Name: Richard Kind On "A Serious Man"
Uploaded: 2025-10-19T13:00:06.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Richard Kind On "A Serious Man"' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-10-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Richard Kind On "A Serious Man"' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-10-19. Transcript available.

One of my favorite roles of yours and it's a film that fucked me up for like
three months.
I went into a depression and you almost steal the entire movie.
Maybe do steal the entire movie as a serious man.
Oh, Serious Man's great.
Yeah.
Oh, it's a great movie.
Great.
Your performance is brutal.
Well, that's so nice of you.
You say you don't watch any of your stuff?
That one I saw.
You have to watch that one.
That one I saw.
Yeah, yeah.
I was going to yell at you.
I adore that movie.
The Coen brothers, I hear, love that movie.
I get lucky.
I get, I just, okay, Adam, you and I are both actors and look what we look like.
I'm not the most telegenic guy in the world.
I look all right.
And that stuff that I get to do, it just, it confounds me how, I call myself
the smuckers
of acting.
With a face like this, I better be good.
But I wasn't good for a long time.
I pulled one over and then I got good.
And the Coen brothers, the writing is great.
Joel as a director and even Ethan, who says he's not a director, but they both
direct it.
They both talk to you about it.
I knew who this guy was.
How do they do it together?
They write it together and then Joel directs?
Well, they write it together.
And I've often, I said.
Is it like Bernie Taupin and Elton John?
One does the lyrics?
You just can't.
No, no, no.
No.
They write it together and they edit together.
And I think because, I think because Joel, this is just my, I've never said
this.
I think just because Joel is a bit larger of a personality, but not that much
bigger.
He does the directing for the actors.
But you talk to Ethan too.
Yeah.
And Ethan was a philosophy major.
Yeah.
And that makes sense to me.
Yeah.
And they, when they work, they know what they want.
I just remember the only, not disagreement, but I remember the prop guy coming
up.
And saying, do you want, you remember I had this sebaceous cyst.
And so I had a washcloth in the back.
You never saw the cyst, but you saw the washcloth.
And he says, do you want a white washcloth or do you want floral?
And one said floral and one said white.
And then I don't even know what we came up with.
You know, it was neither here nor there.
Did that escalate?
It did.
Really?
Yeah.
They're like, mom, mom liked me better.
We had to call, we had to call in some security.
It was awful.
It was awful.
It came to almost fist.
They actually did Greco-Roman wrestling.
Really?
Yeah.
They knew they used to do it.
They did not box.
They got down on the floor and they, you know, with the whole thing.
And they go, and whew, and then they wrestled.
And they were wrestled.
And that's how they solved it.
And you were like standing there.
You're like, guys.
Guys, guys, come on.
It's just a movie.
Tap me in.
Come on.
No, I don't know.
Who the hell knows how it did.
I mean, that performance is just.
That's really nice.
There's something about that movie that just lingers with you when it's over.
I know.
I called my dad.
I said, I saw this movie.
It's serious, man.
And my dad said, he's like, I've been depressed since I saw it.
I said, I've been depressed too.
I know this sounds crazy.
I think it's a great date movie.
And I'll tell you why.
Is the person you're dating, are they a thinker?
How do they think?
What do they think about death?
Is it funny to them?
Or was it sad?
There's so many things.
What is the afterlife?
All of that stuff.
So I think it's a pretty good, and it can generate discussion.
You know, if you run out of discussion, you can talk about something.
It's not just a Marvel movie.
Yeah, my move back in the day, I have a fiance now, but I used to take the
chick to Claude Lansman's show.
We're having fun, guys!
And say, who's the bad guy?
So I'm a little bit on the fence about this one.
Did they deserve it?
I'm going to wait and see.
I'm on the fence.
I want to see who wins at the end.
Who are you going with?
Okay.
You're trained at the Second City.
I mean, this is an opportunity for me as a younger gentleman.
This is free education for me, sitting with you and interrupting you.
That's the stupidest thing you could possibly say.
What do you mean an education?
Okay, you want me to pay?
I'm just a guy.
I'm just a guy.
Okay, so would you be keen on like doing a little, like a scene with me?
An improvised scene or a written scene?
We could do either.
You could choose.
Let me tell you something about my improvisation.
I'm not as good as everybody thinks.
I was never as good as anybody thinks.
I'm a good reactor.
I can listen and react, but I don't react always funny.
That's what I did with John, with your competition.
I would call him a friend and a colleague, but yeah.
No, he's your competition.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
And he's a don sight better.
What?
You know Mandel?
Yeah.
How great is he?
I love him.
He's the funniest guy.
I loved everybody.
There are so many, some of the stand-ups who were on the writing staff.
Yeah.
These minds, they're so great.
Yeah.
I just loved being on that show and I hated it.
Okay, let's talk about that.
It's not that I feel.
This is interesting.
Is the camera on me?
Yeah.
Right.
Okay, go to three.
I was told I was really good on the show.
I don't understand it.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I felt so ungrounded and insecure.
Uh-huh.
And all I did was enjoy myself and try.
The best thing I did on that show was keep my mouth shut.
Uh-huh.
Because I so often, like you can see how often I talk and I want to ask you
questions.
And on the panel I wanted to talk and find out and stuff like that.
Uh-huh.
And I didn't.
I said, this is John's show.
He's funnier than I am.
He's more intelligent than I am.
And so I kept my mouth shut and I let John do some of the questions.
And when I saw just an inkling of him searching for what next to talk about or
trying to, I
would come in and I'd have like six questions that I'd want to ask these people
even before
we started.
And so I would listen to the conversation and then I would ask a question.
I usually asked one question per segment of a person.
Yeah.
And that's what I did.
And then as far as being funny on the show, they gave me written word.
And these writers were great.
Yeah.
They were just great.
Give it up for the writer staff of John Mulaney's show.
It is.
But it's true.
They were great.
I hope that they hire me when they start doing other stuff.
Well, if you need a gig.
I do.
If you need a gig.
Always need a gig.
I'm in New York anyway, so you live here.
By the way, I was at the second game of the Yankees.
No, the first game of the Yankees.
Oh.
Heartbreaker.
Heartbreaker.
I know.
Yeah, but now, two in a row.
I'm a Dodger fan actually.
Is that true?
Yeah, yeah.
Why are you wearing that?
Because with the rise of anti-Semitism, like I'm trying to, I'm doing more of a
Dominican.
I've been doing more of a Puerto Rican Dominican thing.
I'm kind of hiding in plain sight.
I don't want people to know.
You are an actor, you're a keen, you have a keen eye for the world around you,
right?
No.
Okay.
You've been studying me since you came in here.
Yeah.
I've been studying you.
Okay.
What have you found out?
What have you found out?
We'll see where things go after.
But why?
Wait, what's your assessment?
You?
Yeah.
You're the best.
No.
Seriously, what's your assessment?
What do you think about me?
You think I'm a keen observer.
I'm a keen observer.
Exactly what I expected you to be.
Okay.
And I am so not a keen observer.
I can't tell whether somebody's gay or not.
I can't tell whether they're wearing a wig or a toupee.
I'm not.
I'm not.
By the way, I'm not gay.
I've been called that my whole life.
I've been called that my whole life.
So you say.
I've been called that my whole life, sir.
I've been called that my whole life, sir.
This is the truth.
Okay.
And that's what acting is all about is the truth.
No, it's not.
Yes, it is.
No, it's not.
Adam.
Yes.
I'm going to tell you what the most important thing in any scene is.
No, this is not me being funny.
This is the truth.
I'm going to ask you right now.
What is the most important thing in any scene?
Any scene.
Doing your goddamn job.
Nope.
The objective.
Nope.
The camera.
Nope.
The other person.
Yes.
Yes.
That's what's most important.
I was going to say that.
I was going to say that.
I was going to say that.
What can you get?
What do you want?
And how can the other person give it to you?
Because if you're alone, you don't need anybody else.
You need something and the other person's in the scene.
In an interview, no.
There's no drama.
Listen.
You're a chameleon.
You played Winston Churchill.
You're so wrong.
I'm not a chameleon.
You played Malcolm X.
You played Winston Churchill.
Okay.
Enough about me.
You're right.
I want to see the magic trick that is Richard Cotter.
Okay.
So what should we do the script?
Okay.
Should we do the script?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So what should we do the script?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So what should we do the script?
Okay.
Okay.
Do the script.
You have a whole staff here and nobody's saying anything, but I do need my
glasses if I'm
going to read.
Because I hit them.
There you go.
All right.
Do you want to do a favor?
The person from Hulu is here.
How am I doing?
Is this okay?
You're doing good.
Am I representing?
At some point, only murders would be great.
Oh, shut up.
Oh, shut up.
With the economics and the corporation and trying to sell, sell, sell.
And just selling the cells and the deterred laundry.
Oh, sell, sell, sell.
How about just two people talking?
How about just be alive?
Just living.
So we're working on this project called the Audacity of Hope.