The King of Comedy

Last night I was watching a 1982 movie called The King of Comedy on TV. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin a hapless individual who lives with his mother in New York and dreams of being a top stand-up comedian, despite the fact that he has absolutely no talent. Pupkin is set on securing a spot on America's favourite chat show, The Jerry Langford Show, and to that end he doggedly pursues the show's host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), eventually resorting to more extreme methods to secure his goal. The movie is kind of a dark comedy-drama. The thing about the movie is that it is very balanced, neither the Jerry Lewis or Robert De Niro characters are heroes or villains. The Rupert Pupkin character could very easily be a really disturbing stalker, but in the end he is tquite a warm character and is treated with affection and sympathy as someone who is mainly a wannabe, but lacks the talent to achieve his goals. In fact it's quite a contemporary movie with it's focus on the cult of celebrity and the pursuit of instant fame. It's actually one of my personal favourite movies and I must have seen it countless times.

At work today I called up about the appointment to pull my wisdom teeth. I'm booked in for Tuesday 22 September at half past nine. This appointment is just an assessment to see what needs done. I've also booked next Friday off work. I decided to do it because I'm going to be seeing Neil Gaiman on Thursday and I'll want to get some books signed, so it might be very late by the time I get home. Also I would like to have the chance to see more festival things while there is still time.