Why the character turns to stand-up

Some exciting news—The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo. Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member‑only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind‑the‑scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show—a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Our guests this week are two comedy giants: star of Arrested Development, 30 Rock and BoJack Horseman, Will Arnett—and mega-successful scouse standup John Bishop. It’s Bishop’s unlikely comedy origin story that inspired Is This Thing On?, the new Hollywood feelgood blockbuster directed by Bradley Cooper. In it, Arnett plays a divorced dad who puts his name down for an open mic at a bar just to save the entry fee—then accidentally catches the comedy bug. As he secretly follows his new standup dreams, can comedy save his sanity—and maybe even his marriage?

Find out what Mark makes of it, plus two more of this week’s big screen releases. First up its Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater’s homage to the French new wave film movement of the 1960s. Linklater’s film dramatises the making of one of its essential movies, Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless. And from uber-cool Parisians murderous monkey’s, we’ll be reviewing Primate too: a tongue in cheek horror where a pet chimp goes bad.

The boys are here in the studio IRL this week, so you’ll be getting all of this, plus the box office top 10 and the banterous heights of the laughter lift, beamed right at you from the room where movie-reviewing magic happens. Keep it real, Vanguardistas and all-comers!

Timecodes with YT clip codes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free)

Nouvelle Vague review - 10:32

Box Office Top 10 - 23:51

Will Arnett and John Bishop interview - 39:19

Is This Thing On? review 56:11

Laughter Lift - 01:03:04

Primate review - 01:07:20

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