Is This Thing On?

Check Out Bottom Rung, Comedian Ron Lechler’s Documentary On The Denton Comedy Scene.

The Denton comedy scene might not be as proud or as storied as, say, that college town’s music scene, no. But, far more self-deprecatingly, it exists just the same — and, sure enough, it features a rather creative and funny lot of comics.

And spreading word of the latter rather specifically seems to be the aim and focus of The Bottom Rung, a short documentary film from the mind and perspective of Denton comic Ron Lechler, who’s currently enrolled as a film student at the University of North Texas. The 20-minute film does a pretty great job of accomplishing that task, too, as it splices footage of a number of Denton comedians — Lechler himself and Alex Smelser, most prominently, but there are many others in here — performing on stage and going through the motions of their sometimes run-of-the-mill day-to-days.

Of course, the film is by no means new. After getting Kickstarted around this time last year, the movie was posted online a full eight months back. Still, we only just now stumbled upon it. And we really dig it.

Also dig-worthy? Lechler’s Vimeo page on the whole, as it’s filled with all kinds of bizarre digital sketches.

Back on track, though: We’ve posted The Bottom Rung in full below. You should watch it — either here or next month, when it plays as part of Denton’s Thin Line Festival. Oh, and since we’re on the subject: Stay tuned too for Lechler’s planned follow-up, the similarly comedy-focused The Best Medicine, which will be incorporating animation into its offering.