Jerry's first stand-up set (Seinfeld-The Entire Domain)

[Schmoopie]

I am reading this very good biography on Jerry Seinfeld by Kathleen Tracy, called Jerry Seinfeld-The Entire Domain. I bought it on a whim, but it's really interesting. Much better than I thought it would be.

Toward the beginning there is a section that talks about how Jerry got started doing stand-up. I wanted to share this because I thought it was pretty funny...
This is Jerry, talking about his first stand up experience at amateur night at a comedy club in Manhattan.

"It was supposed to be a fifteen minute set, but I was only able to remember the subjects I was going to talk about. So I just stood there and said, 'The beach. Driving. Parents. Dogs." And the people were laughing-they thought that was what I meant to do. I did that for about a minute and a half and then just left. After I was done, some friends came over and congratulated me. They said it was very important that the audience liked me, even though I didn't do anything."

Isn't that great? I love that story! Actually this book has increased my admiration for him, because it says that he knew when he was a kid that he wanted to be a comedian and that's what he set out to do. I always admire people for knowing what they want to do and then perusing it, because I am so far at the other end of that spectrum it's not funny! Heck I STILL don't know what I want to do!

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. It's great and the best part is that you not only learn a lot about Jerry but about other people too. It talks about other comedians like Ellen Degeneres, Paul Riser, George Wallace, etc. Right now I'm at the "beginning of 'Seinfeld' and there is a section that talks about how Larry David and Michael Richards got started.

Really interesting stuff; especially for Seinfeld fanatics like myself!

Andrea