Seinfeld Star Jests with Immediate Gratification Players

Actor Jason Alexander, of “Seinfeld” fame, held a Chapstick tube to his lips as a faux cigarette while making farting noises alongside members of the Immediate Gratification Players on Thursday.

In a Science Center lecture hall that, minutes before, had been packed with students taking a chemistry midterm, Alexander and the IGP kept an audience of students in stitches at the 2013 Immediate Gratification Player of the Year ceremony.

Sporting one of the group’s signature red-and-gold ties, Alexander recounted stories about his life that were equal parts honest, crass, and comical. The IGP then performed skits inspired by the personal anecdotes.

For one part of the ceremony, Alexander took individual words from the audience to fuel his stories.

During this portion, one student shouted out, “sex!” to which Alexander responded, “I expected more from Harvard. Fortunately it is a subject I am an expert in. Wow, there are so many to pick from.”

This suggestion launched Alexander into a story about his college years when, as an undergraduate at Boston University, he had sexual relations with a graduate student named Robin who worked at The Naked Eye, a strip club in Boston’s red light district.

“Does that still exist?” Alexander asked.

“We call it The Quad,” yelled Jake W. C. Silberg ’15, a member of IGP, from behind.

As the story progressed, Alexander recalled how he had returned from college after his freshman year to engage in sexual relations with his high school girlfriend—still a minor at the time.

Alexander said that a policeman caught them in the act and the story ended with Alexander trying to bribe the girl’s father to avoid being charged as a rape offender.

The IGP worked off of this story to produce improvised skits that included a reunion between Robin and the main character’s wife and a mistake visit to an optometrist called “The Naked Eye.”

Mid-way through the ceremony, it was revealed that a student had been hiding in a desk behind the performers. After briefly waving to the crowd, the student was escorted out by a police officer.

“We had to kill him,” said Alexander after the student left.

Alexander then participated in more skits with the members of IGP, offering two more embarrassing stories about a party in Los Angeles and a fake sexual encounter behind a glass case of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

As a preface to the museum story, Alexander mentioned filming his widely-panned movie “North,” which received laughs from someone in the back of the lecture hall.

To this Alexander promptly extended his middle finger.

Alexander ended by saying, “If you enjoyed this performance, there is one other thing I suggest you do: storm the admissions office. I have a son, his name is Noah Alexander, and he would very much like to go here.”

—Anneli L. Tostar can be reached at annelitostar@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @AnneliTostar.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: March 30, 2013

An earlier version of the headline of this article and statements in the article incorrectly referred to the Immediate Gratification Players.