Jerry Seinfeld is the major headliner here after leaving his hit comedy series, Seinfeld, after 9 seasons on the air. He returns to the stage to be a stand up comic. This documentary uncovers the lives of stand up comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno who doesn't touch his Tonight Show salary. Leno would rather be a comic than be rich in reality. He works a 150 shows and the Tonight Show as well. Chris Rock is surprising when he reveals his admiration for Bill Cosby's live show of 2 hours and 20 minutes on stage without intermission. We find Orny Adams to be a little arrogant but an up and coming comic. Jerry Seinfeld has returned home to the stage of stand up comedy where you spend nights at the comedy clubs in New York City, Los Angeles, and even West Orange, New Jersey. Stand up comics spend every moment trying to perfect the craft of delivering the jokes, telling stories, and delivering the punchlines all for laughs from the audience.

You've heard it said that drama is easy, but comedy is hard. But you've also heard it said that sometimes you have to see it to believe it.And such is the motivation behind Comedian, a documentary directed by Christian Charles that came out through Miramax in 2002. The film is very much in the vein of the last documentary I saw, D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back. Pennebaker's picture followed Bob Dylan across a tour of England using hand-held cameras, watching Dylan as he alternately performed and dealt with fans and/or the press, or as he just relaxed pre-show with his crew.Charles eschews the black and white and opts for color, but other than that the aesthetic is the same -- only he's following Jerry Seinfeld around America.The difference, then, is in intent: Pennebaker's was a portrait of its time; Charles' is meant to be a study of how stand-up is developed and perfected. It succeeds very well but is too long and plods at points. The big fault is its detour to follow Orny Adams, who strains any patience a viewer will have. But both Chris Rock and Bill Cosby are welcomed moments that add depth to the movie.If you're into comedy or the practice of art, this is a fun documentary. But it's not essential.

Follow the construction of this film closely and you will see that it is much more than a documentary of stand-up comedy. Notice, for example, how the ending is a beginning. The final word, "thanks" is precisely the advice given to Orny--the anti-Jerry of this story. Notice the film move directly into the credits, accompanied by Susannah McCorkle's heart-wrenching version "Waters of March", itself Jobim's testimony, from the perspective of early Autumn, that life is a journey. The photos that rotate under the credits, like an iPhoto photo album, are close-up studies of scenes that any comic would immediately recognize as "Comedy Club". Preceding this was Steely Dan's "Deacon's Blues" a song about a suburban New York kid who dreams of leaving the suburbs for the exciting life of show business in the city. Indeed, the choice of soundtrack numbers is worthy of Woody Allen. This movie is worth watching a few times to see how adeptly the film-makers juxtaposed Jerry and Orny in order to make this tale of rebirth. This is very, very good film-making. I only give it 9 out of 10 stars because throughout the film the dialog recording is not as clean and clear as my old ears require. Perhaps this would have been an impossibility, given the documentary nature of this film. Nevertheless, I had to go back and watch it with "English for the hearing impaired" selection in order to catch the dialog.

My first memory of this movie's release was seeing its trailer poster - an intrusive billboard-sized mural in Mid-town Manhattan. It pictured Jerry Seinfeld awkwardly striding across a city street in a suit, microphone and stand in tow. The poster told me 'here is a superstar, a living legend of the small screen, stripped of his entourage of writers; stripped of his supporting cast of characters, his Kramers and Costanzas; sent to live among us once again and say I bet I can make you laugh.' I remember thinking 'I bet you can't' as I descended into the subway.Perhaps I was harsh. But watching "Comedian" I learned I pale in comparison to the comic's toughest audience: himself. "Comedian" gives us a taste of the life that exists between 20 minute sets; the intimate moments of a seasoned stand-up comic, earning his weight in laughs. The movie could work on its own as a story about the unique turns that lie in wait of one pursuing a profession in comedy. But what makes "Comedian" special is the voyeuristic quality of its backdrop. We're used to Jerry Seinfeld's Seinfeld. Here we see Jerry Seinfeld's Jerry, a cool if not sometimes meekly understated professional who still gets the jitters before taking the stage at unknown Midwestern laugh-ins. "Comedian" pulls the celebrity curtain down, serving us fizzy gin and tonics with Rocks and Romanos on the side. The movie makes you feel like you are at your home town's shadiest club and comic greats are eating peanuts just a few bar stools away. Silently we mutter 'sure Jerry is performing a set tonight, but not before I buy him a cocktail.' If the movie works, we believe that Jerry Seinfeld is a working man - and we're nervous for him. Our hero, off to slay a dragon each night he performs. We wish him luck on the road, one he navigates in a beamer.Afterword: "Comedy" is refreshing in its suggestion that accomplished stars can be working stiffs too, if their star hangs from a comic cellar's rafter. To wit, Chris Rock recounts a cutting-edge set he caught recently at a theater in Newark, N.J. The comic was a long-time favorite of his, but he didn't recognize most of the jokes. He delivered a 2 1/2 hour, uninterrupted set, a task regarded by Seinfeld in the movie as a "physical feat." The man was killing the crowd (along with Chris) with brand new material he had never heard. His name was Bill Cosby.