Jerry Before Seinfeld

10/4/17. While I never really watched Seinfeld, I did catch bits and pieces when my kids watched it (they are die-hard fans). I decided to watch his stand up and it is pretty much like the series. He is funny, and clean, too. You will enjoy him more if you are native New Yorker. One hour of comedy that is definitely worth the watch.

I am a big fan of the Seinfeld show and of Jerry's sense of humor. When I saw that he did a new thing for 2017 I absolutely had to see it. But it was nothing new. Just him talking about his childhood and his life in New York for a few scenes, and the rest of this one hour show he just does stand up. Which was fine, only I knew about 90% of the material just by watching the Seinfeld TV show.

And then there is the voice thing. I don't know what happened to him, but at some time he would just raise his voice a little bit and it would come out all shrill and broken. In this show he managed to keep it under control, but not all the time.

Bottom line: I always enjoy Seinfeld, but I expected some more depth in something that was about his personal life and was marketed as "before Seinfeld". I understand he took all the good bits and put them in the TV show and he couldn't have made another show just with the bad material, but still, I wanted to see him write again, not just reminisce about the good jokes he thought of when he was a kid. Maybe next time.

While I was expecting more of a background to how Jerry got his start into Comedic stardom or even a mixture of that with his act it was still a treat to watch him perform. His stand up as always was first class. We were treated to great material that was effortlessly delivered by the master. I am so glad Netflix gave us this wonderful special amidst all their other shows. Seinfeld is a class act who has distinguished himself in the comedic and entertainment world. He gave us the greatest TV show of all time, Seinfeld and has continued to conquer the stand up and comedic world. We saw some snippets into his life before making it big but it was really a treat to watch him perform and own the stage.

American stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld revisits the Comic Strip club, a small nightclub where he cut his teeth as a comic in 1976 before going on to international success as actor, comedian, producer and director. The material is pleasingly nostalgic and funny and one gets the feeling that the secret to his success has been down to his sunny disposition and laid back persona.

Jerry Seinfeld's clearly a pro comes when it comes to comedy, and even if he's telling jokes that aren't among his strongest or best, I still find them entertaining (as is the case here). Most of Jerry Before Seinfeld shows Jerry telling jokes from throughout his career, while small sections where he reflects on his past and his beginnings in comedy are interspersed throughout his routine.

This special is a little on the short side, and likely won't blow anyone's expectations, but fans of Jerry Seinfeld will likely get something out of it. Most jokes worked for me personally, even if nothing really proved to be 'laugh out loud' funny.

There were only a couple of parts that I thought misfired. There's a short section where two of Jerry's friends reminisce with him about doing comedy in the 1970s, which felt a little awkward and forced, and then another part shortly after, where somebody in the audience calls out something related to baseball, which Jerry then springboards off and begins a lengthy joke about sports teams. If this was intended to feel spontaneous or unscripted, it didn't really.

Still, I can't be too negative about watching this, because it was enjoyable enough and, like I said, most of it worked fairly well. Also, I've always admired Jerry Seinfeld's ability to be funny without being raunchy or swearing a whole lot, even though I personally don't really have a problem with bad language in comedy (if I did, there wouldn't be too many comedians I could listen to!) I guess his relatively clean comedy serves as a nice change of pace, and maybe even adds to the casual, relaxed feeling of a comedy special such as this one.