Comedy is not pretty, but it is lucrative

I recently interviewed Richard Zoglin about his new book, “Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America” (Bloomsbury, $24.95), and apparently granted him my own equivalent of the “Colbert Bump:” Documentarian R.J. Cutler, who won an Emmy for “American High” and was nominated for an Oscar for “The War Room,” announced today that he’ll adapt it into a feature film. (Oh, great, all those comics Zoglin interviewed for hours at a time are thinking; now we have to go back and tell those stories all over again, and this time, we have to look good for the cameras.)

Boilerplate press-release-ese courtesy Cutler: “‘Comedy at the Edge’ has captivated readers across the country with the most candid account yet of this seminal moment in comedy history. No one has covered this topic more extensively and in-depth than Richard Zoglin, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with him and bring the story to life on screen.”

In case you’re wondering, “Changed America” is an awfully portentous but relative term. But the comics Zoglin profiles – George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Robert Klein, Richard Lewis, etc. – did change the face of comedy, and comedy’s part of America, so I suppose you can make the case that the title isn’t utter hyperbole.