Jerry Before Seinfeld

Jerry Before Seinfeld is a 2017 stand-up comedy film that follows comedian Jerry Seinfeld as he returns for a stand-up routine at the New York City comedy club, Comic Strip Live, which started his career. The album of the special was nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. This is his third special and his first with Netflix.

Influences

In the Netflix comedy special, Jerry Before Seinfeld, Jerry displayed his personal comedy album collection from when he was a teenager.
These albums include:

Lenny Bruce – Thank You Masked Man
Bill Cosby – I Started Out as a Child
George Carlin – Class Clown
Steve Martin – Let's Get Small
Bob Newhart – The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart
Mike Nichols and Elaine May – Improvisations to Music
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner – 2000 and One Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks

There is also a brief montage of comedians who Seinfeld admired: Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Jonathan Winters. Seinfeld also talks about the influence Mad Magazine had on him.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 7.35/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Jerry Before Seinfeld finds its star revisiting his earliest material on his hometown stage, offering appropriately familiar – yet still abundant – laughs along the way."

Formats

In addition to streaming, the audio was released as a double-vinyl record on September 29, 2017.