Acquired
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.
00:10:17 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[00:10:17] S0: Which is the common experience in television. [00:10:20] S1: Yep. But this becomes very, very important to Jerry and to the eventual show, Seinfeld, because despite this disappointment with Benson, during that first brief stint that Jerry has in LA, he performs in local comedy clubs, perform stand up on the nights and weekends around LA, where one night, he gets spotted by the legendary talent manager George Shapiro, who, along with Shapiro's partner, Howard West, were, like, the most legendary comedian talent managers slash agents in the business. They had gotten Andy Kaufman, the recurring role on Taxi, that sitcom that was a huge hit. They were placing their comics on The Tonight Show, which was filming out there in LA at the time with Johnny Carson, getting them exposure nationally. It was all this flywheel between stand up and TV that was happening. [00:11:16] S0: And what Jerry is watching here is, oh, that's how you become successful as a comic to make money. And it's kinda like the next rung in the ladder. But it's not like what he wants is to be in sitcoms. His calling is stand up, and sitcoms are the thing that the industry sort of has for you.
00:11:16 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[00:11:16] S0: And what Jerry is watching here is, oh, that's how you become successful as a comic to make money. And it's kinda like the next rung in the ladder. But it's not like what he wants is to be in sitcoms. His calling is stand up, and sitcoms are the thing that the industry sort of has for you. [00:11:37] S1: Yep. Well, it also becomes a self reinforcing flywheel for your stand up act because once you're on TV, whether it's sitcoms or, like, a regular spot on the tonight show, you get national exposure, then you can tour with your stand up routine. And people in cities all across America will know you. They'll buy tickets to your shows. Like, that's the way you hit it big in stand up. So once Jerry is signed with Shapiro and West, they get him the big break, a spot on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. So Jerry talks about this. He trains like he's training for the Olympics to go on for, I think it was five minutes, a five minute set. [00:12:16] S0: And he always talks about how you're taking most of the best material out of your forty minute set to create that idealized six minutes to just put your absolute best foot forward.
00:12:16 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[00:12:16] S0: And he always talks about how you're taking most of the best material out of your forty minute set to create that idealized six minutes to just put your absolute best foot forward. [00:12:27] S1: Yep. So he goes around to clubs, and he'll do, like, the five minute set as he's practicing for months just to get it down. Go on stage for five minutes. He does it, like, 200 times in clubs, come off, get the next guy on. He starts jogging to get in shape. He's playing the Superman theme on his Walkman. So in 1981, the appearance happens, and it's a hit. Johnny loves him. Famously, while Jerry is performing, Johnny flashes him an okay sign from the desk so everybody knows it's going well. And that leads to regular bookings on tonight show. And then that leads to Letterman wanting to book Jerry and other variety shows and all sorts of opportunities.