But what’s Seinfeld really been up to? Even the comedian whose show was famously about nothing must have been doing something . We know he’s got a growing family–three kids ages 6 and under. He occasionally does live stand-up. But it turns out he’s been quietly busy for the last three years writing, producing and starring in a movie for DreamWorks, a film that’s sure to produce enormous buzz, not least because it’s called “Bee Movie.” You may have seen the recent trailer, a goofy tease with Jerry dressed in an unwieldy yellow bee suit–a gag more Lucille Ball than Seinfeldian. So laugh, but don’t be fooled. The movie, actually, is animated and stars Seinfeld’s distinctly New York voice as Barry B. Benson, a bee who leaves the hive and discovers, to his horror, that humans have been stealing their honey. While out in the wide world, Barry falls for Vanessa, a New York City florist (voiced by Renée Zellweger). “Somehow you buy that these two hit it off,” Seinfeld explains. “It’s sweet, it’s sweet–but I don’t really go for sweet. It happened, and I didn’t resist. But I just go for funny.”
Seinfeld’s having coffee off Broadway in New York–not in a greasy spoon like the coffee shop where Jerry, George and Elaine kvetched about the minutiae of their lives, but in a slightly Frenchified place called Le Pain Quotidien. It means “daily bread,” but somehow “quotidian” seems right for Seinfeld, 52, a guy whose entire career is built on his bemused study of everyday life. He says the idea for “Bee Movie” began with just the title: “I thought B-movie was a good idea for a movie about bees,” he deadpans. When he saw the animation technology at DreamWorks, he was hooked. “I love technology, so–comedy, technology, cartoons.” In his New York office, Seinfeld is connected to the studio in California via computer screens where animators display the images they’re working on with him. Everyone’s still tweaking–the movie won’t be out until November–and Seinfeld, an inveterate tweaker, is still rewriting. “I think I’m bringing a different humorous sensibility to an animated movie,” he says. “There’s a lot of attitude in the jokes, the same way it was on the show.”
The real Seinfeld, of course, is not the “Seinfeld” we know–especially now that he’s famous and seriously rich. But he knows he’s got to stick to certain basics or he won’t be Seinfeld at all. After nine years of living in Los Angeles while doing the series, he moved back to New York. “I thought if I just live on the Upper West Side, that’s the best thing I can do to stay sane and stay funny,” he says. “I really feared for my sense of humor if I stayed in L.A.” So he roams his neighborhood and buys bagels at the same place he did when he was a struggling stand-up comic and used to smear one with peanut butter and call it dinner.
Performing live is the discipline he won’t let go. “I tried laying off the stand-up, and I felt like I lost a primary connection,” says Seinfeld. “I think there’s actually a brain muscle in doing stand-up, and it felt kind of flabby. And when your idea pickup machine lies fallow, it needs to be sharpened up.” Seinfeld still slips into small clubs to try material, and he’s constantly nursing new bits. Reaching into his backpack, he pulls out a little black leather notebook, where he jots down ideas. He opens a page: “Why don’t the walls go to the ground in toilet stalls?” he asks. “My job is to pick up on that thing that’s just below your conscious level.”
And what about that even deeper artesian well of pure inspiration in his personal life? “There’s no way to even describe the gold mine in the comedic arts that family life is,” says Seinfeld, who married at 45. “I can’t believe I missed it for so long. If my life was total misery–which it’s not, it’s heaven, I love my wife, I’m having a great time–but if it was total misery, it would still be worth it for the jokes.”
So he’s a little choosy about how he occupies his time. After every Hollywood offer imaginable, he finally took up “Bee Movie,” though he says with a laugh, “I honestly didn’t think it would be this much work.” He starts talking about other funny movies. " ‘Borat’," he says, “is one of the greatest movie comedies ever made.” Recently he gave some advice to its creator and star, Sacha Baron Cohen, about taking his time to choose his next project. “There’s tremendous pressure when you have a hit like that. I said to him, ‘With a guy in the position you’re in, there’s no when, there’s only what’.” So now that “Bee Movie” is almost done and he gears up for what he calls “the Bataan death march” of publicity, what’s he going to do next with his life? “Oh, God, I have no idea. My life? Just drink this cup of coffee, that’s as far as I’m going.” Spoken just like “Seinfeld.”
