Jerry Seinfeld: The toughness of my orphaned parents

your mom was an orphan your dad left home he was an orphan also what did each of them tell you about their situations growing up they didn't talk much about it uh but there was a toughness both growing up in orphanages or in my father's case really just running from apartment to apartment and why uh cuz they had no money so it was a bunch of kids it was a uh a home where they were not able to live uh for some bad reasons and so they decided to set off on their own as brother a group of brothers and sisters so it was a lot of uh Street hustling of selling whatever you could get on the street and and usually they could not make the rent and after 3 months they would just bolt and get another place and so they were there was that toughness um I was lucky to be around that usually if the parents have a tough life the kids' life is too easy and they screw up and then their kids get tough hopefully you know it tends to be an up and down cycle of of even in in culture you know we're in the soft period now well and so it wasn't like that for you so you've spoken about how it never correct me if I'm wrong like never hugged you never told you he loved you um never threw a ball with you no um but there was a lot of love in my house well and you said uh like you and your sister and your parents were almost like roommates in a way and you called it you called it complete neglect but in like the best way possible neglect is how I was raised but my parents were very loving but parents in the 50s and 60s did not express it outwardly like parents do today there was no emotional hole in my life that people love to say comedians that's why they do this they they're feeling some emotional need I have always uh rejected that very uh strongly what was the hardest part of that kind of self-reliance there's nothing hard about it I mean I knew I wanted to live a difficult life I craved a difficult circumstance what I don't know I don't know but I think you just know it sometimes when you're a kid I don't want to I don't want to do anything easy and I that's why when I found standup and I I became that thing it was I was so gratified and comfortable you you know how much difficulty is the right amount for you um too much is not good not enough is not good there's a range that we all seek as humans but you'll push it I'll I will push it I think your mom was a bookkeeper for a Time primarily a housewife uh your dad was in World War II in the Pacific he was supportive of your ambition and uh he passed when I think you were 30 right um somebody said to you after his uh passing that now your career is really going to take off um explain that train of thought I think sometimes you don't want to surpass your father you feel bad you feel uh bad about it feel um uncomfortable um subconsciously the case for you too I don't know maybe maybe I don't know he had this box of jokes and uh you wrote in Sign Language there's never been a professional comedian with better stage presence attitude timing or delivery um elaborate on that if you don't mind I mean uh he had it all as a as talk about you know someone who was ented he never had any opportunities or or venue he told sales he was a Salesman but he told me he had thought about it uh but didn't know you know there was no now there's so many uh entry points to be a comedian you go to a club as audition night you know in in 1930 I I don't know how people did it I guess they work their way in Vaudeville somehow but he never had that opportunity but he had every Poss possible tool you could have and I I learned it all from him I got the whole thing from him how so well a lot of it's genetic yes oh come on Graham you can't uh deny that there's a genetic component to this a genetic comedic sure how do you make these calculations it's in your brain that there's a uh a processor to calculate what these lines these words you know there the calculations of Comedy are minute and precise and and you either get it right and there's a big laugh or you miss a word and there's dead silence and the difference between those two sounds is a lot of money

Channel: Graham Bensinger

Views: 173,815

Keywords: Graham Bensinger, In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Feature Interview, Jerry Seinfeld, comedy, comedian, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, acting, actor Jerry Seinfeld, parents, parenthood, Jerry Seinfeld parents, childhood, Jerry Seinfeld childhood, jokes, ambition, challenge, difficulty

Id: lbiljrdnH3k

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024