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Comic behind Elaine of 'Seinfeld' to star at 'Kung Pao'SUZANNE WEISS Bulletin Correspondent
If Carol Leifer's life sounds a little like that of Elaine on "Seinfeld," it's no accident. She spent three years on the "Seinfeld" writing team, mining the lode of her own life as a single urban female for material for the show. Hers were the famed "Marble Rye" episode, Elaine's paranoid delusion that her manicurist was gossiping about her in Korean and "The Beard," about the time Elaine posed as the date of a gay friend. "It's easy for me because I basically live her life," the producer-performer writer has said. But the Julia Louis-Dreyfuss character, with her somewhat hazy creative job at J. Peterman, and Leifer, the stand-up comic, are not the same person. If Leifer hadn't been a hard-working comedian, sharing occasional stages with Jerry Seinfeld and co-producer Larry David, they never would have asked her to come on board. She will headline this year's edition of the annual "Evening of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy," an event for Jews on Christmas weekend. The San Francisco event is scheduled on three nights at two venues: Friday and Saturday, Dec. 24 and 25 at New Asia Restaurant in Chinatown and Sunday, Dec. 26 at the Herbst Theatre, with dim sum in the Green Room. There are dinner, cocktail and show-only options and partial proceeds benefit Breast Cancer Action and the Holocaust Center of Northern California's Tolerance Education Program. In addition to Leifer, the comic roster includes Lisa Geduldig, producer and emcee, who conceived of the event after noticing how many Jews escape into Chinese restaurants on Christmas Eve; Betsy Salkind, former staff writer on "Roseanne"; and Dan Rothenberg, with his own brand of "queer Jewish humor." Performing, producing and writing can be a kind of triple threat to one's peace of mind but Leifer takes it in stride. Currently, she is producer of the critically acclaimed, now-you-see-it, now-you-don't ABC sitcom "It's Like, You Know." And she swears the on-again, off-again comedy starring Jennifer Grey will be back this month. "The thing I like about wearing three hats is switching hats," she said by phone from Los Angeles recently, during a taping break from the sitcom. "You don't want to wear the same thing every day, do you? "I love performing but you don't get much of a regular life if you're always on the road. Writing allows me to work with all these other great, almost legendary, performers and producing gives you more control over the material." Funny came easy to the Long Island native, and she credits a lot of that to being Jewish. "I feel like it's kind of in our heritage to be funny," she said. "Growing up, my family was very into comedy albums: 'The 2,000 Year Old Man,' Alan Sherman. I do think that being Jewish has a lot to do with being funny. Laughter is a way to survive a pretty sad history." Although she doesn't do much Jewish material in her shows, she includes some. "There's a lot of humor in the High Holidays, believe it or not. I relate it to my social life, like: 'It's sad when the last thing you've kissed is a Torah.''' Leifer always enjoyed performing as a kid and went on to major in theater at State University of New York at Binghamton. While in school, she did stand-up on the side. Her big break came when David Letterman happened to come into a New York club called the Comic Strip in the middle of one of her routines. The encounter led to some 25 appearances on his show. She subsequently appeared on numerous television specials and is a frequent guest on "Politically Incorrect," "Dr. Katz" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." She also starred in WB's "Alright, Already" and was a writer and producer for "The Larry Sanders Show." Four of her fellow "Seinfeld" writing colleagues are on the staff of "It's Like, You Know," she noted. "It's like a bit of a family reunion." This will be her second "Kung Pao" gig. Her last was in 1994. "I had such a great time," she recalled. "I was so much in love with the idea of it. When you're Jewish, you tend to feel kind of persona non grata at Christmas. It's so good to have something like this at a time when you've always been essentially left out." And it even comes with egg roll.
"An Evening of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy" runs with a 6 p.m. dinner show ($45) and 9:30 p.m. cocktail show ($30) Friday, Dec. 24 and Saturday, Dec. 25 at New Asia Restaurant, 772 Pacific, S.F. It continues Sunday, Dec. 26 with 5:30 p.m. dim sum and 7 p.m. show ($40, $25 show only) at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness, S.F. Information: (415) 863-3226.
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