Jerry Seinfeld Talks ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’ Season Eight
In a Facebook Live video chat on Tuesday, Jerry Seinfeld answered questions about the forthcoming season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, advice for doing standup, Seinfeld memories, recent guests and more.
“I really did the show for comedy geeks” and for standup fans, Seinfeld explained of his web series. “It was like a little garage project for me,” he added, saying he didn’t know that the show would resonate as it has.
During his chat with Instagram’s Head of Global Creative Programs Charles Porch, the comedian revealed that he picks the car he drives for each episode, saying “cars are kind of a language for me” and said the new season’s second episode would feature Margaret Cho, who talks about dealing with a comedy set that went very wrong. Other guests include Lorne Michaels, John Oliver, J.B. Smoove, Judd Apatow and Jim Gaffigan. Seinfeld also says there will be six episodes for Season Eight.
While the show focuses on comedians, Seinfeld recently had President Obama on the show and he went to the White House. “That was the most amazing day in my life,” the comedian said. “I did not know why I was there or why they asked us if he could be on it.” Seinfeld said that Obama’s Correspondence Dinner monologues “are actually well delivered” and “that’s really actually solid comedy that he’s doing there. So we said, ‘OK, he qualifies.'” Though he added, “I didn’t see any really funny comedian presidents coming, so I thought I’d better take this opportunity,” joking that that might change soon.
During the conversation, he gave advice to aspiring standup comedians, such as “following a bad idea can be just as useful as following a good idea.” Later he explained, “A lot of comedy is removing what isn’t funny, it’s like sculpting.”
The conversation turned to Seinfeld as well. “The show was completely unsupervised by NBC,” he said and he revealed that while there were show ideas the network was skeptical of, including the one where the cast spent time waiting for a table at Chinese restaurant, the network never kept them from executing an idea.
When asked who was the most difficult person to work with on Seinfeld, he quickly named Larry David, but added that “Larry and I were blessed with a fantastic chemistry” and he said that David’s portrayal on Curb Your Enthusiasm is “not exaggerated at all, but he just takes the funny part of his personality.” Curb Your Enthusiasm is reportedly slated for a renewal after a five-year hiatus.
Seinfeld also discussed the late Garry Shandling, Steve Martin, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and more. Watch the conversation above.
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Season Eight will premiere on June 16th via Crackle. The first episode features comedian Jim Gaffigan.