IU Cinema to screen 'Road Comic'

Susan Seizer knows good comedy.

This could be due to the four years she spent filming and producing “Road Comics: Big Work on Small Stages,” a documentary about working-class, stand-up comedians who perform on the road.

Seizer, an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Culture, interviewed road comics Stewart Huff, Kristin Key and Tim Northern for her first film.

She studied their days living on the road and performing at comedy clubs in middle America.

As of early September, the film was chosen for the 2012 Cincinnati Film Festival and will play at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at IU Cinema, where Seizer will be present for a question and answer session.

“Road Comics” will also show at other national festivals later this year, including the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa and the second annual Chicago Comedy Film Festival.

“I think the film is a really intelligent tribute to a kind of art form that is very much present but also under challenge,” said Brenda Weber, a friend and colleague of Seizer.

Weber and other colleagues watched “Road Comics” during rough cut about three years ago.

At an initial screening, IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers watched the film and later told Weber he’d like to screen it at the IU Cinema.

Before embarking on the ambitious project, Seizer wrote a book that raises the same questions about how certain performance artists fit into society.

“Stigmas of the Tamil Stage,” published in 2005, is an ethnographic study of special drama, a popular form of comedy performance art in southern India.

“In both cases the artists are very much responsible for their own repertory roles, for writing their own material, for providing their own costumes and makeup and for traveling to and from gigs,” Seizer said in an email.

Seizer received ample funding for her film from New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities, an IU research funding program.

She also received supplementary travel funds from the College Arts and Humanities Institute at IU as well as a grant-in-aid for faculty research for finishing funds from the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Seizer is currently working on a book of essays to supplement the film. While following the three comics during her research, Seizer said she found herself taking on the role of promoter and appreciator of an art form that many people consider too vulgar for serious study.

“Humor in general suffers from such a bias against being taken seriously,” Seizer said. “But I find that some of the wisest and most creative responses to our common social condition often come wrapped in the cloak of comedy.” 

One of the venues in which the comedians in the film perform is Bear’s Place in Bloomington.

The venue features mostly live musical performances and no longer hires stand-up comics.

The Comedy Attic on South Walnut Street draws well known comedians whose resumes tend to include TV shows, comedy writing and online video series.

Weber, who is also an associate professor in gender studies, said the film might make viewers aware of a previously unknown category of performance artists.

“I think they’re going to get a deeper appreciation of the labor that’s involved and the talent that’s involved and having a job that requires that you basically cover the country in your car telling jokes,” she said. “It’s not something to think about as a job very often.”