Word: seinfeldisms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...immortalized-in syndication and on DVD-standing in his kitchen, eating sugary cereal for dinner, in jeans and sneakers and an untucked shirt. But on a warm, rainy evening in August in a nondescript dressing room backstage in a theater in Colorado Springs, Jerry Seinfeld is dressed as if he were going to church: a dark suit, a crisp, white shirt and an elegant, silvery tie. And he acts a bit devout too, bowing his head in a moment of silence...
...Seinfeld is getting ready for a different sort of ancient ritual: stand-up comedy. "It's kind of that feeling before an ocean swim," he says of facing an audience armed with nothing but jokes. "You know it's gonna be cold at first, but once I get in, it's really fun. And you never know what the waves are going to be like...
...Onstage, Seinfeld is, of course, neither blue nor edgy but meticulously funny. "I love having kids," he tells the audience. "I used to see couples pushing strollers and think, Why would you do that? Why would you want someone in your house that just craps in their pants while they're looking you right in the eye?" On al-Qaeda training videos: "Why are terrorists always working out on the monkey bars? Has there ever been a war where the decisive battle was fought on a children's playground?" And he says dryly, "Everything in Iraq seems to be going...
...This is what he has been doing on most weekends since Seinfeld went off the air: traveling to stand-up gigs across the country. No press, no entourage, just a tour manager, a garment bag and an opening act (usually one of Seinfeld's old friends-Mario Joyner, Tom Papa or Mark Schiff). "Doing my act and working on that-that's my job," says Seinfeld. "To actually do your creative thing right in front of an audience and have them judge it right there-that's exciting." His life on the road was chronicled in the 2002 documentary Comedian...
...arena of sexual relationships, however, that the linguistic dance can be its most elaborate. In an episode of Seinfeld, George is asked by his date if he would like to come up for coffee. He declines, explaining that caffeine keeps him up at night. Later he slaps his forehead: "'Coffee' doesn't mean coffee! 'Coffee' means sex!" The moment is funny, but it's also a reminder of just how carefully romantic partners must always tread. Make too blatant a request, as in Tootsie, and the hearer is offended; too subtle, as in Seinfeld, and it can go over...