About Paul Provenza:
Paul Provenza (aka: Dr. Philip Capra from Northern Exposure) has been on the cutting edge of comedy for the past decade. Funny, confident, and always challenging, Paul’s stand-up comedy has been critically acclaimed as bright, edgy, and honest by journalists from coast to coast. An accomplished comedian and classically trained actor, he has scored successes on television, the stage, and virtually every major comedy venue in North America with smart, provocative, and ribald comedy that gets people thinking and guffawing at once.
His latest film The Aristocrats is critically acclaimed worldwide as the 11 th highest grossing documentary in history. It is extremely unique & funny and very perverse but has a seriousness of purpose that places it dead center in any discussion about values and mores and even more specifically the nature of taboo. It features more than 100 comedians and takes an unprecedented backstage look at the world of comics, both superstars and lesser-known lights.
It is a labor of love by creators/directors Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame). Because of their own comic stature, they have access to people and situations that one cannot duplicate. And all in pursuit of telling one very, very, dirty joke, a joke that has been around since vaudeville but one that nobody I know has ever heard of or, more importantly, ever heard told. Well, in The Aristocrats you'll hear this same joke told 100 times. It's a joke that previously existed only in private, among comics, and it is the dirtiest joke you will ever hear.
“Put down your newspaper and rush off to buy tickets!”
New York Times
“(The Aristocrats) is a master class in Comedy”
Time
“A relentless Rorschach of comedic extravagance”
New City
"While there is no nudity, no sex, and no violence in The Aristocrats, this is one of the most shocking and, perhaps for some, offensive films you will ever see. But its provocativeness is never gratuitous; it creates in its own singular fashion an absolutely arresting portrait of comic art."
Geoffrey Gilmore
