Wisecracks (1992)

This documentary presents performances and interviews with various female comedians working in the late 1980s and 1990s. These women work in a predominantly male oriented, often sexist, arena and the film lets them talk about how they handle such things as choosing material and dealing with hecklers. While far from comprehensive, it does talk a little about earlier comedians such as Lucille Ball and Fanny Brice who inspired this generation of artists. The interviewees involved come from a wide range of success such as Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen Degeneres to lesser known Canadian comics which offers quite a variety of perspective. There is some weakness in the performance scenes as there are some that are just not as funny as others, but comedy is admittedly subjective. I was never a fan of Geri Jewell when she guest starred on The Facts of Life, but I found her performances here to be some of the funniest in the film.