On a campus where students are no strangers to large lecture halls, actor Max Greenfield took his turn behind the lectern on Tuesday night.

Standing at a podium and pretending to write on an imaginary chalkboard, he told the audience that he would serve as their teacher for the rest of the evening.

“Please refer to me as Professor Jewish, that will be acceptable,” he joked. “Or, you can refer to me as Vice President Joe Rabbi-den.”

Known for his role as Schmidt on the Fox comedy “New Girl” and as Leo on The CW’s “Veronica Mars,” Greenfield came to Syracuse on Tuesday night to speak about living in your 20s and playing, as a fan of his put it, “the best Jew on television.”

The Hillel Jewish Student Union and University Union teamed up to put on the event, hosted in a nearly full Goldstein Auditorium.

Before Greenfield came on stage, the audience waited patiently in a darkened auditorium. Suddenly, green and blue lights started flashing and Greenfield walked onto the stage. Jay Z’s “Public Service Announcement” blared through the speakers. He began to dance, and as the lights turned on, the auditorium erupted in cheers.

“Let me start by saying how fricken’ pumped up I am to be here in the ‘Cuse tonight,” Greenfield said.

From there, he talked to the audience about the value of being honest going into the next phase of their lives.

“I’m guessing the majority of you have no idea who you are yet, and that’s fine, I didn’t know who I was when I was your age either,” Greenfield said. “I still am not sure that I know who I am. Figuring it out over the next few years will be exciting. It will be fun, it will be terrifying. There will inevitably be moments where you think the world is specifically against you, many different moments, over and over again, and this will be your 20s.”

Sophomore television, radio and film major Emily Watson said she appreciated Greenfield’s life advice.

“My favorite part of what he said was just talking about how the 20s are such a good time to find yourself and not to expect it to all work out, to expect some hardship and know that you’ll get through it,” Watson said. “I think that was the best advice he gave.”

After 20 minutes of joke-cracking and storytelling, Greenfield went into a question-and-answer session. Audience members asked questions about his personal life, his career and his character on “New Girl.”

Then one student asked Greenfield if she could take a selfie with him.

“What the hell, why not?” He responded.

Another fan referenced a video Greenfield made of himself dancing to Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” and asked him if he could reenact the dance. The song started to play over the speakers in the auditorium, and Greenfield promptly started dancing.

Greenfield was only in college for a year where he “majored in realizing it was not for me.” One student, a senior theater major, asked him about how he got his first acting gig.

“I literally don’t know,” Greenfield said. “Truthfully, and this goes for everyone who ends up being in college and going out into the world, I don’t think there’s an answer to any of it. You can try and plan it out the best you can — that will not work. I promise you, I don’t know the answer. Just go after it and be open to however it happens for you.”

Other students in similar majors appreciated his advice.

“I liked when he talked about his career because my major is kind of related so it’s interesting hearing how actors feel about getting work, and that was really inspiring,” said Losa Meru, a sophomore television, radio and film major.

One of Greenfield’s main messages was that of persistence, which he addressed in one of his final responses.

Said Greenfield: “In hindsight, it’s very easy for me to say ‘You know, you just get through the hard times, but when you’re going through it … it’s literally the worst thing, and you think that it couldn’t get any worse than what it is in that moment … You let those moments beat your ego rather than your spirit.”

Published on April 2, 2014 at 12:46 am

Contact Emma: ekbaty@syr.edu