The Daily Beast Podcast - Jeff Garlin on Playing Harvey Weinstein: It’s Not Funny Being Compared to a Rapist

Episode Date: May 9, 2021

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” watchers know the scene: Actor Jeff Garlin is at a party and is mistaken for Harvey Weinstein. Now, he says, it’s happening in real life—still—and he is not a fan. In this bonus episode of The New Abnormal, he tells Molly Jong-Fast all about it, plus why he’s over both conservative—and super liberal—comedy critics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another special bonus episode of The New Abnormal. These are the bonus episodes we do for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast Membership program. And today we have an amazing episode with Jeff Garland, who you may know from his stand-up comedy or his roles on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm or the Goldbergs. Hi, Jeff Garland. I. Welcome to the New Abnormal. That's what I like, the New Abnormal. I adapt to whatever it is.

That's right. I was in California this week. And on my flight home, I just was like, I just decided to watch 15 episodes of Curb, which it's actually not. It's good on a plane for sure. But I was like stuck on the Harvey Weinstein episode. Right. Did that ever happen to you in real life? Never.

Not once. Who cooked that idea up? That was Larry David and Jeff Schaefer. They came and asked me if I would be open to. it and I said, yeah, that's funny. What I didn't realize is to this day, people will see me and go, hi, Harvey. And I go, what makes you think that's funny? It's funny in the episode.

But truthfully, I don't, I mean, I resemble him enough, but I don't really look like him. I mean, you know, in terms of I really look like him. And there's nothing funny about having people come up to you and accuse you of being a rapist. Yeah, it's not good. But it is in the episode, it's brilliant. Very funny in the episode. I'm a big bolla with you. Yeah, but not so funny in real life.

So talk to us about, like, what is your, I mean, it's such an interesting time because it's like, you're a comedian, but you're in the world, and the world is kind of nuts, right? So, like, how do you do that? Well, I'm not doing stand-up. I've chosen to not do stand-up. I'm going to be going out in September again, and I'll probably locally here in Los Angeles start doing stand-up in August. Prior to the pandemic, the longest I ever went without doing stand-up in 38 years was two weeks.

Now I'm well over a year, so. Do you like to do it because it, like, keeps you fresh and inspires you? Why do you do it? Or it's just the money? I do it because I love the art form. It's what I do is if I was a saxophone player. I'm a comedian, and that's what I do. So I do it.

And I love doing it. And it does make me a better actor. It makes me a better improviser. Makes me a better person. On every level, it helps me. And so I've been missing it greatly. I feel like there's this disconnect where conservative comics are like, you can't make jokes anymore. Do you feel that or no?

God, no. I have always felt since I've been doing stand-up and even before, it's not about women comedy are our future. Conservative comics are a future. Funny is our future and it's our past. I don't care what you are, are you funny? And if you're funny, you'll be fine. There's always going to be extremists on both sides

that I'm talking about watching who will have a negative judgment to something someone says. That's their problem. I think the majority of people just want to hear something funny and laugh. Yeah, I think that's right. So I will not be editing my stand-up. I know when I do stand-up, I will say something stupid because I'm a man, but I will not be saying anything ignorant at any point.

That's not who I am. But, yeah, I'm a man, so I'll be stupid. That's a good sign. I mean, that's kind of what is. How much of curb is improvised? It's a story that's written by Larry David, and then we completely improvise every scene. Oh, wow. Is that scary? Not for me. Maybe for others. Not for me at all.

I mean, that's sort of amazing, if you think about it. It's pretty unusual, right? Yeah. We're the only show that does that. I know that. Right. So it's basically significantly harder than just... It can be harder if the scene's not working, but if the scene's working, it's glorious. Right. Like, for example, when I'm on the Goldbergs, they want me to know every, to dot every eye, you know, in everything I say. I don't mind that if I'm doing a Patty Chayevsky play or a movie or something, but it's the Goldbergs. It's like, really?

Sometimes I'm like, didn't I just say the exact same thing? But that's what they want, you know? So for me, it takes away joy. Not memorizing exactly, but depending on the same thing. situation memorizing exactly. But the Goldberg's is actually like as as network shows go, probably one of the funniest. That's what I hear. I don't watch it. I've seen some episodes. I saw one from this season. I don't watch it very often. It's just not my style, you know, for me to watch. And I don't watch my own work generally, but I watched an episode where Wendy

McClendon Covey, who plays Beverly Goldberg, she ran for Comptroller. And it was really funny. Yeah. And I enjoyed it. But in general, I don't watch it. Do you just not watch TV at all, or do you just? No, I love TV. I love TV.

But I watch, I'm watching right now, I'm watching the Showtime show, City on the Hill with Kevin Bacon. Is it really good? Why am I not watching that? Yeah, it's really good. I'm really enjoying it. So I watch a lot of our drama. Right.

I especially love English procedurals, European procedurals. Don't love American for the most part. So you're fancy. It's like the books of television. Yes. Right? Yes. So that's what I enjoy.

There's not, I mean, South Park, I do enjoy watching Curb on occasion. Well, I have to watch every episode because I'm a producer. Right. But South Park's probably the only comedy that, like I love the show Barry, but it's not like I look at that for laughs and I look at it because I think it's so good. Is Barry like, I feel like Barry is like the show that people in the business watch because it's so good.

There is no show that people in the business watch because it's good. Because I know people in the business that watch things where I go, why do you watch that? And then there's other people who like watch things that are really, like, you know, it's a great show. Probably my favorite of the past few years is one on Netflix called Marcella. Yes, that's an amazing show. I've seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I love that show. So you're going to have another season of Curb, and then that's it? Because anything good has to stop? No, no. Every year, I don't know if we're doing another season. But no, we do a season, and then Larry decides whether we want to do another one. That's really it. So we've got a new season that we're almost done filming. You've filmed it during COVID? Yes, and it has nothing to do with COVID.

Good. Like, was it scary? about getting back to normal life? Yes, at first it was very scary. Both shows, Goldberg's anchor, very scary. And then it became less scary because I saw the protocols being followed. And now I'm inoculated,

so I'm not arrogant about it, but it certainly takes away a lot of the fear. Yeah, I was completely scared of it. And now that I'm vaccinated, I'm not at all. You know, I mean, I know we're supposed to be careful. I mean, it's that, But it's... Well, you still got to be careful.

But what the inoculation does, it takes away the threat of being put on a respirator. Right, which is the big thing. Exactly. What else are you working on? I'm preparing a photo book of my photography. I'm about to start two different podcasts with IHeart Radio. Will you tell us about the podcast? Well, one's the history of curb and one's my old show that I used to do called By the Way.

But I got too busy, you know, and I stopped, but I'm going to do that again. And the history of curb is episode by episode going over each episode with a guest. That sounds amazing. I would totally, wouldn't you listen to that, Jesse? That sounds like such a good idea for a podcast. Oh, right? Oh, thank you. And then I'm developing a movie that I'm directing, which I don't like talking about,

but it's a pretty big movie. and it's going to, I'm really looking forward to it. It's a bio. And then I'm developing different shows and movies, other stuff. Yeah, I'm developing lots of stuff all the time. And yes, I'm always tired. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm not doing half as much as you're doing and I'm completely fried all the time. Yeah. But you know what? That's how we got. What I really learned during the pandemic is the fact that I'm really good with doing nothing. Yeah, it is really interesting. Like the times when I'm not busy, I'm so, I'm sort of like, why am I not busy? Is there something I'm supposed to be doing? Is there, you know, it's. Yeah, well, that's left my body, that feeling. I have no feeling.

Is there something I'm supposed to be doing? I mean, I just have to ask my assistant, am I doing something today? I'll ask her that because I don't know. I'm out of it. I like to take lots of naps. I meditate. I love doing nothing. That's great.

That's like the dream. You directed one of my favorite, you can't even call it a documentary, really, but the John Waters movie you directed. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that was this filthy world. And basically I told John, I go, I just want to capture what you do on stage with your one-man show because you're cinematic. So I'm going to have very slow camera movement, static cameras. I made that as a choice. And it was delightful to spend time with him.

I learned a lot from him. And what a wonderful, fascinating man. And it's still on Netflix, if you want to see it. It's really delightful. It's called This Filty World and it's John in concert. Yeah, it really is amazing. I watched it within the last year and really held it up. Susie Ashton, she's amazing.

Are you just like she's a genius? I look at her more as a genius. genius as a person. She's a confidant. She's one of my best friends. So, I mean, I think she's great as Susie, my wife, but I think she's more of a genius as a friend. I find her to be like the funniest woman in the world. Well, that's great. I mean, she is really funny. She just cracks me up every time. Yeah, she makes me laugh too. And she's just a dear friend. I love her. This was really great. Thank you so much for joining us, Jeff. Well, Molly, it was a, uh, liked and you enjoy your loveliness. Jesse, enjoy your loveliness. And I'll talk to you guys later.

Jesse's very lovely. All right, I'll talk to you guys later. Thanks, Jeff. On that note, we'll wrap this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast. In future episodes, we'll be talking to smart folks from the Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics and science. We'll help us understand what's happening to our country and the world. We hope you'll subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app and share the show on social media. Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you again on the next episode. Want more great listens? Check out our comedy podcast, The Last Laugh, and our star-studded

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