Spontaneity of Seinfeld Players?

How spontaneous are Seinfeld, Alexander, Richards and Louis-Dreyfus in real-life or at least non-Seinfeld media appearences?

I think that Seinfeld is too methodical from his carefully scripted stand-up acts and tends to be less than hilarious and almost awkward when he makes late night show appearences and at other venues.

Alexander is actually very funny and can almost slip into the George character at will. He also does acting coaching at UCLA and is even funny there.

Richards seems totally lost. The best example is during a give-and-take I saw between Alex. and Richards that was for a TV magazine type show and the setting was the booth at Monks. Alex. said to Richards (paraphrasing) "So, you ever have desirous thoughts about Julia?" So it is funny to ask such a question and Richards simply and borilngly basically say no without any funnyness, like he just couldn't think of any comeback.

Louis-Dreyfus is funny in real-life too. Recently, I heard her talking to Howard Stern in the early morning and she was quick, playful and even answered all of his meant-to-be embarrassing personal sex questions.

What do other fans think about the spontaneity of the Seinfeld cast?

"A.J." wrote in message news:[email]...

That's an interesting question.

My reply is from a UK perspective, but having seen Seinfeld himself on a couple of late night US chat appearances I'd say he was certainly less than hilarious, less than funny even.

I recently saw him on Jay Leno and I thought he was very poor. He seems to have adopted a particular persona (maybe he's like this in real life!) that is very smug and arrogant, and one gets the feeling that he feels he's far better than those around him.

Some of this came through on the Seinfeld series but he was counterbalanced by the other characters so that the whole thing became funny. Now, on his own, it doesn't work IMO. One gets the impression he's thinking that he's far cleverer and more successful than the person he's talking to, including the audience, and it's not very appealing. Most importantly for a comedian, it's just not funny!

I guess he's in a difficult position - he's only around 50 yrs old, he's had a hugely successful and brilliant comedy show which has made him very rich, so what does he do now? He can't possibly top what he's done before, so what's left? The occasional guest appearance and stand up show until he's in his eighties? What a depressing prospect. So maybe he's overcompensating.

Anyway, I digress!

The only other person I've seen in another context was Michael Richards. He appeared on a late night chat show we have here called 'So Graham Norton'. It's pretty wild and whacky, just the sort of show you'd think he'd thrive in, but he looked lost. He was very quiet and didn't really want to talk at all. So I agree with the above poster on that.

I can imagine Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander to be excellent in any context - both of them first class performers.

Yeah, I think there's a huge difference between "professional funny" and "casual funny". Sometimes a performer has both, but Seinfeld is more of the former: a hard-working comedian who carefully develops and polishes his craft. In interviews, he may make the occasional witty remark, but for the most part he sounds like an ordinary guy.

Contrast this with some of the comedians who've made a career out of spontaneous humor, like Jon Stewart's sometimes-brilliant responses & witticims during "The Daily Show" interviews (not including the goofy- but-not-funny "mugging for the camera" he does during the first 10 seconds of the program). A better example is Colin Quinn, who was so bad as a Weekend Update host on SNL that it was painful, yet he's actually quite bright and funny on his roundtable comedy talkshow, "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn". I mean, here's a guy who can barely read from a cue card, but he's actually more eloquent in improvistory situations. Not polished "professional funny" like Jerry, but "casual funny" which works well on his show.

I can see that, although I imagine none of us knows what he's really like. Having watched a few off-camera bits of him (especially in the documentary, "Comedian") I suspect that's more of an on-stage interview persona. I get the feeling that he's naturally a bit whiny/angsty, which is part of were the comedy comes from, and I also get the feeling he's put up a shell due to all the fame and paparazzi. That sense of him being reserved can easily come off as aloof. And as I've said before, I think his comedy is better when it's not cruel--I recall a long bit on Letterman where he was taking potshots at the obese, and it just came off as nasty (and smug/arrogant) rather than inclusive and funny. Heh, I guess it'd sound different coming from Louie Anderson. ;-)

I've noticed the same thing about Harrison Ford: we love his characters so much that I think we all hope the actor will be just like them. But he's an actor, not the characters he's played. And he's probably not the most cordial when approached by strangers or under the hot studio lights on a talkshow. In interviews, it's like he has a thinly-veiled contempt for the whole media promotion biz, and he can come across as a grumpy prick.

That's something that Letterman sometimes says. Like when he had Chris Elliot as a guest one night, he was saying that some people are just "TV funny" whereas some people are just naturally funny and that Chris is one of the genuine ones. He's always made me laugh and I used to love the show "Get a life".

Some of this came through on the Seinfeld series but he was counterbalanced by the other characters so that the whole thing became funny. Now, on his own, it doesn't work IMO.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I agree 100% I have every show taped but I always begin taping AFTER Jerry's opening monologue(if that show had one). I just don't think his stand-up is funny.

Michael Richards talks about Kramer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ In an early interview Richards told: "I think what's so refreshing about Kramer is you don't know who his parents are, you don't know his apartment, you don't know what kind of car he drives, you don't know where he shops, you don't know what he eats. You don't know anything about the man. Yet he's becoming so popular. There's a moment there where people can just go: "Ah, I don't know anything." That's what we love about the character. It's a show about nothing, and we don't know nothing about him".

Now of course we've seen his mother Babs. We've got to know his first name; Cosmo. We've seen his apartment, car, eating habits and favorite stores.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ - "Kramer is a good natured guy who is friends with everybody. He lives across the hall from Jerry and takes to him like a roadie does to a music- ian - He's totally devoted". - "I know whenever I go into Jerry's apartment I'm going to get involved in something. And involvement means living". - "Slipping into the Kramer character is about as easy as slipping on a vin- tage Shirt-Jac". - "Kramer takes over when I put on the shoes and when I wear some of the clothing during rehearsal. Kramer comes through It's like channeling". - "The thing that makes Kramer funny, is his sincerity, his commitment to a situation. And he's a fighter. We did a show where George was being real mousy. Kramer tells him to stand up". - "After more than 100 episodes I need to justify the way he dresses and why he comes through the door the way he does. But I keep it to myself. I keep the character fresh by "finding comedy" in every scene". - "If Kramer come through the door, he's got to have a reason for coming in. One show, I decided his sink had overflowed, even though it's not in the script. So I come into Jerry's apartment, unroll all his paper towels while saying my line. It's crazy. No one else knows why. But I got a big laugh. To find those moments fascinates me". - "I came up with this kind of entrance because I had to fit myself into the scene, and when I come in I really gotta come in". - " I'm so critical of what I do because I always inevitable see more that could have been done. And it can drive me insane".

Michael Richards on:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

- Home life: "I love cranking up the heater on the pool, gettin git up to 90 degrees, and swimming around naked. A return to the womb. Then, when I got the bill, I said: "My god. Forget it.", now, it's better to soak in the tub. It's a lot cheaper". - His best feature: "I would say that it's that I'm really beginning to enjoy life now...I'm reaping the harvest of putting years into this business. Coming into my own, where opportunities are arising. Helping me get more at what I can do. So my best feature comes out of that, a vitality to create".

- His job: "I'm an eccentricity specialist". - His hair: "It's electric. It just goes whoooom! It's interesting. It's just took it's own shape. It's fascinating. It is like a back-to-nature look, isn't it?" - Kramer: "Sometimes I feel like I'm riding the tail of a comet. I have a pic- ture of Kramer in my den because I look at him as a real friend. I'm going to miss him when he's not around". - The coffee-table book about coffee-table: "The Seinfeld marketing mach- ine missed the boat by not publishing Kramer's coffee-table book about coffee tables. In the book, which Kramer dreams up and pitches to Elaine's boss in "The Cigar Store Indian" and then promates on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in "The Opposite", would have made a great collectible. "I always thought it was a great idea. The book had a nice cover of me; I had a pipe". Unfortunately, he left the book, who had foldout legs that made the book itself into a coffee table, behind when he and Jerry went on location in New York to see the set of Live With Regis and Kathie Lee. "I accidentally left it at the studio. I don't know who got it", he recalls. "As I got into the car I said: "Jeez, who got that book?" And no one knew. Somebody clipped it. Forty, fifty years from now, that'll be real collectible". - Being recognized as Kramer: That's just a part of the job: "They just say: "Look, there's Kramer", they don't go: "Look, there's Michael Richards", for- get it. As far as I'm concerned, I am Kramer. And I should be Kramer. I must be Kramer. I have this responsibility to maintain that character because these people, they want Kramer."

I have to say this seems capricious and arbitrary

;-)
Dan

"A.J." wrote:

I rarely see Richards outside of the show but I saw him once being interviewed before an awards show on that red carpet parade and he was pretty serious and polite. Didn't seem a bit like Kramer.