Movie Corner: Comedian

I've been watching the documentary Comedian on DVD. It's primarily about Jerry Seinfeld's post-Seinfeld struggle to build a completely new standup act after retiring his old act, but there's a subplot about an up-and-coming standup comedian named Orny [sic] Adams, who is potentially on the verge of his big break. I think it's safe to say that he comes off in the film as a conceited, arrogant jerk. I know that when I watched the film for the first time, I was rooting for him to fail. This may not be fair: there are indications that his "conceit" and "arrogance" (which he only displays talking to the camera, not to other people in the film) are really intended to build up his own confidence, which standup comedians obviously need a lot of. But these come later in the film, after one's impression of Orny has been formed.

In their commentary track, the director and producer aren't exactly apologetic, but they do say that Orny is "misjudged." It could be that they were too close to the material to realize how it would look to an audience, or that they overestimated the extent to which they could get viewers to revise their first impression. On the other hand, having a "villain" -- Orny -- does make the film more compelling dramatically, and I would have liked them to take more responsibility for how they portrayed Orny. (To be sure, they didn't have to say anything.)

As for the film as a whole, I didn't like Seinfeld and am not a fan of standup. While the film didn't change my mind about either of these, it gave me more respect for Jerry. You have to respect someone who is as devoted as he is to his craft, which in this case is making people laugh. Bear in mind that there was no need for him to retire his entire act, and indeed, judging by the film and the commentaries, for an established comedian to set about building a new act from scratch is almost unprecedented.