Jerry Seinfeld | The Late Late Show Tom Snyder (1996)

the new york times has categorized jerry seinfeld's humor as keenly observed carefully timed contemplative humor about life's minutiae people's foibles and mankind's moments of angst he is perhaps america's favorite comedian as demonstrated by the fact that his book seinfeld langu or sign language was a bestseller and that his tv show is one of television's all-time greatest successes i know that you're tired of hearing it and i thank you for coming over here tonight and welcome to the competition at cvs i'm just so tired of hearing that thank you thank you for having me i was talking with dr frankfield the legendary broadcaster in new york television today and he said didn't seinfeld used to come to visit us at nbc at 30 rockefeller plaza and i said i don't know i will ask him did you ever hang around the television station there channel 4 that was the first thing i was going to tell you you don't remember this i would be amazed if you were when i was in college i came to nbc me and chuck scarborough and frank how could you remember that i remembered that because somebody reminded me of it when you went on to great success that was years before 1975 76 right yeah yeah wow that's amazing before you got the job at the at the bruin burger on on on 55th and third avenue that's right where you worked for a time this is scary so what did you think of tv when you came to nbc and saw it then were you just a kid in college well at the time you know you if someone had said to me you know i know a guy that could perhaps talk to someone and get you a job pulling cable i would i would have said well what do i have to do and i would have been doing that the rest of my life because i was just so excited by it so i i never thought i'd ever do anything in show business and when you're a comedian you don't think you're in show business yeah i understand what you're saying yeah but you were a kid on massive people long island as i recall yeah your dad had his a business as a as a house paid or signed painter back there sign painter yeah and was he a funny guy was there a laughter very funny yes very very funny but i was never funny around my parents uh it was just i would never want to make them laugh for somehow i felt uncomfortable doing that yeah i understand but did your dad make you laugh oh yeah what would he do was he he was a great joke teller you know you would tell him a joke and then you would hear him tell it and it was 12 minutes longer you know and much funnier yeah and as you're growing up who are your funny heroes who do you see on tv that really make you laugh you say this is something that interests me cosby cosby was really the the guy when i was growing up those albums i used to listen to those albums and was really hypnotized by by just because the cosby style was very it wasn't uh as jokey as a lot of the kids i understand it'd be more of a monologue or a story that might sometimes take him a long time to get to the punch but when he got there you knew something had happened yeah and he he had a way of deconstructing things that i really enjoyed you know it was he would take a scene and then he would take it apart you know and show you this piece and this piece and look at this piece and that was and you know it was another early influence of mine was gene shepherd i don't know if you're familiar with sure from the radio wlr radio show people of the night yeah yeah he had a way of taking the ordinary and making it very dramatic and i really sparked to that and i would say he was probably my one of my main influences and your ambitions then were to be a comedian did you always want to do something that that would be a presentation or performance did you have other ambitions well i was very i wasn't a outgoing person i didn't think i belonged on stage didn't really want to do things like that but i had all these ideas and i would write them down and i thought what do you do with this stuff you know i could write an amusing column i guess and but uh and then i heard about this guy in new york andy kaufman who was playing the bongos and crying at the improv and i thought well that sounds interesting so so we all trooped in one night and went to this dark little club and saw these people get up that were like in jeans and t-shirts and and we thought well this is this is some new thing you know that it was a new age comedy at the time you know that wasn't the way it was done it was ed sullivan and those kind of guys and so it just seemed like something i had to dive off that cliff and and see what would happen you know when you hit the water but now you said to me that you weren't really an outgoing extroverted kid yeah around my friends i was yeah but not around my parents so when i told my mother that i had decided i wanted to become a comedian she went okay you know i mean it sounds pretty funny to me i've never said anything funny around them so they really thought this was a very strange choice for me what most people don't understand and i've learned over the years from knowing people who do what you do for a living is when you go out to dinner or you're with people you don't say something funny you know you do comedy when you're doing your program or when you're doing stand-up and when you're having dinner you have dinner it's just kind of that simple well you try and say something funny if i could think of something funny if i thought of something funny right now i'd say i know that you would uh was there anything funny about working at the brew and burger on third avenue and 55th street well i was working at night as a comedian at that time so there were a few instances where i would walk over to a table and someone had just paid a five dollar cover charge at a two drink minimum to see me the night before and they go what kind of comedian are you you know i just i dropped 25 bucks on you last night and now you're slinging burgers yeah you think you're gonna get a tip what are your nuts and then for a time you sold stuff on the streets of new york i read yes i i did a lot i had about a six month period six or eight months there where i was kind of scrambling just to make the you know when i lived in new york you know you'd walk the avenues and these guys are there they're selling all these watches they knock off your seiko they knock off your psja they knock off your all these watches and i thought to myself where does all this stuff come from like did you sell jewels i sold jewelry i sold umbrellas in the rain i would stand there in a slicker by the way i invented the twirling concept of twirling the umbrella while you're standing there so people see that you're selling them you know what i i started that you probably also invented the concept that when it wasn't raining the umbrellas were a dollar and when it was raining they were ten dollars right but now the jewelry you sold where does all that jewelry come from back of a truck yeah yeah i really can't speak about it and is it real i don't know what are you kidding i don't want to put guys in there well what do you think you're going to be selling artificial diamonds but then your first paying job would be at the clubs where you worked at night so yeah paying where you got paid to perform yeah twenty dollars thirty dollars here and there and uh that was i still have the twenty dollar bill i think my first twenty 20 bill i still have it people say that about you yeah no they don't and from the clubs to california tell me about that trip but one day you say i've got to go there yeah i don't know what the hell i thought was out here well you know you go where the tv cameras are and the movie cameras something about cameras you know comedians people that are not performing in front of cameras really think that that's performing and that when you're not doing it in front of a camera it doesn't count you're not really doing it which is wrong which is wrong because uh there's something very magical about doing it for an audience that is not that doesn't happen in front of a camera but be that as it may that the lure for everyone was to come out here and i don't know just get on the tonight show that seemed like the the highest farthest dream you could possibly 1980 it was the great dream not only for yourself but for david letterman and for jay leno and for and for tens of comedians who said you know if i can get a spot with johnny yeah uh and later with dave this is how you gain the entree to be where the cameras are right right to be around the camera you want to be where those cameras are and eventually you would find yourself in front of the cameras of a of a probably well-remembered television sitcom called benson you were on that yeah i was on that show for three episodes and uh i was still living in i was flying back and forth from new york i was i would only come out here for a few weeks and i would go back to new york and i was fired from the show unbeknownst to me and flew out sunday showed up for work monday morning yeah sat down at my table there and i see everyone's got a script where's my script i don't see a script and there's already a reason i don't see yeah where's the script and the ad you know associate director yeah calls you over says you're not on the show and i said well then i'm leaving i was uh not enough that's how they told you no script they forgot to tell me that somehow i didn't get the call and you know you shower you drive over there it's very strange so the other actors are looking at you and they're going you know we killed you off you know jerry can i tell you something they never forget to call [Laughter] they always call believe me take it from one who's received a lot of calls okay the the most brutal way i've ever seen it done i used to work for a tv station in georgia where they had a time clock when you came in you punched into work even if you did the 11 o'clock news you punched in or puppet theater you punched in and you knew that you weren't going on the air if you came in and your time card wasn't in the rack and as you turned around the personnel supervisor was there with your final check he gave it to and you walked out the door that's that's how you knew but otherwise they they make the calls anyway we will continue here with jerry seinfeld and you on the on the toll-free line uh jerry of course does his own television program you can watch that he's got sign language you can buy that and he's on the cover of the new tv guide you can pick that up as well so fire up the color teenies and yes watch the pictures as they fly [Music] as i said to mr seinfeld when he did his little collartini routine you know you do yours i'll do mine here's stephanie on the toll free in lexington kentucky hi and welcome to cbs steph yes hello tom stephanie i'm a big fan i just wanted to keep up the good work thank you man you're welcome i know you're dying to get to jerry go oh yes jerry i i'm such a huge fan i know you hear that all the time oh thank you i never heard it from you oh well that's true what you have now um i just i just love your show and i want to ask you when you're going to start doing movies you know i'd love to see you in a movie well here's my feeling on movies if you go to a bad movie it's about two and a half hours if you make a bad movie it's about eight months i'm very careful about things that i do that's why i'm on this program and uh i plus right now i haven't got the time because i would if i did a movie i would be involved in it from day one and page one and so that's gonna be a big involved thing if i ever do it and i'd have to wait till after the series is over but thank you for trying to uh promote me when when you say until after the series is over have you picked when that's going to be or is it no no i i've told this story before but to me it's like a you're at dinner with friends and you're having coffee after the dinner and you're sitting there and there's that moment where somebody goes all right let's go you know i got you yeah yeah very good you what and nobody plans that moment but you feel it and everyone knows everybody knows when it's time to get up and leave the entertainment yeah yeah so stephanie i'm glad you called and thanks for your accomplishments can i just say to jerry i i hope that you realize the joy that you bring to people with your show i mean i just i just don't want you to forget that i mean such a joy i mean i love your show it's like an addiction i mean i'm not crazy or anything i just love it oh that's sweet thank you are you welcome good night stephanie good night tom bye bye now bye i noticed that you always have a smile on your face how do you do that like bill clinton always said well he's the president he should have a smile on his face but i mean like now your teeth are showing you have this you know you're always like well this is pretty cool don't you think i mean here i am i know what i'm making i feel stupid i'm making 519 i'm making 5.65 get my agent on the phone what makes for funny you were talking about cosby and how you watched him uh deconstruct scenarios when he was doing his work that you liked what makes for funny for science well for me i i only know my own thing and that and that is rigorous analysis of really something that doesn't even deserve a second look right i understand what you said that's what's funny to me i mean i i was talking in the dressing room with somebody about mission impossible and i was saying i love how in movies if you can dive in front of an explosion you can ride it it seems to be the way that you an explosion will never overtake you because in the human mind if i dive nothing could catch up with that gotcha you know and i and i that's uh that that's my idea of looking at something that people don't look at you know if i watch your show and i do what strikes me about it is it is essentially a very simple premise every episode there's not an awful lot of convoluted plot that we have to concern ourselves with and it often reminds me i say to myself and tell me if i wrong you've almost borrowed a little bit from ozzie and harriet remember the whole episode was ozzy lost the hammer that was the whole thing for a half an hour but it was funny and it worked and in your case it's uh jerry's going on for a sandwich that's all it is yeah but it's not quite that because it's got to be for example we did a show about waiting for a table in a chinese restaurant now somehow that's funny you know and then i don't know why we've all done it though yeah but it's not just because we've all done it it's that certain thing it's got to be plucked out of the out of the whole field you know you got to find that one ear of corn that's and do things happen to you or your writers in their real lives that you'll come in and say man have i got yeah oh yeah yeah sure most of the stuff is something that that's happened to someone was talking today about uh they went to a doctor and the doctor wrote down on the she saw in her her chart that it said difficult you know it was like the doctor was like there's like a comment section in the report card yeah grading and it's like well what is that you know what i mean difficult i mean you just was supposed to be dealing with the medical problems i got like another opinion yeah well here's one you're ugly yeah so that actually happened to her and so you know that becomes an idea for something uh michael on the toll-free in whitby ontario hi and welcome to cbs hi tom hi jerry i just wanted to say you guys do great jobs in both the shows i watch all the time thanks i'm really nervous oh don't but you're you're among friends and simple folk here well simple foreign american folk my sisters and i like he's our hero and stuff we've watched him ever since the first episode if you're not after this there's a lot of people behind you well no one no one except me and my sister remembers the the funny uh big huge window you had in the old apartment the original apartment and that no one believes me ever that kramer had like regular hair or nothing so i don't remember the big huge window i don't know what you mean by that um where well now we have the small window there was a big like it had like uh it was like it was like wood you know michael i can't believe we're taking valuable television radio network time to discuss the size of a window okay well my question was to jerry and i was gonna ask him uh if he has a favorite issue of superman or not ah cause i know you're i like the fist fight with lex luthor on the planet with the red sun i don't know if you know that one well you know but anything with the red sun when he didn't have his powers i i liked him yeah what did you think when they killed him a few years ago it smacked of a little desperation frankly oh okay okay i was just curious what you thought about that because i'm a big fan and stuff well thanks a lot michael you're good to be with us thank you okay thanks tom i also like the bizarro superman do you remember that one the guy who was unshaven and his hair was messed up and he used bad grammar my favorite was always i like i like super thanks yeah i like superman a lot but i like to captain marvel because when billy batson remember the kid who was the uh the the cub reporter he had to say shazam before he could turn into captain marvel you know clark just went in the john and took off his clothes he was superman that's it you know which from his mouth to god's ear i'm told now in new york city there's something called the seinfeld factor i heard about this too this is this is people tell me that people in real estate now people will notice something that they think they've seen on your show or it's near an area where your show has been done and they they will buy real estate based on its connection to the seinfeld show well the show yeah the show has become kind of a a focus point of the show of the city as opposed to the normal things which is what is the crime and what's the economy people saying oh this is where that show the people from that show are so it's that now yeah which is amazing but just think not only are you entertaining all of america and making nbc wealthier than they have any right to be you're also helping sell real estate in new york city i have something to fall back on jerry we can't thank you enough we will continue with mr seinfeld here and you on the toll-free as time permits we'll be right back after this break [Music] kathy on the toll-free in uh lunenburg nova scotia hello hello hello how are you doing i'm doing fine thanks how are you has anybody else done the tom and jerry bit yet tonight nobody's done tom and jerry well hello tom hello jerry hi we were hoping nobody would but i love your locks sorry i'll get right to the question because i know there are probably other people wait kathy jerry had a message for you uh-oh we're moving on go ahead kathy no it's okay i was just wondering if you ever regret making yourself so accessible to the public um because you've made the show about your own life and there's no getting away from the fact that your character is also jerry seinfeld how do you feel about people you know that we feel like we're in your life yeah no that's a it's an interesting question and i actually uh feel that it makes it easier that way because i have nothing to hide and and no one's going to see anything that they don't expect to see and it's always to me it's always been easier to be myself which is why i wanted to be a comedian and why when i did the show i didn't play a teacher because i i know i know this routine you know so we can appreciate it it's easy yeah it we do appreciate it it's very it's very nice to have someone play themselves yeah it's very relaxing for me you know everybody else is thinking about their their character you don't have to you don't you don't need any motivation whatsoever no i just walk from the other side of the cameras to this side you know what i'm talking now i'm talking there well what's the difference yeah what's the difference anyway kathy's lazy uh as jerry says he jerry says he loves you or he loves your locks thanks a lot good night kath good night how do you manage to keep private stuff private and public stuff public you know you know i'm saying there's there's the public you and i know you're very giving with people who want to take your picture as you demonstrated i'm told walking in this building tonight there were 100 people looking to take jerry seinfeld's picture and you allow them to do that how do you keep private what you want to keep private um don't have anything private that needs to be private you know what i mean i mean i don't i'm not uh there's nothing about my life that you would see out in public that embarrasses me or makes me uncomfortable you know so i suppose if there were that i would have some tension there but you know i'm just living is it easier for you to stop and have your picture taken when you're by yourself uh as opposed to when you're with somebody possibly a lady friend a couple of friends whatever it's much easier to be with people when i'm out on my own that's a little scary because you have no excuse really to get away people can corner you and you can't get away and that that can be and they have the advantage which is the difficult thing when you know they know me people come up to me they just start talking to me you know and i always say just if i could just get an excuse me before the uh so in episode seven last year you know we're walking together and we're talking and what is the best thing about celebrity what well everything i i would say celebrity is 99 great and i can't stand celebrities that whine about celebrities because the the power and the perks i mean flights rental cars hotels restaurants movies whatever the difficulty is the person behind the counter is really going to try and help you now yeah and this is this is fantastic to me do you find for example that when you give your american express card yes i don't have to say do you know me and yours probably would never come back saying i'm sorry this card is uh unvalid all right that would not happen to your card it better not that has happened to me that has happened to me yeah and i i just said do you have any idea who i am gene new bedford massachusetts hi hi how are you go ahead gene uh jerry i just was wondering your opinion on the article and tv guide uh that uh slap in the face no i'm just kidding go ahead put your show up against the greatest honeymooners i always liked all in the family i just wanted how you felt about uh how your show stacked up oh well it's uh i felt uh i know it's tough to rate yourself but no i would never compare myself to any of those shows i would i think okay what would your opinion well what would your opinion be too gene but i think 20 years from now or when enough time has passed that that this program is viewed uh as the honeymooners is viewed as jack benny is viewed as i love lucy is viewed now this show will be revered this will be this will be honored by the broadcast museum of the future as one of the greats of all time and i'm not making enough i would have to think so i am not as a matter of fact you're not but i mean 519 but neither was neither did jackie gleason make enough money yeah or milton berlin no i'm just kidding i'm i'm very happy with whatever i make i don't even know what it is yeah but just to be compared with our shows is a cliche i know but is is uh overwhelming it's overwhelming i didn't really feel the the the uh the feeling of uh how good it is being in it yourself now it's you know it's not good to think about things like that i i'm a firm believer in uh hey look we're not hitting any traffic you know i don't say things like that anyway gene thanks for calling thank you have a nice evening you too and life after seinfeld is i would really like to um get back to being a real stand-up comedian again okay and really be talking about what people are thinking about and speaking as a person of my age in this year because i have my act has not been an act has to be cons it has to be on a respirator all the time it has to be constantly being pumped oxygen and working on the show i don't get to do that and i miss that and i feel like my act is behind me now and i wanted to catch up with my life and the way i think now and the way the world is now and i miss that experience of just performing live and i love to play old vaudeville houses that's what i like to do well i hope you get to do that when you want to but i hope you stay at the table for some time to come thanks so much for coming over tonight oh thank you we thank the world to hear as we have since you visited us back at nbc when we were all kids and much success and thanks again for joining us my pleasure jerry seinfeld is the guest calvin trillan is right around the corner we'll be right back after this short break

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Id: PHvDUmdVwtI

Length: 24min 2sec (1442 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 23 2020