There have recently been promotions and premieres (here) for a 2024 documentary called Before We Get Started (IMDB).

The hour 13 minutes film is described as:

…explores the hidden, demanding world of audience warm-up comedy, hosted by veteran comic Ryan Reiss

Directed by Gareth Upton and William J Saunders it seems to have only made it out into the wild in the past year.

It was said (here) that the film took 3 years to make and 3 years to edit and its official release date was 2024 (which fits with the film clips timeline).

Although the promo poster etc. doesn’t mention him (and there’s no website for the film) – I am 99% sure that Jimmy features in it. He certainly recorded a clip for it (around December 2018 22nd or 23rd) and it’s been used on the BWGS Film Instagram account.

If you look at the account’s top level (here) the Jimmy clip has been added 3 times, since November 2024 and some deeper digging revealed a couple of pictures of him and Ryan.

Apart from the then US based Gina Yashere he is, as usual, the only Brit.

• Jimmy video clip – here
• Ryan Reiss account photo, with Jimmy, at the Comedy Cellar, NYC 2015 06 12 – here
• Ryan Reiss photo with Jimmy 2018 12 23 – here

Note that when he talks about “his 2^nd job as a warm-up” he’s referring to being a UK TV show warm-up, when explaining that he didn’t have 3 hours of material and didn’t want to go back on.

This is because (for anyone that doesn’t know) warm-ups have to be there for the duration of a show’s taping and, any time that filming stops, has to keep going back out to keep the crowd entertained and energy up.

For all posts relating to Jimmy being a warm-up man – see here.

Image dates / Jimmy in the US

The dates on the Reiss images, above, fit in with Jimmy’s US tour trips, for those 2 years.

June 2015 he was in New York and had been in the Comedy Cellar with Gina Yashere on the 10th (here). Between the 10^th and 12^th he’d been spotted at The Cellar, Gotham and Village Underground as a part of his Funny Business Tour.

December 2018 he was on his Best of Ultimate Gold Greatest Hits tour and arrived in New York on the 20^th to film The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon (here).

Who Is In The Documentary?

Looking at Ryan’s Instagram posts (here) there are pictures with the people that he’s been interviewing, since 2018 (or earlier, by the look of things).

Without seeing the film I can’t say if all of the clips made the cut – but I would assume so.

• Jimmy Carr
• Neal Brennan
• Craig Ferguson
• Judd Apatow
• John Oliver
• Amy Schumer
• Gina Yashere
• Donnell Rawlings
• Phil Rosenthal
• Jim Gaffigan
• Leslie Jones
• Fluffy
• Jeff Ross
• Nikki Glaser
• Pete Holmes
• Ronny Chieng
• Anthony Jeselnik
• Bob Saget
• Seth Myers
• Colin Quinn
• Brad Garrett
• Colin Jost
• Amber Ruffin
• Tom Papa
• Nate Bargatze
• Dave Attell
• Brad Garrett
• Ramy Youssef
• Howie Mandel
• Hasan Minhaj
• Jimmy Kimmel
• Ray Romano
• Sam Morril
• Roy Wood Jr