L ifestyle /C ulture
Susie Essman Talks ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
T E L EVISION
ANDREW LAPIN | JTA.ORG
ON THE WALL of Susie
Essman’s powder room hangs a
giant portrait of herself.

Actually, the portrait is of
Susie Green, Essman’s beloved,
foul-mouthed character on
“Curb Your Enthusiasm,”
HBO’s long-running improvi-
sational sitcom exploring the
social rules that govern all of
our lives, and especially those
of the 1%. It comes from an
episode in the show’s 10th
season, which aired in early
2020 just before the pandemic,
when the infamously misan-
thropic Larry David (the series
creator, who also stars as a
version of himself) has the
artwork commissioned as a gift
for his longtime frenemy.

In the episode, a series of
comic misunderstandings (of
which the “Curb” universe has
a bountiful supply) results in
Susie’s vaguely Kramer-esque
portrait being pelted with
tomatoes and chucked into
the trash. But in real life, an
intact painting exists. And
Essman, a longtime comic
actress and stand-up comedian
who has known David since
the 1980s and, like him, wears
her Jewishness proudly on her
sleeve, snapped it up for herself.

“It’s absolutely one of my
prized possessions,” Essman
said. The Susie painting has made
its way onto tons of bootleg
merchandise online, including
T-shirts and handbags —
“none of which I get a cut”
from, Essman notes. But in
“Curb”’s 11th season, currently
airing Sunday nights on
HBO, Essman says Susie will
get many more big moments
with Larry. For fans of one of
the Jewiest shows on TV, the
prospect of these two antag-
onists going at each other yet
again is a sign that there is still
some joy left in the world.

JTA spoke to Essman —
who noted she is a proud new
bubbe — about the show’s
longevity and Jewishness, as
well as her views on “cancel
culture” in comedy.

JTA: Between “Curb” and
Comedy Central’s “Broad
City,” you’ve really cornered
the market on —
Essman: Jewish mothers.

Where do you draw on your
portrayals from?
Well, I happen to be Jewish,
and I happen to be a mother.

And I’ve had mothers, and I’ve
had many friends, mothers and
aunts and uncles and grand-
mothers. And, you know, I
mean, Jewish mothers are like
all other mothers. Just a little
bit more so.

You’ve known Larry David
since the mid-80s. Young
people today are circulating
memes of him online and
drawing on the show to refer-
ence all kinds of things. Does
that kind of longevity, his and
the show’s, surprise you at all?
You know, I always say
that if we were hanging out
at the bar at “Catch a Rising
Star” in 1986, and I said to a
bunch of the comics hanging
out there that Larry David was
going to be richer and more
successful than any of us,
nobody would have believed
it. And not because he didn’t
have the talent. He always had
the talent. But he never really
seemed to care that much. He
didn’t seem that ambitious, you
know, and he was never one,
still, to pander. He always just
marched to his own drummer.

So yeah, it does surprise me.

Although even back then, we
all knew that he was a brilliant
genius. His writing was so
incredible. His stand-up bits
were so unusual and unlike
anybody else. So in that sense,
it doesn’t surprise me. But it
surprises me knowing Larry
as a person that he’s become so
successful. Do you see a broad range of
fans these days, not just Jews,
after 21 years?
It’s interesting because, you
know, I’ll be on the Upper West
Side of Manhattan at Zabar’s
and people will stop me and
See Curb, Page 26
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NOVEMBER 18, 2021
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