Jerry Zucker
Field: arts
Filmmaker Jerry Zucker, a UW alumnus, delivers a humorous commencement address structured around five rules for life drawn from his own career in Hollywood. He urges graduates to live in the present, pursue their dreams before acquiring responsibilities, question authority, embrace failure boldly, and prioritize love over accomplishments. He closes by finally playing a flawed version of 'On Wisconsin' on a keyboard, fulfilling a childhood recital he missed.
Key moments
- 01 Distinguishing 'getting there' from finding a real 'there there'
- 02 Advice to pursue dreams now, 'before you buy furniture'
- 03 Mrs. Zubatsky's law about not being intimidated by professionals
- 04 Travolta's law: failures matter more to you than to anyone else
- 05 Closing with love over accomplishments and playing his one piano song
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Jerry Zucker at Wisconsin, 2003
A funny, craft-minded University of Wisconsin address about finding a real there, living in the present, risking failure, questioning authority, and pouring more love into the world.
Speech arc
- 01UW-Madison
Opening move
- 02Five rules
Speech beat
- 03Find a there
Speech beat
- 04Live now
Speech beat
- 05Buy furniture later
Speech beat
- 06Question authority
Speech beat
- 07Fail big
Speech beat
- 08Pour in love
Final charge
Frame: The comic return becomes advice about arrival
Zucker returns as a Wisconsin alumnus and filmmaker, turning the old Hollywood dream of getting there into a sharper question: what makes the destination meaningful once ambition succeeds?
Occasion
UW-Madison published the address from Spring Commencement at the Kohl Center in May 2003.
Voice
The speech uses jokes, self-deflation, and show-business stories to keep the advice from becoming solemn.
Problem
Getting somewhere is easier than finding a there there once the status goal has been reached.
Zucker returns as a Wisconsin alumnus and filmmaker, turning the old Hollywood dream of getting there into a sharper question: what makes the destination meaningful once ambition succeeds?
Time: Do not live entirely in the future
The first rules push graduates away from postponing life until after success and toward using their responsibility-light moment to attempt the dream before it hardens into regret.
Present
Planning matters, but nothing is experienced in the future; the action is always now.
Risk window
The furniture joke becomes practical timing advice: pursue the difficult thing before possessions and obligations narrow the room to fail.
Career
His own Hollywood departure gives the counsel a comic but concrete origin story.
The first rules push graduates away from postponing life until after success and toward using their responsibility-light moment to attempt the dream before it hardens into regret.
Failure: Authority and embarrassment lose power when tested
Zucker turns family and film stories into rules for agency: do not be intimidated by uniforms, do not treat failure as permanent, and do not assume others are watching as closely as you are.
Authority
Mrs. Zubatsky law says a better idea deserves to be voiced even around credentialed professionals.
Failure
Travolta law reduces humiliation to scale: most people are less focused on your failure than you are.
Creativity
Big attempts create the mistakes from which art, comedy, and useful work can choose.
Zucker turns family and film stories into rules for agency: do not be intimidated by uniforms, do not treat failure as permanent, and do not assume others are watching as closely as you are.
• Key takeaways •
Find a real there
Connects to humor.
Live where action is now
Connects to failure.
Risk before regret settles in
Connects to dreams.
Failure is smaller than it feels
Connects to love.
Love outlasts accomplishment
Connects to authenticity.
Closing charge
The closing rule shifts the speech from comic career advice to a durable measure of life: judge success by the happiness and generosity that surround it.
Love supplies the there that status cannot
Love
Instead of trying to remove every bitter thing, keep adding more water to the glass.
Measure
Accomplishment is demoted below the well-being of the people around you.
Finale
The flawed piano performance makes patience and imperfection part of the lesson, then sends graduates into real life.
The closing rule shifts the speech from comic career advice to a durable measure of life: judge success by the happiness and generosity that surround it.
Visual speech maps
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Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording
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