Meet Charlie Hall, basketball-playing son of Julia Louis-Dreyfus

A few Northwestern University students have asked Charlie Hall to do "The Elaine Dance" — and wondered whether such a "skill" runs in the family.

No one has shouted, "No soup for you!" after swatting one of his shots, though.

This disappoints him.

"That would be hilarious," Hall said. "I used to love talking trash, and receiving it was even funnier. One time in high school I traveled, and the guy guarding me said I needed a suitcase. A pun in the middle of a game!"

If anyone can merge the worlds of comedy and college basketball, it's Hall, a 6-foot-5 sophomore walk-on swingman and the son of nine-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus and actor-writer-director Brad Hall.

"Every time I walk in the locker room pre-practice," NU coach Chris Collins said, "he seems to have the guys laughing."

It's role for which he is well cast.

"Basketball is a serious sport," he said, "but being a guy who can alleviate some pressure is something I like to do."

Hall said it's pretty easy to get a chuckle from point guard Bryant McIntosh or center Dererk Pardon. Swingman Scottie Lindsey makes him work for it.

Hall alternates between self-deprecation and cockiness. If a teammate does something extraordinary, Hall might tell him, "You looked like me in high school."

"Charlie is funny, charismatic, always positive," forward Vic Law said. "Lots of bubbly energy."

It just so happens Law's favorite show growing up was The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Louis-Dreyfus as a single mom.

"She is a lot like Charlie," Law said. "When I talk to her, I feel like I'm talking to him."

It's not easy to get Louis-Dreyfus on the phone when she's in production for Veep, for which she has a Woodenesque streak of five Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

It's harder still to get Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, in development for a comedy series starring Meg Ryan called Picture Paris, on the phone at the same time.

But considering the topic was Charlie, the younger of their two sons, they could not resist a conference-call interview.

"We're his parents, so you might be talking to the best people or the worst people (to give an assessment)," Louis-Dreyfus said. "We think he is outstanding in every regard. We're his biggest fans."

The Northwestern alumni are also fans of the team in general, flying in from California or New York whenever possible.

"We do not miss a game — either physically or on TV — and we have BTN2GO on our phones," Louis-Dreyfus said. "It's just a matter of our production schedule. If we can be there, we are."

They blend in with parents of other NU players. USA Today photographed them at last year's Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis. She wore purple with white Northwestern lettering. He wore white with purple letters.

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"They are just Charlie's parents," Collins said. "You would never know their level of success."

Louis-Dreyfus has developed a love for the game, thanks also to a friendship with LeBron James. She never played a sport — "nope, nothing" — but said she can take some credit for Charlie's "competitive spirit."

And his height, if you can believe it. Louis-Dreyfus stands 5-3 but said she has giants on her mother's side.

Brad Hall — 6-3 "when I stand up straight," he joked — is more of a jock.

NU football was so derelict when he arrived on campus in the late 1970s, "a lot of us thought, 'I can make the team.' I had played on frat teams and was actually kind of fast back then. As soon as I saw how big the actual players were, that fantasy died."

Hall began coaching Charlie in hoops, the son recalled, "once I showed an interest in basketball, basically as soon as I was born. He's a trouper. He has had to deal with a lot in terms of me as a basketball player. I'm a very sore loser. Any efforts to console me would not go over well."

"When he was littler, if Julia and I had to arrive to a game in different cars, we'd fight about who would have to take him home if there was a loss," Brad Hall said.

Louis-Dreyfus: "He was out of his mind … a lot of screaming and crying."

Brad Hall: "It would be complete silence on the ride home, and then I would stupidly say, 'You guys really hit the boards,' and he'd say, 'We didn't get a single rebound, not one rebound!' Or I'd say, 'You guys were working so hard .' 'Not hard enough to win, Dad! Not hard enough to win.'"

The 2017 version of Charlie Hall is not so combustible. After the Wildcats' recent home loss to Minnesota, he sounded … human.

Perhaps the ability to improvise runs in the family?

"I'm still a bit of a raging lunatic inside," Charlie said.

Hall has appeared in bits of 12 games over two seasons and hoisted his second career shot, a contested 3-pointer that missed, in Sunday's blowout of Iowa. The first came Nov. 25 against Bryant, a 3 that rattled around and …

"Everyone was praying it would go in," Law said. "The first shot in two years he finally took."

Said Collins: "Every single guy on the bench was on his feet jumping around. That's how you know how they feel about a teammate."

Alas, it rattled out.

"Brutal, brutal miss," Hall said.

Teammates consoled him, sort of.

"You gotta get in the gym," they joked.

Hall excelled at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, Calif., whose alumni list includes Baron Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Jack Black and his favorite, Jonah Hill.

He likely could have starred at one of the Division III schools he considered: Emerson, Wesleyan or Tufts. Or maybe gotten minutes at Columbia. He wanted a great film program and longed to "surround myself with the absolute best competition."

His parents did not push Northwestern, so when he chose their alma mater, "we could barely contain ourselves," Louis-Dreyfus said. "The whole thing has such nostalgia."

Brad Hall's Wikipedia entry says that before they performed on Saturday Night Live together from 1982-84, the two met at Northwestern in a comedy troupe.

Charlie's version is more specific: "First time my mom ever saw my dad, he was arguing with his then-girlfriend on Sherman Road. A huge fight in public. She noticed him."

Louis-Dreyfus is among Northwestern's most celebrated alumni, ranked by some critics with Lucille Ball among the greatest TV comedy actresses of all time.

"They're associated with Hollywood but they are so not that," Charlie Hall said. "To me, they're Mom and Dad. But you hear them mentioned on campus and people ask you about them, and that's fun. Obviously I love them. But I don't feel like I have the tag all the time of being their son."

Hall said it "helps" that his last name is not Louis-Dreyfus, then backtracked on the word. He is proud to be associated with both parents, and any negatives are outweighed by the perks, such as the time he was able to meet James, a family friend and his favorite NBA player, after a 2013 Heat game in Portland.

"It was surreal to meet him," Hall said. "Beyond words. He is so cool and personable that you are immediately comfortable with him."

A radio-TV-film major, Hall hopes someday to be involved in movies, likely writing or directing. He also has enough basketball ambition to aim to play professionally.

But for now, like all reserves, he'll root for blowout victories so Collins will empty his bench.

He said he will "absolutely" keep shooting as he vies for his first college bucket. (He collected his first career rebound last month against IUPUI and his second one against Iowa.)

And maybe, if the time is right, he'll channel his mom's character from Seinfeld, re-enacting the time she took the dance floor, alone, and drew gasps.

That episode, by the way, aired about seven months before Louis-Dreyfus gave birth to Charlie. Its title: "The Little Kicks."

"We'll see. We'll see," Hall said regarding the dance. "Maybe if we win the Big Ten tournament."