\n<\/p>\n
\u201cCurb\u201d began airing on HBO in 2000 and once took a six-year hiatus between seasons. Did Lewis imagine David would change his mind about ending it now? \u201cHe\u2019s always changed his mind,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
The two met as kids at summer camp and had been friends for most of their lives, including in their early days as stand-ups in New York, Lewis said, recalling, \u201cI always had a pad with me, from Day 1, and so did Larry. And we would write premises down, wherever we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
He preferred comics who were authentically themselves, he added. \u201cWithout sounding too pompous about it, I always dug comedians who were the same onstage as they were offstage. There wasn\u2019t too much fake stuff going on, they didn\u2019t create a character, they were just who they were.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called David \u201cthe storyteller of my generation,\u201d comparing him to Norman Lear.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not going to stop writing things down,\u201d Lewis said. Then again, nearly a quarter-century is a pretty long run.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been so blessed to be on this show, and so grateful,\u201d he said. But there was one thing that bugged him \u2014 that he didn\u2019t get more one-on-one screen time with Essman (who was not much like her character, he noted, and with whom he happily toured).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in the scene, eating ravioli, while she\u2019s screaming at everybody else but me, for some reason,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m like such a nice guy, apparently.\u201d Given the chance, \u201cI would\u2019ve gone out of my way to screw up the scene, just to make her angry at me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n