What more could there be for us to learn about Jerry Seinfeld? It turns out there’s a fair amount, according to this new documentary Comedian. Neither a concert film of Seinfeld performing his stand-up act nor a biopic that explores the comedian’s origins and future, Comedian is an intimate study of Seinfeld, the professional comic, as he goes about the task of creating an entirely new stand-up routine from scratch. It’s a study of an artist engaged in the practice of his craft. The film is often illuminating, sometimes opaque, and occasionally like watching the paint dry on a great artist’s newest work. Director Charles and producer Gary Streiner followed Seinfeld with two hand-held video cameras for more than a year as Seinfeld went from club to club building up a new act from five minutes initially to a full hour when finished. Their resulting film sheds some light on the vague and somewhat indefinable creative process. What happens when Seinfeld tosses out all his tried-and-true material and starts over like a novice? The documentary spends a lot of time backstage, listening to the banter as Seinfeld hangs out with some of his incredulous colleagues — folks like Chris Rock, Colin Quinn, Garry Shandling, and Jay Leno. He hashes over what works and what doesn’t with these trusted friends and manager George Shapiro — although since we don’t always get to see the routine under discussion, we have to trust in the accuracy of Seinfeld’s reactions. The film is perhaps necessarily hazy regarding the mysteries of the creative process. However, it comes into its own as it observes the need Seinfeld has to undergo this process. At one point, he almost resembles a junkie as he prowls the streets of New York, ducking into one comedy club after another, looking for one that hasn’t already closed for the night. Less successful is the documentary’s attempt to wring contrasting insight from an adjacent storyline that follows the attempts of a rising comic, Orny Adams, to get his big break. Adams is also obsessed with honing his craft, but the young man’s naked ambition becomes uncomfortable to watch after a while. Little is really learned from the comparison, and, unfortunately, this unflattering portrait has seemingly turned out to be Adams’ hoped-for break. Despite all appearances of providing a revealing look at Seinfeld and the birth of comedy, Comedian is more like watching a Polaroid picture develop without ever getting to see the finished picture.
This article appears in November 1 • 2002.
