A few days ago I had the chance to sit down with stand-up comedian and the director of the new film
When Stand-up Stood Out, Fran Solomita. When Stand Up Stood Out is a documentary centered around the surging stand up comic scene in Boston from the mid-70’s to early 80’s and the comedians that came out of the area.

Dana Place:  What gave you the idea to put together the documentary?

Fran Solomita:  I was having lunch with a couple of friends in Los Angeles, Chad Sahley and Curt Apanovich (the two executive producers on the film). I was working with them 6 or 7 years ago doing comedy promotions at ABC. I would tell them stories about the days in Boston being 17 or 18 and I had the idea of making a narrative feature. We ended up shooting it as a documentary, told in interviews by the guys that were there and I think it worked out better that way. Less of a narrative. It felt more real this way.

DP:  I noticed that most of the stories seemed relaxed, less like an interview and more like old friends reminiscing. Did that come from knowing these guys back in the day? Did you still keep in touch with many of these guys like Lenny Clark and Colin Quinn?

FS:  I had done standup for 16 or 17 years and I was in the trenches with these guys. The interviews work on a more honest level because I think these guys knew I wasn’t going to twist their words around. Whether it be Lenny, or Colin, or Stephen (Wright), they completely dropped their guard and were comfortable with me. I do wonder if it came across as a bunch of old friends chit chatting. But I think that it allowed me to push their buttons and get the kind of passion that someone from the outside probably could not have gotten.

DP:  Do you think this film was maybe a little cathartic for the comics? The film seemed to tell the story of this tight nit group that basically became bitter and angry over the course of a few years, and by the end of the film were able to sit back and joke about the old days during the final reunion. Was that your intention when doing the film?

FS:   That was the design in my initial outline and it actually came together in a more difficult fashion. There are people that act friendly but are angry and there are people that are friendly, but act bitter. My goal at the end of the end of the film was to show the anxiety, the competition, and the bitterness. But at the same time also show that sometimes you need to let by-gones be by-gones, at least for now, for the sake of the reunion. To basically show that they started off as friends, showbiz tore them apart, and they ended back as friends.

DP:  The lynchpin, for lack of a better word, of the film seemed to be the final reunion. Was one a product of the other?

FS:  I actually wrote the end of the documentary to include a reunion of sorts for the old comics. A few months into the shoot Barry (Crimmins) got sick and was unable to pay for his health insurance. So Jimmy (Tingle) organized the benefit and all we had to do was show up at the benefit. It was a gift for me. I didn’t know how to actually put this reunion together. It was actually kind of serendipitous how organically it came together. I think if I had put together the reunion it could not flowed as well as it did.

DP: How did you end up getting picked up by ThinkFilm?

FS:  We went to the Montreal Comedy Festival in the summer of 2004 with kind of a rough cut of the film and a guy named Daniel Katz heard about it and poked around a little. I ended up sending him a VHS of the movie and they (ThinkFilm) really liked it.

DP:  It seems that Lenny Clark was featured pretty predominately in the film. Was there any particular reason you felt the need to feature him?

FS:  That is a good question because I actually worried a little that people who weren’t from that area and although he is on the show “Rescue Me”, was on the Denis Leary show “The Job”, had been on Arsenio Hall, and Comedy Central, and a few late night shows, wouldn’t know who he was. He was the mayor of Boston comedy. We tried to shave a little off of the film but we wanted to show that he was one of the biggest players in the comedy scene. He really was and still is the embodiment of Boston and Boston comedy. Sort of that tough, hard working, hard drinking Irish guy who loved to be the center of attention. He was a predominant person of that era and I felt in order to do it justice I had to talk about him.

DP:  How did you get a lot of the home video footage we see in the film?

FS:  A few ways actually. We put a call out to all of the people featured in the film. We asked them to dig around and look for old footage. Second, a producer named Douglas Miller. He was shooting a lot of stuff for Channel 38 and Channel 5 in Boston back in the day and he was able to provide a lot of the material that we could cull from. Also, a guy by the name of Bill Drake did a documentary on the Ding Ho (popular comedy club in Boston) and when he saw our trailer at the reunion in 1999 he wanted to contribute. He was actually able to give us a lot of the Barry Crimmins stuff you see.

DP:  How long did it take you put the film together?

FS:  Probably four years, plus another year or so to sell. We probably could have done it sooner but a lot of it was done on our own time, we had to cut it on an old system in my bedroom. It was very low end, low budget. I think if we do more of them, we could cut the process down to a year or so.


DP: So what made you get into Comedy with your brother Jan?

FS:  I am from a family of 10 kids and we were actually just looking for attention. You’ll find that a lot of the comics featured in the film are from big families. I did it right out of high school. You are your own writer, producer, performer. As long as you are funny enough you can keep getting work. There is something empowering about that and at the same time kinda stupid.

DP:  Were there any of the guys that you would say you looked up to in getting your comedy career started?

FS:  I really like Jimmy Tingle, he was very disciplined and smart, still do. I admired Lenny’s energy. His energy onstage presence and confidence was something to aspire to. There was Stephen Wright, but you really couldn’t aspire to be like him, you were always on the outside looking in. I think Paula Poundstone trusted herself, the way Bobcat (Goldthwait) really didn’t care what people thought of him and would do what he thought was funny. He is actually a very soft spoken, introspective and intelligent guy. I think Colin Quinn is one of the funniest guys out there.

DP:  What would you say the major differences between performing then and now are?

FS:  There are a ton of phenomenal guys out there and there just aren’t enough places to play. It is a tougher road. In the 80’s you could play 450 clubs a year and you got good fast because you got a lot of stage time. Comedy was so popular that you weren’t barking them in from off the street. People were paying to get in. Now, there are great comedians, and there are great emerging comedy towns like Houston, Boston, San Francisco. It seems that now people are starting to play at places not normally known for comedy, like coffee bars. There just aren’t as many places to play. And that may be a good thing. I mean Stephen Wright tells of playing in a disco where no one was told that a comedian was even going to be there. Or you could be playing in a sports bar where they would leave the television on while you were onstage.

DP:  On that note, where was the worst place you ever played?

FS:  The worst place I ever played? I played at a prison three times with my brother. The first time was really good obviously, or I wouldn’t have gone back. The second time was like really uncomfortable. The guys really didn’t want to hear it, they were walking in front of us, intimidating us, and the guards were just standing back and it was just less organized and more chaotic. I performed in a biker bar where I am being heckled by a biker and I finally just stopped the guy and said “Hey what do you do for a living”. He said, “I am lawyer.” Someone in the back started asking for his information. I mean someone was asking for legal representation in the middle of my set. There were just weird nights where I would stop on stage and hear “I’m gonna kill ya man. I am gonna blow your effin’ brains out.” Come to find out it was the owner of the bar yelling at one of the patrons. I’ve done some shows where I was just really uncomfortable, where people were thrown out of the bar and they would be waiting for you afterwards. Some really anarchic times. You know what I mean

DP:  Are there any new comics that you listen to and really enjoy?

FS:   listen to some of the old guys that still make me laugh Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, but some new guys? Yeah, I like Tom Kinney, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, David Feldman, he is a writer for Bill Maher. He is a great comedian. Louis Cique. I love his stuff. Very dark, funny, and weird, but still very accessible. I love Dave Atell. He is hilarious to me. Colin Quinn, once again. He is still out there. A lot of great comedians ya know.

DP:  What are you up to these days?

FS:  I am working at NBC doing comedy promotion, writing, and working on radio. Doing campaigns to launch mostly comedies like ‘My Name is Earl” and “The Office”. Mostly advertising but very creative stuff. I have a few pilot ideas I am working on. You know just keeping busy. Keep in mind that there is more to come from Hieroglyphic Productions, which is owned by Chad (Sahley), Curt (Apanovich) and I. You can check out what we are working on at www.standupmovie.com.

DP:  I always end all of my interviews with this question? If there was one question that you are dying to be asked, and I am sure you have been asked hundreds, what would it be, and how would you answer it?

FS:  Umm… Something I wanted to get across in the film and I am not sure if I did was: What makes people do comedy, compared to what makes people continue to do it. Standing up and talking to people is considered one of people’s biggest fears. I mean my biggest fear would probably involve being gang raped by a herd of elephants or getting stuck in an elevator with a morning DJ for hours. I have been doing it for a while and am comfortable on stage. I mean when you start doing comedy, you do it because you want to make people laugh. That is the most incredible feeling in the world. You are responsible for making a person feel better for a moment or two. Then what starts to happen is you start to need to get that buzz from doing that. So the difference between wanting to make people laugh to needed to make people laugh, then getting paid to make people laugh are three very different steps. Because when you getting paid for it, your focus becomes getting to the next gig. It is a very weird dynamic because your focus goes from wanting to make them laugh to needing to make them laugh to finally having to make them laugh to pay the bills. When you are on a roll it is great, but if you ever get desperate, it is very difficult thing to do. It is very different when you are the funny guy at a party and having to do 3 shows a night after taking your mother to chemotherapy because it pays $2,000 and you need the money. I think that is the big difference between a funny guy and a stand up comedian. That actually happened to me. When my mother passed away in 1992, I was doing a week of shows in Boston. Taking my mother to chemo and during the day and doing 2 shows at night. But I tell ya, I was electric. There was a kind of energy that I think the audience felt from me. Like they knew I needed to be up there. Comedy is a very visceral thing. People laugh and they open themselves up when they laugh and it is a feeding thing to. You get nourished by it. I think that goes for the comic and the audience.

DP:  Thank you Fran and good luck with the film.

FS:   Thank you very much Dana.

Again, you can get more information on the film, When Stand Up Stood Out, purchase the film, and keep up on all of Fran’s future endeavors at www.standupmovie.com.

You can see my review of When Stand-up Stood Out here.