This show, first aired in April, is an hour-long roundtable discussion about comedy featuring Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis CK. It’s very much about the process of comedy, not necessaily all dry theory but a longer view on the topic, the writing of the material, the mindset of the comedian onstage and how he relates to the audience, and so forth. It’s intelligent conversation but there’s also plenty of laughter, so it’s easy to watch. Personally, I love this stuff almost as much as comedy itself so I was happy to see it, and twice.

Gervais is more or less the moderator, tossing up questions every so often and giving the conversation a shape by putting the other comedians’ statements in perspective. But as the conversation moves along, we see he’s also the outsider in a couple of ways. I think the show is his baby, if not his idea – his production company pops up at the end – so it makes sense that he’d host it and maybe also be the one to wrangle up these elite comedians. It’s easy to point out that he’s British and they’re American, but their professional backgrounds are different as well. And Gervais points this out, that these other three, among many others, worked at clubs for a decade or more making the stand-up work before branching out into other arenas, never giving up the touring outright. Gervais hit it big first with The Office, then wanted to prove himself onstage after the fact. He’s a very funny comedian, successful beyond his experience, maybe, but I’d say he’s not quite at their level just yet, in terms of stand-up.

I’m not picking on him at all, but it was a curious dynamic. For a discussion of stand-up as such, I could easily have seen Eddie Izzard as the fourth. But, the relationships might not be there for that quartet to work as smoothly. Gervais and Louis CK are friends, as are Louis CK and Chris Rock. Seinfeld and Louis CK toured together a long time ago. So they’re friends and friends of friends, in the same circle but not the same pantheon, maybe.

Chris Rock points this out, maybe not entirely in jest, a couple of times. Seinfeld actually asks the question, about their first bit that worked. When Gervais is thinking about his, Rock says, “he wrote it last week.” Later, Rock says the stand-up is how he made himself, his career and his money, and it’s not just something he’s doing on the side. And he wasn’t really being a jerk about it in either case but he’s highlighting an interesting wrinkle. I wonder if there’s a thought even among comedians that Gervais isn’t quite part of the group yet, that he hasn’t paid his dues in the same way. I’m just saying it’s possible.

I do have to say that Louis CK impresses me more and more. I appreciate his comedy because things are said so straightforwardly. They’re well-wrought jokes but they sound plain-spoken, and are probably funnier for it. But he’s as incisive in discussing this material. It’s clear they take the offstage work seriously, perhaps him most of all. He also made a point I’d heard him make before, that he does a new hour every year. He first heard that in a George Carlin interview that he doesn’t mention in this show. But of the four, it’s likely that Jerry is the oldest-fashioned in that sense, in his use and reuse of material.That seed is tackled right up front, setting in motion a most interesting hour.

I wish there were more of these, or that this show could have been longer. Left wanting more, I understand one of entertainment’s basic ideas, and get on with my day.