JEFF GARLIN AT BAT AS ‘IDIOTS’ DIRECTOR
It took one night in Chicago to change Jeff Garlin’s life. “I was the funniest kid in school and took great pride in it. But I wasn’t sure what I could do with it,” he recalls.
“One night, my parents took me to the Empire Room to see Jimmy Durante. On the way home I asked, ‘Is what he does a real job?’ They said it was. I said, ‘Well, this is a job for me.’ ”
The actor, who grew up in Morton Grove, changed jobs to direct “Dealin’ With Idiots,” about the absurd competitive nature of a little boy’s youth baseball team. He also co-stars alongside Timothy Olyphant, Gina Gershon, Jami Gertz and Nia Vardalos.
“I was watching my son play and I thought, ‘The behavior of the parents is just so crazy.’ When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, you were lucky if two or three parents showed for my Little League game,” he says. “Now, it’s only two parents who don’t show.”
As a director, Garlin knows how to move fast. “I shot this in 12 days. None of the actors got a script. I just told them before each scene started what would happen.”
Next for Garlin is an ABC series called “The Goldbergs,” debuting this fall. “I’m pretty excited,” he says. “It’s a cross between ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Wonder Years’ set in the 1980s with all the good songs.”
Will we hear the song stylings of Wham!? “We have REO [Speedwagon] in the pilot,” he says, adding, “I play the father, Mr. Murray Goldberg. He’s not racist and doesn’t go into political areas. Bu he is a curmudgeon.”
What about a return of “Curb Your Enthusiasm?”
“It’s a good shot we’ll come back,” he says. “It’s all up to Larry [David]. I do know we make such a great team. When we started working together, it felt like we had been working together for 20 years.”
Though he’s living the healthy L.A. lifestyle now, Garlin still has fun in Chicago. “I don’t eat wheat, but I did go to [Lou Malnati’s] for pizza on this trip. I skipped the butter crust, which I love, but ate the cheese and veggies. And I felt like I was home.”