And if you're Larry David, co-creator and writer of Seinfeld -- maybe the greatest TV comedy of all time but certainly of the past 30 years -- you also have to consider that you'll never top yourself.

David's method of coping with that notion, apparently, is by trying not to think about the task at hand. "I don't feel it's daunting at all," says David, whose new show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, premieres in October on HBO. "I'm actually looking forward to it. The show is different enough that I don't think it's going to be compared to Seinfeld. But if so, I can live with it."

It's wholly unrealistic to think that David can do anything that won't be compared to a show as brilliantly written and performed as Seinfeld. But to his credit, he's trying something different. Curb Your Enthusiasm, a follow-up to his 1999 HBO mock documentary of the same name, is an improvisational comedy based on his life. The actors have a five- to seven-page outline and an idea of where the scene is supposed to go. But the words are their responsibility.

"Sometimes it takes a lot of takes for it to evolve," says David, the model for Seinfeld 's neurotic George Costanza. "Whereas maybe if I'd written it, I would have the right tack maybe a little quicker. But there's such an upside to all of it. It just seems what it is, which is spontaneous. The lines are made up right on the spot."

The show isn't written in his mind, he says. "I don't think about the scenes at all before I do them. I have an outline, and then we know what has to be accomplished. But I'm not thinking of jokes or stuff like that. In fact, you'll notice that there are not too many jokes at all in the show."

Clips from the show, shown to the Television Critics Association press tour here, found David's character, also called Larry David, dealing with a variety of common problems -- parking, getting along with a neurotic friend (Richard Lewis) and dealing with neighbors.

The last of those resulted in a guest appearance by Seinfeld 's Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In the show, David says, he wants to bury a utility wire in his back yard, but he needs consent from his neighbors. But one won't grant permission unless they get to meet the actress who played Elaine.

The scene is based on a real-life incident, David says, though the people actually only wanted to meet him, not Dreyfus. But like all the situations in Curb, it stems from his own experiences. If Seinfeld was a show about nothing, this is a show about Larry David. "Which is pretty close to nothing," he says.

"I'm not sure of this," David told critics, "but I might be the first bald man to actually be starring in a comedy since Phil Silvers. Now, I haven't researched it, so if anybody has any information to the contrary, please bring it to my attention." Someone suggested Charles Dutton. "The first white, bald man," responded Robert Weide, the new show's supervising producer. Someone called out James Coco. "The first white, thin, bald man," Weide said. How about Michael Chiklis? "The first white, bald, Jewish man," Weide offered. Herschel Bernardi. "All right," David said. "That's enough."