Get Bruce!

Director: Andrew Kuehn, Andrew J. Kuehn Andrew Kuehn

Overview

This is a documentary portrait of a Hollywood comedy writer cited by many of entertainment's biggest stars as their comedic "secret weapon." Bruce Vilanch is a rotund, hirsute New Jersey native who left a job at a Chicago newspaper in the 1970s to become a gag writer for singer and actress Bette Midler. After toiling for several years in the dying genre of television variety shows and celebrity roasts, Vilanch became a staple of awards shows, scripting one-liners and song parodies at the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys, for such luminaries as Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg. All three of those stars, and many others, are interviewed about Vilanch's contributions to their work. Of particular note is a national controversy sparked by Vilanch's "off-color" racial remarks written for Ted Danson and Goldberg at a Friar's Club event, and his memorable riffs for emcee Crystal on the one-armed push-ups of Jack Palance at an Oscar telecast. Get Bruce! made Vilanch a more recognizable figure to mainstream audiences, and he became a regular on the TV game show revival of Hollywood Squares.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/15/2021
UPC:	0810072542502
Original Release:	1999
Rating:	R
Source:	Miramax
Language:	English
Time:	1:12:00
Sales rank:	57,165

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bruce Vilanch	Himself
Billy Crystal	Himself
Bette Midler	Herself
Robin Williams	Himself
Whoopi Goldberg	Herself
Nathan Lane	Himself
Lily Tomlin	Herself
Rosie O'Donnell	Herself

Technical Credits

Andrew J. Kuehn	Director,Producer
Susan B. Landau	Executive Producer
Gregory McClatchy	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

If you've ever doubled over in laughter on Oscar night at an off-color barb by Billy Crystal or Whoopi Goldberg, then Get Bruce is for you. The pursued Bruce is Bruce Vilanch, a comedy writer who makes his living writing quips for awards shows, tribute shows...pretty much any show wherein celebrities have to make a public appearance and be funny, such as the Academy Awards telecast, which Vilanch has been writing for almost a decade. Get Bruce is an extremely affectionate documentary about Vilanch's work, featuring an assortment of Hollywood heavyweights -- Goldberg, Crystal, Robin Williams, and Bette Midler are just a few -- who find his contributions to their public personae indispensable. A lot of the fun in watching Get Bruce comes from seeing Vilanch hang out with these stars and trade jokes, but there are also plenty of clips from Oscar shows, presidential birthday tributes, and the like, where Vilanch's one-liners have the audience in stitches. Vilanch himself is a roly-poly, huggable bear of a man who is partial to bizarre T-shirts and who appears to possess an unequaled gift for humor. Already a hero to his comrades in comedy, Vilanch will likely win over anyone who watches Get Bruce.