Meeting TV's
Funniest Cast

I don't think I'm alone in saying that Seinfeld had the funniest cast on TV. Sure, it had its rivals, but Seinfeld was just a cut above the rest. It was the funniest sitcom when it aired, and it also had the best main cast of any show from that era. Friends, Will & Grace, and Everybody Loves Raymond were all great, but for me, Seinfeld sits on its own shelf.

As a millennial, I wasn't even its target audience. I only watched it almost a decade after it went off the air, but I still found it funny. The comedy there is intergenerational, and I laughed at the same jokes my older cousins did when they watched it in the 90s.

After binging all nine seasons, I decided I wanted to get the main cast's autographs. Luckily, most of them stayed active throughout the 2010s, when I was in my 20s and started autograph-hounding. I also moved to New York City then, mainly for work, but I wanted to increase my chances of meeting them.

And that's exactly what happened. Though three of them live in LA, I was certain they'd be in New York often, maybe for work and other engagements. At the very least, I was confident Seinfeld himself stayed in the Big Apple, and I met him during his 2016 residency at the Beacon Theatre, the monthly run he called The Homestand.

All I could remember was that he was pretty nice when I asked for his autograph. Despite how famous he was, he didn't seem to have a big ego, at least to me. He was just happy fans came up to him for autographs and pictures, myself included.

Meeting Julia Louis-Dreyfus was more memorable since I saw her at the 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards. It was during her iconic run on Veep, when she practically monopolized the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy category. If I remember correctly, she holds the record for the most Emmy wins by a performer.

That alone made her a legend, but she was already an icon to me when I fell in love with her as Elaine Benes in Seinfeld. I also loved that she was just as bright and jovial in real life. Meeting her and getting her autograph is still one of the best celebrity encounters I've had.

I have such fond memories of Julia Louis-Dreyfus that I almost forgot I met Jason Alexander a month before. He replaced Larry David in the Broadway comedy Fish in the Dark that summer, and I finally met him at the stage door after one of his many great performances.

It was only a quick interaction because the fans got hectic that night, so I don't have that many memories of it. Only that I managed to get him to sign the same poster, so you can imagine how high I felt to get his and Julia Louis-Dreyfus's autographs back-to-back.

Sadly, I never got to meet Michael Richards in person. He became the least active of the four, so I never got the chance to see him since he rarely stepped out in public. But not wanting to miss his autograph, I asked around and finally reached his representatives.

I asked if I could send them my poster to get it signed, and to my surprise, they agreed. It took a couple of weeks, but my poster finally came back signed. I honestly felt emotional when I saw his signature right by his head on the poster, and near the others' autographs.