Two Syracuse University students sat in the front row of a faux sedan atop the stage in Hendricks Chapel last night. In the backseat, Frank Costanza complained about his lack of legroom.

The students, who pretended to be Estelle and George Costanza, and Jerry Stiller, the actor who played Frank, read from a ‘Seinfeld’ script portraying a typical Costanza family moment.

‘Serenity now! Serenity Now!’ Frank shouted in order to reduce the stress he felt from the situation, as he did in one of the recurring character’s more memorable scenes from the long-running NBC sitcom, ‘Seinfeld.’

Then the 77-year-old Stiller broke character to address the nearly sold-out crowd in front of him. Stiller, a speech and drama graduate from the SU class of 1950, was brought back to campus by Hillel to share stories from his time spent at Syracuse, as well as his experiences from the sets of ‘Seinfeld’ and other acting jobs.

After Stiller was introduced, the audience was shown a number of clips from both his career and that of Anne Meara, his wife of 50 years. The two made a name for themselves traveling as a comedy duo and together they appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ 36 times.

Though it was Stiller’s show, Meara remained mic’d throughout the performance, interrupting Stiller here and there to throw in comments of her own, correcting his stories, telling him when he was getting too long-winded and poking fun at his mannerisms.

‘Thank goodness Anne was here,’ Stiller said after the show. ‘She was the icing on the cake. I didn’t know what she was going to say or when she was going to say it. She came in at the wrong time a couple of times, though, ruining the punchlines.’

While Stiller and Meara noted that they were old enough to be grandparents to most of the people in attendance, their raunchy and sexual humor still struck a chord with the young audience.

Much of the night dealt with Stiller recounting stories from his first acting jobs and his memories from his time spent at Syracuse. Though Stiller spoke fondly of his time as a student at SU, this was just his fourth time back in Syracuse since his graduation. But instead of celebrating his return, Stiller was more excited about celebrating another momentous occasion.

‘Tonight I’m celebrating the 60th anniversary of my first erection,’ Stiller said. ‘I want to tell you the story.’

Between guffaws, Stiller recounted his memories from that fateful day in sixth grade. His teacher was reading his class a story, and Stiller said he began to have a funny feeling in his pants. By the time the bell rang, he still didn’t know what to do, so he approached his teacher.

‘I told her ‘I have a problem,” Stiller said. ‘And she looked down at my pants and said, ‘My God! You have an erection!”

His teacher sent him to his gym teacher, who simply told him to him to get rid of it. When he couldn’t, he went to the library to figure out how. He started reading a book on the anatomy of sex, penis still erect, when the fire alarm rang. Leaving the library, he had to pass through wooden turnstiles that blocked the exit. When he ran into the turnstile, his ‘thing went away.’ Though embarrassing, the experience was a life lesson for Stiller.

‘Every once in a while, I still get one of these things,’ Stiller said. ‘And when Anne is out of town or away, I go to the subway and purchase a token.’

Thanks to stories like these, many in the young crowd – who knew Stiller from his roles on contemporary sitcoms and as Maury Ballstein in ‘Zoolander,’ not from his stand-up days with Meara – felt no generational gap between themselves and Stiller.

‘I loved it,’ said Megan Kelsey, a freshman musical theater major. ‘It basically covered the whole spectrum. You really got a feel for (Stiller and Meara’s) relationship with one another.’

‘I didn’t know what to expect,’ said Jonathan Krieger, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘I liked how he just talked to us and didn’t put on an act.’

Stiller said he was grateful to Hillel for providing him with the excuse to return to Syracuse and see some old friends. Still, he said he was nervous to speak to the crowd, despite his acting experience, because he’s never addressed a public crowd in a speaker format.

‘I had to ask myself how to prepare for this type of return,’ Stiller said. ‘I can’t just come back and wave my arms.’

After the speech, though, Stiller said it went just as he had hoped.

‘I wouldn’t want to come back here and not be great,’ he said. ‘I’m very pleased with how it went.’

Published on April 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm