Was it particularly challenging mixing elements of comedy and drama into a believable film?
JA: I thought that if this situation happened to a comedian, you would see it through someone’s eyes who looked at everything with humor. Humor is his defense mechanism, so that would allow me to talk about some serious subjects, but get a lot of hilarious jokes in. Some of what the movie is about is how he’s in denial about what’s happening to him. He’s not religious, so he has nowhere to turn except the stage. And getting sick just makes him want to go onstage all the time. It’s a very serious subject, but because it happens to a comedian, you can enjoy it. And he’s in denial, he doesn’t want to face what’s happening to him, and how he deals with it is trying to be really, really funny and forget about it. AVC: Did the idea of putting this existential drama into the middle of a comedy come from any real-life experience of your own? JA: Well, unfortunately, I’ve been around a fair number of people who’ve been sick over the years. I’m getting older, so how people face grave circumstanc
