This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing,

my chance to talk with artists, policymakers, and performers to hear their stories,

what inspired their creations, what decisions change their careers, what

relationships influenced their work. You have this relationship with the audience that is private

between you and them. You critics want to write, people want to talk. We have our own thing.

Nobody can break that.

Once you build that, it can't be broken.

Will you please welcome Jerry Steinfeld?

All right.

Jerry Seinfeld.

Jerry Seinfeld debuted on HBO in 1981.

It was the same year he first appeared on Johnny Carson. He was 27 years old.

Nice to be here tonight. A pleasure to be here tonight.

Seinfeld's material stood out. It wasn't about his upbringing or personal relationships. It was about our universal experience of everyday things.

Pajamas have got to be the world's funniest clothes.

Who designed them to look that way like a little tiny suit?

You notice a little collar buttoned down.

And a breast pocket. There's a useful item.

Is anybody using the breast pocket on your pajamas?

Seinfeld asked questions we wished we'd thought of,

then he'd answer them with a casual precision

...