Acquired
00:04:28 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[00:04:28] S1: Yes. Sierra helps the great companies of the world build better customer experiences and drive stronger business outcomes with AI. [00:04:36] S0: That's s I e r r a, Sierra. So with that, this show is not investment advice. David and I may have investments in the companies that we discuss, and this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only. David, where do we begin? [00:04:51] S1: Well, naturally, even though this is an episode about Seinfeld the show, not Jerry Seinfeld the person, we have to start with Jerry himself. Yes. So Jerry is born in 1954 in Brooklyn to a Jewish family. And when he's young, the family moves out to a small town on Long Island named Massapequa. Actually, spent fair amount of time in my childhood in Massapequa. Is definitely suburban Long Island. Not a lot of interesting culture going on there. [00:05:23] S0: Great. [00:05:24] S1: But but Jerry's father, Cal Seinfeld, was known in the family and amongst his friends for just always being a funny guy, always telling great jokes as Jerry would talk about it later. He had the funny gene, and Jerry definitely did too. [00:05:44] S0: Yeah. Jerry insists that comedy is a gene. Right? [00:05:47] S1: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He thinks his kids have it. He knows his dad had it. And that it can't be taught. [00:05:51] S0: Yep. Obviously, you can work really hard and hone it and develop more material, but the, like, instinct is actually genetic.
00:05:51 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[00:05:51] S0: Yep. Obviously, you can work really hard and hone it and develop more material, but the, like, instinct is actually genetic. [00:05:57] S1: Yep. Yep. He's always making his friends and family laugh. And right around the same time when he's about 12 years old, he falls in love with an album, with a record. Not a music album, not one of the, you know, great bands there at the time, the sixties, seventies. But with Bill Cosby's stand up comedy album, why is there air? [00:06:23] S0: This is to be a big thing. These comedy breaks. A big [00:06:26] S1: thing, stand up albums on vinyl. [00:06:29] S0: It's funny. Today, we all tune in to Netflix to watch the big stand up special that just dropped. Albums were doing that same thing 50 ago. [00:06:38] S1: Yep. Totally. So after high school, Jerry goes to Queens College in New York, actual New York City, where he majors in communications and theater, and he sets up for himself. He's really into comedy. He sets up an independent study where he studies stand up comedy like his heroes. So he goes out to the comedy clubs in New York. He writes papers for college, analyzing various comedians' sets, and then ultimately, he himself goes on stage as part of his college studies to get experience, try out being a stand up comic. And it's just like what he's born to do. [00:07:14] S0: And it seems like from every interview he's given... And Jerry has given a lot of interviews. [00:07:19] S1: We'll get into why Jerry has given a lot of interviews later in the episode.
00:07:19 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[00:07:19] S1: We'll get into why Jerry has given a lot of interviews later in the episode. [00:07:23] S0: Yes. He basically said I had one goal. I mean, since middle school, high school, become a successful stand up comedian. That's it. I didn't have, like, specific goals around other things I wanted to do, some sort of, like, career progression, something I wanted to rise toward, family, hobbies. Like, I had no goals around anything other than become a successful stand up comedian. [00:07:46] S1: Yep. So at age 22, after Jerry graduates from Queens College, he goes into his career. He makes his stand up comedy debut at the famous Catch a Rising Star Comedy Club on the Upper East Side in Manhattan in 1976. And just like he did in college in his independent study, he, like, does the same thing. He tapes himself. He analyzes his own performances. He's performing night after night after night. I mean, this is a level of obsession that is necessary for Jerry to become who he is, but it's also not that uncommon in the stand up industry. Like, this is what you do. If you were gonna dedicate yourself to the craft, you are every night performing, analyzing, just meticulously refining every word, every syllable, every movement that comes out of your mouth and your body.
00:07:46 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[00:07:46] S1: Yep. So at age 22, after Jerry graduates from Queens College, he goes into his career. He makes his stand up comedy debut at the famous Catch a Rising Star Comedy Club on the Upper East Side in Manhattan in 1976. And just like he did in college in his independent study, he, like, does the same thing. He tapes himself. He analyzes his own performances. He's performing night after night after night. I mean, this is a level of obsession that is necessary for Jerry to become who he is, but it's also not that uncommon in the stand up industry. Like, this is what you do. If you were gonna dedicate yourself to the craft, you are every night performing, analyzing, just meticulously refining every word, every syllable, every movement that comes out of your mouth and your body. [00:08:40] S0: And stand up is this thing that is unique among any sort of performance, be it entertainment, music, sports, where you get a real time scorecard from the audience on something that is entirely within your control. And you might have just come up with it that morning. Let's say you're singing and you manage to write a song and perform it. This is sort of a long process. Usually, it involves other people arranging the music or other musicians playing with you. In stand up, it's you and your material delivered through your instrument with a real time brutally honest feedback from the audience whether they're laughing or not. It is as raw as it comes.
00:08:40 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[00:08:40] S0: And stand up is this thing that is unique among any sort of performance, be it entertainment, music, sports, where you get a real time scorecard from the audience on something that is entirely within your control. And you might have just come up with it that morning. Let's say you're singing and you manage to write a song and perform it. This is sort of a long process. Usually, it involves other people arranging the music or other musicians playing with you. In stand up, it's you and your material delivered through your instrument with a real time brutally honest feedback from the audience whether they're laughing or not. It is as raw as it comes. [00:09:23] S1: Yeah. It is a solo act. You know, he compares it to being a solo athlete, but it's like the most extreme feedback and spotlight version of an athletic performance. Yep. So this is what Jerry does night after night after night. Pretty quickly, Jerry becomes a success as a stand up, and that leads him to other opportunities in comedy and specifically in television. So in 1979, three years after he begins his comedic career, he gets a call from Hollywood. They want him to come out to LA and join a sitcom show named Benson, which I'm sure none of you listening remember. So he's gonna get this recurring role on this sitcom. You Grady's gonna make a lot more money than just playing in the clubs. It's gonna be steady work, etcetera, etcetera. Well, he's in three episodes, and then his character gets dropped from the show. Doesn't, doesn't work out exactly as he planned.
00:09:23 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[00:09:23] S1: Yeah. It is a solo act. You know, he compares it to being a solo athlete, but it's like the most extreme feedback and spotlight version of an athletic performance. Yep. So this is what Jerry does night after night after night. Pretty quickly, Jerry becomes a success as a stand up, and that leads him to other opportunities in comedy and specifically in television. So in 1979, three years after he begins his comedic career, he gets a call from Hollywood. They want him to come out to LA and join a sitcom show named Benson, which I'm sure none of you listening remember. So he's gonna get this recurring role on this sitcom. You Grady's gonna make a lot more money than just playing in the clubs. It's gonna be steady work, etcetera, etcetera. Well, he's in three episodes, and then his character gets dropped from the show. Doesn't, doesn't work out exactly as he planned. [00:10:17] S0: Which is the common experience in television.