An Evening with Stephen Lynch (lost unreleased concert film; 2009-2010)

Stephen Lynch in a 2012 promotional image for Lion.

Status: Lost

Stephen Lynch -- "a musician trapped in the body of a comedian" -- is a singer, songwriter, actor, and comedian. With multiple, best-selling albums to his name, he also originated the role of Robbie Hart in the musical adaptation of The Wedding Singer, which earned him Tony, Drama Desk, and Drama League nominations for acting in 2006.

As a follow up to his 2004 DVD Live at the El Ray and his two successful Comedy Central Presents specials, it was announced in February 2010 that a concert had been filmed in Portland (most likely on March 16, 2009 at the Alladin Theater, the only Portland date listed around that time on his website). His website stated that it would "air later this year with a new DVD to follow." Also at this time, a mention of the future special was added to the discography section of his site.

An asset from the 3 Ballons era of Lynch's site, featuring a mention of the unreleased film.

In the profile of Lynch on the APA Talent & Literary Agency website, the special was mentioned for a time, stating, "World famous music director, Gregory Dark is in production on Stephen’s new concert film, which will be submitted to film festivals. In addition Comedy Central will be airing one hour of the concert film followed by a DVD."

However, since the initial statements, he, his site, nor Comedy Central made any announcements in relation to the film, and both mentions were removed when his site was revamped on September 21, 2012 in preparation of his then-upcoming album Lion.

On June 2, 2014, Lynch announced that he would be taping two shows for a new special at the Little Theatre in Kalamazoo, MI on June 5th. (This special would later be released as Hello Kalamazoo in late March 2016.) These tapings called the future of the unreleased film into further questioning.

On July 9, 2014, soon after the initial publication of this article, the author was contacted by Stephen Lynch himself. Noting that he "didn't realize people outside of Portland were even aware of [the taping]," Lynch explained why the film hadn't been released, stating "Long story short is that I wasn't happy with what was filmed: the shows, the material, the performance, etc. So I shelved it." On the notion of a potential release of the special, Lynch revealed, "I re-visited it recently to see if maybe I could put something together and I hated it even more, especially in comparison to the shows we were doing on the Lion tour. So it is unlikely that any of it will ever be released. Maybe a song or two, but never the full concert. Which sucks because we shot it on film and it cost me a small fortune, but I'm just too unhappy with it to put in out into the world."

Lynch later added, "Maybe I'll use some footage for extras on a future DVD, if DVDs are even a thing anymore. If not, it'll be like that Jerry Lewis holocaust clown movie and only be whispered about in certain circles."

When asked about the set-list for the show, Lynch admitted that he no longer remembers it, but did state that "it was very 3 Balloons-heavy, with some old songs thrown in," and added that it included some video elements and frequent touring partners, David Josefsberg and Rod Cone. "Also," he later noted, "that was the tour that we closed with 'Purple Rain,' which for obvious reasons I wouldn't be able to use for the special anyway."

"The new [special] is going to be fucking amazing, though," he added.

The film is currently listed on IMDB as An Evening With Stephen Lynch, the name of his tour at the time.

External Links

• Official Stephen Lynch website.
• Official Stephen Lynch Facebook.
• Official Stephen Lynch Twitter.
• An Evening With Stephen Lynch IMDB listing.

References

1. The Stephen Lynch Tour archive, listing the 5-16-09 Portland show.
2. August 29, 2013 archive of Stephen Lynch's APA listing, featuring a mention of the special.
3. An M-Live article, discussing the announcement of the 2014 tapings.
4. "New Comedy Central Special" topic at the official Stephen Lynch message board.
5. A screenshot of one of Stephen Lynch's Twitter replies to the author, an example of one of their interactions.