Jerry Before Seinfeld: Netflix Review

Friday, September 22, 2017

I grew up watching a lot of re-runs of Seinfeld. I adore the show and Seinfeld - the character Jerry Seinfeld. I didn't get to know the real Jerry Seinfeld until I started watching his amazing self-explained-in-the-title show Comedians In Car Getting Coffee (Please do watch it!).

I was excited(obviously!) when I heard that Netflix had made a deal with Seinfeld. The one-hour stand-up comedy special is set in The Comic Strip - the comic club where his career started in 1976. Seinfeld takes you through his childhood, his twenties, stand up comedy culture in 70s, 90s NYC. There are scenes where he takes us to his childhood home. The special is a is throwback on his life through old photos and old videos (which also include his appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1981).

The special is filled with Jerry Seinfeld's observational humor. He has stayed true to his style. Some people might argue that he hasn't changed his humor with the times. But, at a time, when stand-up comedy has almost become synonymous with political activism, Seinfeld's comedy is refreshing. He managed to make me laugh even when he was talking about the cliched and now forgotten men-women differences observational comedy and  the-lost-sock comedy.

A lot of his jokes are written in the first five years of his career. There's a scene where he is sitting with rows and rows of his hand-written jokes ever written from 1976 "to today". That captures the essence of the person behind Seinfeld.

I would recommend you watch it, and watch it only if you know-know Seinfeld. Because, this is truly a tribute to his Seinfeld-ness.
1