Jerry Before Seinfeld

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.

I learnt of this special when it was mentioned in an episode of the new Comedians in Cars season - before that I had never heard it was out there; perhaps this was the reason for the mention, but I doubt it. The special is somewhat of a trip down memory lane, as Seinfeld does a show at the club he started at, and that show is framed as memories from the time, as well as pulling material from his past too. In this way it feels very familiar, although I am not sure it is the material so much as the many himself. His presence and cultural impact via his show very much means he has no tricks left to pull other than the ones we know. As such I'm not sure he has a gear that would now be seen as pushing the envelope.

So, it is familiar and he seems to know that, hence the comfortable approach to the material. His delivery is good, and even though on paper the subjects and observations are all over the place, it actually flows very well and stands up well as a whole. I've read comments saying it is low energy and not 'classic' Seinfeld but I think that the problem is that it very much is 'classic' Seinfeld - and we know what that is and how it works. As such the show is overly familiar and delivers no more than we expected, even if it is funny and professional throughout.

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.

Jerry Seinfeld is no doubt one of the original kings of clean comedy and we remember him for this stand-ups pieces from Seinfeld. Even his special, post Seinfeld was tight. However, this offering from Jerry doesn't even come close.

Jerry is aging and that is no secret. However, it is evident from the lack of energy in his routine. Jerry has tried to transition to the seasoned comic routines that the likes of George Carlin specialized in, where the comics talk about their experiences a lot and crib about everything. However, without the aggression of Carlin and the comic relevance of Louis CK, this particular stand-up is more of a miss than a hit. Most of the special focuses on his experiences and only a few punch lines are funny. And those are the jokes from several previous specials.

Some of the lines lack humor to the extent of making you cringe. People used to say the Jerry's comedy was for the sheep and I was one of them. His mainstream comedy has transitioned into an unfunny narrative that is selectively laced with mild humor.

Watch it for Jerry, if you have to. If you miss it, you wouldn't be missing much. If like me, you want to remember Jerry in a different light, avoid watching at any cost.