Jerry Seinfeld talks funny business with Mike Hosking ahead of NZ tour

Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld on Seinfeld.

Comedy icon Jerry Seinfeld is famed for his eponymous sitcom that ran for nine seasons and is still beloved by audiences today, though he’s recently made headlines for taking a swing at “the extreme left” for making comedy too “politically correct” in 2024. Here, he talks to Kiwi radio host Mike Hosking about the state of comedy now, protesters at shows and his upcoming tour of New Zealand.

Jerry Seinfeld is bringing Jerry Seinfeld Live to New Zealand in June this year – and ahead of the show, he’s confessed that despite his hugely successful career, he still doubts himself sometimes.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking on air this morning, Seinfeld joked, “it’s great to be back in New Zealand via Zoom”.

For the sitcom star, comedy is all about “muscle memory”. “You can’t ever really stop it if you want to maintain the sharpness of it,” he told the radio host, who asked if he still feels self-doubt after all these years. “It’s not self-doubt, it’s actual doubt. It’s a tricky little balance beam to do your dance on.”

Hosking posed that it was a “tricky time to be funny in America” in the current political climate, but the comedy star disagreed.

“No, because audiences are always telling you exactly where the lines are and aren’t.”

Seinfeld said that whenever protesters pop up at his shows, it can be a “challenge” – but he usually “makes fun of it in the show and the audience is fine with it, they laugh along with it. [With] stand-up comedy, you get a sense of exactly where the public is in everything.”

Pointing to fellow comedian Bill Burr, he says, “We really need people like that, that will just tell you their opinion. We’re okay with anyone’s opinion, you know, but nobody wants to be yelled at and nobody wants to be forced to agree. But whatever your opinion is, if you’re confident in it, then say it – we can all hear it.”

It comes after he told the New Yorker’s Radio House this week that in 2024, people can’t find comic relief because of “the extreme left and PC c**p” – but that it puts stand-up comedians in a good position.

“Now they’re going to see stand-up comics because they are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us. We know when we’re off track. We know instantly. And we adjust to it instantly,” he said.

“But when you write a script, and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups – ‘Here’s our thought about this joke’ – well, that’s the end of your comedy,” Seinfeld said. “The stand-ups really have the freedom to do it because no one else gets the blame if it doesn’t go down well.”

Comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld is coming to New Zealand.

Seinfeld is celebrating his 70th birthday this week, and asked how he’s planning to celebrate, he told Hosking, “My wife gave me a fantastic 65th birthday party, and that one was so great, that’s going to be it.”

Instead, he’ll go out for dinner and “maybe have a brownie or something with a candle”.

Throughout his 60s, he’s learned that “getting older is not something to fear. It’s something that can be really enjoyable, you stop doing the things you don’t really like.”

Last November, it was announced that the legendary comic would return to New Zealand with a brand-new show, bringing Jerry Seinfeld Live to Auckland and Christchurch.

Seinfeld’s first-ever New Zealand show at Spark Arena in 2017 was an instant sell-out. Now, he’s “very excited to return to New Zealand, for my first ever performance in Christchurch, and to see more of such a beautiful country”.

At the time, Paul Dainty, president and CEO of TEG Dainty, expressed his delight in welcoming Seinfeld back to Aotearoa, saying, “We are thrilled to have Jerry Seinfeld return, and to add one Christchurch show to the tour run.

Jerry Seinfeld is bringing his new comedy show to New Zealand.

“He is, without a doubt, the world’s most renowned and accomplished stand-up comedian. This tour provides an opportunity for New Zealand audiences to witness the mastery of his craft.”

Seinfeld’s comedy career took off after his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson back in 1981.

Eight years later, he teamed up with fellow comedy genius Larry David to create what has been dubbed the most successful comedy series in the history of television: Seinfeld.

The show ran on NBC for nine seasons, winning many Emmy, Golden Globe, and People’s Choice awards. Seinfeld was named the greatest television show of all time in 2009 by TV Guide and in 2012 it was voted as the best sitcom ever in a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll.