美国国家公共电台 NPR Judd Apatow Mines The Mystery Of His Mentor: Garry Shandling

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Judd Apatow was just a kid when he saw the comedian¹ who would change his life.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW")

JOHNNY CARSON: Would you welcome Garry Shandling?

GREENE: He was watching "The Tonight Show."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW")

GARRY SHANDLING: My sheepdog kicks when he sleeps, OK? Now, my friend said, that means your dog's having a nightmare. Now, what's a nightmare for a dog? Did you ever stop to think about it? What, he's drinking out of the toilet, and the lid falls?

(LAUGHTER)

JUDD APATOW: Like a lot of people in America, I just thought, what a fascinating, hilarious², odd man. And I tracked his career. You know, some kids would track baseball players and their averages. I would watch comedians³ and watch them develop.

GREENE: Now, Judd Apatow, not a bad comedian himself. He grew up to write and direct hit films like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin⁴" and "Knocked Up." He owes a lot to his time working as a young writer for Garry Shandling. He's not alone. A long list of comics - Sarah Silverman, Conan O'Brien, Jim Carrey, they all give Shandling a lot of credit. Shandling was a comedy giant in stand-up, and...

APATOW: He also reinvented television two times.

GREENE: Yeah. Shandling had two shows on cable, "It's Garry Shandling's Show," and "The Larry Sanders Show," that set the stage for many of the hits we love today, like, "30 Rock," "The Office," "Curb⁵ Your Enthusiasm." And so when Garry Shandling died unexpectedly just two years ago, Judd Apatow wanted to put this groundbreaking comedian in context.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHANDLING: I think - is there anything else, Judd? Seriously? I'm writing jokes with my friend, Judd.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

APATOW: You know, for 25 years, he was the most important mentor⁶ that I had, but, in a lot of ways, he was a mystery to me.

GREENE: To tackle that mystery, Judd Apatow made a documentary that's almost five hours long.

APATOW: Well, 4:20. We can tell you it's slightly over four, more than almost five. (Laughter).

GREENE: All right. Whatever. It's good. It is called, "The Zen Diaries Of Garry Shandling," and it relies heavily on the actual diaries Shandling kept for most of his life. They're deeply personal and at times spiritual. Shandling often turned to Buddhist⁷ philosophy. It all points to a man who, behind that comedy, was really a tortured soul, having never gotten over the loss of his beloved older brother who had cystic fibrosis and died when Shandling was just 10.

APATOW: I think a lot of people who have trauma⁸ when they grow up get hyper-vigilant, and they're trying to avoid pain by anticipating pain. And for comedians and creative people, often they think, if I can make this performance or this film perfect, people will like me and I won't suffer.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHANDLING: As long as I've been doing stand-up, I've talked about dating. Now I'm involved in a relationship 'cause I figured, hey, what could be worse than dating? So...

(LAUGHTER)

SHANDLING: You know, and I'm very loyal in a relationship. You know, any relationship. Even when I go out with my mom, I don't look at other moms. You know? I...

(LAUGHTER)

SHANDLING: ...I don't go, ooh, I wonder what her macaroni and cheese tastes like?

(LAUGHTER)

GREENE: It feels almost cliche⁹ to say this now, but, it feels like the great comedians need to have some sort of dark side. And you talk about Garry Shandling's trauma. Why is that?

APATOW: I just think when you get hurt, you become more sensitive. Artists who have injuries, they see more. They see the levels more. They have more empathy. So I never think of it as darkness. I think they're tuned¹⁰ in to the human experience. And it's not everybody. There are certainly very happy comedians who are as great as the ones who seem more troubled. Jerry Seinfeld's a very happy guy. He's as great as anyone's ever been.

GREENE: What about you? You're seen as one of the comedy minds of our time. Do you tap into darkness when you're producing comedy?

APATOW: I think that, like Garry, I'm fascinated by life, you know? Here we are. What does this mean? What are we doing? What are we doing it for? I think this search for meaning is at the core of all creativity, and it's troubling. You know? Some people are just like, Jesus has got me covered. And they're happy to their core. I know people like that. And then other people are like, I don't know what's going on out there. I don't know how the universe works. And it really bothers them, and they spend a lifetime trying to make sense of this life. There's a great page in one of Garry's journals, near the end of his life, where he says, you know, I should be grateful that I'm funny and for comedy because it's a gift that I can give to people that helps them deal with this long, difficult life. I think that's the way a lot of us feel about it.

GREENE: Was it hard to make this film? Because I could see, you know, you clearly care about this man. You were exposed to his soul in many ways through these diaries. Was it tough?

APATOW: The hard part was getting going. I, you know, was very close to Garry for a long time, but there would be periods where we wouldn't talk that much. And when he passed away, I was very surprised. I was just caught off guard by it. And then when he was gone, I realized how much he meant to me and that he would be the person I would call if someone like Garry died. Like, oh, no, I lost the person that I reach out to. And when I started the project, I would read his diaries and sometimes just be so amused, and then other times just bawl¹¹ with him for what he was suffering through. But I felt like his life was a lesson that he wanted to teach me and that he would want me to teach other people with.

GREENE: What's the lesson?

APATOW: The ultimate lesson is a very simple one, spoken by Ram¹² Dass at the end of the documentary. He just says, you know, it's all about living in your heart, not in your head. And he says...

GREENE: And he's a religious leader, a Buddhist, we should say.

APATOW: A Buddhist guru. And he says, you know, comedy is good for spiritual work. It gets you there. He also said, it's all about loving awareness¹³. And that is what I think Garry was ultimately exploring and trying to apply to his own life, that life really is just about loving people. It is about kindness. And we all step on each other's toes and beat each other up, and we're scared of each other, or we isolate¹⁴. And what Garry was trying to do is use these diaries to constantly remind himself to reach out, to help, to mentor, to connect.

GREENE: Judd Apatow talking about his mentor, Garry Shandling, who died in 2016. Apatow's documentary, "The Zen Diaries Of Garry Shandling," starts tonight on HBO.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHANDLING: Before I leave tonight, I would like to leave you with this one thought. When I die, I want it to say - little epitaph on my gravestone to say, thank God I don't have to be funny anymore. But I know on the gravestone next to me, it's going to say, you never were. Thank you. You've been a terrific audience. Thank you. Good night.

1 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

2 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

3 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

4 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

5 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

6 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

7 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

8 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

9 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

10 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 bawl   

v.大喊大叫，大声地喊，咆哮

参考例句：

• You don't have to bawl out like that. Eeverybody can hear you.你不必这样大声喊叫，大家都能听见你。
• Your mother will bawl you out when she sees this mess.当你母亲看到这混乱的局面时她会责骂你的。

12 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

13 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

14 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。