Larry David Decoded
Understanding the "Seinfeld" creator and the Island's sole cult hero.
He is our sole cult hero, with the late John Belushi filling that slot before him. As a summer Vineyarder, he’s drastically famous: People recognize him even without ever having watched his comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Of those who’ve seen it, there are two categories: Those who’ve endured it once and declared, “Everyone’s so testy and unpleasant. I’d rather watch old ‘Cosby’ re-runs.” And then there are the rest of us who sponge it up, and who verbally trade favorite scenes like others swap baseball cards.
My own fav was the time in the deli when Larry decided his pal Richard Lewis had a better sandwich named after him than did Larry. To get back at him, he reveals he’s recently discovered he was adopted. Richard, whose comedy act has always included stories of his dysfunctional New Jersey Jewish family, is so envious, he drops the f-bomb. My son Charlie, a 27-year-old writer now living in LA, says his favorite “Curb” is when Larry “outs” the elderly Japanese kamikaze pilot in a nursing home: “How can you be a kamikaze pilot if you’re still alive?” Clearly, the guy missed the battleship, but is he going to miss Larry when he charges him in his wheel chair?
“Curb” is an improvisational series featuring a mega-successful TV writer / producer (Larry David created “Seinfeld”), pretty much playing himself, with actors portraying other key figures in his life, like his wife and his manager. Actors and comedians, including Wanda Sykes, Ted Danson and Richard Lewis, often play versions of themselves.
Larry’s character lacks that part of the brain with a conference table surrounded by censors with clipboards. Most of us have this brain monitor division fully active— i.e., should I tell her that skin rash looks like leprosy? Should I mention I missed his birthday party because he has boring friends? Would it be a bad idea to inform these people I don’t socialize with Republicans? No, no, and yes, the monitors will prompt us.
Larry maintains that he’s not the annoying jerk that makes us howl with laughter in his series. He revealed in a “Rolling Stone” interview: “We’re always doing things that we don’t want to, we never say what we really feel, and so this is an idealized version of how I want to be.”
But here on the Island where all of us are at our most relaxed, is Larry David one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet? Well, sometimes. A friend of mine who attends many of the same up-Island parties says, “He’s a good guy. Oh, he can be a little oblivious to social etiquette, but if he’s known you for a while, he pays attention. He wants to have a good time. He’s very interactive. People really do like him.”
On the other hand, sometimes he can slip into his evil twin from the TV screen. A doctor friend who spent a summer participating in a weekly poker party that included Larry David said he enjoyed the great man’s company so much, he thought he’d see if he could get him to take a look at the screenplay his talented daughter had just won an award for at Emerson College. As the two men walked to their cars, the doctor said, “Say, Larry, I was wondering if you could read— “
“NO,” said the comic with a firmness that took the doctor’s breath away. Larry climbed into his car, rolled down the window, and asked, “Anything else?”
Another time a journalist from Washington, D.C. approached Larry at a party and, after introducing herself, began to rave about “Curb.” “I don’t talk to reporters,” he told her curtly.
This is unsparingly rude. On the other hand, most of us Vineyarders know better than to lather on the compliments with celebrities. It’s classier to pretend Owen Wilson is just another guy rough-housing with a dog at the beach, or that Lady Gaga is getting away with her disguise of sunglass lenses big as salad plates, and wearing her own hair.
Once, in fact, when I owned a little bookstore in Oak Bluffs, I looked up from the counter and saw the craggy-nosed, bald-headed profile of Larry David checking out my Recent Non-Fiction Releases. Even though a couple of years earlier I’d happily chatted up President Clinton in the store, I would have sooner cut off my middle finger than disturb the famously tart TV personality. Besides, he’d just split from his wife, and was dating girls young enough to be babies in his next incarnation. I was at least one hundred and eighty years too old for him, and I quailed at the idea that he might imagine I was flirting with him.
Minutes later an attractive young woman who was just being born when I became eligible for my first colonoscopy arrived to tell him their table was ready at the Oyster Bar.
So is he agreeable here on the Vineyard? Well, from my perspective, he could have asked me to recommend a mystery, just as Bill Clinton did. He could have bought a book for that matter. Does he even read? Well, that’s a subject for a whole ‘nother column.
Quick tip: Read “Hitchhiking with Larry David” by Paul Samuel Dolman. You’ll learn a few surprising things about a more thoughtful Larry David, and Dolman is hilarious.
julie
10:34 am on Monday, August 1, 2011
Love the article, and the photo hysterical
Paul
1:13 pm on Monday, August 1, 2011
Holly, what a great piece... and thank you for the kind words about my book, HITCHHIKING WITH LARRY DAVID... the book is selling all over the Island... I actually ran into Larry last week and had a wonderful, spontaneous lunch... He is an amazing guy and has been so generous to me in terms of this book... and really in general... Once again, very well done!
Holly Nadler
10:36 pm on Monday, August 1, 2011
Paul, I hope your book starts selling all over the country. It's that good. And the fact that you recently ran into Larry David again is verging on the paranormal!
Kris Hrycun
10:45 am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
I've ever seen the kamikazie episode. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! And I think Larry has every right to snub people who want him to read material. Entertainment people are always wary of a person's ulterior motives...and moments like that reinforce the reason why! Larry is great!
Cynthia Mascott
11:10 am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Well I for one am able to like scenes from certain episodes of "Curb" and "Seinfeld" but the characters are just so mean spirited. Having said that if Larry David ever deemed to speak to me I am sure I wouldn't be able to stop laughing
David Whitmon
11:18 am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
I LOVE IT HOLLY!....... This is a riot...... LOL
I completely understand Larry David not talking to reporters.
I have to say that except for you Holly, the times I've been interviewed or even written a letter to the Island paper(s) about bicycling, both papers have rewritten and at times completely fabricated statements attributed to me. Every Single Time. I even once wrote to the gazette about a fabricated statement attributed to me in an article. Not only did they rewrite that letter, they also rewrote the word for word fabricated quote from the article, making it quite a bit different than what ran in the original article.
We're talking two small papers. I bet the big city papers are even worse.
Carolyn O'Daly
10:38 am on Wednesday, September 7, 2011
David--I personally know a journalist from one of the Island papers who is a frustrated author and rewrites EVERYTHING that is submitted for print. I know authors who have forbidden their name to be attached to things that were published because of this.
Carol Fleisher Scobby
11:28 am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
You're getting to be funnier than Larry David! "Minutes later an attractive young woman who was just being born when I became eligible for my first colostomy arrived..."!
Paula J. Caplan
11:43 am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Yes, I loved the colostomy sentence most ... out of many in a great piece!
paul mohair
12:35 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
"It’s a series centered on the petty irritations that blister an idle, privileged life," was how "Curb.." was recently described in a NYT piece. Its perfect description of the show and Larry, himself. I suspected he isn't all crank and grump. Glad to hear he knows how to enjoy himself when he wants to. And the new season hasn't lost a step.
Michael West
1:17 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Holly, wonderful piece on Mr. Larry David. Love the show, love the irrascible Larry, a better-looking Don Rickles, who insists on complicating his life with every word he utters, every false step he takes. Where there's smoke, there's fire is how I'd imagine the real Larry to be, but not everyone is as likable as Tim Conway or Jackie Gleason. Take Jackie Mason -- puh-lease. Anyway, Larry David is a comic genius and for that we should cut him some slack. So the craggy-nosed, bald-headed man likes younger women... At least we have that much in common.
Holly Nadler
1:23 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
By the way, LD fans, another side of Larry was manifest in last week's Shouts & Murmurs section of The New Yorker about how he used Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's stages of grief to come to the conclusion that he would always suck at golf. My favorite line was, "I felt liberated, not unlike the way I felt when my wife left me, but this time I didn't take up skipping."
Jack Shea
1:54 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Good job Hol. Call if you need backup
jack
Charlie Nadler
3:10 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
This is the definitive piece on the topic of screenplay reading and LD surely is part of this same camp of thought!
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php
Holly Nadler
5:41 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Well, Charlie, that article certainly lays to rest the whole issue of why many people in The Biz won't read scripts. And I know from my own experience that if you read someone's manuscript, then try to offer constructive criticism, the person gets defensive, so what's the use? On the other hand, I can't help thinking we should continuously strive to be, dare I day it?, kind, and that might extend to, oh shoot, I can't bring myself to finish the thought; it's too depressing.
Simon Goldberg
3:48 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Holly great piece. Charlie hilarious article.
I was able to read Hitchhiking with LD on my flight back to LA from MV. Loved the book. Makes me miss hitchhiking back there. Can't stick the thumb up out here on the 101.
Holly Nadler
8:32 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Does anybody have a story about an encounter with Larry David that ended up in one of his Curb episodes? I'll share mine if you'll share yours!
owen mascott
12:46 pm on Friday, August 5, 2011
Fun piece--we've all wondered what is the dude like IN PERSON. Now if he'll just stop in at your newspaper office, you'll know you got read. The amusing anecdote for this West Coaster re:LD is that my good friend John Keller looks JUST like him (poor guy) when the hair gets unruly & long--he was asked if he was HE at a Sherman Oaks-Hamburger Hamlet minutes b4 I joined John there last year.
Holly Nadler
1:24 pm on Friday, August 5, 2011
And John was so cute when he was a kid! Oh well, if he acted prickly enough, he might get some free meals out of the resemblance to Larry David!
Richard Horgan
9:46 pm on Thursday, August 11, 2011
Does anyone here happen to know if the recently created (and still unverified) Twitter account @LarryDavidMVY is real or not? It seems fake, but you never know...
Vanessa Czarnecki
11:28 am on Friday, August 12, 2011
Richard, I don't know for certain, but I suspect it is not. There's been quite a few false Twitter accounts created for Larry David in the past. He doesn't usually court attention on the Island.
Richard Horgan
4:27 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011
@Vanessa The odd thing is that this fake Twitter account makes mention of the lunch your first commenter, Paul, references. So whoever is faking this is putting some good factual effort into it and would seem to be MV-adjacent.
Holly Nadler
9:06 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011
Richard, I wonder if Larry David might hate to attract attention but, on the other hand, has to be out and about to collect new characters and material. A Twitter account might be just the thing for him.
Richard Horgan
10:21 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011
@Holly A good way to evaluate such a Twitter account is to quickly look at who they are following. Based on followed folks @LarryDavidMVY, don't think it's our CURB guy. I too would not be surprised if David is on Twitter, just don't think this is his corner.
Perry Block
5:35 am on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Holly, I'm following your converation with Richard Horgan (who I follow on Twitter and FB), and I can sort of explain how @LarryDavidMVY came to follow some of those unfamous, oddball, and uncool folk such as me that he's following.
I had sent a tweet mentioning LD one day a few weeks back & within ten minutes I got a message that @LarryDavidMVY was following me. After my initial euphoria that the Messiah must have come at last for the Jewish people, I clicked on the twitter site. I found that it had just been opened up & that @LarryDavidMVY was following many of the people who had just referenced Larry David in their tweets. So, the person on the account did a Twitter search to find a bunch of people to follow right off the bat.
I have a hunch this is Larry David just messing around as kind of a lark but for no particular purpose. The person on the account hardly tweets, puts little effort into it, & acts as if he doesn't need it. Not the pattern of a typical imposter. The last tweet was August 1 & I kind of doubt he'll even come back on the account again.
Plus, @LarryDavidMVY posted as its avatar for a couple of days the same picture of the lunch with Paul Dolman that Mr. Dolman has on his FB site. Unless that picture was widely available on the Island, how'd he get it?
Why do I go on so about this? @LarryDavidMVY tweeted me "Funny... you are funny." If it is LD, for me the Messiah really has come! Metaphorically speaking, that is.
Thanks!
Holly Nadler
1:33 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Perry, it does sound like the Twitter might be genuinely Larry David's -- what better way to collect material for his show? And this way he doesn't need to interact with anybody, an activity he seems to revile. But by the way, Paul Dolman does have some kind of low-key, enchanting friendship with LD, and Paul himself is sort of seraphic, so all that stuff about their lunch and the picture is fine and dandy.
Renny Wilson
12:09 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Very Good Article!!! I find the comments even more interesting and unique to most sites. Many people commenting in this thread seem to know each other and seem close. Is there a strong tendency towards endogamy on the Vineyard? The article writes "most of us Vineyarders know better than to lather on the compliments with celebrities. It’s classier to pretend Owen Wilson is just another guy rough-housing with a dog at the beach", yet there is a fascination with LT. Does the "Vineyarders" have a caste system? Are their expectations of LT to desire to be part of something you all share? Thank you for the article and for any replies. I would love to read a comprehensive book on the Island. Are there any recommendations?
Holly Nadler
1:11 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Renny, thanks for your comments. I think the Vineyard is less class and caste-system-ed than most places. It's not Uptopia, but I believe it's the closest a community has come so far. First read Milton Mazer's book (founder of Community Services) who had some important things to say about Vineyard sociology that still holds up today. Then look in the library for old and new books about Island life. Finally, if you liked the fun bits in the above article, you might enjoy my book Vineyard Confidential: 300 years of Scandals, Eccentrics & Strange Occurences, by Down East Books. Sorry to pimp my own work, but I can't help myself. It's like Dr. Strangelove's arm shooting up!
Renny Wilson
1:42 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Thank you! Love the title of your book. No shame in pimping your work. I'm starting with your book. Thank you again.
Perry Block
2:02 am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Holly, thank you for responding to my overlong and kind of annoying message. Sorry to prattle on so about a very possibly bogus Twitter account, but who knows? To have interacted even through Twitter with Larry David is certainly one for anyone's scrapbook.
I also very much enjoyed your piece and your writing as well as learning the word "seraphic," which I am preparing to use as soon as at all conceivably appropriate.
Holly Nadler
7:54 am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Thank you, Perry: I tried a seraphic look on a rude August person yesterday but he wasn't buying it. I was walking my dog off-leash, as we all do, on one of the paths that leads to Trade Winds. The man was jogging, said he'd be back and forth that way and ORDERED me to put my dog back on its leash. I asked him to jog somewhere else, but I kept my expression seraphic. Well it's hard to be a seraph for long and I said, "What are you, an August [expletive deleted]?" He maintained righteously that he'd been coming here since 1949, but I pointed out that he exposed himself as an August person because Islanders are more civil to one another. We really are. That's why we wish a small but vocal and entitled and RUDE demographic of August people would just pack up and go home; never mind the big rents or mortgages you're paying that make you feel you can TELL people what to do. We don't go it that way here.
Perry Block
11:17 am on Thursday, August 18, 2011
Sounds like the Island is the place to be! And your story not only provides further guidance in use of the word "seraphic" but also introduces --- at least to me --- the term "August person." Thanks again, Holly ....
Kris Hrycun
11:40 am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Way to go, Holly! Stand your ground. Don't get trampled but interlopers!
Beth Jensen
2:14 am on Tuesday, August 30, 2011
As John Keller's sister, (L.A. LD look-alike), I can firmly attest to the fact that my bro does have a "prickly" side, which often mimics Larry David's! And Owen, Johnny has been mistaken for LD more times than I can count!
Holly Nadler
5:41 pm on Sunday, September 4, 2011
Seems to me this should get you a good table in restaurants, plus those little extras chefs send out to celebs!
Carolyn O'Daly
10:48 am on Wednesday, September 7, 2011
This thread has meandered off topic but there are (or were) two celebs on this Island that enjoyed interactions. One is Tony Shaloub. Loved hearing how much people enjoyed Monk and the other was (bless her soul) Patricia Neal who would even invite people walking by her house in to see her new bath tub. Being a famous celebrity never got old for her. Larry who???
Holly Nadler
5:45 pm on Wednesday, September 7, 2011
I agree, Carolyn: Patricia Neal always seamed gracious, fragile, and beautiful.