Comedian (2002)

Seinfeld was a flagship of NBC's Must See TV, and this documentary about Jerry Seinfeld (and Orny Adams) is must see for sure even if you never watched Seinfeld.Even though Mr Seinfeld was on top after his hit series Seinfeld, and wouldn't have to worry about paying the bills or flying coach, this documentary detailed the insecurity he had in rebooting his stand-up career. I think in the documentary someone said that an aspiring stand-up comic is given only a minute to prove their worth on stage before the audience turns on you (or turns away). Jerry's mega-fame only gave him three minutes believe it or not to demonstrate to the fickle stand-up crowd he has what it takes.What surprised me was how the audience and stand-up staff didn't get all celebrity starry-eyed when they saw Mr Seinfeld.I also liked the Orny Adams subplot, as he seeks to establish a footing. It's good to see him doing well, and playing the coach in Teen Wolf, the TV series.The director's commentary is definitely worth listening to.

What does somebody do after ending one of the cultural icons of the 90s? If it's Jerry Seinfeld, he continues his stand up. He decides to throw out his old material and start writing new stuff. It's months of work as he slowly build up a new set. In a secondary story, Orny Adams is a struggling 29 year old stand up comic. He's confident but neurotic about his lack of success. He wonders if life is passing him by.I like going inside of Jerry's standup life behind the stage and talking to other comics. This is good as a bit of behind of scene documentary. It doesn't go too much into his personal life which is perfectly fine. I doubt it's crazy and wild. The little glimpses are normal and it's unlikely to be relevant. When Chris Rock talks about Crosby, it's electric. Of course, there's a whole new connotation.The second story with Orny is a distraction. He's a bundle of nerves and arrogance. If they want to add a second comic, I want someone at Jerry's level. I don't want to be mean but I don't really care about him. I don't wish him ill and I'm excited seeing him with some success. However, his complains annoy me a little.

Believe it or not, there was once a time when the world didn't know that stand-up comedians were all deep and self-loathing people. A decade before podcasts and FX shows would smother us with comedians' suffering geniuses, the documentary film Comedian set out to show that stand-up comedy, far from being a fun hobby, is a difficultyThe film does so by following two comedians -- Jerry Seinfeld, who was "as big as it gets", and the up-and-coming Orny Adams. Contrary to my expectations, Seinfeld was relatively likable, while the struggling young guy turned came off as a cocky hack. In theory Adams could make for a great documentary character, like the megalomaniac Troy Duffy of Overnight, and there are certainly hilariously clueless moments (folders labeled "JEWISH JOKES" and "DATING JOKES" stand out). But the film is never really sure how to deal with his narrative and ends up forgetting it entirely by the end.Seinfeld's portions would have made a great 20-minute short, but as a feature-length documentary Comedian doesn't really go deep enough into the creative process. There are only so many times that we can hear that comedy is hard work. Filmmaking is hard work too, and a little more of it would have made this more than a watchable but inessential travelogue.

A catalogue of disappointments.Any film-maker who thinks the built-in mic on his hand-held video camera is good enough to provide the sound for a documentary feature should never have been allowed to graduate from film school. You would have thought the fact that many of the scenes take place in crowded, indoor spaces with reverberant surfaces (comedy clubs in basements, low-ceilinged restaurants, green rooms etc) would have given him a clue that the sound was going to need some help, but he seemed to prefer to capture his venues' authentic ambiance of inaudibility. Apart from the sheer technical incompetence, this decision also means it's difficult to know what's actually going on. What were the producers thinking when they allowed him to get away with this? Second, Christian Charles is so in love with his subject he can't conceive that not everyone will know who everyone in the film is, so he doesn't even bother with the simple courtesy of a name at the bottom of the screen the first time each person appears. Unless for some reason he specifically wants to limit his audience to the United States, that's not a very smart move. Again, the producers don't seem to have grasped a rather obvious issue.Third, the material just isn't interesting enough. Very, very seldom are we allowed to hear a joke all the way through to the punchline, and although that's not what the film's primarily about, a film-maker with any sense would realize that getting some laughs out of the experience is what would make sitting through the comedians' tediously solipsistic backstage self-examination worthwhile. Every laugh we get is like a glass of water to someone lost in the desert. It's what people listen to comedians *for*, Chris. We don't do it because they're interesting people.