Jeff Garlin - Best Seat in the House
Featured Book
Best Seat in the House
An inside look at comedy’s biggest stars through candid, never-before-seen photographs with hilarious personal stories that capture the heart of life on and offstage. Beloved for his iconic roles including Jeff Greene on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and Murray Goldberg on ABC’s The Goldbergs and for his decades on the stand-up stage, Garlin is known for his humor, heart, and magnetic presence. Less known is his passion for photography and his gift for capturing the unscripted moments that define life behind the curtain. For years, Garlin has quietly documented backstage life and private gatherings with comedy’s biggest stars and Hollywood’s most familiar faces. Now, for the first time, he’s gathered his best work alongside personal anecdotes—captured in conversation with podcast host Sam Fragoso—that reveal the humor and tenderness of Garlin’s closest friends, collaborators, and mentors. Featuring iconic images from the Curb Your Enthusiasm series finale and portraits of luminaries including Larry David, Mel Brooks, Brad Pitt, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Odenkirk, Christie Brinkley, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Jerrod Carmichael, and many more, this book is a love letter to comedy and its creators. Each image reflects the wit, warmth, and spontaneity that define Garlin’s voice—onstage, onscreen, and now behind the camera.
This book will be available for purchase at the event.
About This Event
You know him from Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Goldbergs, and his decades on the stand-up stage. What you may not know is that comedian Jeff Garlin also happens to be a gifted photographer. Join us in celebration of his newest book, Best Seat in the House, a collection of never-before-seen photographs and hilarious personal stories that capture the heart of life on and offstage. Garlin will share unscripted moments with comedy’s biggest stars from Larry David and Mel Brooks to Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, and more.
A book signing will follow this program.
Featured Author
Daphna Renan
Daphna Renan is the Peter B. Munroe and Mary J. Munroe Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is a leading scholar of constitutional democracy and presidential power. She is the author with Nikolas Bowie of the forthcoming book Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People (W.W. Norton 2026). Her academic work has appeared in numerous publications including the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal, and it has been cited around the world. She is a sought-after media commentator whose writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Atlantic among other outlets. She clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and served in the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama.
About the Venue
Northwestern University - Cahn Auditorium
Presented by Chicago Humanities
Presented with Seminary Co-Op Bookstore
600 Emerson St
Evanston, IL 60201
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