observations or quips that can’t be categorized or held down to one “type” of comedian, something he has been amazing at in previous opportunities. In Stand-Up, Garry Shandling is a much more mature performer, but this only means that he has settled into the character he portrays onstage rather than the looser version of himself in Alone in Vegas. So, the confidence is there, and he doesn’t break for anyone, but it almost forces him to be one version of himself, and it hinders the overall performance and his willingness to jump out of his comfort zone. Right from the opening, he responds to the elongated applause to his presence by talking about how they just missed out on the longest he’s ever had sex. Though it could be Shandling trying to acquiesce to his fans since they expect this from him, it still felt forced from the outset. Later, there’s another joke where he said he once made love for an hour and five minutes, but “It was on the day you push the clocks ahead”. It’s a well-written joke, but it’s a little too “make believe” for the somewhat realistic approach he has in this special and how he portrays himself throughout.

With this being said, the goofiness is still there, and it keeps everything afloat. One example comes from Shandling talking about a time when he was kissing his dog and the dog was licking him back, which resulted in a homosexual panic moment that they both had at the same time. His expression was undeniably funny when talking about it. There’s this and his mother suggesting he get another female dog on the basis that females get along, with Shandling hilariously responding, “…which I’ve never seen in real life, but alright”. His hypothetical of a female dog giving the other the backhanded compliment of “Nice collar” exuded one of the biggest laughs of the night from me. It was either between this and the ridiculousness of him having to go through the White House metal detector where he moves on with the story in a classic Shandling aside saying, “…so, they got my hunting knife”. When Shandling does insert the quirkier material into his stand-up, it’s so much better. It’s near perfect in Alone in Vegas, but it’s just not seen as much in Stand-Up. Don’t get me wrong, Garry Shandling: Stand-Up is still funny, but it’s just not the best example of Shandling in his prime, even though if you look at his career, this technically was in the thick of it.

I hated the “Questions” portion of the special. Awkward and unfunny, Shandling tries to respond as humorously as he can, but the questions are so random that even he seems shaken at some points. Once he tries to rope things back into his material for the finish, the air is let out of the room. Then, the special abruptly ends as Shandling brings his dog onto the stage for us to forget what just happened.

Garry Shandling: Stand-Up is funny, but it’s largely forgotten. When viewing it, you can see why. Though Shandling still gets consistent laughs and there are a lot of bits you can take home with you, the longest portions of his jokes don’t go anywhere worthwhile. Plus, the special finishes with a thud. It’s still worth the watch just because there’s only so much material left of the late great comic, but it’s nothing to write home about if you’re not a huge fan.