This is a very special edition of BEHIND THE LENS as we not only welcome back director/editor NICK FITURI SCOWN to the show, but we reflect on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 as seen through the eyes of comedy and laughter with TOO SOON: COMEDY AFTER 9/11, Nick’s debut documentary feature which he co-directed with comedy journalist Julie Seabaugh. Nick also served as the film’s editor. An in-depth interesting conversation.
For those of us alive in September 2001, we remember the event and the aftermath; the shock, the horror, the confusion, the pain, the sorrow. In the blink of an eye, our world changed. Life seemingly came to a stop. And so did the laughter. We were frozen, wondering when life would resume as it was. As we now know, life never went back to what it was, but what did finally return was the communal experience of laughter. Comedy is cathartic. For so many of us, through laughter, and specifically comedy and comedians and late-night talk show hosts, we almost got “permission” that it was okay to laugh and smile again, to tell jokes and look for some reasoning behind the heinous acts of 9/11.
When David Letterman returned to late-night television with Dan Rather as his first guest, that was a sign that just maybe we’d be okay and that we could share a laugh and a smile and grieve and mourn all at the same time. But while Letterman was a face seen by all thanks to television, what about the stand-up club comics, the parody newspapers like The Onion, or the beloved institution of Saturday Night Live? Would the same “okay” apply to them?
TOO SOON: COMEDY AFTER 9/11 examines and reflects on the idea of “what is too soon” through the eyes of the comics, hosts, writers, directors, club owners, and Broadway performers, who helped us find our footing and funny bone while searching for their own. It was not an easy process and fraught with uncertainty and in the case of many comics of Middle Eastern or Arab descent – dangerous. To this day, 20 years later, there are still some aspects of the event that are comedy taboo to many both on stage and in the audience, but what each of the 50+ contributors to this documentary have shown us is that, even in the darkest of days, laughter may really be the best medicine.
Take a listen as Nick talks about the inspiration for this documentary and the journey which started in 2016, the development and follow-through in speaking with comedians and performers, finding a throughline, sifting through archival materials of news reports, still photographs, and comedy performances, and then the editing process. One of the most challenging aspects of the documentary was finding the balance of recollection and reflection with potentially reopening wounds of trauma. Another involved extensive deliberation on “the historical record” when it came to including individuals like Louis C.K. and even archival materials of Rudy Guliani, who has long since fallen from grace and his days of being known as “America’s Mayor” after 9/11.
And Nick gets personal talking about the impact of 9/11 on himself and his family and the importance of this documentary given his own Middle Eastern background. His father is from Libya and is Muslim.
You don’t want to miss this interview with NICK FITURI SCOWN or the documentary TOO SOON: COMEDY AFTER 9/11.
TOO SOON: COMEDY AFTER 9/11
Premieres September 8th, on VICE at 6pm PT/9pm ET
Special 9/11 20th anniversary screening on
Saturday, September 11 at 2:30pm PT
at Dances With Films in Hollywood
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