Jerry Seinfeld
The evening of the day my mom died on May 12th I was dropped off at my aunt’s condo after my best friend took me to get a milkshake twice the size of my head. Everything was surreal and nightmarish, like being immersed in fog. I felt like I had been shattered into a billion tiny pieces but then awkwardly and hastily duct taped back together. That was the only way I was able to rationalize the concept that I was still able to do things like walk around and breathe and drink a gigantic milkshake. At some point between sobbing on the phone with family and friends I realized there was a Holocaust documentary on the TV. That seemed like the bizarre cherry on the mutant life I did not want to be living.
Over the next few days in the condo I was eventually able to carve out some alone time with Netflix and the show that my body instinctively chose for me to watch was Seinfeld, and over the next few weeks I rewatched the entire series. At the time I couldn’t have articulated why Seinfeld was my gut instinct, but I think now that it was because I needed a show that held the world at a safe distance, where I was encouraged to NOT empathize with the characters, because I didn’t have the emotional capacity for empathy, and where I could laugh at how stupid, arbitrary, and infuriating the human experience can be, instead of just crying about it. You need that distance, that Alienation Effect, in comedy or else pretty much everything is sad, and I think a lot of conversations these days about comedy comes down to the way in which that distance is working, for who, and why. I think I also chose Seinfeld because I started watching the show very young, being the only child in a family of four adults, and as such it provides me with a time machine to crawl into the gritty 1990s coffee shop or apartment in New York City, and pretend that I’m eight years old for awhile, and everyone I love is still alive.
Sometime later I was reminded that I had a ticket to go see Jerry Seinfeld’s stand up comedy set at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival at the Garrison Grounds on August 11th. I had bought it on a whim back in March when I could not have imagined what a horrifying turn my life was about to take. At first I was numb to the prospect of going, I thought I might even skip it, but when the day came it felt apt, it felt like of course this is where I should be and what I should be doing. So, I joined a gigantic crowd of people, easily the largest I have sat amongst since before Covid, on Citadel Hill on what ended up being a beautiful evening.
I found it interesting that all three comedians: Openers Trent McClellan (from Corner Brook, Newfoundland) and Mario Joyner, along with Seinfeld himself did quite a bit of material rooted in nostalgia for a different time. Part of that, of course, is human nature, I think we all think things peaked when we were young and they have been headed downhill ever since, so it’s easy for people to relate to that type of comedy, especially if your audience belongs to a similar generation as you. However, I think this brand of comedy works even better now because the world more objectively does seem to be on fire, and whether personally like me, or more broadly, I think most of us would like to nestle back into an idyllic version of 1993 (or 1963) and not have to deal anymore with any of this. *gestures broadly.* For me, even hearing Seinfeld’s voice there in the same wide open space as me, opened up something in my heart, and a portal to that simpler time in my life, and for that I am very grateful to him. Seinfeld does have the ability to sort of perpetually exist both in astute observations of this moment in time, and also in the specific years that encapsulate the arc of his iconic TV show.
Seinfeld did a bit about Flex Seal infomercials, Sun-Maid raisins, being a vacation curmudgeon, and a Boomer Dad of Gen Z kids. He gave us a particularly lovely analogy about marriage being a DIY project, and even a bit about the evolution of stuff into garbage, which I think originates in a bit Jerry does in his act on Seinfeld, which reflects how little our consumerist culture has changed. What I hadn’t fully appreciated before in watching Seinfeld on television over all these decades is how beautifully honed his voice is into the comedic telling of every bit. The humour is as much about the witty observation and our ability to relate to it, as it is about the intonation, the pacing, obviously, and the very specific moments of physicality that Seinfeld has peppered throughout, which accentuate the humour in the same way as a button ends a Broadway showstopper. The festival has done a good job at trying to keep audiences from recording the comedians’ sets, but Seinfeld tells us upfront that he doesn’t care; we can do whatever we want. Obviously, this is in part because so much of his act is already online, but I think it’s also because no one else could make these bits work without literally doing a Jerry Seinfeld impression, so they’re impossible to steal. To me that’s the hallmark of a brilliant comedian and a beautifully crafted comedy set.
It’s therapeutic as well after the three years we’ve all had to sit on the hill with so many of our neighbours and to laugh together in such a communal way. I’m really glad that I grabbed my chance to see Seinfeld here on a lark five months ago, it was a really special experience and just what my duct-taped-together soul needed. Maybe I should have used Flex Seal instead.
The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival closed tonight, August 13th, 2023, at the Garrison Grounds in Halifax with headliner Bill Burr‘s sold out show. Next up the festival moves to Calgary with headliners Nick Offerman (August 25), Jonathan Van Ness (August 26), and Andrew Schultz (August 27). It then moves to Vancouver September 15th and 16th. For more information about these shows visit this website. You can follow The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Jerry Seinfeld was in Summerside, Prince Edward Island last night at Credit Union Place. He has a slew of North American dates announced throughout the rest of this year and into 2024, including Canadian stops in Winnipeg (September 22) and Saskatoon (September 23), as well as a bunch of dates in 2024 at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information visit this website. You can also follow Jerry on Instagram and Facebook.
