Hollywood Outlaw, The Unmaking of a Bitter Jester is the director’s cut of the controversial documentary Bitter Jester

Bitter Jester

Bitter Jester is a documentary starring Maija DiGiorgio, Kenny Simmons, Jody Del Giorno and Heather McConnell. It's a portrait of the comedy world that includes interviews with a multitude of stars including Richard Pryor, Richard Belzer and many others....

 which was buried in 2004 amidst much scandal, never to be seen again. Directed by, written by, and starring Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio is an actress, comedienne, and film director from New York City. Along with stand-up, DiGiorgio is president of Hollywood Outlaws, Inc.- Comedy career :DiGiorgio began her comedy career in New York City where she was born and raised...

, this film follows her through the construction and subsequent deconstruction of Bitter Jester

Bitter Jester

Bitter Jester is a documentary starring Maija DiGiorgio, Kenny Simmons, Jody Del Giorno and Heather McConnell. It's a portrait of the comedy world that includes interviews with a multitude of stars including Richard Pryor, Richard Belzer and many others....

, including all of the footage that sparked the scandal leading to blackmail and censorship.
Hollywood Outlaw: the unmaking of a bitter jester stands as the ultimate comedic guide on how NOT to make a movie.

Cast and crew

Featuring:
George Carlin

George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....

, Lewis Black

Lewis Black

Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...

, Bill Maher

Bill Maher

William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...

, Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

, Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio is an actress, comedienne, and film director from New York City. Along with stand-up, DiGiorgio is president of Hollywood Outlaws, Inc.- Comedy career :DiGiorgio began her comedy career in New York City where she was born and raised...

, Brett Ratner

Brett Ratner

Brett Ratner is an American film director, film producer and music video director. He is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.- Early life :Ratner was...

, Godfrey, Ardie Fuqua, Jim Norton

Jim Norton (comedian)

James Joseph "Jim" Norton, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, radio personality, author, and actor. He is an on-air personality, often dubbed the 'third mic' on The Opie and Anthony Show, which airs on Sirius XM Radio...

, Bobby Kelly, Keith Robinson, Tony Rock

Tony Rock

Tony Rock is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is the younger brother of comedian Chris Rock....

, Rachel Feinstein, Sherrod Small

Sherrod Small

-Early life:Small was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York by his mother and two sisters. He is the cousin of comedians Chris Rock and Tony Rock.-Career:...

, Rich Vos

Rich Vos

Richard Ira "Rich" Vos is an American comedian. Originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, Vos has been a working stand-up for decades. Colin Quinn described Vos in his early days as a "Jersey Hack"....

, Eddie Ifft

Eddie ifft

Eddie Ifft is an American stand-up comedian and sitcom writer. He lives in Venice, California.Ifft graduated with honors from Fox Chapel Area High School in 1992...

, Judah Friedlander

Judah Friedlander

Judah Friedlander is an American actor and comedian, known for his trademark trucker hats, oversized glasses and unkempt appearance, which he retains in many of his screen roles.-Early life:...

, Lisa Lampanelli

Lisa Lampanelli

Lisa Lampanelli is an American stand-up comedian and insult comic. She is noted for her racy and raunchy style of comedy, which frequently includes taboo subjects such as race and homosexuality....

, Ken Simmons, Jerry Stiller

Jerry Stiller

Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...

, Jody Del Giorno, Heather McConnell, Tony Martinelli, Susie Essman

Susie Essman

Susan "Susie" Essman is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, television producer, and voice artist. She is best known for her role as Susie Greene on the HBO television sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm...

, Christopher Titus

Christopher Titus

Christopher Todd Titus is an American comedian and actor. He grew up in Newark, California. Titus came to national attention with the eponymous FOX show Titus, of which he was the star, executive producer and co-creator...

, Terry Jones

Terry Jones

Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....

, Dom Irrera

Dom Irrera

Domenick Jack Irrera , originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a stand-up comedian. Much of his material is in the form of stories about his life, especially his childhood years and growing up in an Italian-American family, which contributes to the "natural" feel of his...

, Norm Crosby

Norm Crosby

Norm Crosby is an American comedian sometimes associated with the Borscht Belt who often appeared on television in the 1970s. He is best known for his use of malapropisms and is often called The Master of Malaprop. He was born in Boston.-Career:Crosby went solo as a standup comedian, adopting a...

, Joy Behar

Joy Behar

Josephina Victoria "Joy" Behar is an American comedian, writer, actress, and a co-host of the talk show The View. Behar has a commentary program, entitled The Joy Behar Show, on CNN's sister network, HLN...

, Colin Quinn

Colin Quinn

Colin Edward Quinn is an American stand-up comedian and writer best known for his five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live, as the sidekick/announcer of MTV's late 1980s gameshow Remote Control and as host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central from 2002–2004.-Early years:Quinn was...

, Tony Roberts

Tony Roberts (actor)

David Anthony "Tony" Roberts is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in several Woody Allen movies, usually cast as Allen's best friend.-Early life:...

, Colin Mochrie

Colin Mochrie

Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...

, Ryan Stiles

Ryan Stiles

Ryan Lee Stiles is an American actor, comedian, director, and voice actor whose work is often associated with improvisational comedy. He is best known for his improv and co-production work on the American and British versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the role of Lewis Kiniski on The Drew...

, Richard Kind

Richard Kind

Richard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...

, Judy Tenuta

Judy Tenuta

Judy Tenuta is an American entertainer, actress, comedienne, author, producer and accordionist.-Early life:...

, Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried is an American actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his trademark comedic persona of speaking in a loud, grating tone of voice. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin , and...

, Paul Mooney, Rita Rudner

Rita Rudner

Rita Rudner is an American comedienne, writer and actress.-Early life:Rudner was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Frances, a homemaker, and Abe Rudner, a lawyer. Her mother died when she was 13. After graduating from high school at 15, Rudner left Miami and headed to New York City to embark...

, George Schlatter

George Schlatter

George Schlatter is an American television producer and director, best known for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and founder of the American Comedy Awards....

, Lewis Black

Lewis Black

Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...

, Peter Boyle

Peter Boyle

Peter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....

, Ray Romano

Ray Romano

Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian, best known for his roles on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and in the Ice Age film series. He recently starred in the TNT comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age.-Early life:Romano was born in Queens, New York to Italian...

, DL Hughley, Bill Maher

Bill Maher

William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...

, Kevin James, Paul Shaffer

Paul Shaffer

Paul Allen Wood Shaffer, CM is a Canadian musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer who has been David Letterman's sidekick since 1982.-Early years:...

, Nicole Sullivan

Nicole Sullivan

Nicole Julianne Sullivan is an American actress, comedian and voice artist. Sullivan is best known for her six seasons on the sketch comedy series MADtv and five seasons on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens.She has played a recurring character on Scrubs and voices the villainous Shego in...

, Robert Klein

Robert Klein

Robert Klein is an American stand-up comedian, singer and actor.-Early life:Klein was born in the Bronx, the son of Frieda and Benjamin Klein, and was raised in a "prototypical 1950s Bronx Jewish" environment. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School, Klein planned to study medicine...

, Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...

, Vincent Schiavelli

Vincent Schiavelli

Vincent Andrew Schiavelli was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television often described as "the man with the sad eyes." He was notable for his numerous and often critically acclaimed cameo appearances.-Early life:Schiavelli was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a...

, .....and many more!!!
Written, Directed & Edited by Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio is an actress, comedienne, and film director from New York City. Along with stand-up, DiGiorgio is president of Hollywood Outlaws, Inc.- Comedy career :DiGiorgio began her comedy career in New York City where she was born and raised...

Produced By Ken Simmons
Co-Produced by Heather McConnell

Plot

Hollywood Outlaw is the true tale of the life-altering journey of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 comic Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio

Maija DiGiorgio is an actress, comedienne, and film director from New York City. Along with stand-up, DiGiorgio is president of Hollywood Outlaws, Inc.- Comedy career :DiGiorgio began her comedy career in New York City where she was born and raised...

 The film is a comedic documentary that tells the story of Di Giorgio as a mixed race female comic and her rapid rise to become a mainstay in the New York comedy world, mentored by people like Dave Chappelle, Russell Simmons and others with appearances on Showtime at the Apollo, Def Comedy Jam, co-host of a morning show on the number one station in the country, Hot 97, Sex & the City, TV pilots and featured at HBO’s Aspen Comedy Festival.

In spite of this apparent direct path to success, Di Giorgio soon discovers that she does not fit the mold that Hollywood wants to place her in and she finds herself at a creative and personal cross road of being true to herself or being pigeon holed by an industry that tries to tell her who she is and who she should be. A major Hollywood executive tells her “I get you- you’re a young kid raised in the ghetto, you have a fire in your belly from all the hard times you have seen”, when in fact Maija went to boarding school in Greenwich Connecticut. The only ghetto Maija had ever seen was watching repeats of “GoodTimes”. Maija chooses to walk away from it all and start over.

In a desperate attempt to salvage both career and sanity, Maija sets out to show the world just how twisted and masochistic her world of standup comedy really is. Maija who askes her soon to be boyfriend, Kenny Simmons who is determined to help Maija but also see himself back in a producer postion, and he immediately begins to line up huge star talent and takes claim to the credits of producer, by his none stop attack on getting talent.

Setting off this couple's tailspin journey, is a confrontation with Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld

Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...

 on location of the star’s own project. This escapade results in a New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

 front-page headline and death threats forcing the camera toting couple to leave the city. Forging ahead with a dysfunctional crew, they crisscross the country, Maija in search of some answers and Kenny in search of fame and fortune. They convince a surprising birth of industry legends to sit down for the most revealing and awkward interviews of their careers. Maija and Kenny manage to record an eclectic borage of insightful, and yet sometimes absurd and irrelevant opinions. George Carlin

George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....

, Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

, Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...

, Kevin James

Kevin James

Kevin James is an American playwrite, actor, writer, and producer. He is widely known for playing Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens. He is also known for his lead roles in the comedy films I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown Ups, The Dilemma, and...

, Lewis Black

Lewis Black

Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...

, Rita Rudner

Rita Rudner

Rita Rudner is an American comedienne, writer and actress.-Early life:Rudner was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Frances, a homemaker, and Abe Rudner, a lawyer. Her mother died when she was 13. After graduating from high school at 15, Rudner left Miami and headed to New York City to embark...

, Ray Romano

Ray Romano

Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian, best known for his roles on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and in the Ice Age film series. He recently starred in the TNT comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age.-Early life:Romano was born in Queens, New York to Italian...

, Paul Mooney

Paul Mooney

Paul Mooney is an American comedian, writer, social critic, television and film actor. He was also featured on one of truTV's reality shows, Ma's Roadhouse.-Early life:...

, and Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...

 are among a long list of celebrity comics harassed into being a part of this project.

- When Kenny’s obsession with fame takes over Maija’s film and personal quest, she is forced to fight back or risk losing everything.

Maija DiGiorgio’s is a familiar story of the tumultuous search for true identity. She shows us the emotional pain from which humor is born and the powerful role it plays in uplifting us and keeping us sane. In the wake of life’s greatest tragedies, the human spirit is transformed, and Maija has recorded the raw reality of its course.

Scandal

After receiving rave reviews, including Variety Magazine, and screening at festivals all over the world, Bitter Jester

Bitter Jester

Bitter Jester is a documentary starring Maija DiGiorgio, Kenny Simmons, Jody Del Giorno and Heather McConnell. It's a portrait of the comedy world that includes interviews with a multitude of stars including Richard Pryor, Richard Belzer and many others....

 was ready for distribution. However, there was one problem. The executive producers were suddenly demanding that the footage of Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...

 and his ex-wife be removed from the film. They threatened to shut down the distribution deal if the footage remained. Due to the nature of the footage, its relevance in the film, and the support from Pryor’s family, the director refused to remove the footage. The executive producers paid off the distribution company, stopped the deal, and then held onto their piece of the film to ensure it could never be seen. Six months after Richard Pryor died, the producers relinquished their piece and the making of Hollywood Outlaw began.

Critical reception

Bitter Jester was well received at festivals and in publications all over the world. It screened at Cinequest Film Festival

Cinequest Film Festival

The Cinequest Film Festival is an annual independent film festival held in San Jose, California. The festival highlights the work of new film makers....

 , Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

, US Comedy Arts Festival, London Comedy Festival, Boston International Film Festival

Boston International Film Festival

The Boston International Film Festival is a film festival in the United States held in Boston, Massachusetts which showcases over 90 films annually....

, Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

, Evil City Film Festival, Denver Film Festival

Denver Film Festival

The Denver Film Festival is held in November, primarily in the Tivoli Union on the Auraria Campus and the new Denver Film Center/Colfax, in Denver Colorado...

.

“Making a movie without really knowing what it’s going to be about is not generally advisable, but Maija DiGiorgio’s Bitter Jester makes that process quite entertaining … Jester is often hilarious and always diverting ...Whole package is a resourceful font of ideas, with no end of visual/editorial gambits (including split screen images) and witty soundtracked music choices. DiGiorgio may fret that ‘Maybe comedy isn’t the thing I should be pursuing.’ Regardless, she definitely has a future as a filmmaker.” -Dennis Harvey, Variety Magazine

“Bitter Jester is much funnier and insightful than Comedian which got a theatrical release last year...If you like to laugh, Bitter Jester is the film for you." -Steve Rhodes, Online Film Critics Society

Online Film Critics Society

The Online Film Critics Society is a professional association for film critics who publish their reviews, interviews, and essays on the Internet.The OFCS was founded in 1997...

3 out of 4 tomatoes up -Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

"Intense, disturbing, voyeuristic Bitter Jester is the documentary about standup that's not afraid to jump right into the muck." - metro- Active

"Stroke of genius" -Andrew B., That Cow Moovies

"This is an amazingly honest film." -Jeff Gurian, 15 Minutes Magazine

"With such a cast of characters, it's little surprise that the film soon swiftly veers away from any idea of being a 'how-to' guide to comedy. In doing so, of course, it also widens its appeal to those who aren't comedy anoraks and into the realms of that perennial favorite, the 'pain behind the laughter' story ... The film couldn't fail to be a laugh with a credit list that reads like a Who's Who of comedians - and Barry Manilow. It's funny when the participants try to be - but even funnier when they don't ... the irony is that a film about Maija’s failure is likely to make her a bigger success than her stand-up
ever could.” -Steve Bennett, Chortle (UK)

“Yet there's still something egotistical about this film (Seinfeld’s Comedian) that ranks it below Maija DiGiorgio's Bitter Jester for human interest. Certainly, we never get Seinfeld's version of an incident with DiGiorgio that saw him attacked by her boyfriend as the two documentaries attempted to film in the same club. “ -Jay Richardson, Future Movies UK

”An honest and frightening confirmation of more than I ever wanted to know on the subject of fame and performance, Bitter Jester lends something like an amazing perspective on how complicated a person can be--and, oddly enough, how transforming September Eleventh was on a collective and personal level.” -Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

"Compelling and inspiring." -the Denver Advocate