Name: Working On Yourself w/ Jason Alexander | You Made It Weird
Uploaded: 2022-09-06T22:33:23.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Working On Yourself w/ Jason Alexander | You Made It Weird' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-06. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Working On Yourself w/ Jason Alexander | You Made It Weird' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-06. Transcript available.

buddy i don't want to say but i i've i've just had people on this couch that
hadn't figured it out yet we're waiting for it you're hearing 20 years of
therapy here yeah
okay i mean it took you a while to figure that out please where else did you
look before you
found this balance oh please you know i i put way too much emphasis on work
yeah um what people
thought of you oh well or just whether or not you're working that is yeah what
you know
how am i seen do i have power do i have control do i have uh you know i know
better uh if we did it my
way you know it's all that stuff the ego the ego has to learn i had you know i
i didn't realize that
i had crap as a kid i thought i was a pretty happy kid but i turns out i was a
pretty intimidated shy
overwhelmed disproportionately scared kid who overcompensated with all kinds of
awful silly
behaviors and and it carried in in you know until i was in my 20s and 30s until
i finally went you know
i'm a father and i'm having these weird feelings and ideas and things that are
the the things you're
talking about the the rolodex of things you're up at night going yeah you want
to think about that
for a while you want to think about that for a while yeah and you know finally
went into therapy and
started to work on what were those things i'm not this isn't click bait you
have full control over
this no they're just i mean i'm curious you know the easy ones are things where
i will have said things in interviews that i thought i was just being
entertaining
and i was never a comic i didn't even go into acting thinking i was going to be
a comedic actor
and suddenly that's the world i'm in and in trying to be funny and i don't i
don't i guess i now i kind
of go well i guess i have a sense of humor but i never thought of myself as a
funny guy and so in
emulating comedy and trying to be interesting and trying to be entertaining and
trying to be amusing i
would say things that you know weren't kind yeah and weren't right and and and
uh you know um you
see that all the time by the way and augmenting things that are partially true
but then you you
for entertainment you blow them up and now they're out there as truth and you
go oh that's not quite
how it happened and you're and you're stuck with that story and just stuff like
that hurting people's
feelings making bad choices saying i'm going to be something not being it say i'm
going to do something not
doing it the thin line between i run into it all the time i did it i on set
today i'm i'm stopping
myself because i'm 43 i'm finally learning to stop myself but there's a thin
line the the rush of
going maybe a little too far but it works and they love it and you love it and
everyone wins
now you're addicted to those moments and then inevitably you're going to say a
little too far a
little too much and and you just don't know how to call it it was all about you
know trying to be
some avatar that i thought was interesting and you know or worthy worthy is
really more the the issue
because i always felt like i shouldn't be there yeah um you know people should
one of the i guess a lot
of actors go into acting because they love the spotlight i was hiding in plain
sight yeah i didn't
love being in my skin i didn't i wasn't fond of myself so i would say things to
give a different
impression or i would play a part it was a break so yeah so i could so i'm not
that guy i'm this guy
and it was all in this sort of very immature um young immature attempt to find
your own value to be
okay in your own skin and i didn't start to get there until i was late into my
40s i think i'm 62 now
so i haven't i haven't been you know anywhere close to being oh you're okay
this is a relatively new
you know thing and it's it's a lot of experience and a lot of putting real time
and attention not
egotistical time and attention into yourself but real time you know going to a
therapist and being
honest and going that was a terrible thing mistake finding a way to get past it
and going okay that
that happened for a reason i'm here now yeah and and now i know what what calls
people to that and
one of the one of the lovely gifts it gives is that i have younger friends who
are going through
exactly the same thing and i can say to somebody who's going through a tough
patch you don't think
much of yourself right now you're in one of the top five percent of people in
the world you know why
because you give a and you're looking at it and it's scary and it's dark and
you don't like what
you see in the mirror and you're still looking in the mirror and you're still
working on it that makes
you better than most people not worse wow it takes it takes guts and character
and it takes caring about
other people to keep looking in the mirror and not seeing what you like and go
i have to work on this
I have to work on this.
So, you know.