By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Thursday, June 11, 2015
Atlanta resident Steve Harvey hung out with Jerry Seinfeld in the latest 18-minute episode of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."
Harvey spends most of his time now in Chicago because that's where his successful syndicated talk show is based. So that's where Seinfeld interviewed Harvey. (He's now back in Atlanta for the next couple of months to shoot "Family Feud.")
In it, Seinfeld picks up Harvey in a classic 1957 Bel Air convertible.
"This is my dream car!" Harvey exclaims with glee.
Seinfeld talks about what his black college roommate taught him in terms of purported black phrases like "let the window up" and "put on the brakes."
They hang at Maddy's Coffee Shop, then work cigars at Biggs Cigar Emporium.
Seinfeld admires some of Harvey's classic stand up work. "You have a way of moving your feet that's hilarious. Your mouth should have its own career."
Harvey says comedy can't be taught. "Comedy is the one profession that is nontransferable. Comedians can be great actors. Great actors can't be comedians."
A hilarious line from Harvey, said in that inimitable Harvey way: "Every comic I know who smokes weed is broke."
They discuss how easy it is to offend people with jokes. And then they note how many TV shows there are now. Harvey name-dropped an Atlanta-based network called Bounce TV, wondering what the heck that is. "What number on my remote is Bounce TV? What’s the symbol? Is it a butt or ball or two bees?”
[Bounce TV is a free broadcast network based here in Atlanta and is often buried in the deep recesses of cable network lineups. It's 244 on Comcast in Atlanta.]
Harvey also told a couple of stories from his 1990s Apollo hosting days about how harsh the audiences were. They even went after little kids with abandon.
At the end, Seinfeld played a clip of him talking with Harvey on Harvey's talk show where he recounts how he likes phrases black folks say, like "Steve and them are going." Then he says, "F y'all!" Just the way Seinfeld tries to imitate a black person makes Harvey double over in laughter.
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