There’s nothing quite as boring as listening to comedians discuss the art of comedy — which is why “The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall” is a nice departure from that exercise in self-important wind-baggery.
All the big comic names featured here — Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Jay Leno, Ray Romano, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher et al. — don’t talk about their art (yawn), but do recall what it was like to work at The Improv, the granddaddy of comedy clubs that began life, in 1963, as The Improvisation on 9th Ave. and 44th St. on the site of a former Vietnamese restaurant. (It spun off its more famous LA sister club in 1974.)
The New York Improv doesn’t exist anymore — it went under in 1993 — but listening to these comics describe what it was like to watch the likes of Richard Pryor, Andy Kaufman, Rodney Dangerfield and Robert Klein set the stand-up comedy template makes you appreciate how significant the Improv was in shaping the hip comedy that influenced a generation of comics including Seinfeld, Leno, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon and so many others. It also spawned a successful TV show, “An Evening at the Improv,” which aired on A&E for 14 years (ending in 1996).
“[The Improv] set the standard for the comedy business. Period,” says Keenan Ivory Wayans. “The entire ’80s was The Improv on Melrose,” Seinfeld says of the LA shop. And you can believe them, especially after hearing all the first-person anecdotes. (Seinfeld relates how he and David dreamed up “Seinfeld” at the Westway Diner a few blocks away from the New York Improv.) It’s all underscored with terrific archival photos and grainy black-and-white Improv footage of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Klein, Kaufman, Dangerfield and others.
There are a few small nits to pick. I could have done without the off-camera laughter from the crew recording the comedians’ recollections — do the comics even need an audience while talking to a camera? — and God only knows why British comic Russell Brand is included here.
But this doesn’t take away from the documentary’s overall impact, or the entertaining stories of a bygone time that changed a generation.