“Can you review the new Larry David show?”, the editor asked.
“Of course,” I replied. This is that review.
Except it isn’t. I can’t objectively review anything by Larry David, who is not only the single greatest living comedy writer and performer (that ignores Mel Brooks, who was 100 last Saturday – but I want to be able to call Larry David the greatest, even if in truth he is only the second greatest) but also the man I aspire to be. I don’t mean as a multi-millionaire (well, obviously I do aspire to that, but let’s maintain a semblance of reality). I mean in the way he behaves both in his Curb Your Enthusiasm persona and in real life.
I’ve written before about this and how I flew to New York for one night to see Larry David on Broadway. For my 50th birthday I was given a signed picture of Larry and it now stands proudly in my hallway, so I see it – I see him – many times a day. Were he to stand in front of a camera and recite the alphabet 30 times, I’d not only watch, I’d tell you to watch, too. It’s Larry David! Reciting the alphabet! Not just once but 30 times! What’s not to like?!
So here is my review, in full: Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America is streaming now on HBO Max, with new episodes every Friday. It’s a sketch show about events in American history, marking the country’s 250th birthday. Watch it.
Thing is, a 39-word review isn’t going to get me paid. I suppose the JC want more from me than just “It’s a new Larry David show, so watch it”.
You want detail? The first sketch of the opening programme has Larry as Robert R Livingston, one of the five original drafters of the US Declaration of Independence. I don’t want to give away all the jokes but the sketch is built around Livingston as a 1776 version of Larry, suggesting the declaration includes demands such as that anyone invited to a dinner party should always be told who else will be there, that it should be illegal to wish anyone a happy new year after 7 January and that sharing umbrellas should be banned.
You can imagine Larry and his co-writer, Seinfeld and Curb alumnus Jeff Schaffer, going through key moments in US history and wondering what a Larry David character would add.
Which gives us Larry’s presence on Rosa Parks’ bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. She sits next to him up front and refuses to move – but he is so crushingly dull that she ends up climbing over him to get to the back to escape his interminable wittering.
Critics have already said that the seven episodes of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America aren’t as good as Curb, which is like saying that not all Mozart’s compositions are as good as Don Giovanni. So what? It’s still Larry David.
The show is produced by the Obamas’ Higher Ground company, and Barack is the first person we see on screen. Other cameos include Jon Hamm, Jane Krakowski, Henry Winkler, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Vince Vaughan, Jerry Seinfeld and Curb regulars Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman and JB Smoove.
It’s Larry David. Watch it.
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