Review: Enough laughs to survive, never enough to stop struggling
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2012
Maybe he's just cracking another joke but Fred Stoller says that rather than tell her friends her son is a comedian, his mother says he's retarded.She is the same person who asks him how he is going to make people laugh when he always seems to be so depressed. And insecure, so unsure of himself and so shy that at 17 he once practically needed to ask permission to enter a supermarket, he says.That's the self-deprecating tone of this memoir, a tale more wistful and questioning than funny. Stoller is the clown wearing a sad face.While waiting in the wings of the Disney teen show "Wizards of Waverly Place," on which he has the small part of a doorman, Stoller sums up his career trajectory, "Wow, here I am, the 52-year old guest star wearing a Pee Wee Herman bellhop uniform and a monkey cap."He's been a trouper, selling laughs playing the role of a schnook in off-kilter parts for decades. "When people stop me at the mall and demand to know where they know me from, usually it's as Elaine's annoying date on `Seinfeld', Ray's mopey cousin on `Everybody Loves Raymond,' or the jerky waiter on `Friends.'"And then there's 1994, the year he spent around the table as a writer on "Seinfeld," sitting in the same room with the other sitcom writers, producer Larry David and Jerry, the man,  himself. One of the first things Jerry commented by way of greeting was "nice belt." Stoller never wore the belt to work again. The next day and for the rest of the week, Jerry asked, "Where's the belt?"Most of Stoller's story is a behind-the-scenes look at "Seinfeld." It's a fascinating peek behind the curtain and at the creative process. Each show started with an idea, a pitch. A friend has bulked up so much he can't wear his expensive Armani suit any longer. He gives the suit to Jerry and all he asks for in return is that Jerry buys him dinner sometime. Trouble is, they have opposing ideas on what exactly constitutes a dinner. After the pitch is approved, the writer develops four stories connected to the central idea and involving Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer. Everything gets revised, revised again and eventually approved by Larry and Jerry and the 22-minute show gets taped.Stoller spent the year helping create classic television. It was a year he'll never forget. The first time his mother saw his name in the opening credits as screen writer she described the experience as "mind bottling."Stoller has continued working but that was the peak. He's still out there acting and wearing those funny hats, hoping to earn some more laughs. "I get enough work to not quit, but never enough to feel I can take a deep breath and stop struggling."If you're a "Seinfeld" fan, read the memoir. It also offers some heartfelt expression of how hard it is to be funny. And how it's even more difficult to impress your mother.