What to Watch: I'm Dying Up Here

A comedy-drama series that is hilarious with a great storyline!

This week’s post is coming a little later than usual, which I’m sure you won’t mind.

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I’m Dying Up Here is a comedy-drama television series that was originally aired on Showtime in 2017. It’s based on a bestselling book by William Knoedelseder (who??) and was sadly only around for two seasons. It also has a 7.5 rating on IMDB, which means that you are most likely going to like this show. (Anything above a 6.3 on IMDB is going to be good.)

The show takes place in the mid-1970s Los Angeles stand-up comedy scene where a group of comedians are trying to “make it”. The show is loosely based on the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and the club owner in the show is said to be modeled after Mitzi Shore, the infamous former owner of the Comedy Store and mother to Pauly Shore.

The show has a serious tone of troubled comedians trying to live their hard to reach dreams, while having the humorous relief that naturally comes with quick-witted, comedian characters.

The cast has a number of real life stand-ups in it as well. Andrew Santino, Erik Griffin, and Al Madrigal are all main characters in the show. There are also a number of comedians that have small roles as well. A few names you might recognize are Dana Gould, Joey Diaz and Dom Irrera.

I’m Dying Up Here is a great watch for people that are looking for a show about stand-up comedy that is actually funny, without sacrificing the storyline with cheap jokes. It’s also cool to imagine what it was like in the 1970s before stand-up was as popular as it is today.

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Other Recs & Funny Stuff

• Mark Normand and Sam Morril had their first studio episode of We Might Be Drunk

• Another great episode of BloodBath with Annie Lederman, Esther Povitsky, and Khalyla Kuhn

• Trevor Wallace had a hilarious episode of The HoneyDew Podcast with Ryan Sickler

• The amazingly funny sketch by Gilly and Keeves, Sleep Cop, is a must watch!