July 11, 2025 • 8 mins
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld speaks on his constant drive and the difficulties of not performing for two years during Covid. He also shares his exercise routine and his love for transcendental meditation, stating the three keys to a successful life are transcendental meditation, lifting weights, and espresso.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey everybody, it's Graham and it's Friday, which means today
we get to bring you another trending clip this week, Jerry
Seinfeld. Tell about the little mule
inside of you named Artemis. Oh, my friend Mario calls me.
He said. There's a mule inside of me he
(00:23):
named Artemis. It's just a mule.
It just keeps working. Artemis pulls the cart.
So I, I am, I, I do like to pullthe cart.
I want to pull the cart. I don't want to hang out.
In fact, I'm kind of off now fora couple weeks and I really feel
(00:46):
a little not right. OK so it's funny you say that
because I I pulled a quote that you once gave that said I get
thrown off easily if I have one weekend off from stand up and I
do something weird. I completely forget who I am and
what I do for a living. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You go back on stage and well after the COVID, I hadn't worked
(01:10):
for two years and and I'd done astand up special right before
COVID, so my whole act was gone.So I had to start a new act and
I hadn't been on stage in two years.
And I would go to clubs and I would watch people on stage and
go how, how are they doing it? Where do they get the guts to go
up on stage like that? I literally it seemed like I had
(01:33):
to start from total scratch. But how when you've been doing
it for as long as you have? So let's say you didn't do any
exercise for two years and then you went into a gym.
It would just seem daunting, right?
It takes a minute to get back inthe routine, but then once.
Yeah, but two years, two years of nothing, just sitting.
(01:58):
Imagine what it would be like togo into a gym but stand up.
The stand up stage is even more intimidating than a gym.
It's very intimidating place. And Speaking of exercise, how
about how body for Life impactedyou?
Well, that was an exercise program I found in a bookstore
(02:19):
in Milwaukee in 2004. And it was no, that interval
training was new and it was verypainful type of training, but
very short. So that interested me because I
didn't want to spend a lot of time exercising.
(02:41):
And the intense pain seemed interesting too.
What? Do you mean seemed interesting
I. Like to be in a difficult
environment. I don't know why.
Because pressure on the system is generally a good thing.
I've just felt instinctively I'mgoing to do better under
pressure. And so you have a trainer, I
(03:02):
think, Adam, right? Yeah.
You'll do 3 days of cardio, 3 days of weights.
I do. Something everyday.
So what is like the typical routine?
Exercise is so unfunny, I I really I can't talk about it.
Wait, what do you mean you can'tbecause but you have spoken
about? But it's not funny.
Yeah, but it's not funny. You have said it is exercise
(03:25):
that kind of. Well I just think the body and
the mind are one thing. So if you exercise your body
then you exercise your mind and the mind.
I only do things that are good for the brain function.
I care about brain function for the obvious reasons.
I I feel like I need the brain. You once said I I've always had
(03:46):
the skill of extracting the essence of any subject.
Yes, that I study, be it Scientology, Judaism, Zen, yoga,
meditation, right on the train. Marcus Aurelius is my new one.
How so? The Roman emperor who wrote a
book called Meditations, which was the beginning of Stoicism
(04:07):
and that that's my obsession now, is Marcus Aurelius.
He had this fantastic philosophical observations on
life. And you've learned what from
that? That everything that you're
worried about is going to be gone like that.
The people that you that are criticizing you, they're going
to be gone. You're going to be gone.
All this hand wringing worry andconcern over how are people
(04:31):
viewing me and someone said something bad about me and you
get so upset about it is, is wasted time and energy.
Marcus Aurelius says your only focus should be on getting
better at what you're doing. Focus on what you're doing, get
better at what you're doing. Everything else is a complete
(04:52):
waste of time. So I have this movie coming out
in about a month. I am so excited to read the
worst reviews. What do you mean, 'cause they're
so meaningless. That's what he thinks.
Now did it take you a minute to get to that place or no?
I've been looking forward to it for two years.
I can't wait for the bad. Reviews but but I I mean, did it
(05:12):
take you a minute to get to the place of enjoying that or have
you always kind of been unaffected by?
No, it took that took many, manyyears, OK.
On the Transcendental Meditationfront, I believe you do it at
least twice daily. At least twice, sometimes more.
You said it's the greatest thingas a life tool, as a work tool
(05:33):
and just making things make sense, right?
Do you do meditation? I don't I I've tried it, I've
tried it once, but. Oh, great.
Good try. What?
Well, what? What do you what do you want in
life, Graham? What do you want?
What do you want to have more than anything?
I'd like to make the most of my ability and be.
Happy and And what does it take to do that?
(05:54):
Energy. You need energy.
It's the most valuable quantity of human life.
Well, where do we get it? And you're saying you get it
from meditation? Well, you sleep right?
That's about it. That's all you do to rest your
body. The next time you get out of
bed, before you leave the bed, stand up, turn around and look
(06:19):
at that bed. Does it look like what would
happen there was relaxing? Does it look peace?
Did it look? Does it look peaceful what you
went through there? No.
It's a necessary component of human life, but it's not the
level of rest that you need and is available to you
(06:43):
effortlessly. Meditation is effortless.
Exercise is the opposite of that.
Exercise is great for energy, but it takes more effort than
anything. It's incredibly difficult thing
to do. Meditation is like I say, if I
said to you, I'm going to need you to get in the hot tub once a
day and just sit there for 5 minutes, could you do that?
(07:07):
That's pretty easy. It's pretty easy.
Meditation is even easier than that.
So if that's all you have to do to double the amount of energy
that you have to accomplish whatyou want to accomplish, and
you're advancing your life, how do you not use that?
So I'm speaking to you trying toapproach you as a very pragmatic
(07:30):
person because you seem very pragmatic.
You don't do stupid things. You try and do things that make
sense, right? I tried to, yeah.
OK, so that's what this is. You know, the bar in your phone
instead of that was the yellow and the red all white.
Just boom, full battery. Full battery.
How have you felt that's extended your career?
(07:52):
Oh my God. Well, I'm 70, OK?
Which is shocking. Well, there you go.
Yeah, so, but that's. Why?
Just because of meditation. Yes it is.
If I if you ask me my 3 keys to a successful life you want you
want my 3 keys, Transcendental Meditation, lift weights,
(08:12):
espresso, you just just do thosethree things and you will kill
it. How many espresso machines do
you have? Oh, I have one everywhere.
I have an espresso machine everywhere.
As always, thanks for listening.To see more trending clips from
my team, go to youtube.com/graham Bensinger.
Hey everybody, it's Graham and it's Friday, which means today
we get to bring you another trending clip this week, Jerry
Seinfeld. Tell about the little mule
inside of you named Artemis. Oh, my friend Mario calls me.
He said. There's a mule inside of me he
(00:23):
named Artemis. It's just a mule.
It just keeps working. Artemis pulls the cart.
So I, I am, I, I do like to pullthe cart.
I want to pull the cart. I don't want to hang out.
In fact, I'm kind of off now fora couple weeks and I really feel
(00:46):
a little not right. OK so it's funny you say that
because I I pulled a quote that you once gave that said I get
thrown off easily if I have one weekend off from stand up and I
do something weird. I completely forget who I am and
what I do for a living. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You go back on stage and well after the COVID, I hadn't worked
(01:10):
for two years and and I'd done astand up special right before
COVID, so my whole act was gone.So I had to start a new act and
I hadn't been on stage in two years.
And I would go to clubs and I would watch people on stage and
go how, how are they doing it? Where do they get the guts to go
up on stage like that? I literally it seemed like I had
(01:33):
to start from total scratch. But how when you've been doing
it for as long as you have? So let's say you didn't do any
exercise for two years and then you went into a gym.
It would just seem daunting, right?
It takes a minute to get back inthe routine, but then once.
Yeah, but two years, two years of nothing, just sitting.
(01:58):
Imagine what it would be like togo into a gym but stand up.
The stand up stage is even more intimidating than a gym.
It's very intimidating place. And Speaking of exercise, how
about how body for Life impactedyou?
Well, that was an exercise program I found in a bookstore
(02:19):
in Milwaukee in 2004. And it was no, that interval
training was new and it was verypainful type of training, but
very short. So that interested me because I
didn't want to spend a lot of time exercising.
(02:41):
And the intense pain seemed interesting too.
What? Do you mean seemed interesting
I. Like to be in a difficult
environment. I don't know why.
Because pressure on the system is generally a good thing.
I've just felt instinctively I'mgoing to do better under
pressure. And so you have a trainer, I
(03:02):
think, Adam, right? Yeah.
You'll do 3 days of cardio, 3 days of weights.
I do. Something everyday.
So what is like the typical routine?
Exercise is so unfunny, I I really I can't talk about it.
Wait, what do you mean you can'tbecause but you have spoken
about? But it's not funny.
Yeah, but it's not funny. You have said it is exercise
(03:25):
that kind of. Well I just think the body and
the mind are one thing. So if you exercise your body
then you exercise your mind and the mind.
I only do things that are good for the brain function.
I care about brain function for the obvious reasons.
I I feel like I need the brain. You once said I I've always had
(03:46):
the skill of extracting the essence of any subject.
Yes, that I study, be it Scientology, Judaism, Zen, yoga,
meditation, right on the train. Marcus Aurelius is my new one.
How so? The Roman emperor who wrote a
book called Meditations, which was the beginning of Stoicism
(04:07):
and that that's my obsession now, is Marcus Aurelius.
He had this fantastic philosophical observations on
life. And you've learned what from
that? That everything that you're
worried about is going to be gone like that.
The people that you that are criticizing you, they're going
to be gone. You're going to be gone.
All this hand wringing worry andconcern over how are people
(04:31):
viewing me and someone said something bad about me and you
get so upset about it is, is wasted time and energy.
Marcus Aurelius says your only focus should be on getting
better at what you're doing. Focus on what you're doing, get
better at what you're doing. Everything else is a complete
(04:52):
waste of time. So I have this movie coming out
in about a month. I am so excited to read the
worst reviews. What do you mean, 'cause they're
so meaningless. That's what he thinks.
Now did it take you a minute to get to that place or no?
I've been looking forward to it for two years.
I can't wait for the bad. Reviews but but I I mean, did it
(05:12):
take you a minute to get to the place of enjoying that or have
you always kind of been unaffected by?
No, it took that took many, manyyears, OK.
On the Transcendental Meditationfront, I believe you do it at
least twice daily. At least twice, sometimes more.
You said it's the greatest thingas a life tool, as a work tool
(05:33):
and just making things make sense, right?
Do you do meditation? I don't I I've tried it, I've
tried it once, but. Oh, great.
Good try. What?
Well, what? What do you what do you want in
life, Graham? What do you want?
What do you want to have more than anything?
I'd like to make the most of my ability and be.
Happy and And what does it take to do that?
(05:54):
Energy. You need energy.
It's the most valuable quantity of human life.
Well, where do we get it? And you're saying you get it
from meditation? Well, you sleep right?
That's about it. That's all you do to rest your
body. The next time you get out of
bed, before you leave the bed, stand up, turn around and look
(06:19):
at that bed. Does it look like what would
happen there was relaxing? Does it look peace?
Did it look? Does it look peaceful what you
went through there? No.
It's a necessary component of human life, but it's not the
level of rest that you need and is available to you
(06:43):
effortlessly. Meditation is effortless.
Exercise is the opposite of that.
Exercise is great for energy, but it takes more effort than
anything. It's incredibly difficult thing
to do. Meditation is like I say, if I
said to you, I'm going to need you to get in the hot tub once a
day and just sit there for 5 minutes, could you do that?
(07:07):
That's pretty easy. It's pretty easy.
Meditation is even easier than that.
So if that's all you have to do to double the amount of energy
that you have to accomplish whatyou want to accomplish, and
you're advancing your life, how do you not use that?
So I'm speaking to you trying toapproach you as a very pragmatic
(07:30):
person because you seem very pragmatic.
You don't do stupid things. You try and do things that make
sense, right? I tried to, yeah.
OK, so that's what this is. You know, the bar in your phone
instead of that was the yellow and the red all white.
Just boom, full battery. Full battery.
How have you felt that's extended your career?
(07:52):
Oh my God. Well, I'm 70, OK?
Which is shocking. Well, there you go.
Yeah, so, but that's. Why?
Just because of meditation. Yes it is.
If I if you ask me my 3 keys to a successful life you want you
want my 3 keys, Transcendental Meditation, lift weights,
(08:12):
espresso, you just just do thosethree things and you will kill
it. How many espresso machines do
you have? Oh, I have one everywhere.
I have an espresso machine everywhere.
As always, thanks for listening.To see more trending clips from
my team, go to youtube.com/graham Bensinger.
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