David Steinberg
David Steinberg
David Steinbergis a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known comics in the United States. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more than 130 timesand served as guest host 12 times, the youngest person ever to guest-host. Steinberg directed several films and episodes of television situation comedies, including Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Designing...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth9 August 1942
CityWinnipeg, Canada
CountryCanada
The interesting thing about improvisation is you're making something up in front of the audience. Now music helps you out a little bit because you have an instrument that'll separate you from the audience.
Here's the rule that I set for myself, and I believe it - even on a show like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm': the more personal you are, the wider your audience.
Silences are the most underrated part of comedy.
I rewrote it and I took all your notes. Read it again, that kind of persistence paid off.
Comedians talk to other comedians the way jazz musicians can talk to each other.
My father was a rabbi and had a little synagogue in Canada, so I'm from Canada. I left there at 16.
And it was a huge emotional thing to leave the law and become unemployed - to be a student again.
I started writing this feature comedy in New York - a Chris Farley vehicle. The script was decent. When I got to LA, I met some new friends in film school and had them read my script and give me notes.
I starred in a Broadway play that was Sidney Poitier's first directing job and the cast was Lou Gossett, Cicely Tyson, Diana Ladd and I played a Jewish kid who offered himself as a slave to two Columbia University students as reparations.
I used to have a theory actually that, if you've had a good childhood, a good marriage and a little bit of money in the bank, you're going to make a lousy comedian.
The one thing an audience always has in common with a comedian is troubles. The Yiddish word for that is tsuris. You're always putting your tsuris on stage whether you like it or not. No one is untroubled, unless they're just, you know, an imbecile.
I do not believe for a moment that you are evil or that you don't feel a deep sense of personal regret and even sorrow over the poor judgment you exercised on Nov. 3, 2003, ... I have considered and rejected the notion that sending you to jail will serve the legitimate sentencing goals of rehabilitation or deterrence. It is also not necessary to send you to jail for public safety reasons or for retribution sake alone. I will not do that.