Jerry Seinfeld Used To Dabble In Scientology
Seinfeld is Jewish.
getty We watch reality television to zone out and forget all about our own lives, but once in a while, a show comes along that really makes us think. For example, Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath, which investigates and shows the experiences of former members of the Church of Scientology, and exposes the atrocities that allegedly occurred behind closed doors. Remini left the Church in 2013, after spending over 30 years practicing.
Remini was one of many celebrity Scientologists, whose current members include Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Beck, and Elisabeth Moss. And though we’ve heard bizarre rumors surrounding the personal lives of Travolta and Cruise, one famous comedian may have also practiced Scientology at one point.
Is Jerry Seinfeld a Scientologist? Well, the short answer is no, as Seinfeld is Jewish. But a recent episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee has us wondering just how this topic came back up.
In the episode, Seinfeld slammed comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, whose name was bleeped out. The two have been at odds with each other for quite some time, and perhaps, Seinfeld was first put-off by Goldthwait’s comments about his relationship with a then-17-year-old, while Seinfeld was 38.
“Here is this creepy Scientologist guy (dating) teenage girls — which I don’t care about one way or another. What I find creepy is that people are convinced he lives in that apartment, and those are his wacky friends. They don’t like each other; they’re actors paid to pretend they like Jerry Seinfeld. He’s a weird guy. But everybody thinks he’s normal and I’m weird,” he told The Spokesman-Review in 1995.
Goldthwait also made fun of Seinfeld, making comments about his stand-up documentary. “I don’t know, man. Sitting around with a bunch of guys, slaving over a new ‘clapper’ joke? For God’s sake. People are gonna think all comics are crazy, because here’s a guy with $450 million, bummed out because he can’t get laughs at an Improv. Dude, if it bums you out, don’t go on stage. You’ve got $450 million. You can pay these people to clap,” he told The Baltimore Sun in 2003.
But what about those comments on Scientology? It shouldn’t be a secret, because Seinfeld commented on the Church as far back as 2007.
In an interview with Parade, Seinfeld detailed his involvement in Scientology and how he “dabbled” in the religion in the 1970s and 1980s.
On studying Scientology, Seinfeld said:
“I last really studied, oh, it’s almost 30 years ago. But what I did do, I really liked, in terms of it’s very... it was interesting. Believe it or not... it’s extremely intellectual and clinical in its approach to problem-solving, which really appealed to me. I actually got to it from my auto mechanics teacher in high school, who was into it, and he was telling me about it. In my early years of stand-up, it was very helpful. I took a couple of courses. One of them was in communication, and I learned some things about communication that really got my act going.
It was just things about understanding the communications cycle. Even the volume at which I’m speaking now is the right volume for where you’re sitting. I’m almost performing, in a way. You would just understand that there’s this kind of voice, and then there’s this kind of voice, and then there’s this kind of voice. I wasn’t a natural performer at all, so I learned. I was always a pretty good writer in the beginning, but I really had to learn how to perform.
Just a little thing like that, understanding that really helped me on stage to understand how you have to invade the space of the audience a little bit. I learned that early on. It was a very helpful thing to learn. You have to invade them just a little bit. Not too much, because then it’s obnoxious. But you can’t be short of them either, or you won’t control them.
They have a lot of very good technology. That’s what really appealed to me about it. It’s not faith-based. It’s all technology. And I’m obsessed with technology.”
While promoting Bee Movie in 2007, Seinfeld spoke to Today’s Billy Bush about his experience with Scientology.
“I did some Scientology courses about 30 years ago. The only thing that bothers me about people knowing that is that it is not my complete wacko resume. It’s just one aspect! I am very interested in self-help things. When I was a young man in my 20s I would explore like meditation, and I studied Aikido and karate and yoga and I would just take little things from each of these things,” Seinfeld revealed.
Bush then asked, “But everyone else takes from yoga and Aikido and all those things, but Scientology has this stigma around it. And you say it was very helpful?” Seinfeld replied, “Yeah, well I didn’t do very much. I don’t know that much, I just did a little but I liked it.”
Bush asked why Seinfeld stopped, and he said, “I don’t know... I was kind of flitting from thing to thing. I was interested in exploring.”
So, there you have it! Luckily, Seinfeld didn’t end up involved in the controversial church after all. He just tried it out.
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Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.