# Transcript: Featured Session: A Waste of Time with Larry David and Jeff Schaffer

**Date:** March 13, 2026 · 10:00 PM  
**Session:** [Featured Session: A Waste of Time with Larry David and Jeff Schaffer](/sessions/2026-03-13/pp1150456-featured-session-a-waste-of-time-with-larry-david-and-jeff-schaffer)

## Summary

Larry David and Jeff Schaffer discuss their new HBO show 'Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America,' celebrating America's 250th anniversary through comedic historical sketches. The duo explains their improvisational approach to recreating pivotal moments in American history, featuring guest stars and production values that blur the line between sketch comedy and cinematic storytelling, all while maintaining the authentic chaos that made Curb Your Enthusiasm iconic.

## Topics

`comedy` · `american history` · `television production` · `improvisation` · `sketch comedy` · `historical satire` · `creative process` · `celebrity`

## Key Takeaways

1. Larry David and Jeff Schaffer created a historical sketch show for America's 250th birthday, blending high production values with their signature improvisational style from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
2. The show features rotating celebrity casts including Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Hamm, Bill Hader, and President Obama, who not only executive produced but also appears in sketches and wraparounds.
3. All 28 sketches across 7 episodes were improvised from outlines, allowing authentic moments to emerge, including instances where Larry's genuine frustration with actors became part of the final product.
4. The production challenged historical accuracy while maintaining dates and core events, using Larry's presence as the 'almost' part of 'almost history' - exploring what could have happened in the margins of major moments.
5. Despite Larry's stated desire to be canceled to avoid work, the team created a show that balances educational content about America's complex history with irreverent humor and cultural commentary.

## Full Transcript

Stop it. Stop it. Well, well, what am I doing here? What is this? What is this? It It's a panel. Um, you like you like a good panel. I like a panel in my house.

You know, I don't necessarily love traveling to a panel, but you wouldn't want all these people in your house.
I wouldn't want you in my house. Yeah, I I do rarely get invited. I'm realizing there's a reason. Well, I think you're I think see I think you're very happy to talk to all these people collectively as opposed to having to talk to any of them individually. I noticed she's signing over there.

I'm just wondering if if anybody's using it. Anyone? All right. Okay. Continue. Go ahead.

You gonna try gonna try and trip her up?
How fast do you think you can talk? We did that, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hi. Anyway, sorry.

What? Yes. A panel. Right. By the way, uh Lorraine when she was introduced um you she wrote the book on curb, no lessons learned. And I, you know, I don't like to plug a lot of stuff, but it's a really good book.

I don't know if any of you have seen it. Have you? Go and get it. It's great. Get get the book. It's good.

If you're a Curb fan. Yeah.
If not, what are you doing here anyway? Yeah. Right. If you don't have the book, why are you here? Um, so can we talk about what you've been up to since uh Curb Wrapped? I think you've been a little busy and maybe that's part of why we're here today sitting here at this panel that you so want to be at. Well, we have a uh a new show.

Yeah, we got a new show. It's even We have a new show. We even got a title for the new show. You want to tell them what the title is? The title is um
Life Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness. An almost history of America.

Yeah. enormous history of America. And in fact, I think we can actually we can actually show them. We can actually show a we have a little title card. Show it.

Yeah. And uh so this that's the title card. Yeah. You can  please withhold your tid applause till we
finish speaking. Uh, so and it's going to be coming out uh June 26th, seven episodes on HBO, The Cool Division of Oracle.

Um, it's a it's a sketch show um in scenes from American history, but they're not really sketches. They're really like little short films um that Jeff directed and a lot of production value. HBO spent a lot of money on this show. I know. I don't know what to call them.
They aren't It's true.

I like I I can't call them in vignettes because I don't own a beret. I don't I don't want to call them sketches because they do feel we're on location. We built things. We built World War I trenches and and the Wright brothers airplane and ships and um it seems uh it seems I've had an impact on American history. Not for the better, I would say.

Yeah. Yeah. And so it's uh through these seven episodes there'll be about four sketches, four sketches per show. Um and each one you're in everyone, but each
one has its a rotating cast. So there's there's never the same people in in sketch to sketch to sketch.

So I think there's a lot of fun in first of all, what era are we doing? What's Larry look like? What's his costume? And who's he with? Yeah. You know, um we did I did a Super Bowl ad. Um, what about four years ago? Yeah, I did a Super Bowl ad. Oh, three people watched the Super Bowl. That's uh I don't know how they get such good ratings.

So, I did the Super Bowl and I was in a
lot of costumes and um it was really it was a lot of fun. And then it was for FTX. I I don't know what ever happened to those people. I hope nothing nefarious. Yeah.

And by the way, I got I got sued for that commercial. And at the end of the commercial, I said, "Don't don't get this." And yeah, I still got sued. Yeah. I know. You were right.

I was right. Right. But I think we had a lot of fun shooting that commercial. I think, you know, when we were talking about new
things to do, you had remembered how much fun you had being in costume and forgotten how much you hated being in wigs. Yeah.

And And we were thinking about, you know, it's the it's the 250th. Yeah. And what can we do? And we sort of said, "What if we what if we went all the way through American history with Larry um causing causing causing a lot of problems basically?" Yeah. Um I think it's funny. I think it's pretty funny.

Yeah. And I would say, um
that's a glowing endorsement. That's really that's a that's good. That's a good that's for you. It's great.

For you that's great. Um, but no, it was it was super fun to make and we the beginning of this we were talking about how are we going to do this? We know we want to do something for the 250th and look, I know that yes, it's the 250th birthday of America and it's a little odd to be celebrating our nation at this time. It's sort of like throwing a a birthday party for your friend who's in rehab. It's like he's  up, but I love him. So, uh, so, you know, but we're doing and I think it is a great way to sort of show all of the the ups and the downs, uh, that our nation has
gone through, many of which, as you'll see, are caused by the gentleman to my to my right here.

Um, but it's, uh, I know we had a blast. Yeah, I have to say I I wear a lot of um, wigs and I have a lot of beards and mustaches. I cannot I couldn't stand it. You have no idea. I I you know, my mother would wear a wig like every day looking back.

I don't know how she did it.
They're they're horrible. How do people wear those things? And men with toupes. That's That's ridiculous. That's hideous. That's just terrible.

Um and beards. There's nothing worse than a than a fake beard. They are so uncomfortable. I I've never been so happy to go home and take a shower in my life. Yeah.

So, but you did it every day. You It's There's a lot. There's even prosthetics, beards, wigs, all that stuff. So, we knew we wanted to do this
and we knew that it couldn't just be, you know, us twohawks doing this. We needed to add some authority, some some gravitas a little bit so someone would take it seriously.

Uh so and you know you know you are at least an acquaintance with I don't know I would say friend adjacent with President Obama. Well how would you describe it? Well well no I I know him. You know we
you know you're allowed to know him. Don't look down on him because of that. You know we play golf together from time to time.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So, I know they got you guys to talk about I the credit really goes to um Ethan Lewis from Higher Ground and Kathleen Lewis from WME to sort of put this all together in a formal way so we could you know team up with Higher Ground and uh do this show which is now I think both uh I'm going to say educational in quotes but also but really  funny. Yeah.

I I educational is a stretch but
yeah. Well, if you're really stupid you'll learn something. If you're really stupid, it's if you're really stupid, this is gonna blow your mind. Well, really stupid people wrote it. So, probably four really stupid people.

Have four beers. Yeah. Um, but uh uh I don't know. It was It was really fun working with Obama was amazing. Yeah.

I was going to say, are you actually So, what does it look like with Larry David and Obama working together? Does what happens if he tells you who tells who what to do? Well, that's a good question
because on Curb and on Seinfeld, I was I'm I'm the boss. I'm used to being the boss. And uh Obama is also quite used to being the boss. And so there was some loggerheads there. like at the first meeting that we had he was giving us notes on the script and he he said uh about one of this one of the sketches he said well I don't think I don't think this is the right
thing to do or that you know and I gave him a look I went really and you know what he did he said he goes I don't understand 45 minutes I've been telling you what a genius you are I give you one note you get into a defensive crouch  and he and he goes he goes when I was in the White House you You know, I used to take notes from my adviserss and everything.

I was president of the  United States. And what did you say? I said, "I'm president here."  But I I got to say the
relationship cuz I hadn't seen it until we had a sort of first meeting together. They were really funny together because he just he really likes like they give each other  It's great. It's like I mean the first thing he said to me, he started ragging on your golf game. That's the This is I've never been before.

He's ragging on your golf game. Then he's ragging on how much sunscreen you wear on the go. I said, "Yeah, it's like playing with a mime." And it's like, "Yeah." Yeah. He's Yeah. I said, "Uh, I'm sorry my father wasn't born in Kenya.

This is the minute one." Minute one.
And you know what's so funny? when when we were done, he's like he was telling me he's like, "I don't know. When I get around him, I just start to act like him and I start to I don't know what it is. It's like you've sucked him into your negative energy like black hole. What have you done to this man?" It's crazy. And by the way, when we were done, he goes, "Oh, I finally get it.

I get it." He goes, "Larry makes the world uncomfortable and you make sure the world makes Larry uncomfortable."  And I'm like, I thought that was so ins I'm like, "That's a smart man. That's so insightful because that's literally how we make curb. That's literally what it
is. Yeah. But he's in um besides his production company, he's in he's in one of the sketches as well.

Yeah. And and beginnings and ends, wraparounds and stuff. So, uh yeah, you guys are there's a very funny Larry Obama sketch. That's uh Yeah, we I don't want to I don't we don't want to spoil that. I wish we could.

Yeah, but we won't. But it's awesome. So, how did you choose the chapters in history that you were gonna jump into or cover? So, I was a history major in college. Uh, the this is the first time it's come
in handy for me. I used to do a joke in my act, you know, I was a history major because you'll never know when you'll get into a discussion about the Francoressussian War.

And so, um, finally I was able to put this major to use because I I I didn't do badly in it. I and I, uh, I had a I had a good memory for a lot of stuff like I can name all the presidents in order, you know,
stupid facts like that. But I also knew stuff that most people wouldn't know about that we were able to put into the show. Oh, I got to say, yeah, you're the nooks and crannies of American history that you knew. So, we would, you know, you make a big list of events sort of big and small and interesting and like what do we want to, you know, you sort of play with angles for which ones and some of them are, some of them are obvious like the the Declaration of Independence.

So, you do a little research or you knew this, but the uh the task of actually writing the Declaration, everyone thinks it's Thomas Jefferson, but originally it was there was a committee of five who were
charged with writing this declaration. It was like Hancock and Adams and Jefferson and then Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. So we're like, "Oh, well, what if Larry's Robert Livingston and he took the actual first crack at the Declaration of Independence? What the  does that look like?" And so that's like, "Oh, that becomes like the basis for a that becomes a basis for a sketch." So I wrote the first draft. Yeah, it it didn't it didn't come out well. Uh but then there's stuff like I had no idea like that after Lincoln's assassination for instance, Mary Todd Lincoln was so bereff that she uh she wouldn't leave the White House for six
weeks, right? Yeah.

That's just a stupid thing that I knew, but it's funny. Yeah. you know, this this maniac wouldn't leave the White House. And the and the the president, President Johnson was living in the Treasury building with his dogs. And so, uh, you know, we thought that would be the basis for a good sketch.

Yeah. And then there's some things where it's like, oh, we should do something with Louiswis and Clark. And part of it's casting, too. So, it's so Jerry Seinfeld and and Larry David are Louiswis and Clark and like, oh, that'd
be amazing. And so some of it was casting based too because we've got amazing people came.

Everybody sort of came for a day to play. A lot of uh a lot of people who are on Curb. Uh and Susie Esman and JB and Jeff Garland are are also in it. Vince Vaughn. Yeah.

And Vince Vince Vaughn. Yeah. Yeah. Su uh Susie is Susan B. Anthony.

Um and uh Larry attends a dinner party and that's fun. Um, and then, uh, you know, other people that we always always enjoy like Bill her is Lincoln. Kathern Han is
Mary Todd. They're amazing. Um, John  Ham and and Sean Hayes are the Wright brothers.

And, uh, you're the third Wright brother that doesn't get talked about so much, the Fredo. Um, so yes, we would just we would I don't We would sort of keep going through this and finding angles and see who what was funny and who would be funny for you to to, you know, to be in in the sketches with. Yeah. Frankly, looking back on it, I I don't I'm surprised the whole thing
got written to tell you the truth. Yeah.

Why Why are you surprised? Because it's hard and Yeah. I was involved. That's a bad combination. But I will say after Curb, like you know, we finished Curb, but even though we weren't doing a show, you're always I don't know. You're always sort of working through comedy ideas.

It's like it's like if Joey Chestnut was eating hot dogs every day, not just on the contest days. Like you're always
you're always thinking about Yes. Stuff stuff occurs occurs to me. Yeah. And we we almost did a few other things um before this sort of came around.

We flirted we flirted with doing another TV show. Oh, the curb idea. Yeah. Oh, the idea. So Curb is what happened when after was Larry David's life after he wrote Seinfeld.

So I'm like what if we just did it's you're still Larry David and you just finished Curb and now you don't know what the  to do and you're still puttering around
Brentwood. So on me, I finished Curb and now, okay, now what's my life, right? And your friend exactly the same as it was on Curb, but I already did Curb  and now I have a different wife. Yeah. And um I have different friends, but still all the curb people around cuz they're your friends, too. Susie Esman, who's still my friend.

JB's my friend, Jeff's my friend. the working title was curb squared which again we never did it but so but then when this came along and I I will say which I I've
almost never seen happen you said when we talked about this like I want to do this and this this idea really appealed to me immediately um and I think it's yeah I haven't regretted it since until having to do this panel sure sure yes the publicity tour will give we'll give you an opportunity to this can be the first of many regrets. Um, but I also think like it's it's so fun to see I
don't know history's writ large and you writ small, you know what I mean? So like that juxtaposition of uh and again this goes to sort of the cinematic nature of what we're doing. The we took really great pains from the the props and the costumes and the sets to make everything look as authentic as humanly possible and then we drop Larry into this and all hell breaks loose. Um so I think I don't know there's something really fun about you being in these major events.

Um, you know, I guess I would say all I really need to say because we don't give too much away
is that sometimes Larry plays like a, you know, an aid to camp to a president or something like that. So, he's right on the side of history. Um, anyway, this is the in the 1865. This is the guy who suggested to Lincoln that he really needs to go see a play  just to relax. I heard good things about it.

Um um for the clip you Oh yeah, I guess you know. Okay. Well, here let's give an example. That's a great idea. Okay.

So, um I think I don't know if you guys there's a very famous
photo VJ day. Um Japan surrenders and the war World War II is finally over. And if we have a picture of that photo, uh the Eisenat photo um very famous, right? Are you familiar with that photo? Yeah. Yeah. You're smart.

Yeah. You've seen that. All right. So if you look right, sailor passionately kissing the nurse and then on one side of frame you see a guy sort of half in the frame watching it. You see on the right side.

Yeah. So anyway, why don't let's uh
let's play a clip. War is over. The war  is over. We did it.

That's right. You really did. Victory. Victory. Victory.

Get your mist OFF ME, BUSTER. NO. The war's over. The war's over. Last year's over.

Get off of me. We're celebrating. We're celebrating.
What are you, SOME KIND OF SICKO? NO. EVERYBODY'S PISSING. NO, THEY'RE NOT.

ONLY YOU. NO, NOT JUST ME. I SAW HERBO. PERVO  NO. PERV  I'M NOT  I'M SOMEONE'S GIRL.

All right. OKAY. HEY, DADDY. WHAT? JOHNNY? I DON'T KNOW. JOHNNY, WHAT THE  GET OVER HERE, JOHNNY.

JOHNNY, is this creep bothering you, Agnes? Yes. No. No. No. Johnny.

No. Johnny. This Perbo tried to kiss me. You tried to kiss her. Everybody's kissing Johnny.

Excuse me. No. Johnny. Johnny. Did you just take a swing? No.

No. No. No. No. No swing.

Don't
swing. Johnny. HE'S ATTACKING THE SAILOR. NO. NO.

NO. NO. HEY. YOU'RE MESSING WITH Johnny on PJ day. No.

NO. NO MESSING WITH JOHNNY. WHAT? I'M GOING TO MESS WITH JOHNNY. HE MUST BE A NAZI. NO.

NO. NO. NAZI. PERVO. NO.

DADDY. DADDY. NO. NO. NO.

YEAH, that's the um that's the shortest one that we did.
Yeah, they're all they're we have about what 28 of them? 29. 28 of them. Um 2 all. And you see each one is its own sort of cinematic universe. Each one like whether it's the black and white of the depression or that kind of technic color or like uh the 50s, you know, they're all they're all their own little world.

And that's that was the fun of shooting it. I have to say every day was a new world, a new cast, new costumes. It was uh so it made it very fun. But but that's I think that's a great example of sort of what we're doing here. You're you're always like a an awkward footnote to history,  which might have maybe would have been a
better title.

Think about it. And we did it the same way that um Yeah. Yeah. that we that we did Curb. So improv.

It's all improv. Yeah. So, is it are there notes going in or is it just like jump in and swim? You know, when everybody shows up on set? Well, there's a there's an outline. There's an outline just like we had in Curb and then we uh improvise it. Yeah.

And um Yeah. And I think that's  the amazing thing about the improv is some of these sketches go
wherever they started go in completely different directions from where even we intended that day. Like I mean that's the thing about Curb is you have a plan and you have an outline and so you think the structure works on its own but then you get Larry and these amazing other improv performers and where it goes. I mean you just had some of the funniest stuff we had no idea was going to happen that like when we got walked in that morning we had no idea what we're going to end up with. Yeah.

Um, a lot of times I'll be in uh a scene with someone or a couple of actors and I'll hate what the other actor is doing.
And so the other actor doesn't know that I'm screaming at him. He doesn't know Larry David's screaming at him. He thinks I'm screaming at him in the character. Yeah. And you're literally yelling, "What is THIS PERSON DOING? WHY IS HE HERE?" And they're just like, "This is so intense.

This is so great. I'm in a scene with Larry." And I know I can always tell when real when real Larry comes out, but the actor never knows. No, the actor doesn't. We did one one scene this year where in the middle of the scene, I looked at the actor. I
said, "I hate you." And I It was real.

I hated him. But he thought it was part of the scene. Yeah. And it, by the way, it's in the show. It's in the show.

Yeah. Oh my god. Wow. Yeah. Do Do the actors know when they're like when they actually see it in the show, do you think with Curb or with the like when they watch it, do they does it actually dawn on them, oh my god, he really does hate me or I think they go, "That was some great improv." No, they never know.

They never know. I know. Well, sometimes you'll look right
at the camera. Yeah. I'll just look at Jeff and who's directing and I'll look in the camera and I'll go, "Oh my god.

Um, but uh, yeah, I think shooting it curb style but in a in a cinematic way uh, this time is it's it's a really I don't know. It's a re it's a very interesting neat hybrid. Um, but we had we had all we had so many great people there to pull it off, you know, every
day from from those guys to I mean Lynn and Manuel Miranda and like just every everybody Paul Rudd, everybody who came in was great. It's like a curb uh in history really. Curb in costume.

Curb and costumes. Urban costumes. Yeah. Right. So, um, how much being the history buff that you are, how much was were you able to take like artistic license with history but still maintain accuracy? First of all, um, I'm going to take issue with the word buff.

Okay. I
wouldn't quite consider myself a buff. I wish I was a buff. I'd be a lot smarter. I'm a I'm very light on the buff scale, but we've taken a lot of license with history.

Um, we tried to stick to dates and things like that, but obviously um just my presence. Well, you're the almost part. Yeah, you're the almost. hear the almost part
of the almost history. But again, you you think you're in that moment.

Yeah. Right. And sometimes it's just we twist it around or like the in the sketch you saw, it's like, oh, what what were the people around that? What was going on? What was going on with that? What was going on with the people, you know, when Paul Rivere rode through town? Whatever it is. Um it's we we use different we're sort of different perspectives a lot of times. Um by the way, were you you say were you you were a good history? Why did you pick American history in the first place? I thought it was the easiest one because we live here.
Yeah, we live here.

Live here. All right. Okay. It seemed like it was the least amount of work. Well, if I had to do it all over again, I would have been a a theater major cuz what's easier than that? I mean, that's ridiculous.

That's a major in college. Are you kidding? What? What do you do in class? You act. Come on. That's so stupid. People get diplomas for majoring in acting.

You got to be kidding. But you don't like learning lines.
No, I don't like learning lines. But you would have failed this class. Well, I I you know, I I suppose I could have memor you know, I had a if I was 18, I could have memorized it, but um Oh, no. By the way, he like we did a curve about the Gettysburg address.

You know, you had memorized the whole Gettysburg address. Yeah. Right. You used your urination time. Yes.

To learn the Gettysburg address. Yeah. I I I thought that urinating was you waste so much time urinating. You could be learning something while you're urinating. So I decided to put the Gettysburg address up over the urinal.

And uh I learned the whole Gettysburg
address in, you know, two weeks. Right. Like the brave soldiers of Gettysburg, your urination was not in vain. Not in vain. Yeah.

Um, but by the way, on Curve, he made us change something not for we had to do like a little re-shoot not for comedy reasons, but for historical accuracy reasons. Do you remember we were doing that? We were doing a play about Lincoln. It was Ted Dansen and Lorie Laughlin, The House Divided, right? And in that Ted, who's playing Lincoln, says a joke about they're going to the Sewards House for dinner. And he says like, "Gh, if I have to hear about his Alaska purchase one more time, I'm going to join the Confederacy." And we're watching it in the edit and Larry just goes, "This isn't right. This isn't
right." I go, "What? It's not funny." He goes, "No, Seward hadn't purchased Alaska yet." when Lincoln was.

So, we had to  reshoot this thing to get it historically right. Yeah. So, you're a stickler. Well, because I know people are going to watch the show, people who know history, and they're going to they're going to be what? What are they? They don't know what the hell they're doing. You know, you don't want to give people ammunition in life.

I don't know. I think you do, actually. Perhaps I do. Yeah. Um, so when you were just talking about uh
people ammunition, there's plenty of times with Curb practically every episode that there would be something that would piss people off.

And I just remember you telling me one of the number one things that you recalled that got the most like kickback was when you kicked the dog. Was that or when you stomped the dog? I didn't I didn't do it personally. Okay. All right. that uh the rat dog.

The rat dog. Yeah. Rat dog. I'm just It stuck in my mind. Yeah.

Yeah. People didn't didn't like that. I don't blame him. That was crazy. Yeah.

Okay.
Well, he was just Yeah. Really going to town on him. That was crazy. Also, when um I peed on the portrait of Jesus that people didn't like, right? That too. It was just a It was Splash that came up.

It was peeplash. I didn't deliberately pee on them. Everybody's got their weird thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, oh, but no, you don't mind. I don't know. To me, you've always, you never mind. I mean, like Curb and frankly, this show too, it's like if you told me that you were doing it just to please yourself, like I would say like like if you were
just putting it on your own shelf. I mean, I don't know.

I don't think you've ever really been concerned about pissing people off. Oh, god. No. No. You you you want to really? Um, no.

You you're kind of writing what what you want to see. Yeah. Yeah, for the most part. Um, yeah. Yeah.

Were you telling me that you were looking forward to being canceled? I I trying to get cancelled. I can't get cancelled.
I just can't get cancelled. It would be great to get cancelled and just people say, "What are you doing?" Well, I can't do anything. I'm cancelled. I'm always looking for an excuse not to work.

Yeah, I got cancelled. What can I do? This may be your chance. You know, fingers crossed. Um Oh, go ahead. Oh, no.

You go. You go. So, while you're
making this show, um, given where we are right now in America, as you were saying, we're kind of like in whatever you want to call it, the mess that we're in. How much are you um gearing any of the episodes or the comedy moments to sort of flick at where we're at now? It's a that's a really good question. I think, you know, we are encyclopedic, right? We're going from from colonial times all the way into modern times.

Um, but there are lots of places there are events in the past that we're doing that allow us to comment in a I think an
elegant way with what's going on right now. So, we never we're not really hitting things head-on, but we are there's there's there's there's past stuff where you're like, "Oh, you can talk about the present in the past because we've made a lot of the same mistakes over and over and over again." Um, which is part of an interesting thing about about getting to do this whole thing. The political climate is is touched upon in various times. Yeah. Yeah.

Throughout this throughout this series. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, I think um part of I would say part of the
interesting thing about doing this is like all the comedy stuff is great, but it's also we are sort of highlighting different phases of America where like that was pretty  up, right? That doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem right.

I mean, um was it the 19th amendment wasn't until 1920? Yeah. That's that women didn't have the right to vote until 1920. Yeah, it's crazy. Wow. Yeah, women couldn't vote until 1920.

I mean, what
how's that? You can't even fathom it. How's it possible? It's so insane. Yeah. You know, wow. Yeah.

So, I don't know. We hit all like, you know, all the all all the big baddies that slavery, like they're all we uh we hit them all. And I think you know again it's it's never same thing with curb it's never you can do anything it's how you do it right it's all this it's all in the execution um so because yeah I think there's you know I don't know it's no different than curb like where we sort of writing curb we show
each other our awkward scars we're sort of doing the same thing with the country here like we got some awkward scars we got some stretch marks you know so let's show them um did you consider after curb just not doing anything else Was it like I just or was there always just like no, I'm gonna move forward? Oh, I No, I knew I would I knew I would do something. Yeah. Yeah.

Um just didn't know what. Yeah.
Because I'm so talented. I mean, there are so many areas open to me. It's hard to pick sometimes. But it is curious because like every season of Curb is the was always the last season of Curb.

Yeah. Every season of Seinfeld was the last season of Seinfeld. Yeah. After every season of Seinfeld, I say to Jerry, "That's it. I'm done." Yeah.

And he'd go, "Okay." He knew I was bullshitting. Until, by the way, until you didn't come back. Until I didn't come back. And you you you stuck us with that big
mozza ball. Yeah.

We're just sitting there like, I think I thought you were coming back. Yeah. Season What was it? Eight. I thought you It wasn't until Christmas that you didn't come back. I'm like, "I don't think he's Oh, maybe he's not coming back." Yeah.

Oh my god. what do we do? But um and I handed the reigns to this joker. Yeah. Alec and I Yeah, that was all of a sudden I was like, "This is a hard job." Um but I don't know. I finally realized why you think that way because every season you put all the things you like into the season and when the season's over, you don't have any more things, ideas that
you like.

So why would you ever do another season of a show? Exactly. because you're the only person on earth who thinks you're not going to have another comedy idea. And so it just takes time. You go out in the world and things happen to you as is your want and then you he'd come into the office and it just that's how the every new season would be like that. He'd be like, "I was at a dinner party and the host served tap water without telling us who the serves tap water at a dinner party." You know, I should have said something.

And I go, "Well, real Larry didn't say anything, but TV Larry's going to say something." And that's that's how the show got written. Yeah,
it seems um there's a lot of things out there that you can write about. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't know if that was super deep or extremely shallow.

Well, probably the latter, but no, we we always used to say that um documenting the misbehavior of the west side of Los Angeles is an evergreen business. Like, yes.
Until a person can walk out of their home and not be irritated by another human, like we'll always have a job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I I generally the only reason that I really ever left my house is  so I could come in contact with people and get ideas. Otherwise, there's no reason to leave. No. How are you feeling about the panel now?
I'm really digging this panel. It's a panel to end all panels.

Yeah. But there there's still I know there's still ideas. We like that. This show is a great It was a great way for us to do some more curb stories that we didn't get a chance to do. Yeah.

Like, oh, I wish we had done that story. Oh, well, now we can do it, but we're going to do it in the 1800s or we're going to do it in Tombstone, Arizona, or whatever it is. But it was it was a great outlet to get a few more stories in. Do you actually think this is going to be a limited series or I mean No.
What? This? You mean you mean another season of this? Yes. No.

There's a lot of history to cover. What if we put green dots on your face instead of the wig? If they could find a way Yeah. to to put wigs and makeup on and and beards on me. Do it Gollum style. Yeah.

without actually having to wear them maybe. Yeah. Right. But I think that was also that was one of the things that appealed to this is that it was a limited like let's do
Yeah. Let's do the history of the let's do the history of the United States and then like then we're done.

So yeah, it's not that kind of show where where you going to do another season. Yeah. Okay. Um, and there's always the question of, and this even just happened back there, of real Larry versus Larry on screen. And um I don't even know where this question is going, but I'm sure you get this all the time, like whi which one are we talking to right now.

Yeah, I do get that all the time.
And you know, and uh my my answer is that uh curb Larry is um is my hero. That's the guy I strive to be all the time. That's the guy I wish I was because this guy not so much. That guy I love. Yeah.

You do love that guy. Love him. What did you say? It was like one of I love him. We were coming back. You said you were coming back for another season because it's much more fun to play Larry David than it is to be Larry David.
Yeah.

But now with this show, you got to you get to be Larry David, but you get to be Larry David as whoever, you know. Yeah. Samuel J. Tilden, who I didn't even know existed until you told me about him or or whoever. So, it's I think that's also the fun of this.

It's like, oh, it's it's it's TV Larry, right? But, you know, in history, it's, you know, history's written by the victors, but we get to do a little rewriting, which I think was fun, right? Um, okay. I'm sorry. What' you say? I said history. They always say history is
written by the victors. We got to do some rewriting because you're you're definitely not the winner in this thing.

Yeah. No. Yeah. Um and also I I couldn't help but thinking, you know, there's the butterfly effect, right? One thing changes in history and it changes everything going forward. And I guess that's not going to happen with this, but it sort of feels like after I watch some of those episodes, oh my god, this could anyway.

All right. Too much. Yeah. I wish there was a butterfly effect. a butterfly effect butterfly effect from it.

But uh alas, no, it's fiction.
But you know what there is though? I would say in the creative pro when we're doing it, there is that thing because somebody mentions something and all of a sudden we're now doing that and oh, we're going to do that in the next scene, right? Like the improv does throw stuff in that we didn't even and and we totally changed direction like you know again I don't want to give anything but like but like you and Bill and like I don't know there's just things places these places went and like the sketch takes a complete is a completely different sketch than what we thought it was going to be. I wish we could give you more information. Um but I don't know. I don't like to give stuff away. I think it's more fun to
watch it if you really don't know anything.

I don't even watch previews. Like if I'm in a movie theater and the previews come on, I'll leave. Wow. I can't I can't watch any of that stuff. And and um now on on television, if you're if you're streaming something, they can, you know, they they give you the preview before you watch it if you want to see it.

So my wife and I are fight all the time because she loves to watch the previews and I can't stand it. I don't want to I I want to be surprised.
Yeah. Yeah. Does that make me a bad person? How are you on How are you about recaps last week? Ons. You fine with those? If I feel the need for it, I'll watch it.

Yeah. I don't mind the recap. Okay. There we go. Do you watch Curb or do you watch Seinfeld after you do it? Do you Oh, no.

No. No. Would you would you pick it apart if you did or I I haven't uh you know what once in a while I'll I'll watch a curb with my daughter. She'll go, "Dad, let's watch a curb."
And we'll we'll put it on and uh I I get a I get a good laugh out of it. But um but that's it.

I'll never watch it. I I'll never watch on my own. I'll never watch a Seinfeld on my own. Wow. You know what the weirdest thing that seems that kind of that borders is on pathetic.

No,  but the end result is that everyone else knows the show better than you do, right? They're like, "Hey, do you remember the thing?" Like, I care. You don't remember that thing. It's like they just watched it. They're all They're all mixed up in my
head. Yeah.

All of them. By the way, I remember when we were watching the Seinfeld finale when we were to we were going to, you know, to redo the curb we for the curb finale and we started watching it and we both thought we were watching the wrong episode. Yeah. Because we hadn't seen it in so long and it starts differently that we just didn't remember how it started with all this before they got on the plane. Yeah.

By the way, that Seinfeld finale was really good.
No, we had to watch it to write to write the curb finale because we were going to do the same show because if you didn't like the Seinfeld finale, well then  you. I'm we're doing the same thing again. How do you like that? So, we had to watch the um the Seinfeld finale, which um which I thought that's not bad. It's kind of funny. I like it.

Yeah. Well, that was the genius of the curb finale is that it was ambitious in its laziness and like unique in its repetition. It's like we
can't lose. We just do the same thing again. Shove it down their throat.

Shove it down their throat. Yeah. But that's actually why I loved it because it I thought it was bigger. It was bigger than Kurban. It was bigger than Seinfeld.

And it sort of spoke to your like I don't know contrary DNA. Yeah. Like if you don't like it,  you. Here it is again. Bigger.

But it's funny because they they love the curb finale. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, we're gonna at some point if we could put up the questions for us
because you guys asked some questions.

Um, and once I read your question out loud, can you stand up so Larry can single you out and, you know, make fun of you? That's okay. Okay. Uh, Maddie. Okay, there you are. What is the appropriate amount of distance to hold an elevator? That is a fantastic question.
Fantastic question.

Okay, let's see. Let's see. Here's the elevator. I I can't believe what a great question this is. Here's the elevator.

Hey, See, I have to hold it. It's a clear path. It's eye contact also. Now, if you're coming around the corner Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. You hear me coming? No. Sorry. H sorry. Oh, sorry.

Sorry. Yeah. Does the person Does it matter who it
is? What's that? Does it matter who it is? No, it doesn't matter who it is. African-American gentlemen. They get priority.

Yeah. Otherwise, it could be a racial incident, right? Yeah. Larry David's a racist. Didn't hold the elevator for me. Right.

Elevator racist. Yeah. Great question. Thank you. Next.

Yes. Yeah. Uh Jeremy. Jeremy, are you out there? Was it Grant? Uh, well, okay, we can skip. Oh, there's Jeremy.

I see.
Okay. I'm sorry. The questions are moving around here. Okay. Of all the cast of Curb, can you guys stop moving the questions? Oh, there it is.

Of all the cast of Curb, who is the actual best middle at a meal? Oh, the best middler. Well, I was the best middler. I mean, come on. I was a great middler. Yeah.

You know who else is amazing, though? Vince. Vince is amazing middler. Yeah. But in real life, Susie I mean Susie knows how to keep everything moving. I mean in real life.

Yes. In real life.
Oh, in real life Susie Esman's the best middler for sure. Yeah. She's great. Yeah.

In real life. I'm a terrible middler. Yeah. I have uh no interest in talking to anybody. I shouldn't even be at the table.

By the way, we were going to do I don't know why people invite me. I really don't. We were going to do something. You had mentioned that you were you were sitting at a table and two people were just talking and having a great time talking talking and you wanted to interrupt again real Larry didn't but TV Larry would have and say what do you find so
fascinating about her I've tried and talked to her for one minute she was the most boring person I ever met but you two seem to be getting along great what's the secret never happened maybe in another another season uh okay this is from Grant are you out there okay Um, Larry and Jeff. Jeff, you got one.

Um, do you believe in luck, good or bad, as far as your early career getting started in the industry or just life in general?
Luck, Larry. I believe that there's a uh comedy god. I believe in a comedy god that they just help you. They help you. Wow.

Things things emerge, things that how where did this come from? You know, how how did how lucky was this idea? What a
lucky idea this was. Um, so yeah. Oh, the comedy gods. I believe in a comedy god. Mhm.

You know what's interesting about this question? So, we were just talking about this the other day. When we were doing some research, we realized that you've been using the word kinhura wrong for your life. So, yeah, kinahura basically you say a kinahur which means to ward off evil spirits. And what he's been saying since I've ever since I've known him is if you said something that was like too good or braggadocious, he would say don't give yourself a kinahura. And
so I realized for your entire life you've been warding away protective spirits.

Yes. This explains so much. I know. You've been saying go away. Bring the bad ones here.

And and that's so that's your life. That's my life. Yeah. Uh the opposite. Uh Alex Lee Thompson.

Hello. Um having made the series, what would have been the most annoying time in history to have lived through dayto day? Ooh,
it's a good one. Anytime before air conditioning and deod and deodorant. Yeah. The no any time before modern dentistry.

Yeah. This what it must have smelled like back then is not to be believed. I don't know how anyone we've talked about. How did anyone ever have sex? You must have you really it's I mean it's it's it's hard to you can't even you don't even want to even consider hygiene back then.
And by back then I mean what 1800s, you know, I I don't I don't get how people lived. Yeah.

How did they do it? And yet even then with all of the things they didn't have, they still covered their bald heads with wigs. Yeah. And um you know I've gone skiing and to just to go to the bathroom in these ski clothes and it's impossible. And it's the same thing with these outfits from the 1800s. I I don't know how they did it.
The button.

Oh buttons. And yeah, so many buttons. Uh okay. All right. Um, uh, let's see.

Wait, you guys are moving these around. Um, what? Okay, sorry. Arturo, there you are. What are the first 10 words of the Gettysburg address? Forest Gurin. Seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, happy.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. That's enough. Okay. We are here to dedicate a portion of it
as the final resting place for those who are gave their lives that that nation might live.

That's okay. Next question. Okay. All right. Um uh Almen, sorry I can't.

Let's see. What is that? You see the last? Can you read that, Jeff? Element. Element FZ. Element FZ. There he is.

Okay. Um, perfect excuse to bail from a dinner party invitation you already RSVPd to. Perfect excuse to bail from a dinner party.
Another great question. So, you've said yes. You've said you're coming.

You've said yes. You've RSVPd to it. Now, you want to bail. Okay, here's what you do. You call up.

Okay. Ring. Okay. Hey, Larry. Are you coming to dinner? Oh, hey, Jeff.

Yeah. Um, I really don't want to go. I'm sorry. I've been thinking about it. It's going to be a terrible waste of my time,  but thanks for inviting
me.

There you go. Great. Bye, TV Larry. See, that's where real Larry, that's where you wish you could be real Larry. That real Larry could be TV Larry.

That's exactly right. Um, this is, let's see, from Max. Okay. Are are you standing up? Sorry, hard to see. Hi, how are you? There you are.
Um, how do you balance historic relevance, social commentary, and Oh, shut the  up.

What's wrong with you? Social relevance. Get the hell out of here. My god, man. Thanks, Max. Did he go to Harvard with you? No, it looks like he's still applying.

That question,
uh, there was a question up there that disappeared and it was asking Larry, what uh, historical figure does he feel like he is most like, but that's not up there anymore. So, do you want to answer that or Rasputin? I was just about to I was literally going to say Rasputin. Amazing. See? Easy. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, I know this, by the way, this is what the show it's like. Sometimes it's like we're both jumping in, but I know he's on camera, but you, you know, sometimes there's just there's low hanging fruit. Every once in a while, like two or three times a season, I'm like, "Oh, he's not going to get it."
So, I jump in. You go like, "Yeah, I was just about to say that." It's like, that was So, anyway, I've been trained.

I There's I have a 5-second delay. All right. Uh, what inspired you to move from a sitcom Oh, I'm sorry. Um, okay. Can you read? Yeah.

What inspired you to move from a sitcom like Seinfeld? The name of the Oscar. Oh, Jordy Leave. Oh, there you are. There you are. Sorry.

It's hard to see this. Okay. Uh, you want to read it? Sure. All right. What inspired you to move from a sitcom like Seinfeld to an improvisational commentary on everyday life like Curb Your Enthusiasm?
What inspired me? Well, okay.

Um, when I was a standup way way many years ago, I took a an improv class and I can remember pretty much every compliment I've ever had in my life. And so this woman in the class when the class was over, she came up to me and she said to me, "You're really good at this." And that kind of stuck in my head. And because I didn't like acting, I didn't like memorizing lines. And I
thought that um I wanted to do uh an a show where I could improvise and that was that was it. But also, yeah, you didn't the the scripts aren't scripts, right, for Curb.

They're they're outlines. And and and Kerb and Seinfeld were written are written the same way. coming up with story ideas on the same dry erase boards. Frankly, doing what I call comedy geometry to like make sure all the stories intersect. The big difference is for Seinfeld then you take a few days to write the script and for Curb we don't because we write it for
the second time on the set and then we write it for the third and final time um in the edit but it's the same it's literally the exact same process, right? So, and by the way, this was the same thing, too.

This is the same as curb. Yeah. Yeah. We just we always do the same. It's it's idea first and then an outline and then, you know, I mean, there's a a saying I just made up that good improv is made up on set, but great improv is made in the edit.

And I think that's that's what happens with this stuff. Like, we generate a ton of different
stuff, ton of great material, and then in the edit, we pick the best stuff. Simple. sort of. Um, all right.

We have a minute and 49 seconds left. Is there any closing words? Be good to yourself. Treat yourself well. Love yourself.
And hey, watch the show. June 26th.

Yeah, June 26. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be it's going to be really fun. I wish we could tell you more, but you're going to you're going to  love it.

Thank you, Lorraine. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. And thank you both. Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

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*Source: stt · Language: en · Model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514*

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