Comedian - 2002 - 2½ Stars

Subjects: Jerry Seinfeld, Orny Adams

Director: Christian Charles

I first saw Comedian as part of a focus group in 2002. Jerry Seinfeld was in attendance - this was, in effect, the premiere of his documentary film. About 20 minutes into the film, several people walked out. Perhaps they were misled into thinking this was a stand-up film, perhaps not - watching the film again, it's not hard to see why they left. It seems they were merely interested in the sausage, not the process that went into making it.

The premise of the film is that Jerry Seinfeld has thrown away all of his old material and is trying to go back on tour as a comedian, even after making millions with his television show. The parts with Seinfeld are engaging, even as annoying as it can be to listen to an incredibly successful person worry about his future success. The film goes off the rails with its 'B' story, which involves an aspiring comic star named Orny Adams. Adams is endlessly self-involved, but the real problem is that he's not funny. On stage he is funny, but off-stage he is painfully neurotic, and painfully unlikable. We see Seinfeld joking around with other comics, even working on bits with them - Adams is merely jabbering to the camera, always about himself, either about minor slights he has suffered, or triumphs he has performed. Finding out that stand-up comics are actually insufferable isn't a surprise, but they also make for a surprisingly poor documentary.