Last night HBO aired the first part of a two-part series called The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling. It's produced and directed by Garry's close friend Judd Apatow, and it is magnificent.
A beautiful documentary about the legendary writer and comedian, it takes us back to the beginning and Shandling's roots while exploring the life events—like the death of his brother from cystic fibrosis, a meeting with George Carlin and hosting The Tonight Show—that left indelible impressions and defined him throughout his life.
Told through a series of interviews with his friends, family and fellow comedians, it doesn't take long at all to realize Shandling was indisputably one of the greats. His reach, influence and genius continues to be felt in every standup comic working and many of your favorite television shows.
Years ago, I had the great pleasure of meeting Shandling at a lunch with my friend Kevin. I wrote about it in this post I did when he passed away unexpectedly a couple years ago.
Since HBO is running the special (which you most definitely should see), and he's on my mind in a much more profound way than ever before, now felt like a good time to repost this.
"My friends say I have an intimacy problem, but they don't really know me." - Garry Shandling
Please to enjoy.
Years ago, the wife and I had gone back to visit our friend Kevin, who was living there and working on SNL at the time. We were going to meet him and his wife at the time for lunch at the now defunct Cafe Des Artistes. When we were confirming lunch, Kevin said, "I hope you don't mind, but I invited Shandling and one of his writers to join us."
We were good with it.
We all met at the restaurant, and there was an additional person at the table who I didn't know. Come to find out later he was the president of PETA, which Kevin's wife was very involved with.
Shandling sat next to my wife, and, either not knowing or not caring, spent most of the lunch talking to her and hitting on her. As you might imagine, it was hysterical.
I don't remember many of the lines, but at one point, obviously for the PETA president's benefit, he asked my wife, "I want to get a new haircut, but I'm nervous about how it'll look so I want to try it out on my dog first. Is that considered animal testing?"
A few weeks later, the wife and I were shopping on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica (where we lived at the time), and we wandered into this antique furniture store. We were looking at one of those two-person desks when Shandling walked in. We reminded him we'd all had lunch in New York, and had a nice conversation with him for about twenty minutes.
Here are a couple things he told us: he started out as a copywriter in New York, and ironically had written on Suntory Whiskey - an account I'd worked on at Wells Rich Greene early in my career (stops to laugh hysterically for using the word "career").
Early in 1998, I sat down and wrote two episodes of his influential and landmark Larry Sanders Show. I thought they were pretty good, and I asked Kevin if he'd read them and, if he liked them, would he mind passing them on to Garry.
Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is Kevin liked the scripts. The bad news was it was right at the point when Garry was pulling the plug on the show. In comedy, timing is everything.
A couple years ago, the wife and I saw Shandling again at Kevin's birthday party. While it was a star-studded affair, we both felt a personal connection to him. We didn't know him well, but we'd been fortunate enough to spend time on the receiving end of his remarkable humor and unmistakable kindness.
I could go on about how revolutionary both It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show were, but you'll be hearing and reading a lot about that in the coming days. Besides, the work speaks for itself.
Sadly, and all too soon, as of this morning the world is a far less funny place. However, if you know anyone in heaven, you might want to let them know there's going to be a killer set tonight around 9pm at The Laff Stop on Cloud 9. Two drink minimum. Look for the brick wall and the mic.
You're in our hearts forever. Goodbye Garry. Rest in peace.
