Jerry Seinfeld: "I don’t really feel that funny" amid coronavirus crisis

The New York Times

Seinfeld has been spending the coronavirus pandemic sheltered in place in the Hamptons. In an interview via Zoom with The New York Times on his 66th birthday last week to promote 23 Hours to Kill -- his first standup special of original material in 22 years -- Seinfeld said he's been unable to find humor in the coronavirus crisis. "Not really, to tell you the truth," he says. "I don’t really feel that funny. It’s hurting so many people, so brutally. I’m not in the mood to be funny. It’s like you’re a bird and then suddenly they change your cage. You’re just not sure who you are now." He adds: "I wonder if people will find it’s more difficult to laugh right now. There is a general, base-level sadness that our species is under threat. You’ve got to feel a little sad about that. The laughter, when it comes, will feel great. But it might be harder to get there. We were putting together the trailer, and there was a bit in there where I was complaining about specials in a restaurant. And I thought, I can’t lead with that. You can’t be complaining about that. That was not going to feel quite right." Seinfeld also doesn't like shows done from at home during the pandemic. "No. I don’t like home show business," he says. "I don’t like these homey shows. I mean, I watch them. They’re OK. And I think it’s nice that people are trying to do that. But I don’t want to be doing that. I like wearing the suit and having the crowd and the energy and the crackle — I like the magic. I don’t want to know who you really are. I don’t want to see how you really live. We’re all just sick of people’s houses. They’re all so depressingly normal. And the better the person, the crumbier the house is going to look. Because they’re too busy to do anything. The only people that have fabulous, fabulous places, stink. They’re horrible at what they do. They’re spending their money on the house instead of focusing on their art." Seinfeld adds that he's in semi-retirement mode: "I’m kind of — what’s the word? — post-show business now. I did show business. And I love show business, but I’m past that. Past trying to play or understand that game. It doesn’t interest me anymore."

ALSO:

• Jerry Seinfeld may be ready to end Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee after 11 seasons and 84 episodes: “We haven’t planned anything with that show," he said today during a virtual press conference. "I feel like I did that tour… I know they look very casual and easy but they’re actually a lot of work to make, the editing is very intense and I don’t know, I feel like I may have done that exploration at this point.”
• Seinfeld makes his Jimmy Kimmel Live! debut on Tuesday: Seinfeld has never appeared on Kimmel's talk show and Kimmel has never appeared on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Seinfeld's virtual appearance Tuesday is notable because the two comedians have been rumored to be feuding for years, especially since when Kimmel torched Seinfeld's good friend Jay Leno in 2010 amid The Tonight Show brouhaha. In 2015, Seinfeld took a jab of Kimmel choosing to show a rerun during David Letterman's final Late show.