Dying to Do Letterman

Dying to Do Letterman (2011)

When 35 year old stand-up comedian Steve Mazan learned he was dying of cancer, he dedicated the rest of his life to making his dream come true: performing comedy on The Late Show with David Letterman. This documentary chronicles his five-year journey, as he races his own ticking clock to achieve a nearly impossible goal. Hilarious and heart-breaking, Steve brings a brand-new perspective to living with cancer. This is a story that proves it's not how much time you have, it's what you do with it. As Steve says, 'If you stop chasing your dreams, you're already dead.'

Date of release
2011-03-04
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 15m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Joke Fincioen, Biagio Messina

Casting

Interesting facts

Dying to do Letterman is a 2011 documentary film, directed by Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, and produced under their Joke Productions banner. The documentary follows the journey of Steve Mazan, a stand up comedian with the lifelong dream of performing a comedy routine on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Production

Dying to Do Letterman was self-funded by directors Biagio Messina and Joke Fincioen, who invested their life savings making the film. The entire production took five years. Footage for the film was acquired between 2006 and 2009. Editing took place throughout the filming, and was completed in 2011.

In 2005, Mazan learned he had cancer, and said after he went through the stages of grief, he decided he'd like to launch a campaign to perform on Letterman's show. As depicted in the film, Mazan launched the original Dying to Do Letterman site, and began shooting videos of himself discussing his quest in early 2006.

Deciding he'd like to fully document his journey, Mazan connected with Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, a married, filmmaking and TV producing duo. They had edited a comedy reel for Mazan in 2003. Since the filmmakers also considered Mazan a friend, they were concerned about making a documentary following his story.

Of the potential filmmaking/friendship conflict, Screen Comment said: "Fincioen and Messina generally refrain from lionizing Mazan's predicament, a considerable achievement given that both are close friends with him. They are not afraid to show his stubborn and mopey side, or the effect that his single-mindedness has on Denise."

In an interview with MovieMaker Magazine Messina stated that Mazan's only creative input before filming was, "Even if I die, you have to finish the documentary and still make it funny. I don't want to make a depressing cancer movie."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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