Of Jason Alexander vs. George

The order in which I have posted about the primary cast members and creators of Seinfeld speaks volumes: Jerry Seinfeld (2020), Larry David (2021), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (2024), Heidi Swedberg (Susan, 2024), Michael Richards (2025). I think it is because variety is my bailiwick. The other performers (even Swedberg) have played joints. Whereas Jason Alexander (Jay Scott Greenspan, b. 1959), who I’m just getting around to today, is a musical comedy guy, and I’m afraid I may have punished him a little for this. After all, what’s more “vaudeville” than a song and dance man? He’s probably done cabaret shows, or whatever. But I have also seen him in things, things where he is not George, things were he has worn hairpieces and mustaches and contact lenses, and as much as I love him as George, and I love him a lot as George, I am astonished at how little I like him when he’s NOT that character. It’s like, unless, he’s a “New York character” he has no personality.

So I seriously considered letting him slide entirely. I changed my tune however when I learned this amazing fact: when he was a kid, Jason Alexander initially wanted to be a MAGICIAN. All magicians, including EVIL magicians are oke with me. Furthermore he grew up in New Jersey. I know another magician from New Jersey — his name is Mr. David Copperfield! But a magic instructor told Alexander that his tiny paws would be no good for sleight of hand — they’re too small to palm playing cards — so he decided to pursue the subtler magic of the actor’s art. I have always loved his professional name, which combines those of two mighty Greek heroes, in the service of this diminutive bald fellow from Maplewood. But a magic lover is as good as a magician, I think, and I’ll wager he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. (He seems to; it’s said that he won an award at the Magic Castle). So, a song and dance man who can do magic tricks — that’s a vaudevillian, and now maybe he’s even ahead of his cast mates!

The other cool thing about Jason Alexander is that he narrated Lynne Dougherty’s documentary Sideshow: Alive on the Inside, which has interviews with performers like Sandy Allen (the World’s Tallest Woman), Percilla Bejano (“The Monkey Girl”), Melvin Burkhart (human blockhead, sword swallower, magician), Conjoined Twins Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, Jeanie Tomaini (“The World’s Only Living Half-Woman”), The Wolf Boys of Mexico, and archival footage of classic sideshow performers such as Jóhann Pétursson (“The Viking Giant”).

As we know, Alexander’s character on Seinfeldwas basically Larry David. Why, how, did he make this one part so engaging and hilarious, and not so other characters? Was he inspired? Spoonfed? I just don’t know. I wish I’d seen him as Stanley Jerome in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound (1986-88) on stage years ago. I bet I’d have liked that. Anyway, two cool things other than George. Magic and sideshow. If you want to watch him sing and dance, be my guest.

For more on the variety arts, No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.