Freddie Prinze Jr. Tells Kristian Harloff He Will Never Try Stand-Up Like His Father Freddie Prinze

Freddie Prinze Jr. has ruled out ever trying stand-up comedy himself, telling me there is no version of his life where he gets on stage like his father did. Asked directly if he had ever thought about doing standup, Prinze Jr. did not hesitate: "No way."

This matters to fans because Prinze Jr.'s father, comedian Freddie Prinze, died young and is still spoken about by fellow comics as one of the greats who never got to finish his career, which is why his son's reasoning carries extra weight.

Freddie Prinze Jr. Says He Will "Never Walk The Same Wood" His Father Walked On

When Harloff pressed on why standup was off the table, Prinze Jr. explained it comes down to respect for his father's legacy. "I'll never walk on the same wood that man walked on," he said. He added that this same feeling once kept him away from a late night stage entirely: "I didn't even want to go on the Tonight Show with Jay back in the day cuz it was the stage my father's show was shot on."

Prinze Jr. Believes His Father Would Have Wanted Him To Try It

Harloff asked whether his father would have actually wanted him to give standup a shot despite all that. Prinze Jr. agreed that he probably would have: "Sure he would have." But he immediately followed that up with the real reason he still would not do it, saying "first of all, I'd never be as good as he was at standup comedy."

Prinze Jr. Cites Richard Pryor and Jerry Seinfeld On His Father's Talent

To explain why he feels he could never measure up, Prinze Jr. pointed to what other legendary comedians have said about his father over the years. He said Richard Pryor stated that if his father had not died, he would have been the greatest comic ever, and that Jerry Seinfeld "said the exact same thing." He also said Paul Reiser told him that directly to his face, and that it is not an isolated comment. "I can't count how many stand-up comics have come up to me, not to be nice, to say if he didn't die, he would have been the greatest of all time," Prinze Jr. said.

Do you think Freddie Prinze Jr. should ever give standup a try, or does his reasoning for staying off stage make sense to you?