Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld

Date of birth: 29-04-1954

A born and bred New Yorker, Jerry Seinfeld’s interest in comedy began when as student in the city’s Queens College, where he communications and theatre. His first open-mic night in the Catch A Rising Star club came in 1976, right after he graduated.

Three years later, he landed a small recurring role on the Benson sitcom as a mail delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear. In May 1981, Seinfeld made his first appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, leading to several appearances on the late-night talk show circuit.

In 1989, he created Seinfeld (originally titled the Seinfeld Chronicles) with Larry David the show that would go on to become the most successful sitcom in American TV history over its nine-year run. It has made him incredibly wealthy through syndication, and he earns up to $85 million a year, which helps him indulge his passion for cars, owning reported 46 Porsches.

After his sitcom ended, Seinfeld returned to stand-up; recording the show I'm Telling You for the Last Time during his 1998 tour, which briefly visited Britain. He then had to create a new set, a process captured in the 2002 documentary Comedian.

In 2008, he helped create the animated Bee Movie, and provided the voice for the main character. The following year, he again worked with his Seinfeld co-stars for a storyline in David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm revolving around a long-anticipated reunion. In 2010, he was executive producer on the American reality show The Marriage Ref.

He has also written a number of books, including 1993’s Seinlanguage, based on his stand-up routines, and 2002 kids’ book Halloween.

He has been married to Jessica since 1999, and they have daughter and two sons.

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© Mark Seliger

'No comic can ever write more than two hours of good material'

Jerry Seinfeld says 'none of us' are better than that

Even the best comedians can only write two hours of good material over their whole career, Jerry Seinfeld has said.

The comic says modern stand-ups feel the pressure to churn out new content all the time – at the expense of quality.

‘I think comedians now try so hard to be all new all the time, I think the quality suffers because none of us are really that good,’ he told the New Yorker Radio Hour.

‘Chris Rock and I have determined that a great comedian working his ass off his entire career writes two good hours, the rest is…,’ and let the sentence trail off.

The comic also said he probably wouldn’t make any more stand-up specials for Netflix beyond the two he has already put out. 

‘I won’t put it out there unless I think it’s of a certain quality and I doubt I can get to that in the time I have left,’ he said.

Seinfeld turns 70 on Monday and said: ‘Even though I’m 70, I don’t like old people…. They don’t look good. Everything’s deteriorating.

But despite not planning any more specials, he said he has no plans to quit stand-up

In a separate interview with the Associated Press news agency, Seinfeld said: ‘The work part of my life is not stand-up. It’s all the other things.

'Stand-up is an incredible, pure experience. Surfing is the great regret of my life that I never really got good at that. I did it for two weeks one time many years ago. But if you were a surfer, you would never stop doing it. 

‘That’s what stand-up is for me. Feeling that energy, that natural life-force energy under you and around you, I never get tired of that.’

And here’s another new interview with him:

Seinfeld has just directed his first film, Unfrosted, which will be released on Netflix on May 3. Co-starring Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan and Hugh Grant, it is a comedy about the creation of the Pop-Tart.

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Published: 27 Apr 2024

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