Mockumentary musicology: Local love looms large in American Comic

Photo Courtesy of American Comic

Fate works in bizarre ways. Long before either of them ended up in L.A., comedian Joe Kwaczala and musician Alex Ward—then of The Noise FM, along with his brother Austin—first crossed paths when they were both living and working in Chicago.

“When The Noise FM was in Chicago, Joe hosted this late-night talk show, and they’d bring on heavy-hitter guests. The episode we were on was with Rick Bayless, a celebrity chef,” Ward says. “I just remember thinking it was so cool that Joe, who would’ve been in his mid-20s at the time, was running this show complete with sketches and celebrity guests.”

The Ward brothers and their band made an impression on Kwaczala at the time, too.

“They stood out to me, they were really nice guys,” he says.

A few years later and half a country away, Ward re-encountered Kwaczala in a new context after he and his brother, now members of beloved Kansas City-area band Hembree, moved out to Los Angeles along with their bandmates.

“I didn’t expect to see anyone from those days again, but Alex came up to me after a comedy show,” Kwaczala says. “We became friends, I met [Hembree bandmate] Isaac Flynn through Alex, and they became a part of my friend group. For comedians, the coolest thing in the world is to be friends with a cool rock band. And they love that they’re friends with comedians.”

It’s also handy to be friends with a rock band if, say, you’re making a movie on a budget and need music that you won’t have to pay exorbitant licensing fees for.

Photo Courtesy of Hembree

That’s exactly what Kwaczala and his directing partner, Daniel J. Clark, did for their mockumentary American Comic, which premiered last month at LA’s historic TCL Chinese Theater as part of the Dances with Films festival. The movie features a few Hembree songs (one being a collab with fellow area musician Marty Hillard), including a new track Flynn and Ward composed specifically for Kwaczala and Clark’s film.

Considering who to call was a no-brainer, Kwaczala says. “We needed a song at the very end, and Isaac, Alex, and Austin were close enough to write an original song for the credits. It felt very in the family.”

For Isaac Flynn, the feeling is mutual.

“We’ve had our songs in film and TV, but the end credits might have been one of the first direct Hembree compositions asked to be featured,” he says. “It was such a blast to be part of because they are good friends. It’s an avenue I’d love to continue working in.”

American Comic follows two standup comedians (both played by Kwaczala) working in different comedy scenes. Bleach-blond, hyper-online Jovan is out in LA, where he takes schmoozing and self-promoting to a new, obnoxious level as he jockeys for a spot in a prestigious comedy festival. Bearded, beanie-wearing Jay Christopher is a crusty, crass road comic in the “truth-teller” mold. He makes his way through the Midwest standup circuit alongside his long-suffering sidekick/opener Dan (Sam Wiles), desperate for attention from an edgelord comic he reveres (Jon Gabrus).

Kwaczala created both characters to represent opposite toxic ends of the standup spectrum.

Photo Courtesy of American Comic

“The movie is based on a short sketch that Daniel and I made seven years ago, which came out of my frustrations with standup comedy,” Kwaczala says. “I’ve been doing standup for over a decade, and you start to notice patterns, start to recognize archetypes and cliches.”

To help Clark capture footage of Jovan and Jay Christopher in front of audiences, Kwaczala performed in character for shows locally and on the road—avoiding telling his audiences that what they were seeing was an act.

“On an existential level, it was troubling. I had to find something within me that could reflect these two guys, and I find them to be pretty despicable,” Kwaczala says. “There’s something to the idea of knowing someone’s standup voice so well because you have distance from it. If you ask me what these guys are like, I can explain it very well.”

Eventually, an even stranger dynamic started revealing itself: Jay, the offensive comic, was connecting with audiences on the road.

“Joe texted us while he was filming the movie and said ‘Jay is crushing,’” Flynn says, laughing.

“The response freaked me out a little,” Kwaczala says. “There’s an appetite for a certain kind of comedian and persona that I was worried would be outdated, probably because I’ve been in L.A. so long. We saw a lot of guys that looked and sounded like [Jay] in a way that seemed almost comical.”

Photo Courtesy of American Comic

In one of the film’s scenes, Jay tries to weasel his way onto an open mic night that’s already stopped taking signups, which results in a bizarre moment of life imitating art.

“We shot it before an actual show, because everything, in my insane mind, had to be real,” Kwaczala says. “But then we witnessed someone actually doing what Jay was doing. Someone talked to the booker and tried to weasel their way onto an actual show. We tapped into stuff that’s still really happening.”

The experiences Kwaczala and Clark depict ring true across the touring artist spectrum, according to Ward.

“Jay’s journey on the road is not too dissimilar from a band staying on the road,” Ward says. “The pit stops he made, stuff like pushing the vehicle at two in the morning—When you’re touring you constantly justify it. This is what you do, it’s life on the road.”

In another scene, Jay wakes up on a couch still wearing his clothes from the night before, and makes a disgusting mashup of “tuna salad” in a ziploc bag, which he dumps in his mouth as he drives to the next show. It’s another move with uncomfortable resonance.

“When we were playing with Archie Powell & the Exports, those guys were really operating on a budget,” Ward remembers. “The go-to sandwich was white Wonder Bread, Jiffy peanut butter and Sriracha.”

It’s one of several relatable moments in the film that Kwaczala says he gets repeated feedback about.

“People always find a different moment, and they think they know exactly who that’s about, and they name someone I never considered,” he says.

Photo by Nick Spacek

While Flynn is excited that he and Ward got to contribute to American Comic, he says the overall feeling during the premiere of the movie was one of pride for his friends’ success.

“The experience was truly incredible. I felt so much joy watching my friends do something at such a high level, and it was exciting for us to be a part of it,” Flynn says. “The theater was absolutely packed, and the movie got a standing ovation. When the movie went to the credits and it flashed ‘Directed by Daniel J. Clark’ and our song started playing, the theater just erupted. To have those guys get the roar of applause they deserved was great.”

A number of people in the cast—real-life L.A. comedians themselves—are friends who’ve done shows in Ward’s backyard, where Kwaczala and other friends, including American Comic castmate Sam Wiles and Saturday Night Live cast member James Austin Johnson, have done sets.

“Watching the movie is like playing a who’s who of L.A. East side alt comedians,” Ward jokes. “They’re all comedians we’ve grown to love over the last decade and become close friends with out in LA, so it was an honor to be included in something as cool and creative as their feature film.”

It goes both ways for Kwaczala, who says incorporating music from friends into the film was a way to celebrate the creative community he’s part of—one that’s stretched over various cities and parts of his career. “Every song in the movie is from people I’m friends with,” he says. “Because what a joy it is to know people who make good music.”

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