The day Larry David quit his job and other comic tales

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Before Larry David was Larry David, the man now thought of as one of the funniest people alive was working for a comedy show that didn’t find him particularly funny. It was the mid-1980s, he was a writer on “Saturday Night Live,” and his sketches were not getting on the air.

After discovering that yet another bit would not be making the cut -- hard as this may be to believe -- the creator and star of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ became enraged. He marched up to the big boss, then Dick Ebersol, who had co-created and developed the show, and lived the dream that truly unites workers around the world: He quit.

Minutes later, walking home on the freezing streets of New York City, David quickly realized the dream of quitting was much better than the reality. There were bills to pay.

So, he set out to convince his now ex-bosses that they were still his bosses -- that it was all a dream -- by showing up to work the next day. It worked.

“I thought it was worth a shot,” said David in his Santa Monica office, recounting the tale that inspired a future “Seinfeld” episode. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Read more about what else Larry David had to say about comedy with his longtime friend David Steinberg, whose new 10-part series on Showtime ‘Inside Comedy’ begins Thursday.

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-- Martin Miller