The Circuit

by Dade Hayes
“Never follow a comedian” is age-old advice on the public speaking circuit. Last weekend at the Nantucket Film Festival, someone should have warned me, “Never follow a pair of comedy legends, a comedian’s videotape and Brian Williams’ comic riffing before yielding the stage to Judd Apatow.”

Still and all, my playing the ultimate straight man at the festival’s epic Apatow tribute Saturday night was as earthily enjoyable as the rest of the experience. In its 13 editions, Nantucket has succeeded in putting, as a Boston Globe headline put it last week, “ease over edge.” Sales agents do not typically huddle with buyers in condos on this sandy island.

It is primarily a showcase for screenwriters, which gives the fest gravitas, but its summer berth has also made it desirable real estate for summer specialty pics looking for a marketing push. “The Wackness” and “American Teen” were two such examples screening this year.

While the fest is far more serious than a lot of the chamber of commerce tour-a-thons held in magnificent locales, there’s no getting around how stone gorgeous Nantucket is, especially on clear, sunny, 80-degree days before the summer tourist season kicks off. Dress is decidedly casual.

The most formal fashion statement might involve little whale prints on pale red – or make that Nantucket red -- pants. Many people in the tent at Jetties Beach on Saturday kicked off their shoes, the better to wiggle their toes in the sand. And in between screenings, there are near-mandatory stops at the Juice Bar, which serves up some of the best waffle cones and homemade ice cream in creation.

The Apatow tribute, which followed other characteristically low-key sessions like a staged reading of “Some Like it Hot” and “Late Night Storytelling,” featured a video hat tip from Ben Stiller (“who’s too busy shooting ‘Night at the Museum 11’ to actually be here,” Apatow quipped), an introduction to the night by the stealthily funny Williams, a lengthy roast-like ruminations by Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara and some self-confessed “ass kissing” by Universal chief Ron Meyer.

Apatow followed everyone with about 15 minutes of material. Studying his notes, he shuffled the papers and deadpanned, “I have eight pages about what a douchebag Brian Williams is.” He uncorked a spectacular tale of a meeting he and Ben Stiller had with the Rolling Stones. Way before Scorsese, someone had the brilliant idea of making a movie with concert performances punctuated by comic sketches. Apatow talked about “locking up” during the meeting, but later delighting in the “six-week window” of contact with the band.

Meyer likened Apatow to icons such as Spielberg and Sturges. But what made the night so irrepressibly Nantucket was how un-statesmanlike the guest of honor was.

A five minute highlight reel captured the most bawdy moments of his recent film work; in person, he didn’t work especially blue. But he had no agents to thank or red carpet to walk. He just took care of his funny business – and the evident work ethic behind his five summer movies and recent spree of titles either written, directed or produced (or all three) came in for some ribbing throughout the night. “When your own wife can’t see all of the movies you’re making,” he said, “that’s when you know you’re making too many.”