Jerry Seinfeld has addressed the rumour that he once practised Scientology in a new interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
Along with appearing on the show to discuss comedy and how he kick-started his career, host Maron asked the comedian point-blank about the ongoing whispers and got a surprisingly candid answer from Seinfeld.
“I did do a course in Scientology in, like, 1975,” Seinfeld replied. “I found it very interesting, but I never pursued it.”
He continued that, while he found the “emphasis on ethical behaviour” interesting to study, he didn’t like the aspect of “avoiding negative people.”
It’s not the first time that 66-year-old Seinfeld has discussed dabbling in the controversial religion, which claims Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its famous followers (they lost Beck back in November last year).
He told Parade back in 2008 that he found the courses “interesting” and helpful to his career as a burgeoning comedian.
“Believe it or not… It’s extremely intellectual and clinical in its approach to problem-solving, which really appealed to me,” he said.
“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. I wasn’t a natural performer at all, so I learned.”
He continued, “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.”
Seinfeld added that he had also been fascinated by the religion’s preference of technology over theology.
“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,” he said.
