In Albert’s feature Modern Romance, Bob played a small but memorable role. “This was the part of a sporting goods salesman who had distaste for me, the customer, and was put off by any questions I asked,” says Albert. “Sort of what our relationship was.”
“It’s a great scene on it’s own and it’s fascinating with everything between them,” says comic Sarah Silverman. “I mean, they’re brothers.”
“I was the youngest. And the youngest, even in a perfect family, has a different dynamic,” Albert says in the Super Bob documentary. “And normally that dynamic is, you punch him in the head, and you don’t listen to what they say.”
Like many brotherly relationships, the threat of violence was to some degree real.
“He was very big and wanted to be the ruler. He always used to threaten me. He would say, ‘I’ll break your neck.’ Then I was in the hospital with a separated shoulder from football and was next to a kid whose neck was broken. And I saw how horribly serious that was. I said to Bob, ‘That’s a terrible threat. That’s paralysis!’”
By the way, if you think this is going to be one of those stories, don’t worry. It’s not. While Albert concedes to having anger about those childhood fights, he and Bob worked out their differences long ago. “I used to have dreams of wanting to beat him up and stuff,” Albert confesses. “But when we got all of this out on the table, he apologized. Then the dreams stopped.”
“We had our fights,” he says. “But deep down, when you didn’t involve show business, the brother love was there.”
Which makes it all the more frustrating that we didn’t get to see more of them on screen together.
“(Both of them are) so good at playing characters who take themselves way too seriously, says comedian Patton Oswalt about the scene in Modern Romance. “These two knocking into each other in this scene, as a comedian, it’s so fascinating to watch.”
“I can’t imagine Albert casting anyone else,” says Bob’s Curb castmate Jeff Garlin. “And it does kill me that they never worked together again.”
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Top image: Columbia Pictures