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I'm Telling You for the Last Time

Jerry Seinfeld

HBO · 1998 · 75 min

A live farewell to the material that made him famous.

Two months after wrapping his sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld decided to officially retire his act. I’m Telling You for the Last Time was pitched as a funeral for twenty years of material. He promised to take his jokes about scuba diving, airplane travel, and public restrooms and lock them away forever, forcing himself to write an entirely new set from scratch.

The show was broadcast live on HBO from the Broadhurst Theatre in New York. It functions as a final lap for the observational bits he honed from his early club days through the peak of his television fame. He works through routines about grocery stores, cab drivers, and the Olympics, executing the premises with the exact timing that made him wealthy. The broadcast earned an Emmy nomination and produced a Grammy-nominated album. Despite the central premise of the special, audiences who buy tickets to see him today will still recognize a fair amount of the jokes.

The set list

7 bits
  1. Burial of Jerry's old material in a cemetery with comic mourners

    A pre-taped funeral sketch opening the special featuring fellow comedians like George Carlin, Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, and Robert Klein attending a burial for his jokes.

  2. Supermarkets and check writing

    Compares supermarkets to casinos and lampoons shoppers who hold up the line by writing a paper check for small amounts.

  3. Pharmacists

    Questions why pharmacists are elevated on platforms two and a half feet higher than everyone else in the store.

  4. Skydivers wearing helmets

    Ruminates on the absurdity and futility of sky divers bothering to wear protective helmets.

  5. Wanted posters and criminals

    Ponders how law-enforcement officers manage to detain criminals long enough to take clear photographs for Wanted posters yet still let them escape.

  6. Halloween and candy

    Examines children's obsession with trick-or-treating and their willingness to do whatever it takes to receive candy.

  7. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Encore Q&A session closer

    Seinfeld freshens up his set by taking spontaneous questions directly from the audience as part of his encore.

How it plays

Tone
Observational, witty, genial, with an infectious mixture of mystification and scorn.
On stage
Observational, self-deprecating, and poised; traded his standard stand-up uniform of a sports jacket and slacks for a formal sharp black suit, solid tie, and white shirt.
Pace
Low-key rhythm and cadence, talking into the microphone while manipulating the mic stand and gesticulating wildly.
About
air travel, supermarkets and drugstores, doctors and medicine, gender differences and dating, childhood and Halloween, everyday trivia and public behavior

What the critics said

Variety praised Seinfeld's observational comedy and faultless delivery as honed to a virtuoso pitch, though critics like Tom Shales and The A.V. Club characterized the show as warmed-over and redundant given how extensively the jokes had aired on television.

In the room: High-energy, celebrity-packed capacity Broadway crowd paying premium scalped prices of up to $1,500, greeting Seinfeld with instant standing ovations.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, allmusic.com, themoviedb.org, variety.com, washingtonpost.com, theguardian.com, avclub.com, upi.com, playbill.com.

Backstory

Taped live on Broadway during a five-day run at the Broadhurst Theatre following an international tour, serving as a high-profile media spectacle where Seinfeld vowed to permanently retire his classic stand-up material.

Details

Released
Taped
Broadhurst Theatre, New York City
Runtime
75 min
Where
HBO
Director
Marty Callner
Honors
Nominated for 1999 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy AlbumNominated for 2 Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special; Outstanding Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Special)American Comedy Awards nomination for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Special and 1 more
Topics
After
Jerry Before Seinfeld (2017)

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