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October 04, 2007 - Image 91

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2007-10-04

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doing, and there's no place to hide. It's
a little scary — or at least it should be.
But, says Garlin, "Having my project
out there is not frightening at allies
exciting. I assume it will also be rather
humbling. How lucky I am."
While the film's plot is not directly
autobiographical — that is, there
are not incidents taken directly from
Garlin's life — it emotionally repre-
sents the comedian and what he has
been through.
His character, James, is dumped by
his girlfriend and his improv troupe
and loses the role he was born to play
— the title character in a remake of
Paddy Chayefsky's Marty to teen
idol Aaron Carter. He sneaks out of
an Overeaters Anonymous meet-
ing only to wind up at an ice cream
parlor. There, he meets Beth (Sarah
Silverman), who quickly wins his
heart. On a walk through the park,
they spy a young couple picnicking.
That's all he wants, James says, "some-
one to eat cheese with."
Whether Beth is the one or not, well,
you'll have to see the film, which also
features appearances by Bonnie Hunt,
Amy Sedaris and Dan Castellaneta.
It is a particularly fertile time for
Garlin, 45. In addition to this film,
Curb Your Enthusiasm is in the midst
of its sixth season on HBO (it airs
10 p.m. Sundays), and there are a
couple of movies coming out featur-
ing Garlin in supporting roles. They
include The Rocker, with Rainn Wilson
and Christina Applegate; Strange
Wilderness, with Steve Zahn; and
Trainwreck, with Sean William Scott.
Garlin spent his early years in
Morton Grove, Ill., a suburb of
Chicago.
"We celebrated the Jewish holidays','
he says, quickly adding that not all
Jewish holidays were celebrated equal-
ly. "We were not a big Simchas Torah
house. But we certainly celebrated
Purim, Chanukah, the High Holidays,
Passover — and I was bar mitzvahed.
We belonged to a Conservative temple.
We weren't very religious, but we were
religious. I'd call us 'regular.'"
It was a house, says Garlin, "filled
with laughter." His parents played
comedy albums all the time and
were a great audience for Jeff's early



attempts at humor. He remembers that
they took him to see a Jimmy Durante
performance, which sealed his fate. "I
asked them, 'Is that a job?' And when
they said,`Yes; that was it for me."
When Garlin was 11, his family
moved to Plantation, Fla. What Garlin
discovered was that "outside of those
Jewish pockets, here I am in the Deep
South and for a lot of people, I'm the
very first Jew they met. I tried using
my humor to disarm them, but a lot of
times I had to fight."
It was this conflict that at least par-
tially made Garlin the comedian he is
today. "You have to have experienced
sadness, experienced adversity and
anxiety — all that leads to good corn-
edy," he says. "If every day is a charm,
it's hard to find humor. Comedy
comes from conflict. If you don't have
conflict, I don't know how you can do
comedy"
But Garlin is not the stereotypical
jolly fat man. He's experienced a series
of health-related problems, including
a childhood heart defect (that was
surgically corrected in his 20s) and
a form of epilepsy he mistook for an
anxiety disorder. He suffered a stroke
four years ago. He has Type II diabe-
tes, sleep apnea and attention deficit
disorder (which may account for the
fact that he's a terrific improviser; it's
easier than memorizing lines).
"When you have health problems,
you face them with humor or pretty
much fall apart:' he explains. "My
weight has nothing to do with why I'm
funny, which leads me to the conclu-
sion that it's pretty ridiculous that I'm
this heavy."
When the topic moves on to Jewish
humor, Garlin, married to casting
director Marla Cahan and the father of
two sons, contends that the day of the
Jewish comic may be over.
"We're pretty much a dying breed.
We don't dominate comedy the way we
used to. It's the same with boxing:" I

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese
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