Madtown

Denny Briggs isn't your typical standup comedian. On the run from a very real and very unfunny murder, Denny takes the stage at a hip nightclub in the city and sets himself up to crash and burn. He delivers a ghastly punch line, "The more the audience laughs, the higher the odds are that I'll die onstage." The problem is the audience thinks Denny Briggs is hilarious. As they find him more and more engaging, we learn about Denny's remarkable life story—17 years of driving a forklift (without a driver's license), a job in a local restaurant specializing in unsavory "sticky buns," a lifelong obsession with early vinyl comedy albums, and a family history that's black as midnight and unlikely to stay in the shadows. Filmed in and around Cleveland, Charles Moore's MADTOWN is an uncharacteristic blend of laughs, tears, and thrills that tests the limits of dark humor. (Cleveland International Film Festival)