[MUSIC PLAYING]
I know you took the doll's head.
Where is it?
(ANGRILY) Where's the [BLEEP] head?
Curb Your Enthusiasm is weird.
Not just kind of weird, it is incredibly weird.
[SINGING GIBBERISH]
In the history of the medium, there's
nothing quite like Curb.
The way each episode is created runs
counter to the process of almost every other television comedy.
Whereas on other programs the scripts are firmly written,
each joke is carefully crafted, there's polish,
Curb goes the opposite direction,
relying on controlled chaos, heavy improvisation,
and scripts that are merely an outline or suggestion of what
should happen in each episode.
That can be an incredibly difficult process
to make work consistently.
Doing a show like that with top-notch performers
who know how to think on their feet,
well, that's a step in the right direction of making it work.
Oh, you're in the show tomorrow night?
Great.
Oh, I can't wait.
Because you will fail!
What Curb Your Enthusiasm really is is one of the realist
shows to ever exist on television
that isn't real at all.
So what does that mean?
Well, let's go from macro to granular.
Essentially, each individual episode
is written as it's being filmed.
No one knows for sure what's going to happen.
The unusual approach has made Curb a cultural phenomenon
beloved by fans and critics alike.
It also ensures this HBO sensation
has a feeling of authenticity you simply won't find
anywhere else on television.
So despite being fiction, well, it
feels a little bit like nonfiction.
So let's stay macro before we get into specifics
of the creative process by taking a quick look
at the creation of the show.
After making a name for himself co-creating, writing,
and producing Seinfeld, Larry David
was approached to come up with a new show for HBO.
His idea was to play a character loosely based on himself.
Like the real Larry, the fictional one
is insecure, prone to getting himself
into embarrassing situations, and relatively misanthropic.
TV Larry hates almost everybody, except a small group
of people in his inner circle.
Sometimes he doesn't even like them.
David's approach was to do something similar to Seinfeld,
in that this new show would look a little bit
like the awkward, little moments we live through each day.
Being on a premium cable channel afforded
additional opportunities, though.
Curb could have edgier plots and, of course, swearing.
(YELLING) You god damn mother-mother-[BLEEP] bitch!
[BLEEP] you, you car wash [BLEEP]
It could be the dark, bizarro world version of Seinfeld.
Pretty, pretty--
And I think most would agree he accomplished
that specific goal.
So now that we have some basics, let's
take a look at the freewheeling process
that makes the show so unusual.
It starts with the outline.
After years spent honing Seinfeld scripts,
David wanted to try a new approach to comedy.
Rather than having every single word written down
for the cast to memorize, the scripts for Curb
are much more simplistic.
In fact, they're merely a skeleton.
According to Jeff Garlin, who plays Larry's manager, Jeff,
the actors are given a roughly seven-page outline
for each episode.
It describes a general plot, along
with some specific scenarios designed
to get the story from beginning to end.
For example, take the season two episode, entitled "The Doll."
In it, Larry has successfully pitched a TV pilot
to the head of ABC.
That deal is put in jeopardy when he offends the executive's
six-year-old daughter by cutting the hair off her antique doll,
even though she specifically asked him to do it.
Eager to rectify the situation, he
turns to manager Jeff for help.
Jeff says that his daughter has a large collection of dolls,
including one just like the doll Larry damaged.
The two steal the head from that doll
then give it to the little girl as a replacement.
Jeff's wife, Susie, discovers what they've done
and becomes angry.
That is your outline right there.
It's very reductive, but it's pretty much it.
The specifics of how they get to point A to point B to point C,
well, that becomes up to the actors.
And so we hit the scene.
According to Garlin, any given scene
will have only a paragraph or two of description--
just enough so that the performers know
the overall beats that need to be
hit when they show up to set.
From there, the scene is shot multiple times
using two cameras with the actors improvising
different lines and reactions.
Nobody knows what anyone else is going to say or do.
I'm so sorry again for the delay.
I had diarrhea.
This leads to spontaneous, more authentic reactions
than you'd get in a properly scripted show.
The stars are truly in the moment.
Rather than waiting for the cue to say their next line,
they instead wait to see what the other person is
going to say just like you would in real-life conversation.
Taking these chances and having it pay off
requires a special kind of acting.
Somebody get a sponge.
I don't understand.
Why don't you get a sponge?
And that leads to the third factor
that makes Curb Your Enthusiasm work in such a unique way.
It's who you've got saying those lines.
The show has actors who specialize in improv.
They understand the rules, one of which
is that you should always build on what another actor puts
on the table.
In the improv world, this is known as the "Yes, and--" rule.
In other words, you don't contradict another performer,
you take their idea and add a layer to it, instead.
Look at scenes between Larry and Jeff.
As a comedian, Garlin specializes in improv.
If you watch his stand-up, they're similar in construction
to how the show is constructed.
He goes on stage with topics he wants to discuss,
then makes his routine up on the spot,
based, in part, on the energy of the audience.
Garlin is a true supporting actor
in this sense when you put him in the context of Curb.
Jeff, the character, often eggs Larry on.
If Larry is outraged in something,
well, Jeff is outraged in that same context,
or at the very least, he validates Larry's outrage.
This allows that outrage to grow so
that Jeff can continue egging it on,
which ideally leads to a series of comedy dominoes
that leads to one final explosion.
What the hell you using my wife for?
I thought you'd be flattered.
Flattered?
I'm [BLEEP] nauseous.
What?
Nauseous?
Why are you being nauseous?
[RETCHES] It's you and my wife.
I just don't like the whole idea.
That building layer upon layer is a consistent theme
throughout the show in its construction is why.
Take Richard Lewis's recurring character.
David and Lewis have been friends for a long time
in real life, and because the real-life men
have been friends for as long as they have, they can insult
or needle one another onscreen in ways
other actors simply can't or wouldn't necessarily
feel as comfortable doing.
They like to try to outdo each other in the scenes they
share in this very way.
"Sorry about your bird.
The good news is I'm still alive."
[BLEEP] [BLEEP] This is a tragedy,
and you treated it like it was nothing to me.
How dare you!
JB Smoove joined the cast partway through the show's run,
and he's another brilliant improviser.
Because he's such an unpredictable live-wire
comedian, many of Curb's most hilarious moments
find him going off on bizarre tangents.
Watching how David reacts to these tangents
and then finds ways to encourage his co-star to keep going
is a stellar example of the show's magic.
You simply can't script stuff like this.
Yeah.
What are you doing?
[BLEEP] Lamping.
What you doing?
Lamping?
Chilling.
Relaxing.
Why'd you change from chilling?
What was wrong with chilling?
Given that every take is different,
you might wonder how they decide what to use.
And that brings us to the final element
that makes Curb Your Enthusiasm unique.
It's in the edit.
The show's editors have the daunting task
of making sense of all of this footage.
They work with Larry and the episode's director
to decide what to use.
One specific trick is to combine different takes,
and you see this literally everywhere
across every single show and movie.
It's less a trick and more just how every single television
show works.
Because two cameras record the action,
they're able to splice takes together.
And in a situation where you're dealing with improv,
this piecemeal approach is complicated
yet borderline necessary.
There's this widespread belief that on a conventional sitcom
everything would be written down,
so if the joke didn't work, there'd be no way to change it.
This simply isn't true.
Most of the time, multiple jokes are recorded
and some improv is taking place there, as well.
However, they're much more limited
in those takes and those options.
The Curb team isn't as much, and so they
have to massage down a scene to make it as funny as possible
with nearly limitless amount of options.
If something isn't working, they can
try a different combination of takes until they get it right.
The ability to do this is why the show
is hilarious from start to finish, rather
than just intermittently so.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is assembled from beginning to end
non-traditionally, which requires full commitment
to the premise and absolute trust--
two things that other shows get away with not having entirely.
David assembled a group of talented,
trusting actors to populate his television universe.
These performers all agreed to participate
in a risky experiment with him, one
that upends the traditional rules of television
by partaking in a process that presents a lot of what
happens when things go wrong and accepting
the potential failure.
That pressure forces everyone to show up every day
at their absolute best, and every single one
of them throughout the show's run does just that.
As artificial as things that Larry David and his team
are making fun of here, the element
of facade and television, well, it kind of falls away here.
And you get episodes that make you
laugh and cringe equally much more organically
than its contemporaries.
A show that can touch on uncomfortable emotions,
uncomfortable moments, watching Curb,
it's impossible not to think of your own life
and parallel that to what's happening on screen.
And I actually think what's really special about Curb
in all of this--
eschewing structure for a moment--
is simply that what Larry David did
is he brought in a bunch of people
and asked them to exaggerate themselves, maintain
the core of who they are, how they talk, how they behave,
and amp every little personality quirk up to a million,
which, frankly, is what everybody should
be doing all the time when they pursue,
well, anything artistic.
Put yourself on the page, on the screen, behind the camera,
and put a microscope on every good thing-- every emotion,
every feeling that you want to put out into the world.
That's how Curb makes you laugh.
That's how art makes you feel.
That's how music makes you dance.
That is what is important about presenting something
to other people.
So, yes, Curb is a TV show with actors
who are not being themselves all the time,
but it's a lesson in how important it
is to amplify the good things by taking away
the script in your own life and in your own art
whenever possible.
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Well, guys, that's it for today's episode of Nerdstalgic.
If you enjoyed this episode, press that like button
down below.
And, as always--
Pretty good.
It's pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
[INAUDIBLE] here right now are two more episodes
of Nerdstalgic.
And hopefully I will see you guys in the next video.
[MUSIC PLAYING]