Seinfeld goes from playing the UW to the big time
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Jerry Seinfeld has been coming to Seattle for more than 20 years. He's played Swannie's Comedy Underground, Giggles, the University of Washington and Bumbershoot, among others.
We were there most times, and more often than not were granted interviews (these days he doesn't have to do them). Here's a select sampling from Seattle shows and interviews of the past.
February 1986 — During a five-night run at Giggles, he demonstrates how his father always had a burning cigarette in his mouth while moving heavy furniture, and shows what really happens in the washing machine after you close the lid (the clothes dance). But he gets the biggest laughs with a cotton-balls routine, noting that women buy them in bulk, but you never see them being used. "You see them in the wastebasket sometimes, and they look like they've been through some horrible experience."
In a pre-show interview, he said he began taking notes about comedians on "The Ed Sullivan Show" when he was just 10. He studied comedians without telling anyone of his desire to follow in their footsteps. "It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I could admit that to anyone."
January 1990 — In an interview prior to a three-night run at Giggles, he reveals that he has signed to do four more episodes of "The Seinfeld Chronicles," based on his special of the same name that ran on NBC in July 1989. He doesn't hold much hope that it will be picked up as a series. "TV is strictly a sideline," he says. "I'm thinking of it as a way to help my stand-up career."
April 1990 — The University of Washington Daily has a field day making fun of student government's booking of Seinfeld for Parents' Weekend, saying "The Seinfeld Chronicles" are as corny as "Wheel of Fortune." And it reports that only 386 tickets were sold, far too few to pay his $15,000 fee.
November 1990 — "The Seinfeld Chronicles" is a hit and, in town to play the 5th Avenue Theatre, he reveals in an interview that he has signed on for a regular series. "Going from stand-up comedy to a TV series is like going from being a writer to leading a parade," he says. "In one you're completely alone all the time, and in the other you're surrounded."
June 1991 — Prior to a show at the Paramount, he gripes in a phone interview about having to live in L.A. ("I don't know why they put the entertainment industry here — it's not a very entertaining place to live") and explains his philosophy of the show ("We try to set up situations that are funny, and have the people talk like they really talk, not like they've got some 50-year-old gag writer from the Catskills pumping them lines").
April 1992 — Before two Paramount shows, he talks about the success of "Seinfeld." "It's not somebody pulling their pants down or some stupid sex thing. It's just eclectic conversations." He reiterates that he's doing the show to bring more people to his stand-up performances. "A lot of these people have never seen me do stand-up before, ever," he says of the two sold-out Paramount shows. "So there's hours of material I have to draw on. Then there's the 88 monologues I've written for the past 40 episodes."
— Patrick MacDonald