November 1, 2022
The renowned comic puts his online talk show series between covers. Want to get a cup of coffee? The operative verb, insists Seinfeld, is get, an active word that, he writes, "is really a way of saying, 'I like you enough to do absolutely nothing with.' No higher compliment, to my way of thinking." The conceit is to get coffee, and maybe a nice nosh, in a variety of unique cars from every era. Seinfeld, like frequent interlocutor Jay Leno, is a die-hard car guy, affording a topic of conversation that is of interest only to car guys (and used sparingly here). Though there are some throwaway bits, Seinfeld and the dozens of comedians here have more substantive things to say. There's a lot about comedy, naturally. David Letterman muses about watching Richard Pryor do a bit about having sex with a dog, concluding, "Well, okay. There are many facets of genius." Judd Apatow remembers that his near-broke mother bought a Mercedes, and when he asked her why not a Camry, she replied, "Because I'm not an animal." Money is a preoccupation, but Apatow wisely adds in another conversation, "We're not in the money business. We're in the fun business." Some comics muse on race, some on religion, some on what might have been--e.g., when Don Rickles reckons that he might have made "a damn good psychiatrist." Perhaps surprisingly, the deepest comments come from the late Garry Shandling--unfortunately, too many of Seinfeld's interviewees are no longer with us--who told Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh a side-splitting joke about the Buddha and then concludes of comedy, "It doesn't have any value beyond you expressing yourself spiritually, in a very soulful, spiritual way. It's why you're on the planet." The book features vivid color photos, and the interviewee list is a comedy lover's dream. An amiable, largely amusing ramble down the back roads of the comedian's art.
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December 16, 2022
Comedian Seinfeld's (Is This Anything?) oversized photobook is a valentine to his 11-season TV series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012-19) and to the comedians he admired whom he interviewed on the show. The book opens with a fascinating oral history of the series' origin, including that Starbucks and Netflix both passed on sponsoring the show. Packed with color images, the book assembles back-and-forth banter between Seinfeld and other comedians in chapters devoted to topics like "Growing Up," "Relationships," "TV & Movies," "Music," "Money," "Other Comedians," "Sports," and more. It includes interviews with a roster of comedians who range from the veteran (Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles) to the contemporary (Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Howard Stern, Margaret Cho, David Letterman, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock). The conversations are hilarious, but the book is also rich with autobiographical tales of seeking a life on stage. This is not comedians trading jokes; they're having real conversations filled with witty and astute observations. VERDICT Seinfeld collects funny and introspective conversations with several generations of world-class comedians. Ideal for those interested in stand-up comedy orclever observations about the world.--Kevin Howell
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