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Is This Thing On? review – funny is as funny does in Bradley Cooper’s John Bishop-inspired tale
['Peter Bradshaw']
The Guardian
Arnett plays Alex, a regular guy with a regular job, married with two young kids but unhappily heading for divorce.
He discovers standup comedy by performing in an open mic slot one night on a weed-fuelled whim, and finds that audiences love his unfunny but sweetly honest confessional ramblings.
And then he kind of improves – but are we supposed to think by the end that he is, in fact, genuinely funny?
Arnett has such a gentle face: handsome yet sensitive and wounded, the kind of face that you want to stroke sympathetically.
But I’d like to see a film about a comedian who, like Bishop, really does flower into being funny.