Comedian

Jerry Seinfeld has ended his series and has every joke he has used for years. He drops all of it and starts writing a new act from nothing. That means going back to the clubs; small rooms, few people, jokes that do not land. He looks at his notes, forgets, walks off. The same documentary also follows Orny Adams; young, hungry, and wanting the big stage now. The two men do the same work, but one has won everything and the other is still waiting. Christian Charles directs. Jerry Seinfeld, Orny Adams, Chris Rock, Colin Quinn, Jim Norton and Greg Giraldo appear. It is an American production. The documentary was shot with small cameras inside the clubs; the image quality is deliberately poor. The matter it treats is the work itself; the film shows not success but how a joke that fails on stage gets repaired. The comparison of the two comedians is the backbone of the film and the comparison is merciless. Orny Adams does not hide his ambition and it makes him unlikeable; the film does not correct that. The talk backstage is more interesting than the passages on stage. The narrative offers the viewer no show; most of the jokes are left half finished. The film is counted among the few documentaries about the craft side of comedy. The ending closes as Seinfeld completes his new act. Its limit is structure; the narrative is scattered, the two lines are not of equal weight, and the pace uneven. Who it is for: people interested in stand up and in how comedy is written. Who it is not for: it is scattered, technical, and the ending plain.