It's the Whiskey Talkin': Artie Lange (2004) (V)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Writer:

Artie Lange (writer)

Release Date:

13 December 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Documentary

Plot Keywords:

Live Performance | Stand Up | Behind The Scenes | Drunk | Backstage

Cast

Artie Lange

...

Himself

Also Known As:

Artie Lange: It's the Whiskey Talkin' (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

47 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Tempe Improv - 930 E. University Drive, Tempe, Arizona, USA

Company:

Departure Films

Movie Connections:

References "Howard Stern" (1994)

I Wish IMDb Would Let Me Vote 0 out of 10!!

I am an avid Howard Stern fan & think that Artie Lange has been a positive influence on the show. I was almost going to buy this DVD but was warned by several folks I know (fellow Stern fans) that it's a waste. One of them gave me his copy which he was about to throw out. After seeing half of this I chucked it into MY trash. IT'S THE WHISKEY Talking' looks & sounds like a bad cable access show from the late 1980s. The production values wouldn't cut it on a snuff film as Artie is often out of focus & filmed from what seems like a mile away, giving it the appearance of a security cam tape. Was this shot on someone's cell phone? Artie's material is even worse than the sub amateur production values. There isn't one second of his act that you haven't heard 1,000 times before from better comedians. Artie comes across like a 4th rate Belushi clone who stumbled onto stage at a suburban strip mall comedy club sometime around 1989. His lame & dated material wouldn't make it 5 minutes on amateur/open mike night at any comedy club in New York, LA or Boston which is probably why he had to go all the way to Tempe Arizona to find people to laugh at his tired diatribes. The sad thing is that the biggest audience responses come not from his material but his references to things from the Stern show. Whenever Artie senses that he's losing his audience--which is pretty much every 5 minutes--he'll do his Jeff The Drunk or Angus Young impression. These are seeded into his act more & more as even the entertainment starved audience in Tempe begins to tire of his stale "observations". The audience seems to be made up of rabid Stern fans who at first are psyched to see someone from the show in the flesh but who soon look as though they are sitting through the most embarrassing & long drunken wedding toast in history. I'll say this for the lousy production: at least it honestly shows the enthusiasm draining from the room like air escaping from a balloon. A more professional team would've intercut positive reaction shots of the crowd from the early part of the set when the audience was happy & hopeful that a fun night was about to begin. Instead the mounting disappointment & depression of the audience is faithfully captured.

And that's all in the first 30 minutes! Holy Jeezus I can't even imagine how awful the rest of the set was. A double bill of THE BAD LIEUTENANT & SCHNINDLER'S LIST would be lighter & funnier than the funeral that is IT'S THE WHISKEY Talking'. Even though I saw this on a friends discarded DVD I still feel like I was ripped off. I'll never get that half hour of my life back!