On Showbiz
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Ryan McGlade
Genres: comedy
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, melancholic
A young waste-incinerator employee meets up with his showbiz mentor. Jeremy the contemplative poet sits across from Murray, a veteran who's always on the clock to the next punchline.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Casting Murray Hill as a showbiz lifer talking to a kid who burns trash for a living — that's premise alchemy. McGlade lets the bit breathe instead of milking it, which is a discipline most comedy shorts skip.
Murray Hill as showbiz lifer opposite an incinerator poet — a generational vaudeville crash test in My-Dinner-with-Andre dress is exactly the kind of specific mismatch I respect.
Pairing an actual showbiz lifer (Murray Hill) with an incinerator poet is a generational vaudeville crash test — the trashed-fire-extinguisher-backdrop detail tells me this commits. My Dinner with Andre at a transfer station is exactly right.