The 6 Comedians Seinfeld Needs to Interview

Once or twice a week, towards the end of the day, Jerry Seinfeld leaves the Manhattan office where he spends his afternoons writing, but he doesn't head home to his family. Instead, he shows up unannounced at some minor comedy club in New York or New Jersey, and inserts himself into that night's lineup. Having spent a decade making a celebrated "show about nothing", he could easily afford to just do nothing now. Or he could just interview comedians!

Seinfeld intentionally crafted the show's format around the car drive and "movement," specifically because "when attempting to show the meandering, silly and sometimes deep conversations that comedians share, you have to remove the audience to keep the participants from dropping into their acts, adding that "part of what makes the show watchable is that it's always moving. There's no narrative drive the story. We know what happens.

Seinfeld talks about his comic routines as if they're discovered rather than created: observations that are out there, camouflaged against the patterns of everyday life, waiting for him to detect them. One example: the other day, his two sons were arguing, because one of them had farted. "They were accusing each other – 'he who smelt it dealt it!' – and I just thought, Jesus, these guys need some new material. That's the same thing I was saying when I was five. Fifty years ago! Kids! I can't believe they're still doing the same material!" It was of course that hit TV show on NBC from 1989 to 1998, arguably the greatest TV series ever, which propelled Jerry to worldwide recognition, and set him up for life as one of the Richest Stand Up Comedians in the World.