Jerry Seinfeld: I might end my TV ventures

Jerry Seinfeld, seen in Netflix's stand-up comedy special "23 Hours To Kill." Credit: Netflix / Jeffrey Neira
Entering what he's calling the post-show-business part of his career, Jerry Seinfeld said on a conference call Monday that he might end his various TV ventures, including stand-up specials and "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."
During the call — on Zoom, what else? — to promote the latest of those specials ("23 Hours to Kill," premiering Tuesday on Netflix), the Massapequa-raised comedy icon said, "It'll be a few years before I can think about it [but] I'm not the biggest fan of people hanging on to the bitter end. My pattern is to leave a little sooner than you think I was going to."
Seinfeld, 66, said the stand-up will continue after the lockdown ends, and when audiences feel comfortable filling venues like Beacon Theatre, where his artist-in-residency continues (and where "23 Hours" was taped last October).
But the actual taped material might be reaching an end, he said. Of "Comedians" — which launched in 2012 on Crackle, then moved to Netflix in 2018 — Seinfeld said, "I kind of felt like we did that tour." He said he'd wrapped "about 80 [episodes] and they look casual but they're a lot of work and the editing is intense. I may have done that exploration."
Which naturally leaves the obvious question: What then? In 2017 he signed a far-reaching deal with Netflix that hinted at a return to scripted TV. So far it's yielded just two comedy specials (including Tuesday's), a couple of seasons of "Comedians," plus all nine seasons of "Seinfeld," which will begin streaming in 2021.
In an interview with The New York Times, posted Monday, Seinfeld said "I’m kind of — what’s the word? — post-show business now. I did show business. And I love show business, but I’m past that. Past trying to play or understand that game. It doesn’t interest me anymore."
During the Zoom call, he elaborated, saying that "I always wanted to be a stand-up comic and all of this [other stuff] kind of happened. It's still the pattern on the same principle — of waiting for an idea to hit. I'll always go with what seems like a good idea at the time but nothing in mind ... [and] no, I don't want to do another TV series."
He did reemphasize a desire to return to stand-up. "We have to take a cue from the audience [and] what they feel comfortable with. But I don't feel if the theater is one-quarter full, if that's worth doing it for me. I'm going to wait until everyone feels comfortable gathering so you can relax and have a good time. I don't want to compromise the experience. People are going to want ... [stand-up] and need it very much when the time comes, but I want to wait until I can really do it."
Meanwhile, that new — quite possibly, last — TV special: It's a taut, tightly packed hour that is Seinfeldian in all respects, observations about the hassle of facing audiences who go to live shows … the Post Office and Postal Service … texting … New Yorkers.
There is something non-Seinfeldian in one obvious respect, however, in the opening seconds. Attired in a wet suit, standing in the open door of a helicopter that appears to be about 40 feet over the East River, Seinfeld jumps feet first into the water. (The wet suit is part of the gag that opens the show — an homage to James Bond, who also once famously did the same). "I didn't think it would be that big of a deal [but] when we got down to doing it, it was a lot scarier. 'Well, I'm going to jump into the water but we're 40 feet up and the chopper is going and another one is nearby with a camera and you're waiting for boats to leave — it's not locked-down like a movie set — and freighters and barges are going back and forth the whole time, and we're waiting for them to clear?' And then we did it twice."
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