Learning the art of briefness from Comedian Jerry Seinfeld: funny mini moments that remind us of life’s absurdities
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld may be on to something with his new project, a spinoff of his popular web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Now it is Single Shots, which premiered a few days ago at http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com and http://Crackle.com, offering previously unseen footage in fast-paced, one- to three-minute nuggets.
While I have always enjoyed Seinfeld's comedy, my main interest in Single Shots, and previously Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, has to do with the brevity of it all, or what one fan of the show described as “something like a comedy espresso..short, quick , tasty and satisfying..”.
In my own workshops I urge editors in newsrooms to consider “mini moments”, particularly for their mobile editions. There are many of these mini moments in the daily life of a newsroom: the banter between journalists can capture delicious mini moments which never get published; photographers shoot interesting footage that never gets published; portions of interviews end up crushed by the delete button.
Many of these should be preserved and presented as part of mobile editions, offering glimpses of life in the newsroom (a crowd pleaser), allowing reporters to develop their brands, and, better yet, start developing new content with little relation to the legacy content that we all know how to do well.
Short, fresh and fast paced storytelling should not be for Seinfeld and his fellow comedians only.
Of special interest
The Adobe Originals type design program turns 25 and the celebrations are going on. Take a look: