“Mock Stars” reviewed

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 8th, 2008

Steve Macone wrote a concise review of John Wenzel’s “Mock Stars” in Blast Magazine.

(We referred to Wenzel in our publication here, in a post titled “Let’s be independent together!” Thus ensued a spirited back-and-forth between and among ourselves and our readers.)

Wenzel sent along an advance, uncorrected copy of his book to SHECKYmagazine HQ, which The Female Half just finished. We fully intended to pen a review of our own, but it’s difficult to improve upon Macone’s words which contain insights like this one:

To be sure, there are comedy clubs today that can not be called anything near mainstream. A certain club I’m partial to in Cambridge, Mass., has a bit of a reputation for cheap covers, discerning crowds and artistic freedom. And anyone can see the inherent danger of blindly extolling any indie trend: We’re not like them! We do things however we want here-no rules! Wait, where’s your band t-shirt and faux, preemptive cynicism? The same goes for pigeon-holing performers as mainstream. Last Sunday, I watched a local comic destroy with a playful, absurdist, sprawling bit about ham. It didn’t pander at all. And the audience was obviously grateful for it. It killed. Was it at a rock club full hipsters? Nope, it was a crowd of 250+ people, locals in the sense of the word that would make most comics shiver with images of impenetrable stoicism– in a place where comics traditionally do more safe material than even mainstream clubs: a Knights of Columbus hall. Sometimes it’s about being a good comedian wherever you perform.

We recommend that anyone who is in comedy (or into comedy) pick up “Mock Stars.” Because it’s always good to read about standup. And the tales of the D.I.Y. attitude that is a hallmark of the indie scene is truly inspirational and their projects admirable.

But while the book is ostensibly about a fresh, new movement in the art/craft of standup, it doesn’t take us long (Page 2 of the Introduction!) before we see:

(Indie comedy)’s for anyone who finds most mainstream comedy boring, irrelevant, insulting or worse– soul-destroying.

Emphasis ours. We’re not seven paragraphs into the book before we encounter one of our favorite indie/alt clichés! When we see an alt/indie comic take the stage on our TV, we take bets on the over/under– how many minutes into the set before he uses the phrase “soul-crushing?” We’re usually not disappointed. (It’s much like our bet on how long it takes Robin Williams to use the “You’re pants are so tight, I can tell your religion!”)

And therein lies the central contradiction of the book (and perhaps the central contradiction or hypocrisy of the indie/alt movement at large)– in their zeal to put some distance between themselves and “mainstream” (or boring, irrelevant, insulting) comedians, they are blind to their own shortcomings and unnecessarily hostile toward those who came before them.

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