Is This Thing On? is Cooper’s third film as writer/director – and his third to wonder whether performing saves or destroys your love life. He and stars Will Arnett, Laura Dern and Andra Day talk gags, growth and relationship goals
L
ast Christmas, the audience at an open-mic night in New York welcomed to the stage a new standup. Alex Novak, he said his name was. Mildly funny, bit depressed. Mostly told jokes about getting divorced. Weirdest thing though: he looked exactly like that guy from Arrested Development.
“I was so naively unaware of what to expect,” says Will Arnett, almost a year later. “I’ve been comedy-adjacent for a lot of my life, but not a comedian. I had no idea what I was in for.”
That was a crash course in confessional standup. Five nights a week, for six weeks, Arnett would write and perform material across the city, going up cold, ignoring any hecklers who might insist he was actually the star of one of the US’s best-loved sitcoms, as well as BoJack Horseman, Blades of Glory, The Lego Movie etc.
