“All Joking Aside” Explores the Struggles and Triumphs of a Aspiring Woman Comic

Charlie, the earnest young woman at the center of the new film All Joking Aside (portrayed by actress Raylene Harewood), inherited her love of comedy from her late father, an aspiring comedian himself, and hopes to live out his dream as a tribute to him. But she is hesitant about pursuing this dream because of nervousness and self-confidence issues.

Needless to say, when a heckler ruins Charlie’s first-ever set at a local open mic night, she is devastated and almost decides to give up on comedy altogether. But when she discovers that her heckler was both once a noted stand-up comic himself and known for his eye for talent, “she does the unexpected thing and she goes after the guy that embarrassed and humiliated her in front of all these people,” producer Jon Ornoy tells The FBomb. “But she doesn’t do it to be embarrassed and humiliated by him again. Instead, she says, ‘teach me the game.’ That pivot was what grabbed me.”

After making its debut at the Cinequest Film Festival in March just before the country shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, All Joking Aside is currently available to purchase on Blu-ray and video on demand.

The FBomb had the chance to have a recent video call with both Ornoy and All Joking Aside star Raylene Harewood about the world of comedy, unconventional friendships, and the unique pain that comes with a rocky mother-daughter relationship.

This is a film about a stand-up comedian so, of course, I have to ask you if you’ve done stand-up before.

Harewood: I have an extensive theater background, so I’ve done a lot of live performances, but I haven’t done any stand-up. Upon getting this role, I did do one open mic night just to see what it’d be like in order to prepare for the film. And it was so scary!

I’ve always loved stand-up, but I have so much more respect for comedians now [that I’ve tried it] because you really have to show up as yourself. You’re sharing things that either are unique to your perspective or are stories about your life, so it’s really vulnerable in that way, and you just don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know how things are going to land or if people are going to find it funny, and it’s a really scary thing to do so. So props to comedians who have the courage to do that.

What were your first impressions of your character Charlie when you first read the script for All Joking Aside?

Harewood: It was super empowering to see a story about a female comedian, even if she isn’t very good at the beginning of the film. I also really liked that this film is not about romance.

So many movies are about a man who meets a woman and then there is the development of a romantic relationship. That’s not the relationship between Bob and Charlie. It’s this really deep and different and beautiful kind of like mentor-mentee relationship and I just found that really intriguing.

This film was directed by Shannon Kohli (of “The Magicians” and “Supergirl.”) What was it like working with Shannon on a project with so many strong female characters?

Harewood: Working with Shannon is just such a dream. She’s an incredible collaborator. And I think that working with a female director did give me a level of comfort that I don’t think I would have had if it was a male director, so it was really such a gift to have her there.

I also wanted to bring up the comedian Larke Miller, who played one of the comedians in the film and who is also a comedian in real life. We had some freedom to make some of the jokes our own in the script, so she was such an asset on set because she could talk me through how to deliver a line or figure out what might be a more powerful punchline. I think it really contributed to the final product on film.

This film is also coming out at a time where there is more attention being paid to the lack of female voices in the stand-up comedy scene. For example, many women comics say that even now it is really hard to book sets in mainstream comedy clubs. Were you thinking of that at all as you were making this film?

Harewood: That was in my mind a little bit while we were filming. What I like about the script is like Charlie did have the opportunity to fight back a little bit. There was one scene in which another young comic was just pestering her and being super obnoxious and condescending and dishonest, and it was nice that she got the chance to say, “Actually no. You're gonna respect me or at least just leave me the heck alone.”

Ornoy: It’s important to remember that the film industry, in many ways, is not much better [when it comes to gender parity]. It made sense to have a woman director for this film about a woman coming to head in a male-dominated creative industry, so Shannon brought her own experiences as someone who’s done the same thing in the film industry.

In addition to Charlie’s comedy journey, we also learn a lot about her rocky relationship with her mother. What was it like tapping into the emotional side of your character, especially when it came to grieving and estrangement?

Harewood: Those were actually some of the more challenging scenes for me. I think that no matter what you’ve gone through with your family, I think you can relate on some level to the story of Charlie and her mom. It’s just heartbreaking for both of them because it’s just that very real thing of both parties trying their best but just not really knowing how their behavior affects the other. It just really rang true and made me sad, and so those scenes were definitely some of the more challenging. But doing those scenes also gave me more love for the characters because they really showed me the depth of the human experience when it came to those characters, so it was like a double edged sword.

What do you think you learned about comedy while making this film?

Harewood: I’ve been watching stand-up for years, even before this film. Now what I find is more relatable when it comes to comedy is the more specific stories. You’d think that because everyone goes through things like dating, that it would be more relatable, but it’s actually the more specific stuff that is interesting because I feel like what people connect to is like the feeling behind something. So if you can like talk about the link between something specific and what people are feeling, then the audience is like, ‘Yeah, I haven’t gone through that, but I know what that feels like,’ and then it gets funnier.

All Joking Aside is available to rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon or Google Play.