Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David, co-creator and co-writer with Jerry Seinfeld of the Seinfeld series, decides to make a come-back to stand-up comedy. His agent, Jeff Greene, has even more ambitious plans - make a TV special of the occasion, including showing the planning behind the show. This is that TV special. Sort of.

Absolutely hilarious. I had already seen Curb Your Enthusiasm the series before I watched this, so knew what to expect but, even so, this is brilliant. Fresh, original, off-beat and actually feels like a real documentary.

While mostly a faux documentary, there are semi-serious interviews with people like Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander and these help you understand Larry David more. The "real" documentary sections help the humorous parts.

Plus, a bonus in that you get to see Larry David do some stand-up - didn't get that in the series. Better still - it's great!

A must-see if you're a fan of the series or of Seinfeld, or just appreciate good humour.

The original pilot of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I've seen a few times (sometimes truly forgetting that it's the pilot at all, as its stylistically 75% of the time identical to the show), has its share of laughs. But it is, in its own right, a slightly different animal, so to speak, when compared to its 5-season-and-running TV HBO series. It's meant as a hybrid of what David was tinkering as the main premise of what his show would be about- mainly him getting into awkward bits of circumstance and everyday things with people (mainly with some embarrassing or just strange results)- and his stand-up routines countered with *real* remarks from Seinfeld and others. Despite what it might seem as too much going on in a one hour show, he makes it work well. The improvisational style later nailed to a T in the seasons to come is a little more primitive here, but Cheryl Hinds and Jeff Garlin are pros at what they do here.

There's also a plot line involving David setting up a special on HBO (hence the stand-up), and then at the last moment stopping to due his "dead" step-father. Like all pilots, its got its imperfections, but its perks outweigh the valleys none-the-less. Surprising still at least in having not seen or heard a shred of David's stand-up material before is how it's actually funnier than expected. It almost makes one wonder why there isn't the occasional drop of the real stand-up stuff in the series (but then again, the very Larry David-esquire curve balls on the show are the bits of stand-up theatrical). It's worth it to check out if you're a fan and pass it by one night if by chance on one of the HBO's or on DVD; it might be funnier as well if you know some of the other little back-story bits from the show (i.e. HBO). A minor display of brilliance.

this was an hour-long mockumentary (pilot?) made for HBO counting down Larry's days to his HBO comedy special. It exposed Larry David to the rest of the world, with a few bits that would later re-surface in the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm", most notably the death in the family bit. It was really funny from beginning to end. It had to be one of the most convincing mockumentaries ever made, through a clever fusion of celebrity cameos, a real solid technical understanding of the "documentary" aesthetics (from the slightly "imperfect" composition to occasional on camera interviews), and a pitch-perfect satire. It was obvious that Larry David was putting on a routine, but the tone of the film was so dead-pan that David seemed distant enough for those kind of neurotic reactions. That, unlike Woody Allen's neurotic New York comic reacting to the LA phonies in "Annie Hall", David's interactions with the people around him were passive-aggressive enough to take place in the actual LA.

Compared to the series, it was more subdued and unpredictable, which made it a little slower and less funny I guess.

I saw this special for the first time on the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" season one DVD. As an avid fan of "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" I was very excited to see the "prequel" to the HBO series. It did not disappoint. It was immediately obvious to me why HBO decided to pick up the series. It was absolutely hilarious! I can, however, see why Larry David was a failed stand-up comedian. His sense of humor is not for everyone, but if you are a fan, you will love this. People often talk about his offbeat sense of humor, but his facial expressions are also hilarious. There is one scene that I watched five times in a row and laughed so hard, I got a cramp in my side. I'd like to tell you more, but I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is ENJOY!

I saw this sometime during Season 7 of the series and I had no idea it was from 10 years previous. The only clues along the way were that Jerry looked a lot younger and the joke about the Clinton BJ.

It's not a conventional pilot: It's more like a one-off mockumentary special that probably inspired HBO to pursue a series. The only reason I give it only 8/10 is because the series would become even better in many episodes.

It seems that some of the interviews (with Charles and Seinfeld for example) aren't scripted at all, but are their actual comments about the real Larry David. This isn't surprising, since even the rest of the screen time doesn't seem that outside reality.