fbpx

Remembering Garry Shandling

When Garry Shandling was a young comedy writer he got into a near-fatal car accident.
[additional-authors]
March 25, 2016

When Garry Shandling was a young comedy writer, he got into a near-fatal car accident. As he was preparing to die, he heard a voice asking if he was living the life Garry Shandling really should be living. He realized he wasn’t — and he decided to change it. He became a stand-up comedian. He worked nightly at clubs around Los Angeles. At the time, I was an economics major and had only dreamed of writing. I didn’t realize one could do it professionally. 

But, in March of 1980, when I was 19, Garry was headlining a show at the UCLA Comedy Club, where I was performing with a group of other student comics. Garry approached and asked if I wanted to hear the truth about my set. He pointed to two jokes in the 20-minute set — two jokes — as evidence that I had a future in this if I wanted it. The rest, he said, I could discard. He talked about the importance of voice, attitude and trusting myself. He then asked if I’d be interested in writing with him. He not only was the first to tell me I could pursue it — he introduced me to the person who gave me my first job. He hired me a few years later on his own show. Years after that, he spoke at my wedding. Halfway through the wedding speech, Garry walked off. He’d just gotten a big laugh and didn’t think he could top it. 

But don’t get me wrong: Unlike most comedy writers who kneel at the altar of The Joke, Garry was the opposite. Break a story with Garry and you’d think you were writing a drama. “Where is the truth? What is the emotional core?” He never worried about jokes — the jokes will come if the character is lined up. He was a stickler for character — on the page, on the stage, and in life. Especially in life. 

In 1981, when comedians went on strike from The Comedy Store, Garry didn’t support the strike. So when they “won” and subsequently were paid for their sets, Garry refused the money, claiming that he couldn’t ethically take the fruits of a movement he didn’t stand behind. And he was a truly great friend — but in the way that, as those who knew him know, only Garry could be. (Or couldn’t, as the case may be.) As he said in a joke we once wrote in his kitchen: “My friends say I have trouble with intimacy. But they don’t really know me.”  Or, as he once also said: “To know me … is to not know me.” 

And while no one who knew him would ever claim that Garry didn’t wrestle with demons, it was actually that wrestling that became Garry’s defining struggle. Meaning, ultimately, he found peace in the never-ending search for peace. A kind of peace that was an acceptance, perhaps, that this constant state of “not-knowing” was, in fact, the only place he could meaningfully reside. 

And so while I don’t think that Garry ever achieved “peace,” I do think he achieved meaning. And purpose. And a lot of that came from his relationship with other comedians — like minds and souls, almost all of who have similar stories of Garry’s incredible selflessness when it came to guidance — professional and personal. 

Garry was my first — and my most important — mentor. But I wasn’t the only one. Comedians, writers, actors — hundreds have stories of Garry sitting with them in all-night punch-up sessions, or taking long walks and talking about life. There are so many that, ultimately, even more than the groundbreaking television shows that he created and starred in, Garry’s true legacy will be in the many lives he so generously guided. 


Ed Solomon began his career as a joke-writer and stand-up comedian. He subsequently went on to write plays, and then the screenplays for “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” “Men in Black” and “Now You See Me,” among others. He was also a staff writer on “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.” He is currently working on “Mosaic,” a 10-hour HBO film directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Who’s Really the Victim?

Those who would revel in Israel’s demise are claiming victimhood on every front and denying attacks on us in the same breath.

Biblical Deterrence

After Oct. 7, the sentiment in Israel toward the Iranian leadership was unequivocal: You went medieval — so we will go biblical.

How Sukkot Makes Us Whole

This year, I bless us that we open our eyes to truly see the beauty and the holiness of the world, and of the person before us at each and every moment, and to see the godliness of their aspirations and their fears.

The New Ushpizot

Ushpizin invite us to “welcome in our ancestral constellation and dwell amongst them.” This year, it’s Ushpizot, for the women. It’s the year of the Feminist Visitation.

Macklemore, Or Less

In between his songs, he proclaimed, “Free Palestine,” which is fine, asserted that opposing Israeli military actions is not antisemitic, which is accurate, and accused Israel of apartheid and genocide, which is offensive, untrue and hateful.

The Rokeach’s Remarkable Sukkah

To Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1176-1238), the medieval German pietist known as the Rokeach, the sukkah symbolized Jewish military might.

The Sukkah and the Power of Endurance

They can destroy our Temples, demonize us in social media, shower us with hate, but they can’t destroy a spirit that never stops building. That enduring spirit is the power of the sukkah.

NY Mag’s Habibi City

A satirical response to Zaina Arafat’s erasure of Jews in her New York Magazine article “Habibi City,” written as Zaina Arafat.

The ‘Fauda’ Enigma

In many of the nations that believe Israel has no right to exist and routinely root for terrorists to slaughter Jews, a TV show that depicts Israeli covert operatives outsmarting and dispatching Arabs has an inexplicably loyal global audience.

Jewish Democrats Cave to Anti-Semites

Those of us who are not of the Democrat politic party have believed that the Democrats have done little to stop the disease of Jew hatred from infiltrating their party.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.