Get Bruce

I have no idea what this signifies, if anything, but we segue from a documentary that ties in with an Oscar-nominated story about deadly intolerance, to a documentary about an impish Jewish gay guy who writes all the jokes for the Oscar telecasts.

Bruce Vilanch may look as if somebody mixed DNA from Dom DeLuise, Shirley Temple, and the Cookie Monster and dressed the result in a truly tasteless t-shirt collection, but the clientele for his gags reads like an entertainment Who's Who -- "from Abba to Zadora." When people have to speak at any kind of high-profile entertainment function, whether it's an award ceremony, a Hollywood charity benefit, Johnny Carson's final show, or Bill Clinton's birthday party, and fear they won't be funny enough, he gets the call. Surprisingly that often includes people such as Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg, who you would tend to think are sufficiently funny on their own. And for really big affairs, such as the Oscars -- or the Tonys, or the Emmys -- he's involved in the planning from the outset.

Directed by Andrew Kuehn (best known for the 80s horror documentary/anthology Terror in the Aisles), Get Bruce follows the portly scribe through the collaborative process of scripting laughs for several different stars and occasions (there's a particularly neat bit where Steven Seagal lets his guard down and shows his true jerk-weed nature before realizing he's on camera and getting all Buddhist again). It's a nuts & bolts, laws & sausage method that probably suffers a little in being so demystified, especially considering this is old-school Catskill gagsmithing, more akin to Bob Hope and vaudeville than Chris Rock. But it works in the right context, illustrated in such classic routines as Billy Crystal's 1998 Oscar opener (remember, where he's placed in scenes from several of the years nominated films, such as Titanic?). On the other hand, Vilanch was also partly responsible for the infamous Ted Danson blackface minstrel routine at Whoopi's Friars Club roast a few years back.

Someone like Bruce doesn't spring out of a vacuum; Kuehn traces his roots from a pampered, adopted childhood in the 50s, to counterculture campus film critic in the 60s, to Chicago Tribune columnist and head writer for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and Donny & Marie's first TV show in the 70s; it was his job to "make them more hip". There are times when he should probably apply that talent to himself, but anybody who can inspire such rampant anxiety in the network censors must be doing something right. B-

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