Doug Stanhope’s the Unbookables (2012)

The Unbookables is a narrative documentary about stand-up comics who have spent their careers pushing limits–on stage and off. Relegated to small venues and touring in a crappy van through the Midwest they careen between the desire to succeed and the reality that there may be nothing left to lose. Road life is far from glamorous: comics come and go and cruel pranks and hard drinking punctuate their obsidian dark comedy on stage. They succeed and fail-spectacularly. When they face being fired for going too far on stage, the conflict culminates in a showdown: compromise or double down?

• dark comedy
• road trip