Is This Anything? Jerry Seinfeld.

'Is This Anything?'

is what every comedian says to every other comedian about any new bit they want to try.

Jerry Seinfeld has been asking that question since he was twenty years old and stepped onstage at Catch a Rising Star on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on a Monday audition night in 1975.

This book is essentially the complete files of his lifetime pursuit of material to support the thrilling but unforgiving art of standup comedy. In some ways, it is also an impressionistic autobiography told through jokes. From his first six minutes on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to his nine-year detour in a well-known sitcom, from Pop-Tarts and monkey astronauts to cotton balls and baby alligators in bathtubs.

If the answer to 'Is this anything?' was "Yes', it is included in this comprehensive compilation of his comedy.