Self-Image Boost for Youngsters in Well-Meaning ‘Comedy Camp’

Carol Burnett once said that comedy is tragedy plus time. Yet without enough of that last factor, the equation collapses, and the results can be painful to watch.

Unfortunately, that tends to be the case with Sunday night’s well-meaning but only marginally watchable special “Stand Up! A Summer at Comedy Camp” (9 p.m. on KCET). The 90-minute documentary chronicles the efforts of Laugh Factory club owner Jamie Masada and such comics as Shawn Wayans, Paul Rodriguez and Rob Schneider to boost the self-confidence of disadvantaged youths through a crash course on stand-up skills.

The kids, who range in age from about 12 to 16, are brought to the Hollywood club each Saturday for 10 weeks for tips on writing and stage presence. During vague filmed sidebars, we learn that these would-be comics are the walking wounded, most arriving from foster homes, group homes or broken homes with tales of woe that leave viewers cringing.

The goal of boosting their self-worth is so noble that it seems unfair to judge Masada’s concept for achieving it, but the withering attrition rate (nearly half of the beginning class of 37 is gone before the final week) may be an indicator.

When it’s time to stand up and deliver, it appears that most of these kids would rather be anywhere else on Earth at that moment than in front of the microphone. And even the more willing can be tough to watch. It’s like filming at a children’s inoculation clinic: It’s good for the kids, but is it TV?

Yet there are bright spots. Talented Dominique seems born to the stage, and his impression of Bill Cosby is a killer. And when classmate Roena says after her final performance that it was “the best day of my life,” you remember that there’s one thing these kids have on their side, and that’s time.