Larry David gives Matt Lichtenberg the Variety Business Manager Elite Award at Variety's Business Managers Breakfast

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Transcript

00:00All right. It was May 1984. I had just moved back to New York from Los Angeles

00:09because I'd gotten a writing job on SNL. I was standing outside the Improv when I

00:16was approached by some guy with black horn-rimmed glasses who looked like an

00:23accountant. And what do you know? He was an accountant. Isn't that something? It's

00:31amazing how that works. Anyway, he introduced himself as Matt Lichtenberg

00:36and said he'd love to get together to discuss becoming my business manager. My

00:45business manager. You know, I told him I didn't really need a business manager. I

00:52didn't have a business and there was no money to manage. But he was obnoxiously

00:59insistent that we meet. I said, yeah, okay, sure, fine. So, okay, we met and he was

01:13quite persuasive. And I thought, okay, you know what? He'll pay my bills, what the

01:19rent, the electric, whatever. So, we shook hands and made it official. Then in a few

01:27months, the SNL season was over and I was out of a job. For the next four years, I

01:36didn't earn a penny. Matt continued to pay the bills, file my taxes and to earn

01:44nothing doing it. Nothing. You know, I started to feel I started to feel badly

01:51about it. I don't like charity. You know, I called him up and said, look, you're

02:01wasting your time with me. Nothing's going to happen. My mother's told me a

02:08thousand times. Let's just end this business relationship. We'll still be

02:17friends. I don't care. It's not a big deal. I can pay my bills. Matt said to me, no,

02:29I'm going to stay with you. I think there's something there. I told him he was crazy.

02:41Believe me, there's nothing here. He said, I'll take my chances. A month later, I wrote

02:54the pilot for Seinfeld. For 40 years, we've had a great business relationship and friendship.

03:04He's a confidant whose good judgment I rely on in all matters, personal and financial.

03:10A few years ago, I was offered a Super Bowl commercial for a crypto company. And they

03:22gave me the opportunity to get paid in cryptocurrency. I thought, wow, this crypto thing, yeah, maybe

03:36I'll take a quarter of my fee in crypto. Matt was completely opposed to it. Begged me not

03:48to do it. Tried his best to talk me out of it. But I spoke to some people. People I trusted.

04:00My mind was made up. I'm going to do it. Of course, after the company went under, taking

04:11my crypto with it, I told him how stupid I was. How I should have listened to him.

04:24But Matt said to me, yeah, yeah, you were stupid. Fortunately, I wasn't. Because I didn't

04:35listen to you. Now, that's my idea of a business manager. Ours is one of the few relationships

04:47that I never had any regrets about. And going with him turned out to be one of the smartest

04:54decisions I've made in my life. I'm very pleased to present to him the 2024 Variety Business

05:00Manager of the Year Award.