Hello, Jerry

Dad/Larry/Paco/Grandpappy and I spent the evening at the Orpheum theater in Mpls laughing at Jerry Seinfeld. The Orpheum is a smaller venue than Northrup Auditorium, which is where we saw him previously. I suppose I could be lying about that, but we were in the balcony at the Orpheum and viewed Jerry and his props--a stool, a bottle of water, and a glass--perfectly fine.

I wish I could re-create Seinfeld's humor for you to enjoy, but really, you had to be there. A few of his bits were similar to the show we saw before, but since we hadn't heard the jokes in five years, they were equally funny. He opened by remarking on how amazing it was that in spite of everyone having busy lives, doing a variety of things all day long, we all managed to get to this place at this time to sit in these seats to watch him perform. I'm guessing at least half of the audience was stuck on 394 in 10mph traffic like we were, which made getting there even more astounding!

As anyone reading this who appreciates Seinfeldian humor knows, he's all about the ordinary and the mundane. Last night he painted a picture of himself as a guy who disdains fancy restaurants that get rave reviews from people who tell him, "You should go. You'd love it," and where the snooty wait-staff flaunts cooking terms like walnut-encrusted and infusion. He prefers to go to places that are deemed to have "pretty good food" instead. Just what you'd expect from a guy who used to eat here:

Other topics that made us laugh were Seinfeld's insights on commercials, Home Depot, cell phones, and being a husband and dad. Seinfeld came out on stage for a brief encore to answer questions from the audience, and of course did his great "Hello, Newman" sneer.

We sized up the audience as being mostly people between 35 and 50, with some younger and some old like us. One couple sitting in the row in front of us thought they were at a love-in, so that was somewhat distracting.

I've checked around for reviews of the performance, but since there are two more shows tonight I imagine the Sunday Trib will be the place to look. Anyone who watched/watches the Seinfeld sitcom would have to love seeing him on stage. We sure did!