Is This Thing On? (2025)

I had a choice this week. I could use my art-house cinema pass to watch a film about grief, or I could go to the city centre multiplex and watch “Is This Thing On?”

Having recently been fully immersed in the grief of "Hamnet" and "The History of Sound", I chose the easy option – go and see a mainstream film in a mainstream cinema. I might even get to laugh a bit. Besides, this is a film about one of the ways I make money – stand-up comedy. So, I have opinions.

“Is This Thing On?” is an American comedy-drama based on a true story from the life of Liverpudlian comedian, John Bishop, but relocated to New York. It stars Will Arnett, playing Alex Novak, a depressed man with a failing marriage to Tess, played by Laura Dern. As we join them, the couple are beginning to live apart, having decided that the marriage is no longer working. They are figuring how to live separately and parent their two boys.

Alex takes up stand-up comedy by accident, as he stumbles into a bar that hosts an open mic night. He chooses to perform rather than pay the $15 entry fee. From his first shabby five-minute set, it becomes a firm hobby, a lifeline, a community.

Tess meanwhile is rediscovering her passion for volleyball, having left it behind to raise children. She is in the running for a prestigious coaching job, networking and getting back out there, when one night whilst out with another man, she sees Alex perform his stand-up. So, begins the bumpy reconciliation.

Stand-up comedy on the screen, eh? It is notoriously difficult to get right. This is because too many scripts treat stand-up as a plot point, when it is a performance that stands outside the story of the lives of those who perform it (even if they mine their lives for material).

For example, I love “The Marvellous Mrs Maisel”. It is beautifully costumed, pays attention to period detail, has an excellent ensemble cast who deliver sharp lines and a formidable main performance, But the stand-up? Well, it mimics the patter and the rhythm of the craft, but because it is mainly to drive forward plot, it often misses the part where she’s supposed to tell a joke.

I only caught glimpses of the stand-up in the first season of “And Just Like That” where Sara Ramirez as Che Diaz performs stand-up. Again, the rhythm is there, but where is the punchline? It’s just a lecture that in the real world would get the audience leaving or booing.

The best interpretation of stand-up that I’ve seen is “Hacks”, partly because it doesn’t expect us to laugh along with the sets, but instead shows us the craft and competition behind them.

“Is This Thing On?” gets a lot right about the comedy scene. At its best, it offers camaraderie, community, even sanctuary. And it shows that charm and hard work can pay off. But it falls into that same trap of forgetting to deliver punchlines. This is fine for a first set, stumbled into accidentally when charm and pathos can make up some ground when the writing isn’t there. But even as we see Alex do the work, write the jokes, take notes, craft sentences, it never really makes it into his sets. There are some genuine comedians in the film, but we only get to hear the occasional line from them, which is a real shame. (Also, I’m going to add a little PSA here – comedy is not therapy. Yes, getting up on stage and making people laugh can do wonders for your ego, but seriously, if there is something really bad in your life, I would recommend getting genuine therapy and processing it before you try to make it into a set. Comedy = Tragedy + Time).

While the stand-up might not be great, there is humour in the film. Balls (played by Bradley Cooper), Alex’s long-term friend and perpetually high and out-of-work actor, is funny. Every time he makes it onto our screens there is some light relief.

So, I would say, go and see this film as a relationship movie rather than a stand-up film. The laughs are there, but not in the dark clubs of New York. The film is better at looking at a marriage, the dynamics of a long-term relationship that has faltered over time.

As well as starring in the film Cooper directs. He is very good at capturing the close-up feel of being on a stage where you can’t necessarily see the audience, the dark lighting of the clubs and crowded texture of green rooms and bars. Anyone who has seen “Maestro” will recognise the way Cooper passes from one scene to another via transitions rather than cuts. But I would’ve liked more light outside the clubs, more distance, less close-ups, some space and brightness.

Described as a comedy-drama, if you want comedy, I would only give it 2 stars. But if you want drama my rating would go up to 3.5.

Finally, I just want to say I prefer the vibes of my usual art-house cinema. On a Wednesday afternoon, both are quite empty, but you feel it more in the bigger cinema. The snacks are also less interesting and more expensive. And most disappointingly of all the lights come up as soon as the credits roll. Like the management wants to shuffle you out, rather than give you a few lingering moments of darkness to appreciate the filmmakers.

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