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Q&A: Here’s why ‘Puddy’ and ‘Peterman’ are hitting the road together
Patrick Warburton and John O’Hurley — in advance of their first-ever stand-up comedy team-ups — talk favorite "Seinfeld" episodes, characters, and much more.
One is an Arby’s-loving, Christian-rocking, face-painting Devils fan offended by the term grease monkey. (“I don’t know too many monkeys who could take apart a fuel injector.”)
The other bought his life stories from Cosmo Kramer, would recognize a Ziggy anywhere, and once fell under the spell of opium. (“That’s right, Elaine. White lotus. Yam-yam. Shanghai Sally.”)
It’s Puddy and Peterman, baby. Elaine’s situationship and boss, together at last.
While they never had a scene together on the show, “Seinfeld” stars and real-life pals Patrick Warburton and John O’Hurley will unite on stage for a pair of shows right here in New England. (High five.)
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Catch “Puddy & Peterman: Crass n’ Class” March 28 at Providence’s Comedy Connection; the event was just added to an epic four-day comedy fest in Providence, the Lil Rhody Laugh Riot. Or, if you want to stay in Mass., the duo just added a show the night before, March 27 at the Norwood Theatre.
Both also have local ties: O’Hurley, 70, is a New Englander. Born in Kittery, Maine, he grew up in Natick and West Hartford, Conn., before graduating from Providence College in ’76, the only theater student at the time. (“Consequently, I won the theater award.”)
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While Warburton, 60, was born in New Jersey and raised in California, he voices Joe the cop in the Rhode Island-set “Family Guy.” (I’ll count it.)
I called the duo for a wide-ranging interview: We talked “Seinfeld” auditions, favorite episodes, Peterman monologues, why Warburton’s parents petitioned to get him off the air, and more. I’ll note the call started with just me and O’Hurley. Warburton dialed in later, apologizing that he had the wrong time. (It was the AM/PM, man!) He merges in where noted.
Boston.com: These are the first Puddy/Peterman team-ups. How did this come together?
O’Hurley: Patrick and I never worked together on the show, but we’re very close friends. He’s just starting off in stand-up this year. So I said, “Why don’t we do something together. You take one act, I’ll take the other, we’ll come back on stage together for a Q&A.” We’re so distinctly different — hence the crass n’ class. So he does his style of comedy; I do mine. I’ll do Peterman monologues, crazy stories of my misspent youth.
You graduated from PC, and you’re back often. I know you love Federal Hill.
When I’m in town, I’m at Andino’s. I have the corner stool at the bar. I see old friends, talk about the old days.
That’s awesome. You mentioned Peterman monologues. Which stand out?
The episode where Rob Schneider plays my hard-of-hearing assistant.
A classic episode, “The Friar’s Club.”
I thought he and Elaine [were dating]. I said to her: [breaks into Peterman cadence] “Who among us hasn’t stopped in the break room from time to time to nibble on a love newton?” I slapped down two tickets to the Karamazov Brothers Circus, and tell her she and Bob can knock off a little early. [In Peterman cadence] Elaine, don’t worry. I, too, am no stranger to love on the clock. As a young lad, my father apprenticed me to a honey factory in Belize. The chief beekeeper was this horrible hag of a woman with gnarled teeth and a giant wart that she called her nose — hoo hoo! — she was not attractive, even by backward standards. But love is truly blind, Elaine, and as the days went on, working closer and closer together, a sweet smell of honey in the air, I knew I had to have that horrible creature. And I did. So you and Bob, have a good time tonight.
[laughs] That’s awesome.
Great writing.
What was your favorite Peterman episode?
I like the wedding cake episode where George had the Frogger [“The Frogger”]. I love the monologue [in Peterman cadence], “Do you have any idea what happens to a butter-based frosting after six decades in a poorly ventilated British basement? I have a feeling that what you are going through will be punishment enough.”
[laughs] Your memory is amazing.
I love the whole way that episode was written, directed, and presented.
With George trying to get the Frogger across the street like a Frogger game.
And the semi truck coming in and destroying it. [laughs]
So how did that Peterman cadence come to you? How did the character come to you? I know it was supposed to be a one-off appearance.
It was, but “Seinfeld” never knows. They throw it out there and see what sticks. In my case, they said “We want him to sound the way the catalog is written.” This Hemingway-style prose to sell an Oxford button-down. It just sounded to me like a ’40s radio drama combined with a bad Charles Kuralt. It made sense to do it seriously, as though you were reading prized literature.
Larry David’s office called you after your series was canceled, “A Whole New Ballgame.”
Right. Larry David’s office called [my manager] and said, “We have this guest-star spot for tomorrow.” I told my manager, “Tell them no. I’m licking my wounds.” The next morning my manager called me and said: “I never told them. They’re waiting for you.” I got there, and they hadn’t even finished the episode.
Oh wow.
Oh yeah. They were the most disorganized show on television.
[laughs] I didn’t know that.
They hadn’t finished writing. The Peterman stuff was very skeletal. It was just the scene where he and Elaine meet on the street, and another scene in a restaurant. So really, the character developed off the catalog itself — that was the only thing I could hold on to.
By your second episode, “The Secret Code,” I feel like you had him in full.
That episode was a beautifully flushed-out script. I mean, you really got a sense of who Peterman was. “Mother had taken a lover up in Brazil. Perhaps Bosco was his name.”
[laughs] You also had an ad-lib in that episode.
Yes, when Elaine cancels and it’s just [George and Jerry dining with Peterman]. “I’ll tell the maître d’ it’ll just be the three bulls.”
Larry must’ve loved that line.
Yeah, that was fun. But that was the spirit of the show: Throw it in, if it sticks, it stays.
While you were on the show, did you have a sense of the magic, the longevity it would have?
No, because I’d never watched the show. When I left that first table reading, I called my manager and said, “This is the number one show on television? It’s not funny.” And in truth, the show doesn’t read funny. It’s not “Golden Girls”-style, tee up the joke for a punchline. It’s funny if you play every scene like a drama, because the characters are so passionate about things that have absolutely no consequence.
[laughs] True.
[Fans] always talk about the fact that the show wasn’t that good in the beginning.
Exactly. Season 1 is so off. It doesn’t feel like “Seinfeld” at all.
The reason was, they weren’t playing it for the stakes you had to play it at. They were playing it at a five or six on the dial— it needed to be at 11. You watch early episodes, they’re just a little eh.
I agree. Very flat. They didn’t really find their voice until a few seasons in. Do you have a favorite season?
I thought in season 9 they were just hitting their stride. But Jerry was executive producer/star/co-writer, so he had a different perspective on how much of his life the show was taking up. We had enough for syndication, and he wanted to go out on top. But I thought that last season, we were really hitting our stride— everything was just a little more lunatic, as evidenced by “The Frogger.”
Great point. Do you have a favorite character?
George made the show. Kramer’s physicality was singular — but the key to the show was George’s passion. He had to be passionately mediocre. If you gave that role to any other chubby character actor in Hollywood, that series would have crashed. George had to drive that show being everyman, swinging from the middle rung on the ladder of life, having screwed his way to the middle.
[laughs] That’s good.
[Warburton merges into the call]
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Warburton: Apologies, I had the wrong time.
O’Hurley: It’s OK, I already told her most of the high points of your life.
Warburton: I can’t think of a better spokesman.
Patrick, tell me how you got involved in this Providence show?
Warburton: Well, it was John’s idea. We have different sensibilities and senses of humor. I think it’s a fun collaboration. We’ll each be able to do our own thing. It’s great to finally do something together, because we never worked together on the show. And throughout the years, I’ve spent more time with John than any other cast member. We’re in similar circles, have done charity events together, play golf together, even though he’s so refined and cultured.
O’Hurley: Stick up his a—. [laughs]
Warburton: And I play dimwits. So it’s fun to combine the two personalities on stage.
Any others planned at this point?
Warburton: I just started headlining about six months ago; I’m beginning to get overbooked. John is busy, too — he could be the next Broadway show tomorrow. It’s not like he needs to run around with me.
O’Hurley: Hand in hand. [laughs]
[laughs] Patrick, what sparked a stand-up career now?
Warburton: I felt like I was getting a bit complacent, enjoying a retired-ish life since COVID. I needed to do something. I started doing 15 minutes at LA joints. Then I got my first offer to headline a 500-seat club. I’m no spring chicken, so I decided to dive in — turns out, I had 70 minutes. I’ve been going full-force. You get better and sharper the more you do it. You learn the best writer for you is you.
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O’Hurley: Ultimately, it has to take the shape of you. When I’m putting stuff together, I throw out a lot of really funny jokes because they’re not me.
Warburton: I’ll take ’em, John.
O’Hurley: [laughs] You have to stay true to a style.
Patrick, how did you land on “Seinfeld”?
Warburton: At the time, I was bouncing around [different shows], so fortunately for me, I didn’t have to go into the casting [pool]. I got a producer call, meaning my first audition was walking into a room with Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David.
I distinctly remember sitting on the couch watching the show with my wife two weeks before that, looking at her and saying, “Dammit, why can’t I get on a show like ‘Seinfeld’?” Two weeks later, I had that audition. It was for a one-off, but fortunately they liked the character. I only did nine episodes.
Wow, really? Puddy seemed like such a huge part of the show.
O’Hurley: That character, over the last three or four seasons, was a character that shaped the show. Puddy was a strong force. You say you only did nine, but it was nine very strong shows.
Warburton: Well, thank you, John.
It’s true. I can’t believe it was only nine. What are your favorite Puddy episodes?
Warburton: Perhaps when I sold Jerry his car [“The Dealership”]. And maybe the face-painter episode, “Fusilli Jerry.” I like the religious one, too. [“The Burning.”] That hit close to home.
Those are all fan-favorites. So did the character come to you right away? Did you know who he was?
Warburton: I remember being in the [casting] room, seeing more of your Tony or Vinny-type New York City auto-mechanics. I knew that wasn’t the direction I was going to go. I gave him a different voice, which seemed to appeal to them.
And the squint.
Warburton: [laughs] That squint I carry almost everywhere I go.
You mentioned the religious episode hitting close to home. Your parents didn’t like your first episode, where Puddy steals “the move” from Jerry.
Warburton: That first episode, I got two letters, what I call hate-mail. One was from a politician who said, “I can only imagine how disappointed your parents are.” And I guess he was right because the other piece of hate-mail was a six-page letter from my father letting me know he was disappointed.
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O’Hurley: [laughs]
[laughs]
Warburton: My dad said there was no sanctity. Where’s the sanctity? My father was in a monastery for three months before he went into medicine. And my mother is worse.
[laughs]
Warburton: She’s 87 now. She said, “You probably discuss me in your stand-up.” I said, “Without you, Mom, my show is 15 minutes.“
[laughs] Your parents had a problem with “Family Guy.”
Warburton: Oh, they begged me for years [to quit]. They see it as strictly blasphemous. I could never explain satire to them. I remember my dad left a voicemail [about an episode]: “Patrick, God is sitting in a La-Z-Boy chair getting ready to m— with a bottle of lotion. I wish you would get off that show.” Click. He hung up.
[laughs]
O’Hurley: [laughs]
Warburton: The conversation I could never have with my dad is: “God is not a guy with a beard sitting in a La-Z-Boy. This is satire.”
O’Hurley: [laughs] It’s so funny that of all people to have the type of parents he had — it’s God’s great practical joke.
[laughs] Patrick, “Family Guy” is a huge Rhode Island connection. Have you been to Rhode Island?
Warburton: Oh, yeah, I love it. I spent three months living in the Biltmore in Providence while filming a Disney film with Peter Dinklage, “Underdog.” I had a great time. At the time, in front of the Biltmore they had roller derby. I sort of got to know all the gals on the roller derby team.
My very conservative father visited for dinner. I said, “Dad, we’re going to the roller derby tonight. We’re VIP guests.” They had this long couch by the rink. My father and I sat as these girls destroyed each other on the rink. The only thing I remember him saying — in a very disgruntled way: “I’m sure glad my daughters never did this.”
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O’Hurley: [laughs]
[laughs] That’s great. So Patrick, I asked John, but what are your favorite “Seinfeld” episodes?
Warburton: The second spitter. [“The Boyfriend.”] I thought that was a brilliant parallel with the JFK assassination. I loved it when they did things like that. The show stands the test of time. Even though everybody’s got cell phones and social media now, the dynamic between the main characters, the sensibility, hasn’t aged.
O’Hurley: I agree. The only thing that’s aged is the telephones in Jerry’s apartment. Everything else is the same. The things they were upset about are things that people will always be upset about.
Tickets to “Puddy & Peterman: Crass N’ Class,” scheduled for Friday, March 28, at Comedy Connection in Providence, Rhode Island, are available at events-ricomedyconnection-com. Tickets to the Norwood Theatre show on March 27 are available at norwoodstage.com.
Note: This story has been updated with information about the pair’s Norwood show.
Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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