Hi, I'm Jeff Garlin, and
welcome to It's Not
Improv 101, it's Improv three,
you have missed Improv 101 and 202
we're in 303.
We're jumping in.
So really what improvising does
is it separates people who are funny
from people who are not funny in
terms of improvising comedy,
because if you try and be funny,
you're never going to be funny when
you're improvising, whether it's
drama, whether it's comedy,
whether it's pure improv, whether
you're going off of script, it's
just about being genuine and real
and in the moment. So on Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
Larry writes a scenario and I
approach it differently every
time we do a take.
I know who my character is.
I know the scenario.
And I just start talking
or listening.
The audience is my
scene partner and whatever I'm
talking about is
real to me in that moment.
And hopefully it's affecting them
and the energy that they give me.
It goes back and forth.
I learn my craft and that craft
is such a pretentious word.
But I'm saying craft is the
rules.
This is how it's done.
Craft is very important to give
you something to
work from, but everything else
is all instinct, talent,
whatever, whatever else.
I'm only as good as
the outlines I'm giving, who I'm
acting with and with.
Stand up.
How good is the audience?
It's based on DNA, no exaggeration.
Education, what their day
is like, what they ate, are they
exercising?
Is their love life good?
And then you put these people
together and it's always different.
My style of acting,
which when I was taught at Second
City, some people follow, some
people don't.
My job when
I'm in a scene with somebody is to
make you look at them look good.
That's my job.
So I do everything in my power and
that they're doing the same thing.
It's a beautiful thing.
The most important thing is just to
stay present with what's going on
and don't leave
in your mind to stay there
and be in the scene.
It's kind of it's like it takes
years of preparation,
practice and doing
to get to a point where it's just
being present
out of your teachers are going to be
full of shit.
My a lot of mine were some were
brilliantly wonderful and inspired
me. And it's just like regular
classes, like a regular
teacher. Some inspire you, some
you're like, I fucking hate that
that guy.
I'm going to give you a Bruce
Lee quote, knowing is not enough,
we must apply.
Willing is not enough.
We must do adapt what
is useful, reject what
is useless and add what
is specifically
your own as you think you shall
become. Lesson of that, adapt
what is useful, reject
what is useless.
Put in what you
know, you're an improviser.
I tell my opening acts.
If you open for me, I
tell you. I tell you before you
go out, go out there and eat it.
You're safe.
Go out there and take every risk you
can, you're safe.
And as a director, I
just tell the other actor, really,
don't worry about being good.
I'm here, I cast you.
Let's go, let's do it.
And then we'll adjust.
You do the hard work ahead of
time to be able to
enjoy yourself.
When I did the David Letterman show
for the first time and I did stand
up on the David Letterman show,
I went.
I did the set.
I did a set I was going to do, which
is about five and a half minutes,
probably two hundred times.
I went around with Mitch Hedberg.
I remember we took it to him
because he was doing it that we do.
And we took a taxi all around New
York the night before.
It might have been the night that
Mitch was on. I can't remember.
But the night before I
at the Ed Sullivan Theater, the
producers let me after
the show was done in the dark,
I stood on my mark and
did my set.
So the next night, even though
I was a wreck, nerves my first time
on Letterman, I could groove and
I did. And it was really happy that
I did.
Larry David's a genius.
I worked with a genius.
Sorry, I have moments
of genius, true moments
of genius on stage,
in curb,
in my life moments.
Larry David, when it comes
to comedy is an outand out
genius.
Brilliant.
And so he's not going to repeat
on our show.
If I even point out
that any scenario is
familiar to anything else, we
cut it.
We just say goodbye
relevancy.
Is about I'm 58
years old.
So in terms of my up,
in terms of what I do on curb,
in terms of what Larry does, Larry
David is pure.
I like to think of myself as pure
in terms of I do
what I think is funny.
I don't do what the audience is when
I think the audience is going to
like I don't write things and go,
this is for my audience.
It is for my audience.
Don't get me wrong, Curb
is for our audience.
It is.
But we're not thinking of them when
we create it.
Even from season one, we
worked in a vacuum.
We didn't know if anybody would like
it, but we've kept that attitude the
whole time. And then in my stand up
for me, I'm not selling out
stadiums, but I just do what I think
is funny. And Larry David keeps
the show relevant.
He just does what he thinks is
funny.
The funniest term is titty fucking
and the funniest
word to me is cock cocked.
It's funny, I use Weener in real
life all the time.
We just funny to we are
so gentle, you know.
Would you touch my wiener.
So gentle.
Would you touch my cock offensive.
Who says that. But in all sincerity,
that's the thing about curb too.
We're free to swear ain't nobody
thinking about swearing.
And I got to tell you, I never think
about using a swear word ever,
ever. If one comes out, it's
just a natural.
That's what a person would say
in that moment.
But it's not by any stretch
something I'm choosing.
The directors.
Do not worry about me laughing.
It's hard enough for them to deal
with Larry laughing.
Well, I'll tell you a scene that
Larry didn't laugh and I did
when he dropped his pants in
that episode, he dropped his
pants in front of the police officer
and Susie to prove that he likes
wearing ladies underwear.
I'm Larry David.
I happen to enjoy wearing women's
panties. I laughed so hard,
no exaggeration.
I had a run into the other room
and on the couch I put the pillows
on top of my head because I thought,
please make this stop.
I can't.
It took me forever to
stop laughing when he was wearing
the panties.
It's very important that
you're kind yourself, like every
morning I go in the mirror.
I mean, I go into the bit, I looked
at the mirror in the bathroom and I
smile at myself. I go, hey, set
down. The other thing is the
amount of joy I take work now,
not based on what money
they're offering me or anything.
I just go, will that be
joyful? I'm fifty eight years
old. I make choices.
I'm lucky enough and blessed
enough that I can make choices
completely based on joy.
Joy, I'm doing this with you
because I love
Rollingstone and I know this
will be joyful and it's been joyful
for me. I very much enjoyed myself.