Jerry Seinfeld

The thing about a Seinfeld stand up comedy show is that the audience knows what they are getting. We knew before he came on stage that we'd be entertained. There were no racial jokes, no political jokes, no offensive jokes at all. Perhaps the most offensive joke was about how many elderly people's walkers nowadays have hand-breaks! We could have been offended by the fact that if you remove the pillow cases from our pillows you might find what looks like a Civil War bandage underneath. "Who would have thought that while we sleep there seems to be substances like battery acid oozing from us!" I am no comedian and I am not doing his comedy justice by writing about it... Seinfeld's comedy is best seen in person.

Seinfeld appeared at the Arlington on March 6. When Seinfeld came out on stage he was greeted with a standing ovation. He's of course known for his long running tv show about "nothing" and well loved for his comedy about everyday life and situations. He filled about an hour and half talking about what he's famous for... "nothing"... what that really means is that he talked about everyday things in life that we surely think about but rarely actually talk about. Like names of cereal? I won't give his act away but let's just say there are more powerful names for cereal other than "Life". Or how about drug TV commercials and how we see "happy people" trying to determine why they need certain drugs. Why did the phone company choose "star 69" as one of the call features? Out of all the numbers they could have chosen, why 69??? What are we teaching our kids when we invite a bunch of little Johnny's friends over for a birthday party and we proceed to encourage them as they beat the guts out of a cute pinata animal and eat whatever falls out of it!? And don't get me started about the "portable insane asylum!"

He talked about other topics such as how the female brain is constantly working on things to trip men up. "Do I look fat in this dress?" "Do you think my girlfriend is attractive? " Clearly there are no easy answers to these questions and Seinfeld really makes these issues hilarious in his delivery.

Comedian Tom Papa opened up the show for 20 mins or so. He is a good compliment act to Seinfeld's act because he also talked about everyday topics and made them funny.

The 2 hour total show felt like an hour because it moved rapidly and the audience was fully engaged. There was no encore but that seemed ok because the show was so complete. Of course we wouldn't have minded more of Seinfeld... next time...

Tom Papa

It's comforting to know that there are comedians that don't have to rely on vulgarity or offensiveness in order to be funny.

If you get a chance, go see this show. It's running through May or so then goes to Canada.