Free Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow Page A

work obsessively hard, and there’s a frankness to her work that I find inspiring. The stories tumble out of her. She is able to make important points about our culture and feminism and relationships and what it’s like to be a woman in America right now, and to do it in a way that is consistently insightful and hysterical. Here is someone at the beginning of a very exciting career.
    Amy Schumer: I did an interview with Jerry Seinfeld the other day.
    Judd Apatow: You did? Did you know him at all?
    Amy: We met a bunch of times at the Cellar, but I didn’t know him well. He picked me up in a Ferrari, and then it broke down on [the] West Side Highway. It was a real piece of shit. It was smoking, it was real scary.
    Judd: That’s awesome.
    Amy: Yeah, that was awesome. It was the best time.
    Judd: And how was the interview?
    Amy: He completely changed my philosophy about stand-up. He was like, “This idea that your generation has about ‘you have to burn your material and start fresh every time’—it’s just so self-important. Not everybody’s watching everything you do, you know.” He said, “Focus on coming up with your best act for a live show. Remember: Seventy-five percent of the crowd has never seen you, and they’ll never see you again, so you should be working on the best possible show.”
    Judd: He’s the main voice railing against the modern comic constantly turning over her act.
    Amy: He changed my thinking. For TV, you always have to do new stuff, obviously. But for a live show, rather than trying to work out a whole new act, just do the stuff that’s pretty well worked out.
    Judd: But he goes beyond that. He’s also saying that, at any time, half your act can be greatest hits. Like, who decided you couldn’t do that?
    Amy: I don’t know why that became the thing. I don’t know why the idea of doing an older joke is supposed to make you feel embarrassed. It’s not about impressing the five comics in the back of the room. As Jerry said, if he sees someone, he wants to see their best jokes. Jokes are like works of art and they take years to figure out. He said you only get six closers in your whole life. Like six big jokes—
    Judd: In your whole life.
    Amy: Yeah.
    Judd: I think the first person who turned over his material like that was George Carlin. He did a special every three years or so. Robert Klein put out a lot of specials, and I assume he was writing new material, too. But Seinfeld put out one special in his entire career. Leno has never put out a special. It’s a generational shift. The modern comic says, “Hey, this is what I’m going through right now.”
    Amy: Yeah. “Check in with me, here’s where I am now.”
    Judd: So maybe the secret is doing more specials than Seinfeld and less than Louis C.K.
    Amy: I’m going to do one every couple of years, but I want it to be really great. Because the thing about specials is, they’re going to be there forever.
    Judd: Do you think Seinfeld will ever do another special?
    Amy: I don’t think so, no. He’s been doing Caesars for ten years, maybe fifteen, and the crowds are great. He gives them a great show and they leave happy. He asked me, “Do you want people to come and say, ‘Oh, she was good,’ or do you want them to come and say, ‘You
have
to go see that show’?”
    Judd: But modern comedy fans
will
go see you again. That is something Jerry doesn’t understand. Young people will go see Marc Maron every year.
    Amy: That’s a good point. I guess the question is, is it better to please the twenty percent of the crowd who comes to see you every time, or is it better to give a killer show, like an epic performance, for the rest?
    Judd: This may not apply to anything, but I was watching a movie about women in comedy recently—I think it was called
Women Aren’t Funny
? And I noticed that you weren’t in it. Was that by choice?
    Amy: I got cut out. Actually, I am in one scene. But I don’t talk.
    Judd: Oh, I thought maybe it was