Comedian – This docu-dram-edy featuring scores of stand-up artists from Colin Quinn to Bill Cosby, but focusing on two comedians, Jerry Seinfeld and Orny Adams, is somewhat less impressive than it could have been, particularly in the laughs department, but delivers an informative 81 minutes of backstage comedian triumph and despair. While not completely lifeless and empty, Comedian does lack a certain depth, mainly because it is so short, and seems to end on a rather peakish note. It was originally shot on digital video and then transferred to film–its blurry, grainy images and impaired sound are a detriment to patience–I found myself wanting it to end. A bad sign.
What Comedian does well is illuminate the backstage work of a stand-up comic. Most evident is the painful bouts of self-doubt and anguish over the creation of new material, delivering it to audiences night after night, and the effort to develop longer and longer routines The development stage is hardly addressed at all; the bulk of the film focuses on the artists’ discomfort, their worries, their anger at audiences and harsh self-evaluation for perceived mistakes.
The most interesting aspect of Comedian is Jerry Seinfeld’s quest to restart his stand-up career. After beginning in stand-up and becoming a successful comic on the circuit, and after creating and starring in one of television’s best loved comedies, Seinfeld retired all old material and here attempts to make a “comeback.” Most striking is even after all his success and fame, he still battles personal doubts that sometimes plague even his desire to return to stand-up. The film does capture these emotional lows well.
The other stand-up, an up-and-coming named Orny Adams, is also featured prominently, as he attempts to make it to a stand-up festival, and ultimately, to Los Angeles. Adams comes across as both extremely confident and extremely arrogant. He acknowledges his own doubts about his ability to win the crowd, but is never doubtful about his material. The difference between Adams, a younger professional, and the experienced Seinfeld, is Seinfeld’s refusal to blame anyone but himself for lack of laughs. Adams sees culpability everywhere but himself.
The film cuts Orny out quickly, and ends with Seinfeld going on stage in front of thousands of people, his first long set since he last did stand-up in 1986. It seems abrupt and somewhat unfinished, which in a way is true. Overall, Comedian is interesting, if light fare, and certainly will realign viewers’ perceptions of stand-up, revealing the true difficulties of standing in the laughter spotlight.
Fringe Rating: out of 5