One of the reasons I love acting is because I'm so interested in other people's lives, and I often incorporate things I hear or observe into my work. I've become a bit of a 'person addict,' and so I like brushing up against lots of different characters.
Jason Alexander
I love smart comedy.
Usually, characters that are doing something nefarious have some extra layers to them. The general rule is bad people don't necessarily think they are bad.
I know what it's like to be in the closet! I know what it's like to be bullied and attacked because someone or some group thought I was different or below them... so, I'm coming out of the closet as an ally of equality for everyone; as an ally to hope.
If I could really move my career much more into predominantly directing, I would jump at that.
I'm a singer and performer in a hybrid show that's standup, music and audience participation.
We see and hear about Israelis and Palestinians only when they are defined by the global media as 'occupiers,' 'terrorists,' and 'victims.' But we forget that they are fathers and mothers and sons and daughters and neighbors and doctors and shop-owners and farmers and students.
Is it my end-all and be-all to become a standup comic? No.
What is it about Iowa? I'm the shortest guy in the state.
One of the downsides of being a poker pro is that people see exactly how you play.
I was the teenage kid growing up in New Jersey watching the Tony Awards and thinking, 'Oh, maybe if I'm lucky I'll make it to Broadway by the time I'm 40!'
Acting is not terribly important work, and I have always felt a bit of guilt about pursuing something that is so selfish. I love doing it, but it is never something that feels like it's going to change or save the world.
Actors go, 'I just want to act.' And I say to them, 'You know, stop for a second and think about what charges you up the most. Do you want to be on the stage, do you want to be in film, do you want to be a comic actor? Do you just want to make it for the money and capitalize on your look and do commercials and soaps?'
Comedy lives on in the web and TV, but nobody's pressing comedy albums anymore.
Do you want to have a career that goes beyond, you know, 11 minutes in a 22-minute television show every week? Some people don't. That's fine.
Every poker player, like every fisherman, needs to have a story in a box, and most poker stories are completely uninteresting.
Most of the musical film work that I have done has been in this realm of what I think of as real family entertainment.
I have no illusions about having another 'Seinfeld' in my life.
It's a question of finding the right thing, if I'm going to be an actor... if I have to get up eight times a week for a number of months, I want to be excited and challenged from the day I start to the day I leave.
But I didn't know much about directing a movie.
There are always things that I'd love to do. As an actor, none of them are specific; all I'm looking for are things that are good quality, that are challenging for me to work on, and even better if I get to work with people that I respect and am excited to work with.
I have actually lost a couple of roles - film roles - because a director or producer thought I looked too much like George Costanza, and I could not get out of that box.
Directors get to fire on many more cylinders than an actor.
Things that make me laugh range from a wonderful stand-up like Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock to my son Gabe, who does great improv work. I also look backwards to the great comedic actors like Jackie Gleason, Paul Lynde and Phil Silvers.
I find when somebody says to me, 'I'm going to motivate you,' more often than not, they're not going to get me.
What you find with singers, no matter where they're from, if they have any kind of an accent, the accent tends to disappear when they sing.
I do think that the days of gathering around a television set that functions merely as a television set, to receive a live broadcast of some networked programming, those days are probably numbered.
I'm always more motivated by the pain of a funny character than by what makes him funny.
Even when I was an actor in training, one criticism my teachers had was that I should think about directing instead of acting, because the best actors see the material they're working on through blinders. They can't see anything but their role. I could never really do that.
The pilot of 'Seinfeld' was made and dropped. 'Seinfeld' was not supposed to go to series.
Poker is just a hobby I'm passionate about. It's not supposed to bring glory.
I met the real George Steinbrenner on only one occasion when he actually came and played himself on an episode of 'Seinfeld.' He seemed to really enjoy himself. I did not get to know him, but the fact that he allowed himself and his beloved team to be satirized on our show is an indication to me of his true character.
Jerry Seinfeld made a puddle, I stepped in it, and wonderful things happened.
The Middle East is a very difficult stage to play upon. Without doubt, it is a good drama. And on occasion, there are situations so unimaginable, if not ludicrous, as to make them almost comic. But the cast is constantly changing, the audience is often disengaged, and it seems at times that no one is actually running the show.
You know, because of the lack of budget, we had to find neighborhoods where time had stopped - kind of stuck in the '50s. And no place had that better than Staten Island.
I still don't know much about directing a movie.
I guess the Reagan era is defined as the 'I want it all for me, and screw everybody else' era.
We made a deal that was acceptable to us. We got paid very handsomely for our final season.
The greatest part of the job was... that was for nine years it was a pleasure to go to work.
I would work with any one of them again in a heartbeat because it was joyous and incredibly easy.
Well, let's put in this way, I grew up in West New York, New Jersey.
But one sets of grandparents lived on Davidson Avenue in the Bronx and one lived in Manhattan and I had an aunt and uncle in Queens, so in my heart I was a New Yorker.
The thing about For Better or Worse is the only thing that made me an okay director for that is that I have a sense of humor, and it was supposed to be funny.
The show is like an Edwardian play - emotional life gets stepped on for the sake of accepted manners, and that's terrific for actors to play in.
I was heavy as a kid. I mean, I kind of got it together for a while there in my 20s and early 30s.
I had gone to the doctor. The doctor said, 'You're healthy as a horse. You've got two weight problems - two health problems because of your weight. Please do something.'
Jerry Seinfeld has an interesting theory. He goes, '20 pounds up or down, and you lose your funny.'
I kept being asked by corporations to do corporate gigs. And I said, 'I don't have anything. I'm not a stand-up. You want me to come sing show tunes for you? I don't think so.'
Isn't it time you came out and told the world what you believe?
I think with challenge comes a little more fun.
