[BrianKittrell]

And it's a documentary. I watched it the other day after a comedian friend of mine told me about it. It's called Heckler. Available on Amazon (and probably YouTube if you look hard enough). Note: It's got some bad language, so you've been warned if that sort of thing offends you. And just to clarify, the language is VERY ROUGH, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. LOL

It talks about Jamie Kennedy's experience with "hecklers", which are basically over-opinionated critics who are equally overly-vocal about their opinions, along with many different comedians or other famous people and their experiences. Every time I receive a bad review, I think of the movie now and smile.

And, no, it's not the starting of a flame war against reviewers or any of that kind of jazz. I simply watched it and saw these people really speaking to me, straight from their hearts to mine. Maybe it will do you some good, maybe not.

 

[RonnellDPorter]

...He's still alive?

 

[BrianKittrell]

...He's still alive?

lol, yes, of course. And I think, for the first time, he's created something that speaks to other creators in different ways. Yeah, some of it is just confronting his critics, but he and the other performers interviewed do have some good advice and share some thoughts that, at least for me, make me feel less alone.

 

[Millard]

I saw that when it came out. From memory, it starts with an interesting concept, in looking into the mindset of people who heckle at comedy shows, and stories of comedians who've dealt with hecklers, but the second half of the movie just becomes obnoxious. Unrelated to hecklers, Kennedy starts challenging people who've dared give his (terrible) movie a bad review, being incredibly aggressive and smug (Essentially "What have you ever done? I'm famous and you're just some guy...") and giving it the old "You've never made a movie, so you have no right to comment" nonsense.

Nothing makes me lose respect for someone faster than that whole thing of "You've no right to comment; you never made a movie/wrote a book/etc" argument. Right, so let's never comment on any kind of art. I've never recorded an album, so I couldn't possibly have the right to say anything about music. Oh, but I'm allowed to speak up if I like what you did? Suddenly now I have a valid opinion?

Kennedy exposed himself in a horrible way in that movie, and couldn't have come across as more bitter. Bullying critics, and without a shade of irony, because they dared to find his awful movie awful. I guess he thought they would be intimidated in the presence of A-List Hollywood megastar Jamie "Malibu's Most Wanted" Kennedy. Yuck.

 

[BrianKittrell]

You're right about that, the second half did get a bit whiny when he was on there, but the other (more successful) comics who gave interviews did have some great information. For instance, the parts where Bill Maher was interviewed, I felt like he was speaking to me. Dr. Drew Pinsky shared a great deal of information about how the psyches of people living in the public eye work/are affected by things like this. Even John Lovitz talked about some things that I've experienced, just on the other end of things (writing, not film-making).

If you have your "whine" filter turned on, you do have a chance at getting some heart-to-heart with this, in my opinion. And, as a point in fact, some of Kennedy's jokes in this movie (an attempt not to be funny at all), actually made me laugh - something he hasn't often been capable of doing. lol