“People ask me what I have been doing”, Jerry Seinfeld says to a giddy audience of Dave Letterman’s Late Show. The answer is “absolutely nothing”. And immediately, he jumps into a routine on how difficult it is to be doing nothing. Because if you do something...
Fortunately, Jerry Seinfeld has not been doing nothing. Since the phenomenon that was his TV show stopped running in 1998, Seinfeld has gone back to his roots – standup comedy. He has started the old gig anew, having set for himself a peculiar challenge – to discard all of his old material and build an entirely new act. Comedian is a documentary depicting this undertaking.
Armed with two digital handhelds, director Christian Charles and producer Gary Streiner, who were involved in making Seinfeld’s American Express commercials, followed the comedian from one smoky club to another. Seinfeld himself questioned whether the documentary’s appeal could extend beyond the comic circle. His doubts are understandable; much of the creative process captured in the film is shrouded in endless, often agonizing, self-doubt – a far cry from the instant gratification the audiences associate with standup comedy. Not every fan wants to know what goes on behind the curtain. But for those who do, the film offers an interesting tour.
Seinfeld is shown from many angles. Performing before adoring audiences. Performing before audiences bordering on indifferent, drunk, or mildly hostile. Struggling to reconstruct new material from keywords scribbled on a piece of paper. Acing an original routine and sending the audience roaring. Talking with Chris Rock about the great Bill Cosby. Reassuring Orny Adams, a young comic. Building, with Colin Quinn, a comedic edifice around the term “think tank”. Throwing around four-letter words.
He is a man on a mission. And he is not strutting around confident that he will prevail. He shows up at various joints and tries stuff out. Yes, he has his high horse – he may begin by simply accentuating the fact that he is actually there; that, in itself, is remarkable and funny enough. But then, it’s on to the new material. And later, on to the endless second-guessing about how it went. Discussing, reflecting, agonizing. That, and not the actual performances, is at the core of this film.
At 48, Jerry Seinfeld looks much younger. He is now married; his daughter is about to turn two. He possesses incredible fame and fortune. And having reached this point in life, he goes out and gets himself a new gig; he starts it all from scratch. The personal stakes for him in this pursuit are clearly huge. There is a revealing sequence of Seinfeld in the waiting room of the Late Show. As he is preparing to walk onto the stage, he is a bundle of nerves, a man we never saw, no matter how many reruns of the TV show we may have watched. He does not really need to do all this, but then again, apparently, he does. And he truly cares. This is remarkable. And a sight to behold.
But Seinfeld’s quest for new comedic heights is not all that this film is about. Unfortunately, the filmmakers’ focal point often seems to be the standup world as seen through the lens of Seinfeld’s return, not Seinfeld’s return itself. That view, which conflicts with the title and the avowed goal of the movie – to document the Comedian’s return – is juxtaposed with the travails of another performer, the 29 year old Orny Adams. This is not in itself necessarily a bad idea; the Orny angle creates a helpful context around the film’s main theme. The trouble is that the film often seems to forget what its main theme is, as Orny is repeatedly, and for long stretches, thrust onto the main stage.
Watching Orny perform and struggle with the path he has chosen in life is certainly not uninteresting. And he comes across as a talented comedian. The problem is that Orny is also a big talker, seemingly unable to stop venting his frustrations or making self-aggrandizing speeches into the camera. Whereas Seinfeld is tormented by the content of his comedy, Orny is obsessed with getting his big break – one that would bestow on him fame and fortune. This is understandable, and the comparison with Seinfeld on this score may not be entirely fair. For even when Seinfeld is tormenting himself, he is tormenting himself in a luxurious hotel suite, behind the wheel of a slick BMW, on board of a private jet, or in an apartment to die for. And even in the episode when Seinfeld truly bombs on stage, forgetting the punch line to an elaborately set joke, he is greeted by the understanding laughs of an adoring audience; they will love him, whatever he does. Orny does not have these luxuries.
But still, at times, Orny is difficult to take. There is a poignant instance where an older, well-meaning comedian advises Orny, in no uncertain terms, to stop talking about himself. The suggestion is then seconded by Orny’s loyal agent. But this wisdom, along with Seinfeld’s warm appeals to Orny to concentrate on the comedy, does not seem to be getting through. Orny’s problem may be deeper than self-aggrandizement. He keeps fixating not on his work, but on its potential rewards. He shows all the signs of an affliction with the “Al Gore syndrome” – the disorder of “wanting it too much”. Sadly, this weakness may, in the end, trump Orny’s greatest strength – his talent. In the meantime, the viewer is subjected to the endless manifestations of the ailment. As Orny chews the camera’s ear off, one cannot help but wonder why the camera is not switching to Seinfeld.
For his part, Seinfeld remains much of a mystique. We learn about the man through his interactions with others, not with the camera. Throughout the film, he seems unaware of the filmmakers’ presence. Perhaps, this is a good thing – a sign of the great comedian’s humility and the chronicle’s purity. In fact, some scenes, such as Seinfeld’s emotional encounter with Bill Cosby, whom he idolizes, feel more revealing than any Orny-style monologue directed at the camera could ever be. Yet, by dwelling on Orny, the film seems to miss many opportunities to tell us more about Jerry Seinfeld and his comedy.
Miramax, the studio behind the film, which cost about $500,000 to make, must be tickled by the idea of cashing in on the huge following of Seinfeld, the TV show. But those who go to see Comedian simply to get more Jerry are likely to be disappointed. There are remarkably few references to the TV show in the film. There is also relatively little comedy. The many glimpses of actual performances, by Seinfeld or others, are invariably brief and clearly subservient to the film’s overall mission of showcasing the standup world from behind the scenes. That mission the film accomplishes reasonably well. And it offers us many glimpses of the Jerry Seinfeld we never knew. It does, indeed, when it is not too busy chasing Orny.
Note: Opened October 11, 2002 in NYC & LA. Wider distribution to follow
Jerry Seinfeld is a working stand-up comic again. This film is a candidly revealing, intimately observed, and often very funny look at what it takes t...More at HotMovieSale.com
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