Jerry Seinfeld gets up in front of 2,800 people at the Beacon Theater last night, he does about an hour-and-a-half of new material — yada, yada, yada — he’s really funny.
The 58-year old master of his domain (the standup domain, that is) showed he still has a knack for dissecting the trivial. And that despite all the projects he had embarked on in the last few years — from “The Marriage Ref” to “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” — his natural home is in front of a live audience.
While there were no airplane jokes, he ranted plenty about phones. “Star-69 — that’s the number they picked?” he asked. “Can someone tell me how that slipped through a major organization? So no one at the phone company went to junior high school? No one said, ‘69? Are you kidding me?’ ”
Last night’s show marked the first time in 14 years that Seinfeld has done a full-length standup performance in New York City, and he’s doing four shows in the other boroughs: Lehman Concert Hall in The Bronx next Thursday; Colden Auditorium at Queens College in Flushing on Oct. 18; the St. George Theatre on Staten Island on Nov. 1 and Brooklyn College on Nov. 8. All four shows are sold out.
Seinfeld wore his hair closely cropped, dressed in a conservative dark suit and blue tie, and looked slightly more aged than fans will remember.
And his material showed a whole new set of more mature concerns. Like, say, a love of sitting down.
“The only time you’re happy to get out of a chair is when you go to bed,” Seinfeld said. “Nothing beats bed. Bed is a royal flush. Why do you think they have those names ‘king’ and ‘queen?’ ”
Marriage: “I have no single friends — and I find their lives meaningless and trivial . . . What are [a single guy and I] gonna talk about? You got a girlfriend? Wiffle ball. You’re playing paint ball, my friend. I’m in Iraq shooting live rounds.”
On receiving his Father’s Day gifts: It’s as if “someone said, ‘Let’s buy him a gift that shows him how little we know about him.’ ”
The comic veteran who had to do battle with rude audiences in nightclubs 20 years earlier shone through, too.
When a cellphone went off and its owner tried to sneak out of the audience, Seinfeld stopped in the middle of his act to heckle.
“It’s not an important call,” he said. “You know how I know the call is not important? They’re calling you.”
The audience ate it up. Before the show, they sipped creative cocktails like the “Cosmo Kramer” ($15) and the “Newman” ($13).
One woman cried “Hellllooo!” upon seeing a group of friends.
Old and young fans alike showed. (“I originally started watching the series when I was 11,” said Ben Singer, 14.)
After he had received his standing ovation, Seinfeld jogged back out on stage.
“Comedians rarely get standing ovations,” Jerry said.
“You were such a wonderful audience — and this is such a special experience for me. And I want you to feel good about how you responded. I don’t want you to go home and say, ‘Did I laugh enough?’ You did fine!”