Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Jerry Seinfeld

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

Neal Brennan interviews Jerry Seinfeld ('Unfrosted' on Netflix, 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,' 'Bee Movie,' 'Seinfeld') about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- Watch 'Unfrosted' on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81481606 Shoutout to Andrew Schulz for use of the studio 😘 -------------------------- 00:00 Intro 00:37 Unfrosted 4:08 Growing up in the 50s and 60s 10:55 Starting comedy 19:39 Sponsor: BetterHelp 21:09 Sponsor: BlueChew 23:02 Standup & the 100M Dash 25:29 Finding Out Who You’re Not 27:04 Components of Standup 31:04 Meditation / Spirituality 35:47 Success in the early 90s 38:47 Relationship with Larry David  48:29 Popularity of ‘Seinfeld’ 53:50 Sponsor: Manscaped 55:27 Sponsor: The Perfect Jean 57:36 Working on ‘Seinfeld’ 59:30 Marriage & Kids 1:05:28 Surprises of being a Parent 1:09:33 Life after ‘Seinfeld’ 1:11:18 Editing Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee 1:14:28 Generosity and Curiosity 1:17:50 Looking back on Career 1:22:08 Spiritual Lessons / Appreciating Himself  ---------------------------------------------------------- Follow Neal Brennan: https://www.instagram.com/nealbrennan https://twitter.com/nealbrennan https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan Watch Neal Brennan: Crazy Good on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81728557 Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle ---------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors: https://www.BetterHelp.com/NEAL for 10% off your first month https://www.BlueChew.com promo code: NEAL to try BlueChew FREE https://www.Manscaped.com promo code: NEAL for 20% off plus free shipping https://www.theperfectjean.nyc/NEAL15 for 15% off plus free shipping Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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To get started, just open the app it's as easy as that see the pc optimum app for details hello everyone it's me neil brennan uh this is the blocks podcast i'd like to thank andrew schultz for letting us use his studio my guest today is a good buddy of mine a guy i have admired for 40 years and more give or take. He was on Seinfeld and he did Comedians in Cars getting coffee and he's got a new Netflix film called Unfrosted

that I saw last night and it's very funny and his name is Jerry Seinfeld. Hello. Yes. Hey, kids. Great to see you. Good to see you. Thank you for coming. Tell me about the Hey, kids. Great to see you. Good to see you.

Thank you for coming. Tell me about the movie, please. I saw it last night. Everyone in it is funny. Yeah. Did it feel like I got mouths to feed? Like I got people coming. Get some jokes ready for Bill Burr.

What are you guys, five years old? Little John John draws better than that. And I think there's something wrong with him. Or get some jokes ready for Schumer. Or feel like servicing. Little John John draws better than that. And I think there's something wrong with him. Or get some jokes ready for Schumer. Or feel like servicing. A lot of times when you have really funny people, like I was fortunate enough to have,

they will think of stuff as you're playing. And you use a lot. I use tons of it. I mean, why wouldn't you? Kyle Dunn doing walter cronkite's drinking problem yes and domestic difficulties we did not have that in the script yeah that was him yes bill burr uh i assume jackie's still out buying hats yep you know that was not in the script i mean cedric i could tell you guys had fun editing cedric yeah screaming kellogg's repeatedly niacin was my favorite uh yeah yeah he was an award for best use of niacin

so goddamn funny cedric the entertainer um and how did you enjoy the process it was it any different than anything else you've done yeah totally different from everything else i've done oh good tell me in terms of the it was uh everything you and i hate which is an unwieldy over uh bloated uh undertaking when we're used to just all i want to do is stand on this surfboard and and get down this wave and and and do my thing that's what i like to do that's what you like to do yes i was saying how invisible the crew was on comedians and cars yeah there was no it's just lipstick cameras in a car perfect right and you don't have to worry about where they're gonna park bathrooms food yeah a crew of 100 people and then it's like not even necessarily better than it's just different do you know what i mean

the jokes aren't a hundred times funnier because there's a hundred people contributing oh that's right right in fact it's usually an inverse ratio the more help you get the less funny it will be divided by a hundred yeah right because it's so inconvenient yeah and um you know funny is just uh you're trying to catch a butterfly when you have a lot of of weight, you don't catch a butterfly with a tank. Correct. So when you have a big studio and you have a big budget and you have big stars, you can easily fumble the ball. It's very easy. I want to get into this more in a bit, but how are you as a leader? I don't really like it, but I think I'm pretty good at it because I like to make people comfortable.

I never lose my temper. I always know what's going on. I don't need to be treated special. I don't get off on the power or the position. It doesn't interest me. Yeah. You just want to work together. Let's just try and find this.

Let's just try and find it here. The two of us in the scene, same thing we're doing now. Yeah. Let's just try and find it. All right. Let's go back to the beginning. So watch unfrosted on Netflix.

It's fucking hilarious. Thank you. You're born in 50. Okay. Do you feel like you're not a child of the fifties? Do you consider yourself a child of the 50s? Well, I was a little kid in the 50s. I was six.

Was there like a hangover in the 60s of the 50s? Do you know what I mean? Like, did it still kind of feel like that? In those days, son, when you change decades, it was like curtain down, curtain up, act two. This is going to be a different move so 1960 the same with from 69 to 70 same 79 to 80 i will say there is something 50s ish about your something about you's 50s ish would you agree with that a little bit yeah and yeah did you find your like childhood kind of were you frustrated were? Were you happy? Were you?

I was very happy, yeah, because there were toys. Great. There was bikes. There was football and baseball to play with my friends. Yeah. And there was TV. There was TV. TV was, I mean, I literally hugged it when it came into my house you remember when it

came yeah and i remember when uh my parents got a new tv and i said could i have the old one in my room uh when i was probably 10 or 11 and that was and then it was just six seven eight hours a day and they didn't put they didn't regulate it at all no month for a couple years my mother got scared of it because she the the face that you have when you're watching tv is scary looking you know you look zombified and you are yeah and i had no idea of course that learning. Yeah. I was learning structures of words and syntax and comedic looks and takes and storing all of that. But you're basically happy. You love TV. Yeah. You love entertainment.

I love my bike. I love my friends, even though I never had a lot of friends, because I couldn't deal with the male energy of group of guys. Fascinating. Tell me what you mean by that. Well, let's say we didn't know each other. Okay. Never met. We walk into a party. There's a hundred people there. You're going to spot me in two seconds. Total stranger. You see the eyes eyes you see the shape of the face you go that guy's got something going on that's who i want to talk to yeah so that was my childhood i would spear off weird little kids that felt uh dissociate disassociated as i did and get in the stuff you know talk jokes.

And, and it literally was jokes at that point. Or was it just like, did you see Phil Silver? I made a, I made a short film with my friend, Jimmy Tenney in third grade. We made a secret agent movie.

That was a comedy. Great. And then when we heard get smart, it was coming out. They stole our idea. We lost. So you knew what you liked. you found this thing you like which is we'll call it entertainment for black but our word comedy showbiz television and are there bits

bits is what i liked beautiful yeah were there talk shows then yes but i didn't watch them you're watching i was watching ed sullivan That's where I started to see stand-ups. I'm trying to figure out what that was. And did you go that? Or was it like, huh? Or was it like the... Well, they were like astronauts to me. I didn't know that was an act.

I didn't know any of that was thought of prior to them walking out. Yeah. I was stunned by it. And I thought, you know, it's like a baseball player yeah i would love to be on the mets but i i can't do that yeah no but nobody can do that okay so then your high school college and then what do you think is gonna happen and then uh i think i'm gonna write amusing an amusing column for car and driver magazine that's my dream so you liked cars by now yeah cars very young yeah did you have one no no we're talking 15 14 15 and you thought i'll write for

car and driver i'll write an amusing perspective on cars for car and driver that's something i could do or i'll write these vw ads that are very clever and funny. But you were only interested in marketing for cars. Yeah. You were going to write ads, but cars only. Well, good advertising really captured me because of the brevity. Yeah. You need one great idea and six words to make it hit.

Yeah. Which is the same as a joke. So you weren't even, it's like a lot of comedians, like I was trying to escape something. It almost feels like you were trying to escape like the mundane parts of life. And you just wanted like a more heightened, like what is that car?

What is that? I mean, I envied the adults for their driver's licenses and their not having to go to school. so i envied them a lot to a lot to envy but uh i really liked how much fun we had as kids in terms of laughing and acting out really in a infantile which i nothing has changed you said 70 there is no change in how infantile my humor is with my friends there are 20 jokes in the movie that i was like that's a very silly joke and it's like not a jerry seinfeld joke and i was like no but there's more it's a bigger tent yeah then like you like a lots of you like lots of different kinds of jokes i do i do you said

something interesting in an interview a long time ago that i read where you said when i was in high school everyone was funny right and then they all stopped and i just kept going and which is exactly how i feel yeah they went off and got jobs yeah and stopped fooling around and i just didn't want where did you go well i, I went to college. Once I got to Queens College, the city kids that I knew got to be friendly with there, we heard about Andy Kaufman. That was the first thing we heard about. There's a guy in the city who gets up on stage, plays the bongos,

and then starts crying uncontrollably as he's playing. As a bit. And you just go, well, that's so fucking funny. We've got to see this guy. We went to the city to see that guy. Where'd you go? The Improv. Incredible.

Wait in line, tickets, just a comedy customer. Right. That night, do you go, no. How long does it take? It took until i read ladies and gentlemen lenny bruce did he write that somebody else wrote it i was written by albert goldman oh right so now i'm gonna go we're gonna go back now about 18 19 i started going to those clubs about 21 or so okay so 18 or 19 i'm reading reading Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce, which is this thick.

Did you ever read it? No. It's great. It's his daily life. It's all the drugs and the prison and all the crap. But I had no interest in any of that. There was one line in there where he would call his mother,

Sally Marr, after every show he would do and one night he calls her in the book and he says to her i did a new bit tonight when i heard that the it was like oppenheimer i did a new bit tonight. You mean the other stuff? You know what you're doing? It's all figured out? Yeah. Oh, that I think I could do. Did you have any bits?

I didn't know these guys weren't ad-libbing the entire set. Yeah. I didn't know that. I thought that's how funny they are. Did you have any conversational bits at that point? Meaning things you'd said and you were like, that's a consistent earner, that line. Are you kidding?

How many? I had an entire Vegas act. Just based on... How many? Yeah. 30 different bits I would do? This is what I would like to say because i was i was uh somebody when when i did comedians and cars somebody said something about they're like it seems like a lot of jerry writes a lot of his stuff ahead of time and i was like

first of all what are you talking about and secondly you're 70 you have you've thought of a lot of different things yes over a long period of time and you've filed them away and sometimes you take them out you've told me bits that didn't quite work that aren't legitimately funny millions they just didn't really they didn't hit for whatever year they didn't not even didn't hit they just weren't as good as the other stuff in your act yeah so what's this sort of inciting incident that you finally go all right so they write bits and then went and then you see andy coffin and then you go all right and then i see them doing the same stuff night after night although i i was kind of on to it then because of another book called the last laugh by phil burger which was the

first book ever written about stand-up comedy about 73 or 4 okay and that's when robert klein came on the scene in new york and completely took over new york and explain the what he did to people that don't remember exactly that that was different than other people i mean you have to you have to know the the kind of context yeah you know that comics stand-up comics were very straight-laced in terms of uh they were very uh you know it was a lot of it was very jokey i mean carlin had come along um didn't see a lot of prior stand-up you'd see him on variety shows right a little bit on ed sullivan i don't really remember i've seen him since but uh but klein came along and he had an aggress a new york aggressiveness and intellect

that he did not spare he did not think um this is too smart for the yeah i'm working too smart he never thinks and uh his second special robert klein revisited which i watched the other day still has the greatest footwork i have ever seen on stage of a comedian he pirouettes and dances and moves around that stage so smoothly and sharply but always i like guys who attack the audience somewhat jay leno in the 80s he got up on that stage and and it was like he was like a bully there was something like sadistic about it yes how hard he would kill i loved it yeah i loved it so you you just you love bits you love messing around you don't want to get a real job you want to and you're like let me get into that right

neil in this in the 70s this is the tragic turn of american culture uh-huh uh and this was explained to me by mario joyner who cracked this puzzle that I could not figure out. What the hell happened that money became everything? What happened? Because it was not in the 70s. In the 70s, it's how cool is your job? How cool is it what you're doing? If your job's cooler than my job, beat me and then and no one said how much

you making oh you're doing okay you're making yeah making some you're making as long as you could live who cares and mario joiner explained this to me he said the 80s was the first time that young guys could make a lot of money fast yeah never existed before rich guys were aristotle onassis andrew carnegie shipping iron yeah you know you could not even oil you could iron something more obscure than oil yeah you couldn't make a lot of money fast in those days yeah and some of those guys could edison ford you know yeah all sudden, everybody, all sharp guys in the 80s could make a ton. And some dull guys. A lot of dull guys.

A lot of dull guys, yeah. Like anyone could make a lot of money. And it has poisoned our culture to this day. It's poison. Okay. I had a bunch of people. I had a bunch of kids around the table last night. And I said to them, some of them are just starting to work.

I said, if your work is unfulfilling, the money will be too. Yeah. kids around the table last night and i said to them some of them are starting to work i said if your work is unfulfilling the money will be too yeah you one time said if you if you get good at comedy you'll get the money just get good at it oh yeah like just get good at it and then you won't even think about it again it's true of most things but it's not even the money it's the value of expertise right the value of expertise is so far beyond anything in my view yeah i would agree and the thing i want to talk about with you is is that so then you start doing stand-up you do it and you have 30 you have 30 bits from conversations you had the left-handed no i had no those were just school bits okay so then i had to start writing i started writing okay how long do you write for before you did

your first show not long maybe a month okay how much time you did five okay and it went well yeah great then you you were sort of not the not like a a big deal at the comic strip but you sort of rose quickly yeah rose quickly rose quickly because i because i i i loved it and uh i'm going to give you maybe the one of the greatest lines about comedy chris rock who i was talking to the other night and we kind of cooked this up together. He was talking to me about a young comic. He was trying to give advice and he was telling him, you make money during the day in comedy. What did you do today? And I said, yeah, we collect it at night, but we make it during the day. When I got the opportunity from NBC to write a series, to do a series with Larry David, and he and I got together,

we were ready to work. We knew what working was. We knew what writing was. From walking around and thinking? No, no, from writing. From real writing. He had written a screenplay, Prognosis Negative,

and I wrote all my comedy. I wrote it. Because I like writing. On pen, on paper. Yeah, I like it my comedy. I wrote it because I like writing. On pen, on paper. Yeah, I like it. That's the daytime work you're talking about. Yeah. Just using your head about what am I

doing? What do I want to do? What should I do? Maybe this bit would be better with that bit. Yeah, thinking about it. Ruminating, obsessing. I got to cut it and connect it with that. I'm ruminating this is not working i gotta cut it yeah and connect it with that you know i i'm ruminating and obsessing about material yeah that's to me is the job well i realized i watched it happen you know i watched guys go up and go down yeah rash because they didn't have

enough material yeah which no one has by the way enough material right no one has ever had enough material no one has ever had and they never will and they never will you mark our words yeah this show is sponsored by better help guys you know how this whole podcast is based around the idea of mental health and feeling better and feeling different and changing and hoping and helping and trying and growing? Me neither. Look, you ever have stuff that you just got to talk about? Like you want to say to your friend, your partner, your girlfriend, your husband, your what, whoever, just a friend. We all carry around different stressors, big and small.

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bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the podcast. Okay, so what were your weak areas when you started doing stand-up? I actually did well pretty early. I mean, I was 26 when I got on The Tonight Show. I was an open mic-er at 22. Yeah, that's pretty quick. So that's pretty quick. I did not do anything else is probably why I did well. I still really don't do anything else. I did this because of COVID.

The movie, I did the movie because of COVID. Yeah. Because I couldn't perform. Yeah. And hop on a Zoom. Hop on a Zoom, right. And we wrote the script. Yeah. Because it couldn't perform. Yeah. And hop on a Zoom. Hop on a Zoom. Right. And we wrote the script. Yeah. Mess around. And Netflix said we want to make it. And then that's how it got made.

Great. But you like the embryonic. You like the genesis. I'm just interested in you. Because the thing that I don't know if you've ever talked about publicly or talked about it much is you love track and field. You love the 100 meter dash yes uh he's jerry has waxed poetic to me about the 100 meter dash explain to people the appeal of

the 100 meter dash because when i think about you i think about your love of that and kind of how that relates to stand-up in terms of you don't seem overly competitive, but there's something about excellence that you are obsessed with or animated by. Well, to answer your 100-meter dash question in three words, how does it relate to stand-up? Yeah. Can't fake it and it's now right go

go that's the thing and it's scary the lining up explain to people just the majesty of the 100 meters to you because I've sent you short films about it there's something about it yeah and and like

you just there's something about it that really moves you because you're breaking it the same thing you're breaking a human being down to nothing you've got nothing to help you here we're going to shoot this gun and you got to get there before everybody else stand up is eight o'clock we've got 5 000 people and we want you got to destroy them for an hour and and you got nothing in your pocket your pockets are empty okay you've also described stand up as a journey of finding out who you are. Who you're not. Okay. Even better.

Explain that. You're not building something. You're taking things away. Sculpting. Writing-wise? No. When a sculptor removes the stone, and the sculpture is what's left.

That's what a stand-up is. I was just talking to somebody trying to explain to them why comedians hate Halloween. We hate it. The last thing that's fun to us is to be somebody else. Yeah, as hard as we've worked. Yeah, it's so annoying. I don't like being anybody. I don't want to pretend

yeah to be dracula i don't i don't envy or admire it's also yeah it's way worse yeah than being jerry seinfeld or whomever yeah what did you like i'd rather be neil brennan when i was 11 but uh so what did you break down that's what i'm that what have you what did you take away that's what i'm curious about it's like because you you've got in even meditation what are you you're trying to clear your mind or at least no no no meditation is just rest okay it's deep rest and stress removal okay stay here's here's here's what a great stand-up is. Here is the music of stand-up. Here's why, when it hits you, why it hits you,

and what the components are. The components are the idea, the face, the voice, the body. When all four of those things are perfectly in sync, bam, you get Bernie Mac. I'm going to bust his head to the white meat. I'll slap all over. And it's just so damn funny. So everything fits together.

Like any good piece of music. When you see these people do music you know a combo i was i started to watch whiplash again yesterday i just love whiplash the the visual storytelling in that movie is so damn good yeah the little pieces but when you watch him trying to put the studio band together but fletcher played played by J.K. Simmons. A little trouble there. Let's pick it up at 17. Everybody's got to come together.

That's what makes the piece. Same thing with the stand-up. When the idea you're projecting, I think this about this, I really think this, my voice matches, the tone of my voice matches, the look on my face matches and my physical body matches this idea agreed that is a right hand a mike tyson right hand couldn't agree more

i always say that your natural your comedy voice is a clarinet you in particular alan's a flute dave is bugs bunny chris is a chainsaw like really like it's a you cut through yeah yeah and i what i wonder is is there anything conscious deliberate unconscious are you a face practicer are you just just from performing it comes from performing and do you go into it, I want to try something new in this area? Or is it a feel within the spirit of the joke? Yes, you got to feel what is the idea I'm trying to get across? And then how do I embody that?

Like I've been struggling for over a year on this bit about how I don't like poker. I try I have tried and tried and tried I don't care that your hand is better than mine. We shuffle the cards. They're all different. All the hands

are different. So there's a tone there that I'm trying to find so that they get right away how I see poker as this idiotic game of, yeah, we all have different cards and these are better than these. So what? What? What does that mean? Yeah.

Why would I care about that? Every, well, you know, every hand is going to be different. And this time I got the better hand right it says nothing about me right i in no way i still understand that poke there isn't there isn't a quite a bit of skill involved in poker but if you never get good at it it feels dumb to do it yes i'm with you and that's the idea of that joke but so like this line about i try i just don't care you know yeah so then you're talking about a sound you're looking for a sound in your voice you do that sound incredible that that's like but like yeah musically yeah uh you can i can see it. Right. And I'm assuming you could also see it in 1976, 77.

Okay, how do you figure out what your good moves are? Just trial and error? Yeah. What else is there? You can't plan it. Yeah. You can't figure it out when you're not on stage. You just, you do sets.

Just keep doing your sets. And the audience makes the set the audience decides what the set's going to be and what is valuable about you so meditation uh any of that stuff spiritual pursuits because you got into meditation in the 70s right and as just like uh were you trying different modalities of like how to deal with your, do you consider yourself, when you go, do you go negative on yourself? Oh, sure. What's the tone? Well, why are you even doing this?

You ever hear this on stage while you're performing? Why are you doing this? You shouldn't even be on stage. You should just be a writer. You're obviously just a writer who is performing these things and the audience can see right through it you think that well the negative voice right so that's your negative voice you're trying to predict mine no we all have it yeah all have it even the great jerry seinfeld here's a voice

you're not a comedian you're a comedian. You're a writer. Yeah, you're a writer who's faking being a comedian. Does it say you should specifically write for Dave Chappelle? No, it doesn't. Huh. And has it gotten better? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, we don't lose it. It never dies. But we uh de-emphasize it we can recognize it we can even play with it but but just to get back i just wanted to comment on the meditation and the other spiritual things comes from the same kind of instinct of comedy of well what's what is really going on here you know what i mean whenever you make fun of something you're the great orgasm uber bit that you do trying to make a woman have an orgasm is like ordering an uber right because you open the app and you hit the button and you go all right it's coming in seven minutes. And then a couple minutes

pass, you're like, oh, great, it's coming in two minutes. All right, I can see the little car. That's good. And then some more time passes and you're like, it's coming in five minutes. Why is that car spinning around like that? Wait a minute. Ride canceled. I hope this doesn't affect my rating. Okay. So what is really going on here with this orgasm?

Why is it five minutes or eight minutes? Yeah. What's going on? Yeah. That's where that bit begins. Yes. And then you find this wonderful analogy and you work it all out but this is what philosophy is this is what uh whatever your spiritual explorations are life itself is there's got to be some uh better explanation for

what's going on than what i could just see. That's what gets you interested in philosophy. Right. Let's say meditation, let's say spirituality, whatever you want to call it. You pursued it though, right? You were like, this is something I need. I need this in my life. No, I wouldn't say that.

I was just very curious. I'm still a very curious person. You're lucky if you're blessed with that, that I was just very curious I'm still a very curious person yeah which that's just so you're lucky if you're blessed with that that you're just curious you start I want to know more about podcasting I would never do it say that now no I won't do it fine no it's great for you

guys I did it yeah no I know you did a podcast you did comedians cars podcast like it's not really no i mean i did enough i put enough out there they know who i am yeah you got the people are pretty clear on what's happening yeah now do you okay so the spiritual stuff and it's just born out of curiosity and then you try you pursue it and you go oh this is better this is it's easier to be me if i meditate it's not spiritual okay it is for some yeah it is for some it is for some that's what i'm saying like so for you it's just

more like brain maintenance tm yeah tm transcendental meditation is a westernized version of uh you know hindu or indian meditation is that and you do TM? Yeah, I do TM. Yeah. Got it. It's very Western. Okay. It's like Barry's bootcamp. It's like just some very Western idea of how to do something. Okay. And you see it as just good mental health,

like maintenance, upkeep? More than mental, physical. I'm tired. I'm working. I'm tired. I got to do a show. I need a quick deep rest and i can't do on my own i can't just lie down and fall asleep i need a way to rest this is how you rest

great okay so you're doing well at stand-up you're 80 81 82 83 you're if not the biggest one of the biggest comedians in the country is how do you how do you like your life uh it's pretty good it's really good it's great except i'm living in la okay when you lived in la in the 80s or today you see all these people doing movies and tv shows and you go well how do you get into that what's that i wonder if i would be useful in that i wonder if i could do that is it a is it a curiosity thing is it a status thing does it seem like they're doing better they're cooler they're rich or any of that stuff i don't know i mean that's why you moved to la every comic moved to la to be in movies and television yeah but that's the next step people see you your career

gets bigger i don't i don't even i really didn't even want to do it to be honest with you a sitcom anything anything you just like being a comedian i love being a stand-up comic i still do yeah it's the best it's the best you were a trailblazer i mean all you guys late 70s early 80s you're opening for music all the time who did you normally open for you name it you name it frankie valley in the four seasons or uh donna some like lionel richie donna summer any anybody and that everybody needs 20 minutes when the audience is coming in would you call that hostile territory to do stand-up yeah i love that sport that's a sport opening for yeah they don't even want to see this yeah and i'm gonna make you like it anyway kenny rogers i did a tour of arena tour with kenny

rogers and i was in between the gatlin brothers yeah and kenny rogers i was in between them while they changed the instruments arenas basketball aren deep south. You once said no one wanted to see a Jew. Tell me about that. I did. Yes. Could be. Certainly, thank God that's gone. No, those days are over.

But it's also, yeah, no, and did it, what did it do, did it make you funnier, better comedian, better performance athlete nothing a little bit what made me better was uh after the tv series playing theaters on big stages and for the first time you're looking well there's like 40 feet on either side of me i gotta do something with that i can't just stand here like I did at the improv. And that, that started a big new period of growth in,

in the, in the early nineties. Eighties was all comedy club. Just stand at the mic. And you just, and just do the hour. Nineties. Now you're in a theater.

Yep. They're paying a lot more money. There's no drinks. There's no food. They're looking at you. They're looking at you and you're on a lot more money yeah there's no drinks there's no food they're looking at you they're looking at you and you're on a big stage yeah and you want to use it you got it you have to use it yeah you need to use it it makes a better show yeah agreed okay so your manager hooks it up with nbc you should jerry's done the tonight show 15 times maybe give him a sitcom right that's this sort of narrative that's right and uh you

get a deal to do a pilot and you what's your relationship with larry david at this point we weren't hangout friends we were in the bar at catch a rising star friends uh whenever he was there and i was there we would always have a chat it was instantly hilarious every single time and i thought i would like to do a show that sounds like that that sounds like me and larry talking anecdotally you went on vacation this summer on a boat right with larry david yes and chris rock amy schumer judd apatow right judd told me that you and larry would talk and him and Rock would lean over to try to hear it. Because it was like,

you know, it's like even the Curb finale, a two shot of you guys is like, Yeah, it was good. Something that like, it's just real. It's just, you got it. Yeah, it's always been there there and he'd written a screenplay and he wrote four Fridays apparently right yes but he wasn't he wasn't an easy sell I'm betting

in terms of uh I wanted Jerry Seinfeld's gonna do a sitcom and he's gonna do it with no at first he wasn't it wasn't difficult it was fun when you get into doing 22 26 episodes a year then it became a much more but i'm saying like you you say i want to write it with this guy yeah and they're fine with that no they were not fine with that yeah no and and you had i said well that's what I'm doing. Well, that's what I'm interested in is this. I, this spirit in you that goes, no,

it's this guy. It's, it's, it's, I'm going to do my, I'm, I'm, I have an idea about comedy.

I'm going to do it this way. I have an idea about like comedy energy and I want to do it with this guy. And people go, no, don't do it. And you go, I don't know what to tell you right and you've always just sort of been confident in that and you'd rather you'd rather

you would have rather lost with larry than one with somebody more reputable of course no one ever faces that choice and nor did it matter to me because i just knew Dave Letterman, I have to say, gave me. I told him I'm writing this pilot for NBC. It was one of his year end Christmas parties or something. He said, just make sure you fail doing exactly what you want to do. He told me that. And that's the best advice you can give someone going in this a big scary project make sure you fail doing it exactly the way you want it because that you can live with yes that

you can live with when it's someone else's idea that kills you that's hard hard to live with yeah that's you'll be homicidal yeah yeah and so the show gets picked up it's going pretty good yeah how did you like that process because i'm curious like i watched the show and it i just think about having done a show i just think about how hard the entire thing must have been for you and larry but i would argue probably more you because you have more stuff that you have to do. Yeah, I had more stuff, but I had Larry. Right. I had Larry.

And Larry really, I don't know if he knew this stuff or he learned it as we were doing it, but he knew exactly what the hell he was doing from day one. And he was amazing at it. Particularly which stories to do, how to structure them. It took me years before I even got interested in that. I couldn't take breaking stories just made me fall asleep. I didn't like stories.

I'm sick of people talking about stories. You know, I want to tell stories. It's nauseating when people say I'm a storyteller. Oh, God. So what did you how would you guys write it? He would figure out the basic story structure. I would try to help in the early years. I was not good at it.

He was great at it. And when we got to the dialogue, that's where I was, we were good together. Together, we could churn out the dialogue really fast. So that's when it becomes the bar at the strip or catch where I start. That's right. We need a funny line to end this scene. That's where I'm good. Great.

And probably in the middle and the beginning as well. Yeah. But he was also great. No, no, yeah. I'm just saying, and I'm not even trying to discredit you, but I just think about the process for you. Work-wise, are you, so you're watching casting with him?

Yes. You're going over sets. Every rewrite. We did every rewrite together. And that's just you and him in a room. You explained the process to me one time, but I want people to hear. Like you said, we just show up, five minutes of small talk. Right.

I'm right at it. And just go. Go. You have a good weekend? Yep. Me too. Let's go. There's always a couple of funny stories.

Sure. You know. Sure. Yeah. And then you would just get into it. And we're talking about 16 hour days yeah and are you meditating during the day yes i would instead of lunch i would do my met my tm and then i would eat while i was working great which people love yeah uh it was just me and

larry oh right so yeah everybody's gonna Yeah. Take your shirt off if you want. And what do you think of Larry when you see him? Meaning, we talked. Today or then? Then and now. It's what do you think? I just think it's like your favorite dog or something. Your heart leaps, you know, because I just love him, and I think he's a genius, and he's, you know, curb your enthusiasm.

Everybody got to see this guy that I had known all that time. You see why this guy's so fantastic? He's so funny, you know. Yeah. And what people did not understand and still don't really understand and someone told me larry said it to them the other day is how our two brains melded together seamlessly people think that oh he's the kind of darker more cynical one i'm the sunnier with it maybe that's true but we're actually but i think but i also think you're darker than people think and he's lighter than

people that's correct like well you're that's that's the brennan eyeball thank you yeah that's the brand that very few people have of course yes of course thank you only once it's a yeah it's a it's a it's an heirloom larry used to say, it was always making me funny, that I don't get enough credit for it as misanthropic as I am. He said, I don't get enough credit for it. You're way darker than people would think. Yeah. Okay, so this show's incredibly hard.

You'd get picked up for 20 episodes, and then he would hate it, right? Well, it was inhuman.'s no it's an iron man it's like you're running an iron man every day pretty much we would write 60 pages in three days yeah and it's all killer stuff yeah and then once you do that once that's the standard now we gotta do it again next week yeah no i one one time asked a friend of mine who was like a religious, my friend Bajan, a religious Seinfeld viewer, I would go, how many episodes were good? And he was like, kind of all of them.

Well, that's the right answer. The truth is he said 85%. I just was flattering you. Thank you. It's called show business as well. I appreciate that. Have a seat seat i'll take it um but uh he leaves the show right and then what do you think when he leaves the show in terms

of is it a bit of like a fuck all right this is just got harder it's gonna be different um i knew it wasn't the right time for the show to end and i thought well i'll have to learn some stuff here that i i'll have to i'll have to evolve and what do you what do you remember the big evolution points for you in that regard i really had to know which stories were doing and which stories were not doing um whereas usually larry would take care of that like which ones are worth doing yes and writers are pitching you stories all the time yeah what about this what about this what about this and together it was so easy for us yeah uh to pick the winners yeah the same way if you look at the bench of that show,

the actors that would come in occasionally, when Patrick Warburton walks in, we don't know what this guy is doing, but he's on the show. When Wayne Knight comes in, he's going to be on this show. Yeah, a bunch. Nobody slipped through our fingers.

Nobody. Because we're both stand-ups you you see it a mile away that guy's funny i don't know why i don't even know what he's doing yeah no you absolutely right but you just know it definition of pornography you know it when you see it correct okay so the popularity of it and i don't mean like the trappings and the money and stuff when it was uh the the level popularity it got to and it still is did it feel how much validation did you get from it did you feel like i'm i'm doing something i'm like in the pocket, but you got to understand I'm not I'm not dumb enough to think this is me. I did get caught in a beautiful cyclonic weather event. Jason, Michael, Julia, Larry, 13 phenomenal

comedy writers. And this thing is gaining steam and everyone on both sides of the camera is a killer. That's a cyclonic comedic event. And I've talked to Paul McCartney, excuse the name drop about it. When you're in one of these things, you know you're in it. But you also know if you're smart, it's not you. It's not all you. You're part of it, but you also know if you're smart, it's not you. It's not all you. You're part of it, but it's not all you. And you were, that was an easy calculation for you to understand.

I have never had, uh, I have a lot of confidence, but I'm not in the ego fame business. I don't, uh, please excuse this horrible expression. I don't get off on it. I get off on, that was a really nice piece of work that we executed well and the audience loved it. That's nice. I'm really glad that happened. Yeah.

And I somewhat separate from it. I don't, if they don't, if I had a rough set, i don't if they don't if i had a rough set i didn't think they don't like me i just think that was poorly done work i have to do a better quality work and you're you're into the craftsmanship yeah craft and the craftsmanship and the and every once in a while a little inspiration will take you beyond that meaning the show or episode enough at five episodes in a season that are like wow yeah and then you're just hanging on to a bull in a rodeo and trying not to try not to get fucked off yeah or fuck the bull just say the wrong thing to the bowl right and is that is there

it's like the is art is it spiritual do you does it do you do you look any deeper into it other than i'm just obeying this i'm oh i'm following this muse or following this thing this tone i hear in my head is there are there better ways to sort of think about it or feel your way through it than others? The best way to think about it is again, I'll, I'll go back to a really great standup set. You just go, Ooh, I caught this wave. Just right. Just make sure to stay on the board, concentrate, stay on the board. stay on the board don't listen to anything else and just focus run your plan yeah stay on the board so whether it's nine years of working on the series or a great stand-up special like you just did you know when you're in it i'm on the

board and this is working and i'm just going to stay there. So it's more about just clearing distraction as best you can. No one can completely, but look at, look at what's working, stay with what's working and enjoy that. The energy has just picked you up. Yeah. It's an energy that picks you up,

right? The audience is 3000 times you up, right? The audience is 3,000 times your size. They're picking you up and tossing you through it. Yeah. That's what it's about. The energy, the moment of energy, it's what it's about for you. It's what it's about for them.

It's why the live show is is the ultimate for everyone that's when you really feel it you know people are going to these shows because they need they need to get out of their life they need a break you don't get it you know you get it somewhat on tv you know but the people that are in your crowd yeah they really, you know, they get a break in their life. Yeah, they get transported out of their life. Right. So there are moments, you know, I mean, a lot of comedians have had them. When you're getting to them well enough, I've heard people, they just yell out, I love you.

Because you have removed their consciousness in a way that is difficult. And when you do that for people, it's a great, it's a nice thing. It feels great. It feels as good as it. You sweat to do that. Yeah. Because you get it too. Yeah.

You're feeling it too. Yeah. My favorite is after Eddie Murphy does the barbecue. Yeah. Someone yells out, do it again. Do the shit again. Literally, it's in the show. Someone yells out, do it again.

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You said something to me one time about the life When you're doing the show And the What it does to your life Sort of all consuming And you just thought Let me take this period of my life To do it

And I'll be set You're talking about the series now Yeah the series yeah Well I knew it would establish me In a way that i could kind of do whatever i wanted after that or nothing you knew it was like no i'm just paying a cost right now lifestyle hours yeah uh and by the way not it's you're gonna be consumed with it anyway so right and it's uh 52 week two 52 weeks a year job 52 No, not 52 weeks. It was nine months a year, I would say.

And then you can take time off and kind of not think about it? Or was it always kind of in the back of your head percolating? Yeah, yeah. Plots. But you would rest. You would, I mean, you know, that comics are not built to go into an office

and work all day. I know. We're not, we don't know how to do that yeah no but that's that's what i had to learn how to do it's like being and larry was amazing larry is the most disciplined worker the most disciplined more and he he more than you more than me more than me he go in on saturday and i go do you need me today he goes no i'm just gonna play with this myself you can come in tomorrow you know what a gift yeah i mean what a for you like to know and then you get a script a popping hot larry david draft well he wouldn't write a draft he

wouldn't he would just he would come up with an outline and we would write the draft we always wrote everything line by line together great okay finish the show now you're on the street regular guy now you do you make the consciousness that you we've talked about you were 46 47 when the show ended right you're curious about family kids you're sort of gen generally curious a thing you think you might do might not do could take it or leave it where are you with that at that point you know comedians like a lot of people sadly don't think they're aging they you've aged real nice thank you fyi thank you very much i'm 70 i know so even in my mid-40s i thought i'm a young single guy you know i didn't think anything was i really didn't realize this is an unconscious quality that comedians also have right yeah but you go oh wait what yes

exactly i'm i'm like this i'm my spirit i'm not like this body. Right. Life is a kind of, it's a diorama, isn't it? It's a scene in a box, a glass box. Yeah. The real life that people live. When we're not doing comedy, everything else that you're doing, relationships and going out with people all that stuff it's all just i'm not really part of this yeah it's split consciousness and it's like

70 comedy and 30 like what do you need me to do exactly what do i have to where do i what fork do i use but it's not necessarily the fork but it when you get on stage, you pull the canopy down on the fighter. You light up the jets. Now I'm locked in. Now I know what I'm doing. Now I'm connected to something. Right? Everything else is some form of disconnect.

Yes. Yes. This is what the Blocks podcast is about correct getting to that how did it so i'm 46 years old and um i meet this wonderful amazing girl i never met anybody like it we have a great time together just as a very clear personality very clear personality extremely bright funny extremely attractive and i just thought oh this is another life i could lead i could lead a life with her i could i could visit another planet which i don't think i'm qualified not your home planet not my home planet and not a planet I think I'm meant to be on.

I have comedian friends. I've seen them attempt. You know, we're not cut out for it. I say we look like a grizzly bear riding a tricycle. That's right. Perfect. We can do it. You could teach one to do it. Yeah, the unicycle.

Yeah, I can do it, but I don't know what I'm even doing. I'm just being told this is how you do it the unicycle yeah yeah i can do it but i don't know what i'm even doing right i'm just being told this is how you do it right and then you find out that's just being a guy but anyway uh so because i met her um i i decided uh um i'm open to this. And I am going to have to become a different guy, but she's worth it. Great. Yeah. And then you start having kids. Right.

Can you tell the Warren Beatty anecdote? Sure. It's heartbreaking, though. You sure? Yeah. If it's the one I think it is. It is the one you think it is. Warren Beatty, one of the biggest movie stars

of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He was very friendly. Him and Gary Shandling struck up a friendship. It is the one you think it is. Warren Beatty, one of the biggest movie stars of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Just to have proof of context. He was very friendly. Him and Gary Shandling struck up a friendship. And Gary schlepped me along a handful of nights. And he had just started having kids. In his 50s, right? I guess so.

Late 40s. Gary and I, of course, had no idea what he was doing or why. Yeah. Why is this bear riding a unicycle yeah yeah and we would kind of uh question him about it you know what is what's it like you know what are you doing i remember him taking me into a room in his uh mansion and it was filled with toys he goes this used to be my office and then there was just this room filled with little kid toys and you know again disconnected you you don't understand it he said and this must be his line he says one of the nice

things god does is that he doesn't let people who don't have kids know what they're missing that's the line you mean yes yeah yes and then you have them and a part of your brain opens up yeah and then a quadrant a network opens up that you didn't know was in there yeah and you go oh okay okay so there's another side to this sex thing the sex thing seems very interesting and stimulating great but they don't just do it for that. They had another, there's a second act to this play. There's a reason they made it like that. As exciting and...

And interesting as it is. Yes. This is a different, more profound, having a child is more profound and and more interesting i used to say well anything could be interesting but i used to say it's like having sex from the other side i don't even know what that means well you're you're on one side when you have sex right right on one side there's another side there's a whole other side right yes it's like the alternative world yeah i've never really heard you talk about being a parent you've told me about it but i just want you to i want other

people to hear because the way you talk about it because i've recently sort of i'm involved i have a girlfriend and she's a kid and it's like i think about you a lot because you're right about the part of your brain opening up or warren's right or whatever and it's it's a it's a unique uh tone of experience and it's great yeah what surprised you about being a parent it's nothing there's nothing that you expect so it's all a surprise well the surprise is that you didn't ever think you could do it and you find out you can how does it make you feel differently about yourself like i'm a i'm a warmer person than i thought i'm a more generous person than i thought kinder it's fun you know what's really fun i had kids over my house the other night and this uh kid comes over to me he's your youngest

son is how old he's uh 18. 18. My youngest. But this little kid comes over to me and he's six. And I have no trouble tracking up a conversation with him and engaging with him. And that is when you have kids. You know, I know every age. I know what they think. I know what they could talk about and what they can't talk about. And I like them.

I never was a kid person before. I never knew or liked a kid. My sister had a son. Of course, I had a good relationship with him. But I wasn't, you know, it's just another thing of life. It's another thing you think you can't do. Like directing this movie. Another thing you think you can't do like directing this movie yeah another thing you think you can't do and maybe you can maybe you can't that's irrelevant that's irrelevant

you can or you can't what's relevant is you dive in that's relevant yeah you yes because whatever however it comes out is worth it failure is just as worth it as success because of the experience or because of the effort or the because of the initial guts to do it because everything contains a reward of some kind it's your job to find it and you you've talked about being a parent you once said almost every interaction i have with my kids they walk out of the room and i think that's the greatest moment of my life it might have been the greatest moment of my life you think yeah just that little interaction did i say that you said that to me wow a little you let you just told me a little too much it sounds like i'm trying to sell you something

i mean you were just talking about being a dad and how how yeah great it is yeah yeah and you this is the great jerry seinfeld accomplishments all that stuff but just this interaction with your child i always talk about uh i i know this uh woman she's a psychologist and uh she heard me talking about people talk about quality time i'm in the garbage time people talk about i have you want to have garbage time with your kids when nothing's happening and it's 11 30 and one of them says, you want to have cereal? Great. They're like, do I? I'm fucking Jerry Seinfeld.

Yeah, and it's just garbage time. That's all I want to have. You're just sitting there. You're not even talking. Yeah, you're just sharing. It's nothing, but it's everything. Because you're connected, and you're just sharing the same experience.

I don't even know what it is. It's, I don't know you you want to feel like um you gotta feel like you took a shot in life you gotta feel that at the end right yeah you gotta feel that win or lose as i say not as relevant as i'm gonna take a shot yeah how did you become a comedian you didn't really think thousands of people will love hearing me talk you didn't think that i didn't think that no but you but but that that dive off the cliff that's it well it's the impulse of like i don't know i gotta do it yeah i got i don't know why i don't know why i don't know i have to do i saw this i have to go to space like those astronauts right why how come i don't know i used to say being a

comedian is like being a murderer no matter what people tell you you're probably gonna do it anyway um okay so the so the adjustment to being a civilian, uh, from being a guy, center of attention, center of production, center of, of, uh, when, when is, when are we back? You just left the show and now you're a family man and you're adjusting to civilian life. I'm in New York city. Right. We're even rich, successful guys get married and have families. That was an advantage. In LA, guys, they didn't do that. Why would I do that?

For what? For what? In New York, successful guys try and have normal lives. Yeah. I don't know if they succeed, but it's kind of a normal place. Yeah. Compared to LA. And you adjusted you once

said it took you a while to figure out how to talk to normal people still trying yeah and how's it going uh up and down okay fair enough this for all of us yeah um so then you started doing comedians cars and and i made b movie oh right you make them that took four years yeah that took four years i thought cartoons i love cartoons when i was a kid i want to make a cartoon am i wrong with the arc of b movie it wasn't like beloved when it came out and its popularity has grown yeah over time it did well not great yeah when it came out did fine and then it kind of became another thing this six-year-old was talking to me about it last night he'd seen it he'd seen it yeah familiar

with your work yeah and what did he want to know do you like jazz you like jazz okay that's the question yeah um okay so you started so you do b movie you do comedians cars the thing that that i loved about comedians cars is the that people will once you say it they'll of course that how did you edit comedians of cards so you go you film for four to six hours with people and then that long but or three hours four hours and then what's the what's the editing process like it's rough how come why is it rough yeah well first of all you got to live the same same day again yeah you got to do that three hours again and my point what i'm trying to get to is because you sit in the edit and watch every frame of it.

Yes, because I know it's funny when the guy doesn't say anything. Right. When I ask him that and he just kept chewing, that's funny. Yes. You can't ask. I had a great editor. Yeah. I had roomfuls of editors.

Yeah. But you got to find those little, it's the little comedian things. Yes. That's what I want to show people look at how weird we are yeah and and yes and what i'm saying is like you gotta do it yourself yeah it can't there's no sub there's no substitute for whatever's in here you can't you can't be taught can't't be sold, can't master. Only you know how it should be. Right. And what I'm saying is like anything good is a pain.

I think a pain is simplistic and unfair. Okay. It's unfair. Arduous, effortful, requires full effort. The more you struggle, the better you get. Yeah. Struggle is, let's say a struggle is its own reward. This is a, I don't know, maybe a Zen concept.

Yes. You know, the struggle is the point. That's where you're becoming different. In that struggle, you're becoming different. So you've got a girlfriend who has a kid now. This is a new thing. Yeah. Bit of a struggle. But you can feel yourself changing, adding, adjusting parts of yourself to do this.

That has tremendous value, just that. Even if the whole thing explodes in three weeks from now it doesn't matter yeah was that a waste no no there is no waste no did you hear yannis santa tacumpo the basketball player talk about losing oh the greatest there's no failure in sports you know there's good days bad days some days some days you are able to uh be successful some days you're not some days it's your turn some days not your turn and that's what sports about you don't always win marco jordan played 15 years won six championship the other nine years was a failure that's that's an all-time moment incredible like really incredible yeah and he got

a lot of well-deserved credit for it yeah that's who he is by the way he's like that's really who he i've dealt with the season of failure was that the question yes yeah and it was like failure what what do you thought it's he's he's great yeah he's um the thing that i that i'm not even struck by well i'm i'm struck by why when i watch comedians cars and i when i did it and knowing you is that you're a very generous person you're a generous laugher you're and you're i literally wrote down generosity and curiosity is that was that always true did success make that easier to access no no no you've always been called generosity i i just i i comedy it's Comedy, I love it.

It makes me laugh. Somebody says something funny, I can't not laugh. Even though I do do a lot of, that's funny. I do that. Curiosity, I don't know where that comes from. When I think of you, here's what I think. You did a lot of prep. That's very impressive.

When I think of you you you are a one man generator of culture a lot of culture for a long time stand-up sitcom b-movie uh the merit ref all of it the the comedians just stand up unfrosted now stream please um i feel like you you believe in optimization there's a spiritual component you want to be so optimized as a comedian as a editor editor, that there's something spiritual about it or something? Or is it just excellence for its own sake? I think the thing that I'm drawn to, if we're trying to find, is purity and quality,

which are the same thing to me. A thing that has nothing it doesn't need, no excess, no wrongness about it, that's a measure of quality. I know that word, that concept, I would say is almost a spiritual concept to me, a thing of quality. And I'm talking about a pair of sneakers, your glasses, comedy bit. Ooh, that was good. To seeking and pursuing it,

yeah, I guess there's a kind of a spiritual journey of that. Like a transformation from like a blob to this perfect optimized thing you love watches you love cars yeah you love sprinting you love like shave it down process it who's the fastest guy really yeah Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And we're going to find out. Yes. Yeah. Yep. We sure are.

Right. And there might be a false start. We're going to find out in two minutes from now. But you don't seem openly competitive. No, no, no. It's for its own sake. For its own sake. For its own sake. Like the beauty of this creation. Yes.

Is, is, and it's, it's about the process of getting there and, and also the result so that it lives as this existing thing. Right. Do you look at your work and your, your, the, you surveyed the land, the whole, the whole body work 40 years. And do worked 40 years and do you think what do you think of it do you think like there were times where or you just stay out it's almost none of your business it's almost none of my business and uh when someone likes something i'm so grateful and appreciative because i like doing it for you yeah i don't really know how it happened either

so i'm glad it worked out for both of us yeah but it's all somewhat mystical and i'm just glad that i've somehow found myself in a position to to uh enable it do you not even like to look at the the mystical elements of it mystical being like the the the the musical note or the paying like the thing that you're it's like just you know like i want the diner to look a certain way i want this car for that person i want just the way you once were proud of how quickly you took the mic out of the stand yeah are you kidding me right like the the perfection of it is it are you serving anything or you're serving you're just trying to figure out what the best way to do this thing is and it's to know it's just for the connection with the audience or

connection with the thing yeah i mean um do you ever wonder if i wonder if i planned this whole thing you know like before i even had a human body i wonder if i picked this family picked this body picked that brain i wonder what did i like one of those burger places where you have to check off the boxes of what you want on it but um growing up jewish in new york and wanting to be a comedian how lucky was that i mean those are advantages huge advantages everyone in my family was funny. Everyone in New York is funny. And being Jewish, it's a gigantic element of our culture. So I was given those things. I feel like I was just given those things. And then I wanted to be that thing. So I just felt so um privileged i feel privileged yeah i had that background i don't think it would have happened i don't know i can't imagine it happening another way i don't think i could have gotten where i got without those advantages by the time i was eight i knew how

to tell a joke right you know yeah because i listened to my relatives and they would correct you you know if you didn't do it right so they were jewish yeah right yeah so this is a tremendous uh gift of privilege of background you know my background well that's funny you say like is this what's this meant to happen or whatever when people would say that like julia and michael and jason were a different level of acting than you i always saw you as it was almost like you were in a deja vu in a scene you were like this is how i thought it was gonna be exactly what i was thinking like this is what i was hoping this scene would be like yes and then you would take the satisfaction of the scene being as good as you'd hope and then you and then jerry the character would be like i broke up with her but it was all the satisfaction right of this thing

that you and larry had imagined because the writing i really was in love with the writing yeah it and it i could it read on your face absolutely which made me laugh so hard it is funny as a writer like no this is a guy who's enjoying his own writing a little bit absolutely do you mind yeah may if he can't who will yeah yeah so as a someone who's uh experienced your life from the outside in right and uh enjoyed the product do you take a spiritual lesson from any of this stuff do you even i don't really know how you're using that word you gotta i guess i'm just thinking like no when when you said that it's like destined it feels like did i pre-order this or it's like it all goes pretty well and you're you have the ability to make the right choices consistently there's a lot of luck you know some of its luck yeah that's fine batting average what the guys say 85 850 that's a killer yeah who has an 850 batting average no yeah nobody i don't like to uh

i don't like to appreciate myself except in scenes yeah no i'm appreciating the that was well written that was well written i really appreciate yeah but even when people say i like that joke i like your joke about that i always always go, yeah, it's a good joke. And I don't say it like, aren't I great? I just say it like, no, that just occurred to me. It just came to me. We are completely the same makeup in that way. Exactly.

Yeah, I appreciate it the same way you do. I'm just saying, wow, look at that. Yeah, this is great. I get to say say it and i'll take the i'll take the money and everything but like i do think uh that's a tremendous asset as a comedian if you fall in love with how much they love you or whatever that's not so great i think that's a hindrance in show business personally you really start you're not going to get better as gary marshall used to say fame is a perfume you smell it you don't drink it great melania actually drank a bottle

of perfume as a kid if we if we remember because i used to drink too much and they said hey is this whiskey or perfume i grabbed it drank all of it and said it's perfume he was in his joke when he realized he was an alcoholic um so I was a little upset not to be included in the comedy breakdown did you even try alright I owe you an apology I wanted so bad to be in that

this is the second special in a row when I mentioned all the great comedians that were at Ted Sarandos' house Jerry texted me and said I was gutted to not be included. And then I should have said Jerry Seinfeld. Chris Rock's got nonverbal learning disability. Jim Jeffries. I should have given you the Asperger's.

I should have given you the Asperger's. That would have been great. And I gave it to Jim Jeff Jim because he was on the, on the record as having being a little on the spectrum. I am also on the record of saying it. I don't know if it's true. I know. And I totally buy it.

Would have gotten a bigger laugh. And I realized that I think it would have made the right choice with Jim Jeffries. Yeah. People knew it. If I go Jerry Simonon let's face it it's it gets it gets an applause break yeah that's the other i'm sorry i i knew i forgot something this is brilliant thank you brilliant bit yeah i i mean i'm just like yeah it just occurred to me the same way pop tarts and frosted fruit filled meat of a rectangle in the same shape as the box it comes in? And with the same nutrition

as the box it comes in? Yeah. It doesn't matter. It's your bit. Then they always have to close that first class curtain too. And they always give you that little look. Maybe if you had worked a little harder.

Well, what I want to say to you is that uh it's been a it's been great i've been glad that you're alive when i'm alive oh that's nice and uh it it means a it means like i appreciate the material i appreciate the entertainment and i appreciate personally the uh friendship and i i i and i appreciate you staying out of the way of whatever's happening in this in the in in this like you're you're just like let's i'm just gonna serve it and i don't know why right and'll just, we'll just see what happens. Right. That's right. And it's been great. Thank you. So, say goodbye to Jerry Seinfeld.

Watch Unfrosted on Netflix. Everybody wants to have it, wants to have it grand, my man All you have to do is open, open up your hand, my man I met her when she was 19 years old