Punching the Clown

Fans of sweet folk melodies emblazed with psychopathic lyrics should check out this potentially offensive but more than likely laugh-out-loud skewer of the music business, starring troubadour Henry Phillips (Comedy Central, Jimmy Kimmel Live!) basically as his own deadpan, self-deprecating, struggling self. After inadvertently offending a Christian fundraising group in Tucson, Ariz., during an open-mic night, Henry goes to Los Angeles, where a pleasant but lame lady manager oxymoronically hypes him as “James Taylor on smack,” and both a record contract and catastrophe loom on the horizon. Phillips and co-writer and director Gregori Viens couple the musical stylings of such folkies as Harry Chapin and Woody Guthrie with the irreverence of such comedians as George Carlin and Dennis Miller, and spare no one (venue owners, executives, agents, fans and talent-challenged headliners) in their path.