At 82, comedian Jerry Stiller is still happily ‘hanging around’
Chris Serico • The Journal News • March 2, 2010 • Photo: CBS
What’s Jerry Stiller up to these days? According to him, he’s just “hangin’ around.”
That’s what the 82-year-old comedian says when he mentions his age. That’s what he says when he credits his wife and fellow comedy legend, Anne Meara, for sharing in what he calls his greatest career accomplishment, sticking with each other, on and off stage. That’s also his sentiment when he’s asked about his next goal.
“You never know what’s going to happen next,” says Stiller, reflecting on his career. “I never diagrammed my life. Anne and I never had a plan.”
And why shouldn’t he just live in the moment? Following the success of Stiller & Meara, he endured a career lull in the ’80s but rallied with a classic Hollywood comeback, rocking memorable stints as Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld,” Arthur Spooner on “The King of Queens” and various characters in projects starring his children, actors Ben and Amy Stiller.
Jerry Stiller’s next public hangout will be in the Hudson Valley on Saturday, when he’ll headline a Tarrytown Music Hall show with fellow comedy vets Dick Gregory and Irwin Corey.
“I’ve only seen them do their shows,” he says. “This is the first time we’ve happened to be on the same bill. I saw Dick working with Mort Sahl out in L.A., and I saw him at the Playboy Club when he just broke through. … I’ve been at events when (Corey) has cajoled the audience into doing things they never dreamed of.”
But Westchester is nothing new to the native New Yorker, who performed Summerstock in Yonkers early in his career. “Westchester, it has a history. I lived in the Bronx, just below the (border) line. It’s a different country, Westchester,” he says with a gentle laugh.
Growing up in New York City’s Lower East Side during the Depression, Stiller wasn’t wealthy, but his cab-driving father found ways to take him to vaudeville shows. The younger Stiller was inspired by the comedy routines, as well as radio stars Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen and Jack Benny, and cinematic comedies that included the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup.”
“The audience was howling laughing, even though there was nothing to eat,” Stiller recalls. “People were starving, having tough times and were out of work. When they left, they had tears; they were laughing (so hard). And I was influenced by that in some way.”
After singing for public-school classmates and performing in local community theaters, he earned a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama from Syracuse University. In the years that followed, he honed his craft with dramatic and comedic stage roles, and met Meara, who became both his wife and comedy partner.
Their partnership has had all kinds of chemistry, including the comedic variety. That helped Stiller & Meara land 36 performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
“We didn’t understand how the hell we got on there to begin with,” Stiller says. “After that, it was a love affair — on (Sullivan’s) part, I think — because after that, we were rolling along. … We didn’t know, really, what was happening to our life at the time. We just kept doing ‘Ed Sullivan’ and running over to Patsy’s on 56th Street and having dinner, saying ‘At least we got through it again.’”
As working actors, Stiller and Meara did their best to raise their children properly. But when they lived at Los Angeles’ famous Chateau Marmont hotel with guests Tony Randall, the Rolling Stones and John Belushi — the kids found themselves surrounded by the naked truth of show business.
“These rock ‘n’ rollers would have their girlfriends with them, and these girls were nude at the beach, practically,” Stiller recalls. “And Tony said, ‘Hide the kids!’”
Ben and Amy started acting in school and camp, and the rest is history. Actor-writer-director-producer Ben has starred in “Reality Bites,” “Zoolander” and “Meet the Parents,” and Amy has performed stand-up and made cameos in some of Ben’s movies.
“When they did go into (show business), they did it almost on their own,” their father says. “Neither of us ever encouraged them to do it. We did tell them to take violin lessons when we lived on the Upper West Side … but it was not like we were taking them down to agents’ offices and saying, ‘Look at this kid.’”
As his children began to find success, Stiller hit the “lowest point” of his career. Then “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David offered him a guest spot as Frank Costanza, father of George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander.
Stiller worried that his quiet approach to the role in rehearsal was going to get him fired. Out of desperation, he channeled the polar opposite of his real-life demeanor, shouting his lines at Alexander to match the intensity of stage-wife Estelle Harris.
“All of a sudden, everyone was laughing,” he says. “Larry David came over and said, ‘You do it that way.’ Then Jason came over and said, ‘Don’t be afraid to hit me.’ I said, ‘I can’t hit you.’ So, he showed me how to do it. He asked for the keys to the car, and instead of the keys, I gave him a whack on the head. Huge laugh.”
The guest-spot that transformed into a five-year run on the hit series “changed my life,” Stiller says. Fans still recite his line “Festivus for the rest of us” when they mention his role on “Seinfeld.”
Stiller could have called it a career when “Seinfeld” bowed in 1998, but he joined “The King of Queens” that fall. He not only found appeal in working with comedian Kevin James (whom he likens to Buster Keaton) but also reveled in developing the role of father Arthur Spooner on a show that lasted nine seasons.
These days, Stiller and Meara continue to make movie and TV cameos, but on their own terms.
“I call it hangin’ around, because it’s not like we keep doing shows,” he says. “We appear mostly at memorials for friends.”
As part of a routine he did to celebrate the late Bea Arthur’s life, he says, “I looked at the audience and said, ‘I hate memorials. To tell you the truth, I don’t feel too hot myself.’”
So forgive Stiller if he’s just happy to be hangin’ around.
