Patrice O'Neal: Killing Is Easy

Nice work....i have to say more or the review wont load. Nice choice by the producers. The bar has been raised. I want to think there is more on Patrice to come. But we can rest a min.. right?

Patrice O'Neal: Killing is Easy, the new documentary produced by Comedy Central, explores the life story of the late comedian from his early life, breaking into the Boston comedy scene and career. The documentary fills in those missing gaps of who he was through interviews from fellow comics and his family.

Patrice O'Neal was a standup comedian that I stumbled upon binging comedian clips on YouTube. He was considered one of the funniest comedians amongst comedians despite being unknown in the mainstream. Anybody familiar with Patrice O'Neal understands that he was an entertainer who left a lot to be desired.

The fact is, there's not a lot of Patrice content out there. Patrice has a total of 4 comedy albums, 1 was a filmed special and the other 3 were released posthumously, which you can binge through in an afternoon.

His comedic brilliance was on full-on display during his guest appearances on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and the Opie and Anthony show, delivering unfiltered loud-mouthed life philosophies on race and gender topics mixed with the savage roasting of anybody in disagreement or just plain near him. One of the funniest things I remember Patrice doing on Tough Crowd was propping up Kevin Hart on his lap and working him like a ventriloquist dummy to make fun of his height. That said, all this content is currently in the form of low-res clips scattered across Youtube and his funniest antics are only available as anecdotes told by comedians on podcasts.

In the most touching and endearing way to salute their departed friend, Bill Burr, Jim Norton, Rich Vos, Robert Kelly and Keith Robinson recreate the original comedian's table at the back of the Comedy Cellar where they sit together and share stories of Patrice O'Neal, which would be visualized as animated shorts. This famed comedian's table is where Patrice O'Neal roasted every comedian hanging out after their sets, which all the comedians unanimously credit his relentless roasting for toughening them up and making each other better comedians.

The documentary showcases his brilliance as a performer who arrived fully formed with a magnetic stage persona and quick fire comedic talent, something a comedian usually takes years to find and mold. Similar to Andy Kauffman, Patrice never saw himself as a straight-up comedian who aimed to get laughs, but as a philosophizing truth speaker who wanted to cut straight to the truth. In his words, his ideal audience would be 50% laughing, 50% groaning.

A testament to how much of a truth speaker Patrice O'Neal was in the doc is when the comedians talk about his flaws and how his straight talking nature hurt his career. Then it cuts to a clip of Patrice directly addressing his own problems to the audience in his act years ago. That struck and stayed with me.

I'd recommend this documentary to Patrice O'Neal fans and comedy fans. I easily could have watched an entire season of a show based on standup comedians sitting at the comedian's table telling funny stories. What was shared about his personal life through his family and girlfriend was endearing too.

It left even more to be desired.

Patrice was portrayed honestly by honest people who knew him. You have a right to feel and think however you want, despite what others lead you to believe. As a human being, it's the one right you have - don't self-censor, but be sincere and honest.

Very well edited, I liked the round-table of those involved to collectively discuss his humor and his life, but also have them individually give their feelings. This isn't watered-down, and I highly urge you to check out the unedited version.

I don't want to give any spoilers, so I'll try to be general to serve as a free advertisement for this documentary. I had a feeling it would be good knowing Bill Burr helped produce this, a funny man with integrity, and a friend of Patrice. It's a sad commentary on our lives when the only ones who can tell the truth are stand-up comedians, and that's no longer the case, unless you're grandfathered in like Mort Sahl, but he's been blacklisted repeatedly unfortunately.

As a black man, I find nothing more prejudicial than political correctness. Some rich white old man going to tell ALL black people (or women, Middle-Eastern folks, etc) what they can or cannot handle? Freedom of thought is not allowed. White people aren't the enemy, it's those who have monopolized this earth. In an era of information, it's Big Tech now. Resist.

Patrice O'Neal isn't my favorite comedian, or even a Top 10, but we need more of him. Humor and laughter in general can get at the truth, either by that feeling you get after noticing the irony of our situation, or how you relate to it personally. I was especially moved by hi step-daughter who had some interesting things to say how his humor helped her life.

I wonder how many people know about Patrice Lamumba. Bill Hicks. Mort Sahl. Jim Morrison. Roger Waters. John Lennon. John Cassavetes. Jimmy Hoffa. Marlon Brando. The truth - not what the media picks and chooses to serve their own financial bias.

The more I disagree with something, the more I want to know why. Get out of your comfort zone. With COVID, I think people have had time to evaluate, and finding their (and our) world is lacking soul nutrition. You know what's out there now, try checking out the movies, stand-up comedy, music of the 60s, 70s, and even before that. See if you can come to your own conclusions as to how we got here.

As a huge fan of Patrice, I was worried that this would be some watered down affair, since it was made by Comedy Central, but I think they did the big guy justice.

O & A is mentioned in there, DiPaolo shows up for a bit and even Anthony can be heard, even though it's old footage. There's some new footage in there as well, and it was great to see them during the early years, when they would hang around comedy clubs.

It was also nice to see high quality footage from Tough Crowd. Maybe one of these days we will get that in HQ, it would be an even bigger gift to his fans than any documentary could ever be.

Although there were laughs to be had in here, it was the more dramatic aspects that stood out the most to me and those alone are enough of a reason to see this, if you're a fan.

If you're not familiar with the guy, you're better off watching Elephant in the room first, or even better, his O & A appearances on youtube.

The only negative thing I can say about this documentary are the animations, they're a bit cheap and out of place.

PS: Props to Bill Burr as well for being a friend till the end, and pushing for this.

It's impossible to make a documentary about Patrice O'Neal that's as uncompromising as the comic himself. With that in mind, Mike Bonfiglio certainly does his best, and the result stands as an achievement. Patrice O'Neal fans should not be disappointed, in fact they should be thrilled. People unfamiliar with Patrice should be intrigued and disgusted, one can only hope