The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

[willywhit]

Bill Burr was raving about it the other day
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/feat...apatow-w518033

[JayPowHound]

Stern talking about it as well.. can't wait to watch

[iceman]

Sounds good, thanks for the heads up.

I've been watching a lot of standup lately and coincidentally I watched Garry's first tonight show appearance a couple of days ago, it's pretty good:

[billyk]

Loved the Larry Sanders Show, especially Rip Torn. I need to binge watch that again.

[LeeC]

Sorry,
It just made me sad, had to turn it off.
It is a mad, mad swirling.
Dude had some major demons, .some self inflicted, some not..
Its a testament to how good he was, to somehow keep them at bay

[willywhit]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3kvs5b

[The AD]

Sorry,
It just made me sad, had to turn it off.
It is a mad, mad swirling.
Dude had some major demons, .some self inflicted, some not..
Its a testament to how good he was, to somehow keep them at bay

I'm sure most comics are like this to some degree. Let's face it, it's not your typical day job.

[wyeaster]

i have never found shandling particularly funny

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

I'm sure most comics are like this to some degree. Let's face it, it's not your typical day job.

If you ever watch Seinfeld's "Comedians Getting Coffee in Cars" he talks a lot about how screwed up comics are in some of the interviews. Jim Gaffigan makes the joke in his episode that whenever a comedian gets married and goes to tell his comic friends about it, their first reaction is always, "Really? Now you're gonna go fuck up someone else's life too?"

[billyk]

i have never found shandling particularly funny

My wife doesn’t like him, either. I guess he is an acquired taste, or I should say, not to everyone’s taste.

I always liked his comedy, and especially The Larry Sanders Show, which I think is brilliant. The Zen Diaries shed light on what made that work so well. It was his drive to make the show seem real (or authentic), which also ties into his connection with Zen.

I had no idea how hard, and meticulous he was in his work. He would rework material over and over until it was perfect. And then rewrite it again. Almost OCD like.

The death of his brother was tragic. Can you imagine that his parents wouldn’t let him have final words with his brother on his death bed, didn’t tell him when his brother died, and didn’t allow him to attend the funeral? I suppose they thought they were protecting him, but damn!

I guess the other thing I got out of the show was how big of a dick he could be if you got on his wrong side. He fired his girlfriend from the show when he broke up with her. Guess you are not allowed to do that. He forced his friends to choose between him and his ex-manager. He had a huge turnover in writing and support staff. If you wrote a bad joke that “didn’t get who he was”, you were gone. A dark side, for sure, but I guess that comes with being a perfectionist.

RIP Garry.

[willywhit]

Finally saw it, turns out we have free HBO right now.
His mom screwed him up good. Brilliant but tortured, never really able to enjoy his success.