A quick word... with Seinfeld's George

Jason Alexander. Photo / Supplied

Who: Jason Alexander
What: Jason Alexander's Comedy Spectacular featuring Jeremy Corbett, Dai Henwood and Michele A'Court.
When: ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre December 8.

Jason Alexander, the former George Costanza of Seinfeld, Broadway veteran and celebrity league poker player, who is headed here for his first live appearance

Alexander has just appeared in a kind-of reunion for his old sitcom. The revival forms a part of the new seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. That's the acerbic comedy show of Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld and who George was originally based on. Which means Alexander isn't just playing George again, he's playing himself in a show alongside the inspiration for his most famous character. Got that?

How does it feel to be back in that spotlight not only as George but as yourself? It's fine. Somehow the Seinfeld show is the gift that keeps on giving. The reunion was a wonderful thing. We never thought anything like that would happen. We didn't really think a Seinfeld reunion was a timely idea but when Larry David had the idea of a faux Seinfeld reunion on his show, all the pieces fell into place beautifully.

The show never had a sentimental streak, so to do a reunion of an ordinary kind goes against the spirit of it in a way. That's exactly right. Not only in that respect but we can't even imagine what story idea would be good enough to merit all the attention and expectation. We just thought it was something that would never happen but Larry seemed to pull it off.

Your live show seems to embrace the legacy of Seinfeld with the question and answer sessions But was there a time where you thought: Can't I just get out from under this? No. In a way, sure, you would love to be able to create something new that carries its own energy so you are not constantly being referenced to the Seinfeld thing. But I can't imagine much that would do that. You can be in a big movie or you can be in another show but the Seinfeld thing is a really unique iconic experience which I don't think is going to be obliterated by anything else. And the nice thing is that it was a show that was a joyous experience to be part of. And people's reaction to it still is very very favourable. For an actor to be part of anything that is likely to outlive him is pretty unique.

Looking at all the other aspects of your career - your Broadway stage credits, your experience as a magician and and such - and reconciling that with George, well it's a bit like finding out Homer Simpson was actually a nuclear physicist. [Laughs] Thank you. That is a lovely comparison. It's funny that in some aspects it's a very small part of the canvas of what I have been able to do. But it is the thing that resonated the most. The nice that is that with every new opportunity I actually get a chance to bedazzle the audience even more - their expectation is "he is George" and then if you turn around and do something different, they just think you are brilliant. As opposed to just a good piece of acting, now you are suddenly brilliant.

Seinfeld must have given you a lot of freedom to pick and choose since? It has to the extent that I don't worry about much financially. What has been the balance for me though is that I have two sons - one is 13 and the other is 17 - and I have purposefully avoided work that would pull me away from them. The luxury of the money I made was I didn't have to take jobs that would have made me a terrible father.

What's with the poker? The poker thing I fell back into. About 10 years go they started this poker craze of celebrities playing poker on television and I quickly realised how much skill there was to the game because I started to meet the guys who did it for a living. And I fell in love with that aspect and started trying to improve the skills and I was sponsored by a poker website and thrust into the world of real players. I consider myself, at best, a B-minus player.

You've enjoyed your successes. Do you rue your failures? There is only one I have really thought was a victim. The first show I did after Seinfeld was this thing, Bob Patterson. It was a really ingenious idea for a show - it was based on the life of a motivational speaker and yet his own life was totally dysfunctional. It was a really unique idea for comedy and a good character for me. The tragedy of that show was that we went on the air days after 9/11. And there was really no taste in the country for that kind of comedy. I guess I would have felt worse if we had got a huge audience initially and they all went "this is terrible" and left. We never really got a big audience to look at it. That's the only one.