Friends and Foes

If you've ever seen "Curb Your Enthusiasm," you know Larry David and Richard Lewis argue a lot: Larry lends Richard a mantra to use during meditation, then takes it back; Richard accuses Larry of stealing his voicemail greeting, then makes Larry record a new one.

Around and around they go in the HBO improvisational comedy in which Larry David portrays Larry David (co-creator of "Seinfeld" and "Curb") and in which Richard Lewis portrays Richard Lewis (the neurotic, ex-alcoholic comedian).

Off camera, they behave similarly (by both men's accounts).

"Larry and I pretty much do have this relationship off camera," Lewis says. "I love him. He loves me. We'd be there for each other in a flash. But we argue a lot."

Somehow, this dynamic has resulted in both men's best roles of a lifetime -- playing themselves.

"You go on YouTube, and there are classic David-Lewis fights. Like Ali-Frasier," Lewis says. "It's sort of fun. He brilliantly knew what he was doing casting me as me."

How long have Larry, 61, and Richard, 61, been fighting? Oh, for about 49 years. They met in summer camp in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y. So next year, if they're inclined, they could celebrate the 50th anniversary of their fighting.

After that fateful summer camp, they didn't see each other again until they met as comedians in their 20s and realized there was something familiar about each other. Oh, yeah, they realized, they had despised each other in camp! But then they became serious friends for decades.

Even so, for some reason, even though David co-created and co-produced "Seinfeld," he never got Lewis to appear on the classic sitcom.

Why not?

"Who knows why," Lewis says. "It could have been (scuttled by) a casting person or a network person. I tend to just take care of myself and not ask for anything."

In other words, Lewis doesn't hold it against David. And Lewis is grateful David did put him in "Curb."

Here's a funny thing, though: When David was coming up with the idea for "Curb," Lewis was independently (and without knowing about "Curb") writing his own script for a biographical show about showbiz.

Back then, Lewis called David and asked him to look at a script for a scripted show (unlike the unscripted "Curb") where Lewis would play himself and have a showbiz manager.

David said he couldn't work on Lewis' idea, because he already was working on "Curb," then explained "Curb" to Lewis and discussed the possibility of casting Lewis in it. Lewis asked only to be in at least three episodes per season, to create a character arc. But Lewis was excited.

"Not to say 'yes' to a Larry David show would have been an insanity," Lewis says.

As a result of "Curb's" cult popularity, Lewis' demographic of fans now ranges from teenagers to late baby boomers -- and prostitutes.

"I went down to get an ice cream yesterday, down the hills in Hollywood from my home, and two hookers -- two streetwalkers -- came up to me in this little mall. And they knew me. And they were talking about which episodes of 'Curb' they like!"

Lewis knows that the best film or TV part of his life is playing himself -- and yet, when Lewis first got into comedy, he didn't even know how to play himself, he says.

"I didn't know who I was. That's really why I went onstage," Lewis says. "I really needed strangers to reinforce my feelings about life, because I wasn't really getting that in my upbringing."

"Curb" has revitalized his stand-up career, he says. In fact, he's on the road with stand-up Susie Essman, who plays the wife of Larry's manager, Jeff, on "Curb."

"Curb's" upcoming season has wrapped and includes the cast of "Seinfeld" in a season-long arc. Lewis won't spill the beans on story lines or jokes.

Meanwhile, he is thrilled he finally was validated for popularizing a phrase: "From hell" -- as in "the girlfriend from hell," or "the airplane ride from hell." He fought for years to get credit for the phrase in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

And David wrote a premise for "Curb" a while back in which Lewis' "from hell" story line was fleshed out for humor.

"That immortalized it forever," he says.

But Lewis still wanted the quote credit.

"They were using that phrase in marketing, and it was bugging me. Like, if a movie came out, you'd see, 'Boys from Hell.' Everything was 'from hell.' And I did popularize that phrase. I started using it in the late '70s."

Although finally, while Bartlett's has not given Lewis the credit, the Yale Book of Quotations has. Which is good enough, he says.

"That was sort of my hook, and Yale agreed," Lewis says. "So screw Bartlett's. I don't even eat Bartlett's pears anymore."

What do you think? Tell me at delfman@reviewjournal. com, or post your reviews and rants at reviewjournal.com/elfman.