All the pictures were taken in Brooklyn, Jeni and his lobsters at a restaurant in Coney Island, Seth and his Max in his apartment above Pips, the comedy club. Both of them shot themselves in the head in the last 18 months. I suppose that's the only way to stop time and stay pretty.Seth was a sweetheart, loved to make his funny movies, but he was bi-polar. He seemed troubled in his last photos. And he wasn't having a great life, in spite of having many friends.
Richard Jeni was discussing suicide on the day we took the lobster photos and that was almost 20 years ago. He said if someone is living in anguish, it's ok to end it all. That stuck with me, because someone so funny is blessed and very valuable.
Hunter S. Thompson is another one who blew his brains out (at the age of 67). He wrote that he had 17 years he neither needed nor wanted - apparently life past 50 didn't interest him. I started his last book "Kingdom of Fear", but it was unreadable. Maybe he knew his writing moxy had left him. Thompson's hero was Ernest Hemingway.
I attribute all these suicides to the easy availability of firearms in America. It's not that easy to kill yourself, except with a gun. Seth got a job as a security guard and they gave him a handgun.
20 comments:
Seth Schultz was a true comic. For the people that knew him he was a briliant man with great talent. He grew up over the first comedy club in Brooklyn, PIPS, i was lucky enough to work with him there as a comic and as a bartender, PIPS was the "filmore West" of comedy, he will be missed!
Seth is missed - he was a sweetheart. Do I know you from Pips?
I came across your blog while looking up old Brooklyn memories. I was a friend of Seth's and his brother Marty about 20 years ago. I had no idea Seth had died, much less so horribly. When I knew Seth, he wouldn't have "died to stay pretty." He was a talented, handsome, funny guy who had just completed his first documentary on, of course, comedy. I'm saddened to hear of his passing.
I was friends with Seth when he lived in Brooklyn and was speaking to someone who does improv about him and PIPS this evening. I googled him thinking I would find out what he was up to and am shocked and saddened to find out what happened. I ran into him in Park Slope on one of his visits back to Brooklyn in recent years but was otherwise out of touch. He was a gentle kind soul and I wish that I could have spoken to him when he was in despair.
The following is an excerpt of an interview he gave about Andy Kaufman. It seems especially poignant now.
"Do you think Andy is still alive?
No....no....a few months after his passing, I met his brother Micheal at the Improv and there was...no...he lost his brother. When you love someone, you like to think that, but there'd be no reason for him to want to disappear and go [to another place]. Plus, I don't think any of us really die. We basically vibrate to another level and leave a shell behind. Like Enstein said, you can't create nor destroy energy, it just transmutes. So with the energy that we are, I think it's a closed universe, and we just expand to whatever vibration. A human being and soul is energy...we transmute. I just don't want to transmute in a painful manner! I hate the sound of death. I just pretend whoever supposedly died, who I loved, I just think of them as living in Europe, and I'll visit them one day soon. I'll see my parents, my friends. I'll see everyone in Europe. Not that Andy's in Europe. When you love someone, you just close your eyes, and you're with them."
My name is Marty Schultz and am Seth's brother. Liz this site with Seth and Jeni is great. Those you truly knew Seth knew how talented he was.Always too hip for mainstream. No one could ever make me laugh except Seth. Even on the phone I would laugh so deep I couldnt breath.
IMO I think Seth could have still been with us today had he gone for treatment. I begged him and offered to pay many times when he would call me on a down phase. The next day he would call and say he as OK. I would tell him how until I found a dr. that treated me for depression I suffered. Self medicated for years. My daughter Georgi is bipolar and takes her meds and had a good life. She's very much like Seth and the two of them had a very special bond. She has his sense of humor and quick wit. I think of Seth everyday. I feel comfort in the fact that Seth really did beleive in an afterlife of some kind and that he's at peace.
Marty Schultz
I also worked as a bartender for the Schultz family at Pips and have many happy memories of the place, the staff, the customers and the talent. Marty was the businessman, Seth was the entertainer. He often roped me into his movies. Seth's passing and Rich Jeni's passing were tragic events and I think of them quite often, pondering what could have been if they had lived.
I used to Play Piano and Sing at Pips as an opening Act for the Stand-Up Comedians. I remember Seth, Marty and their Dad, George very well. I am very saddened to hear of Seth's passing as I always liked him very much. Pips was always a very special place to me. I played there with Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser and David Brenner back in the late 70's when I was just a 16 year-old kid and it was Seth and Marty who gave me that break into the Entertainment Business.
Thanks, Danny and everyone. Isn't it great the people still think of Seth and so lovingly? He won't be forgotten.
Seth was a good friend from high school and college always upbeat and always had a joke or a funny story , last time i saw him was in vegas , we both went to see john mulrooney , a very funny brooklyn comic . i am sorry to hear of his death , my condolences to Marty and all his family.
chris sweeney
I was completely blown away by the news I received last night about Seth. I met him while working in a place called MAil Hut on Ave. Z and E.13th street in Brooklyn. He came in to get some copies made of some goofy stuff he was working on and we hit it off. I used to hang out with him and Max early in the day at Pips and just talk for a while. I still have a VHS tape he made that parodied the scene in The Godfather when Michael is batizing the baby and all the bosses are getting whacked. But Seth's version was genius with a Rabbi baptizing a black baby, and so much other funny stuff. I would come across it and watch it every few years and remember him fondly. I also recall a short video he did called attack of the 50 foot comic that showed a giant Seth standing behind Pips doing really bad comedy. Over the years I wondered what happened to him and always thought I would see him again someday. I'm choked up just thinking about it. I was young then back in 92-93 and appreciated his humor and stories about the performers he had seen thoughout the years. I recall something he said to me while I was sitting at the bar one afternoon while Pips was clsoed. He said "there is a big difference between being a human being, and a humanoid. Which one do you want to be Ant?" I still rememeber it like it was yesterday because it hit home so deeply for me. I'll never forget him.
I had previously signed in as Manhattan Beach - I guess because it was how I knew Seth - I'm posting this comment because I was thinking about Seth today and wishing he had reached out to someone - we all thought so much of him - but for whatever reason he did not reach out to any of us - I always thought he was wonderful, and always will - maybe he was simply too gentle - but I was glad to see someone else thought of him today as well - Thanks,
Leslie
(by the way, I'm quite sure that Seth would have found how much trouble I had posting this message /google/blogger/new passwords required/etc., quite amusing)
Leslie,
I'm so sorry you had trouble posting - I make sure that anyone can post, even anonymously, but I guess blogger makes it difficult.
We think we could've done something, but no one could. If indeed Seth was bi-polar, then they have periods when they're pretty much unreachable. Seth succumbed to a treacherous illness.
Two people thought of him today, maybe more we don't know about. So he had quite an impact on those he met.
Thanks for posting and sharing.
Back in 1990, I was a 20-year-old kid who had been performing magic since high school. I started dipping my toe in the comedy waters, and it was Seth who gave me my first shot at performing on a comedy club stage. He was very kind to me and gave me advice that I have taken with me to this day.
After I had been performing there a bit, Seth had me open for Andrew Dice Clay, which was an experience I still tell stories about.
Those nights in Pips and the education I got from Seth have laid the groundwork for my career as a comedy magician (yep, still doing it!).
I just heard the awful news of his death and found this site on Google. So glad I did!
Thanks for creating this page, and thanks to everyone who posted their memories.
Seth was a gentle spirit and a comic genius.
I loved working with him, watching him and learning.
The last time I saw him, he looked bad. It was only a few weeks before the end.
He just showed up in New York for a film project that was mostly in his imagination. He really needed to be on meds, but he refused. He kept talking about Jesus.
I think when he got back to L.A. he just picked up that gun to tempt fate ... he wasn't sad when I saw him last, but he was not in touch with reality. I wonder if he heard voices tempting him to test his faith with that gun.
I can still see him doing his parody of West Side Story.
Before he sold Pips, he wanted to redo it with a Kennedy Assassination theme. I swear. He built a window to replicate the book depository ... he wanted to put a portrait of Joe DiMaggio pointing a baseball bat like a gun and talked about having the waitresses dress like Jackie O. And this was when he was all there! I miss him.
Thanks for starting this blog site, Wolynski.
I knew Seth when he lived in L.A. I met him in 1997 and then several years later after he came back from living in Las Vegas, he stayed with me in Hollywood for several months. We kept in contact from then until his death. The time I spent with him was magical! He taught me how to juice and would preach loudly about how the spinich would fortify me and keep my nervous system strong! He was hilarious, pure love. He would crack me up and repeat Bruce Lee stories over and over, his voice mesmerizing and full of truth.
He was a comedian's comedian.
Brian, on your comment regarding Seth's trip to New York: I received his call upon his return from that trip and something had changed in him very much indeed. His spirit was way down. Though his bi-polar threw him into overdrive, at the same time, the information he would speak of, Jesus (a.k.a the christ in all of us), love, etc. was actually bringing him closer to what is real about our human potential in this life. Its just that he couldn't sort it all out alone, his health was on a decline, and well, anyway, I have my own understanding as we all do but I will say, he wrote lots and lots of emails to me expressing his dreams of making the movie. I supported and inspired him all the way because, like Andy Kaufman, his heart and soul was written all over it. Every great movie has to start somewhere -his was real, it just didn't get realized.
Love to us all,
Dena Carter
This is Tony971. I can't recall my password to this site but I thought about Seth again today as I drove by Pips, or where Pips once stood. I check this page often to see if anything new is up. I also thought about recently while watching some old episodes of Taxi with Andy Kaufman. I haven't seen Seth since he sold Pips and moved out West, and I always wished our paths would cross again. Maybe in the next life I'll look him up.
hi every person,
I identified wolynski.blogspot.com after previous months and I'm very excited much to commence participating. I are basically lurking for the last month but figured I would be joining and sign up.
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Seth once loaned me a health book called The Mucusless Diet Healing System. We were both young and wanted to live long, happy lives.
I guess things change. Sorry, Seth.
Be note - back in about 1980, he did have a shotgun in the apartment upstairs and he did get a kick out of shooting it straight in the air to mess with the neighbors in the wee hours of the morning.
Oh wow. I was just thinking about Seth three days ago wanting to look him up. Just the next day I was contacted by a former co-worker at Pips and he told me what happened. I am so shocked and saddened.
I waitressed at Pips in the late 70's early 80's and remember all of the Shultz's fondly, but Seth was always the conduit in the family. He was the approachable one. He was very sweet and funny and had a vivid imagination. He would get up on stage and tell jokes and do impersonations of everyone-well he didn't have to be on stage... We had a lot of fun back then. I remember he worked on a Woody Allen film as 'best boy' and that was very exciting-for all of us. I also remember the 'mucousless' book and diet he was on. When it ended the first thing he ate was a piece of cheesecake. Oh yeah, I remember it so well.
Such a bright light and talent wasted. So long Seth, I will remember you well...
elise
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