D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A early January 2001, Judy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was a fighter by nature, but the disease took her from us the following September, three days after 9/11. Almost 15 years later, many of Judy’s friends still recall and reminisce about those wonderful times at her house. Her secret was showing people a good time. At the start of this New Year here, a friend invited me to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Beacon Theater on 74th Street and Broadway. The Beacon is a beautiful theater with an interior that looks like it have been entirely refurbished in its original style as an old-time movie palace that
is physically on Broadway but usually for off-Broadway plays or solo performances. The last time I’d been there was several years ago when Liza Minnelli did a one-woman show (she was great). I’d never seen Seinfeld before. Or his show. It’s true that I’m one of the few. I have heard about it, of course, and I know lots of people who would never miss an episode. I happened to tell another friend that morning that I was going and she broke into some of the stories from his show while laughing about them. My hostess for the show was the same way. She had a hard time getting tickets and ended up paying top dol-
lar (she wouldn’t tell) with a scalper for three. (She only had wanted two, but was required to buy three if she wanted any.) So, when she asked me to be the third, in the seventh row on the aisle, I wondered: “How painful could it be?” I wasn’t especially excited about it, never having seen the man who rose to a stardom where a single name says it all. But I figured it might be something I could write about. Like Michael’s. Well, the place was packed. A very hip crowd, but what some would call an older crowd. Forties and up. But hip, and with it—Noo-Yawkers who are always young in their heads if nowhere else.
The music before the show began was entirely Frank Sinatra singing. When it stopped, a man came out and introduced the evening followed by Seinfeld’s opening act: about 10 minutes from a guy who used to live three blocks from the Beacon but now lives in Santa Monica. He was very good, and very funny. Then came The Man. Seinfeld. In a suit. I can’t remember all the paths he took in his stand-up. Everyone was laughing right away. I was laughing right away. He invites you in and talks to you about this world we’re living in, taking the ordinary and punching it full of constant laughter for us. There were guffaws and
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