Jerry Seinfeld Rarely Laughs While Heâs Reading
Credit.Jillian Tamaki
Dec. 10, 2020
âItâs pretty hard to laugh when youâre reading â the written word is tough,â says the comedian and author of âIs This Anything?â But he makes an exception for John Updike: âYou know, describing the circles of water under someoneâs toes when they get out of the pool. That makes me laugh more than anything, that he would zero in on that.â
What books are on your night stand?
I only have one book on the night stand at a time, because Iâm a very slow reader and I really enjoy making a book last. If Iâm going to bother to read a book I donât want it to end quickly. I donât binge. I like to sip. If I like the world, I want to stay in the world. And I donât read a lot of books, honestly, but I have really turned to it during this virus time, because itâs cozy and I like it better than most shows â when I watch a sho
Dec. 10, 2020 2:33 pm ET
The physical and social backgrounds essential to this dark political tale exert their powers early. âTotal Controlâ (begins Thursday, Dec. 17, Sundance Now) is a six-part drama set in the Australian Outback. A place, weâre shown, where people spend their days swatting at the flies circling their heads, and where conversation is dry and to the point, and jokey, though without cruelty. Itâs the way of this society to be wary of strangers but not impossibly so, as one government representative discovers in episode 1, when he comes knocking on the door of a house in the small town of Winton. Heâs met with suspicion by the woman who opens itâshe quickly decides heâs a Mormon, seeking converts, and informs him that heâs wasting his time.