There is no telling what content stockpiles exist in the Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon bunkers, sparking a sure sense of wonder: what’s gonna be announced today? Is a formerly theater-bound film taking the expressway into people’s living rooms? Is it a series that somehow managed to get all of its episodes produced under the quarantine wire? It’s fun! And today brings news that Jerry Seinfeld is set to release 23 Hours To Kill, a new Netflix comedy special on May 5. This is also fun! And a little rare.
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, occasional late-night appearances, and an active stand-up career (most regularly at the Beacon Theater in New York) have kept Seinfeld present in comedy culture, but he hasn’t gone all in with the explosion of comedy specials like most other comedy stars. 2017’s Jerry Before Seinfeld Netflix special was the one exception, reflecting on his early days in comedy. Prior to that, Seinfeld released HBO’s I’m Telling You For The Last Time, which dropped just three months after the final episode of Seinfeld and felt like a goodbye with him retiring a lot of his classic material. Released in 1987, Seinfeld Confidential marked his first stand-up special, introducing a lot of that same classic material.
Whether Seinfeld mixes in any nostalgia with this new special is, at this point, unknown. The press release doesn’t make mention of it and it seems like a pretty straight forward effort recorded at The Beacon Theater during one of his many concerts months before the present situation fully unfolded. Meaning even if it’s all-new material or that which hasn’t been on a special before, it won’t feel completely reflective of this exact moment. Which is a good thing. What Seinfeld does is connect us to realizations about the absurdity of normal life, offering a chance for us to laugh about it and ourselves. To say it’s a proven formula is an epic understatement. It’s also something I’m not quite ready to let go of. So, perhaps this special serves as a reminder and a connection to that thing that we can and should get back to in the hopefully near future. If nothing else, it’ll be good for a laugh and a reminder of Seinfeld’s legendary chops.
Once again, 23 Hours To Kill debuts on May 5 on Netflix.
