Genre: Humor
Length: 480 pages
Audiobook Length: 6 hours and 19 minutes
First Published: 2020
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Rachael’s Review
Ever since the start of his career as a stand-up comedian, Jerry Seinfeld has saved all his material and ideas on big yellow legal pads. Scouring through all his old material, Seinfeld has picked out the best of the best, letting you see the evolution of his craft through the decades.
Is This Anything? is literally just random jokes scribbled on notepads. Although Seinfeld writes a few short introductory paragraphs at the start of each decade, there are no segues between jokes, just raw material strung together. Some of the jokes are hilarious. Some of the material makes you cringe. If you do decide to pick this one up, I recommend listening to the audiobook since Seinfeld narrates it himself.
Publisher’s Description
The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.
Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”
For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
About Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He played a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld. His other shows include Bee Movie and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He is the author of the books Seinlanguage and Is This Anything? Visit the author’s website →