Vandelayans, Romans, Countrymen!
I have some recollections of Larry David which I thought some of you might find interesting.
In the mid 70's I used to go down to the Improvisation in Manhattan quite often. There was a $3.50 cover on weeknights, and $5.00, Friday and Saturday. Sunday night was audition (amateur) night. Once, Rodney Dangerfield dropped in on audition night, but that's another story...
Of all the aspiring comics who displayed their talent (or lack of it) at the Improv, my absolute favorite was Larry David. I still remember much of his act. Some of the first routines he was involved in on Fridays were transcriptions of segments of his act, much the way Take the Money and Run was a movie version of Woody Allen's stand up comedy. Remember the plastic surgery bit where he wanted to look like Howdy Doody? A prime example of a stage bit which was visualized as a sketch on Fridays.
In 1977 I entered New York University as a freshman (I was 16). One of the courses I signed up for was 1/2 inch video production. We got to borrow Sony 1/2 inch reel to reel "porta-packs" for use in our simple productions. One of the assignments was to interview someone. I called Larry David, he was listed in the Manhattan directory, and asked if I could interview him. He said "sure", but that he would have to check with his manager, Joe Lauer. Mr. Lauer didn't sound crazy about the idea, but agreed so long as he got a copy of the tape. The next time I talked to Larry I asked if I could also videotape his act at the improv. He said yes.
So one evening in November or December 1977, my friend Ron and I went to Larry David's apartment on the west side. It was your basic tenement style dump. (Whether some guy named Kramer was looking out his peephole as we walked down the corridor I'll never know.) I hooked up my equipment to his TV and we started experimenting with an interview. It didn't go well. The reason I mentioned my age earlier is that I think it is important in this regard. I was an obnoxious smart-ass kid from the Bronx who had never interviewed anybody. As much as I admired Larry and his comedy, I kept making wise cracks during his answers to my questions which demanded funny retorts and really didn't help the situation. We watched a few minutes of this back on the TV and he was somewhat upset that he didn't seem to come off very well. We all took a deep breath, I cracked open a fresh roll of tape, and we tried again. This time things went better. I asked him about his influences, (Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, you know, the usual), his background, etc. We watched the tape, it was about 15 minutes long, and were generally happy with the result. (After all, it was just for a bullshit video class at NYU anyway.) We went to the improv and and Ron and I got seated for the show. The camera just seemed to get heavier and heavier as I tried to hold it up for the duration of Larry's act. Too bad I was off to the side. The door man at the improv later apologized when he realized I was VIDEO taping the show.
Well, the tape went over really well in class. Now for the devastating part. Joe Lauer, Larry's manager, kept calling me and asking for a copy of the tape. I never seemed to get around to going down to school and setting up 2 video machines to make a dub. I was a busy kid. He finally convinced me to give him the tape, and promised to return it to me after he copied it. To this day I think the STUPIDEST thing I have ever done was to give away my only copy of that tape. To allow the master copy of ANYTHING out of my possession is usually unthinkable to me, but for some reason, I let him have that reel of 1/2 inch video tape. Needless to say my calls to Joe Lauer went unanswered, and that was that. I do have a few moments of the crummy interview with Larry on another tape (I had more but went over it, tape seemed so expensive back then), the only tangible evidence.
Well, that's my story. If anyone's interested, I might be able to recall some of Larry's comedy from those days and transcribe it for posting. Like when he'd walk on stage and say "I want you to know that this is not the first thing I've done tonight! I've already been out looking for a date - for next new years!" Or when he'd walk on stage and say "I made an amazing realization today. Feet don't stink. They don't. It's those SOCKS! You could put that sock on your hand and it would smell just like feet."
Moral of this story: Whatever happens, always remain Master of your masters!
Bye now.