3 Still Standing is a nostalgic documentary on the rise and fall of the stand- up comedy boom in San Francisco in the 80s and 90s, packed with vintage stand-up footage and interviews with a number of comedians like Rob Snyder, Dana Carvey, Paula Poundstone, Bobby Slayton, Rey Booker, Marc Hershon, and Michael Pritchard. The main focus is on the three stand-up comics who didn't make it big in L.A., but were willing to starve for their art and have miraculously managed to continue making a living in comedy; despite the crash and burn of the SF comedy scene. Directed by filmmakers Donna LoCicero & Robert Campos, a husband and wife team who have made a number of award-winning television documentaries together. 3 Still Standing is their first independent doc. Robert Campos is actually from San Francisco, and he and his wife met right in midst of the comedy boom in the 80s.
The three still standing are clever political comedian Will Durst, self- loathing pessimist Larry "Bubbles" Brown, and sarcastic observationalist Johnny Steele.
We regrettably hadn't heard of any of the three before seeing this doc, but absolutely loved the clips from their performances scattered throughout the film. They are all hilarious in their own unique ways, though based on what we saw in the doc, Durst was our favorite with intelligent material, and phenomenal comedic timing and physicality.
The film maintains a delicate balance between comedy and drama, the interviews being primarily dramatic with some very funny stand-up footage sprinkled in. We would have perhaps liked to have seen a bit more of the raw stand-up footage, especially since most of it can't be found online. There was some fantastic 80s footage of performers at the Holy City Zoo in the Richmond District, the top comedian hang-out at the time which we didn't even know about and certainly haven't seen any footage from. Since the filmmakers had access to such hilarious hard-to-find footage, a bit more of it would have been even better.
