Thanks to ”Curb,” Larry”s unleashed
Larry David steals a glance at his wristwatch. It’s about 11:50 a.m. He needs to check out of the hotel by noon. He pleasantly explains he’s only got a few more minutes.
And no offense meant, by the way, when he looked at his watch. “I wasn’t bored or anything,” he assures his interviewer.
Eureka!
“There’s a typical ‘TV Larry’ thing,” he says, unleashing a small rant: “In life, we can’t look at a watch! It’s anti-social to look at a watch. You can’t be at a dinner party and look at a watch. It’s rude! People think you want to go home.
“Maybe you just want to know what time it is! You’re allowed to know what time it is, aren’t you?”
This could be a scene straight from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the sort of deconstruction site where TV Larry thrives.
Having already made TV history (and a bundle) as a creator-producer-writer of “Seinfeld,” David, 60, had little to prove when he shot “Curb” as a comedy special for HBO in 1999, then turned it into a series a year later.
Now in its sixth hit season (airing Sundays at 10 p.m.), the show builds on his “Seinfeld” legacy with a made-for-TV version of himself.
TV Larry is a former “Seinfeld” producer who lives in Los Angeles and confronts random wrongnesses that fuel each episode.
Both he and the real-life Larry have marital difficulties. In June, David and his wife, Laurie David, separated after 14 years of marriage.
On “Curb” last week, Cheryl left Larry. She was fed up after he refused to take her farewell phone call from an airplane she feared was going to crash.
He told her to “call back in 10 minutes” because the cable repairman was at their house fixing the TiVo.
But there are also big differences. For one thing, David is busy channeling himself into a comedy series, whereas its hero, TV Larry, has far too much time on his hands.
Instead, he lives a life of agitated leisure swollen with annoyances (slow toasters, underwear with no fly, anonymous philanthropy, indecisive people ahead of him in line), and he courts disaster by taking corrective action.
But the distinction between the two Larrys is steadily eroding, David reports.
“I feel like TV Larry is my role model,” he says, “and I’m becoming a little more like him – just because I can be, because that’s what people expect.
“Now it’s easier for me to make what would be perceived as an anti-social comment. If I’m at someone’s house for dinner and there’s way too much butter in the mashed potatoes, I might say so now. Whereas before I would be tactful enough not to.”
The birthday bunch
Country musician Charlie Daniels is 71. Actress Jane Alexander is 68. Actor Dennis Franz is 63. Actress Daphne Zuniga is 45. Actress Lauren Holly is 44. Actress Jami Gertz is 42. Actor-comedian Andy Richter is 41. Actress Julia Roberts is 40. Singer Ben Harper is 38. Country singer Brad Paisley is 35. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is 33. Singer Justin Guarini is 29.