The Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal is the biggest of its kind. Patton Oswalt, Chris Hardwick and the new "Daily Show" host, Trevor Noah, were among the comics who performed last weekend.
One of the most popular events at the festival is the annual “State of the Industry” speech by comedian Andy Kindler. It’s basically a critique of what’s happening in comedy now — and a roast of the biggest names in comedy. Audiences and peers love and hate it for Kindler’s brutal honesty.
Andy Kinder "State of the Industry" speech 2015
Kindler was invited to perform at the Just For Laughs festival in the early '90s after he wrote a satirical article for National Lampoon in 1991 titled, "The Hack's Handbook: A Starter Kit," which argued that comedy is easy if you avoid being original. Kindler was invited by the director of Just For Laughs to do a version of the article live. His performance was a hit and the next year, Kindler came back with the "State of the Industry" speech.
The Frame's John Horn talks with Andy Kindler about this year's speech and why it's a great time to be a comedian now — except if you're Adam Sandler:
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
How does the comedy scene today compare to when you first started giving the "State of the Industry" speech more than 20 years ago?
Well, back in the '90s, when there was the comedy boom, a lot of it was the same club owners who did the urban cowboy craze in the '80s. They never [promoted] the comedian because they never wanted the comedian to think that they were drawing people. So they basically said, Come down to the comedy club! — as if someone would say, Come down to the movie theater! Well, what's playing? What do you care? You like movies! So [comedy] very much appealed to the lowest common denominator.
Also, along with society — you know, with Ellen DeGeneres couldn't say she was gay — there's a much bigger climate now where people say they're gay. There's not as [many] problems revealing who you are as there were back then. So, for a lot of different reasons, right now I would say it's the most exciting time to be a comic.
There's the expressions, "Shooting fish in a barrel," "Kicking a dog when it's down." Could we put Adam Sandler in that category now?
I've been making fun of him for years, just for the fact that his movies are never reviewed. He doesn't even put them out to be reviewed. And just [consider] the "Pixels" movie — it doesn't sounds like he listens to a whole pitch.
Let's talk about his career. Does it make you a little bit sad that somebody who might have had a little bit of talent has become so unfunny?
I used to be a huge Adam Sandler fan. I loved his stand up. I loved his stuff on "Saturday Night Live." So many times I go after people that — on a certain level — I feel could be doing better, but for some reason decided to go with the money. Who knows? I can't get inside his head. That prompted me because I've gone from being a big fan to these movies, I couldn't understand them. Like the [upcoming] one, where the Native Americans [walked] off the set.
It's obviously not funny, the names of these characters. But what is it about what he's saying that, to you, that might have crossed the line about political correctness?
I think it's just the fact that after all these years, going after such obvious jokes about Native Americans ... basically I said that Native Americans who walked off the set of the movie said they would prefer another genocide. They would prefer once again to be slaughtered by the white man than to stay on this movie.
Wait, so genocide is funny but Native Americans ...
What you bring up is a very interesting point. It speaks to this whole thing that comics say: Anything I say on stage is fine because I'm a comedian. I don't think that's true. I do have to think, Is it worth me getting the laugh on that joke to bring up the genocide? And I think that's always an open question. I was happy with it because I think the movie seems so insulting that it required that kind of response.
In your speech you referred to an article in Deadline Hollywood about how diversity in Hollywood might be keeping white people out of sitcoms. What did you want to say about this story?
I just wanted to say that I could go into a studio now and say, Hey, guess what? They're all black people in the show! Just the idea that this was now a wonderland and that somehow whites were squeezed out. I used to make a joke about how whenever they would have a show that had all black people in it, and it didn't work, [network executives] would always say, Well we tried the black people and it didn't work. But all the millions of shows with all white people, they never said, You know what the common denominator is? These people are white! So I just thought it was funny that they were writing an article saying, You know what you should do? You should make yourself into some kind of transsexual — because then the doors are open.