|
|
June 11, 2004/Sivan 22 5764, Vol. 56, No. 38
Comedian Richard Lewis speaks his mind
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
Comedian Richard Lewis has built a career on sharing his pain with others. Case in point: the story of his bar mitzvah.
"My father (Bill) was one of the greatest kosher caterers in history," Lewis says. He "basically did everyone's bar mitzvah who I knew, and the stars' sons' bar mitzvahs ... He was that great; truly, he was the Babe Ruth of the kosher caterers."
Since his father was booked on the week of Lewis' bar mitzvah, Lewis had to have his party on a Tuesday night instead of on Saturday. "Although the party was phenomenal, it was a humiliation," Lewis says.
"That shouldn't happen certainly to the son of the king of the caterers - to have your party three days after you become a man. I was already a man on Saturday at around 3 p.m. Why should I have a party three days later? I really basically wanted to run away from school with one of the racier women in junior high school and move to Paris. The last thing I wanted to do was sit on a dais with 20 kids and cut a challah bread."
Lewis, who will be performing at the Tempe Improv June 17-20, doesn't have a lot to complain about lately, although he certainly tries. Known in the past for his role on the television show "Anything but Love" and films such as "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," Lewis was recently featured on Comedy Central's "100 Greatest Standups of All Time" (as number 45), and he'll soon begin shooting the fifth season of the HBO hit show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with childhood friend Larry David. He also celebrates 10 years of sobriety next month. And while he's still in therapy, he's cut back on his sessions.
"I actually just go only on occasion now," he says, "because I really felt like at this point in my life I was making pretty great progress in the things that were bringing me down. It took me a long time to figure it out, but once I did, and I realized I was doing pretty well, I didn't feel like continuing to add on to this woman's home.
"I said, 'You know what? I'll let you have your other clients, and I'll see you maybe twice a year.' Just to get a tune-up. It's like an oil change for me now."
The Judaism that Lewis grew up with continues to be a part of his life and work.
"If anyone comes within five feet of me, people would swear they smell gefilte fish and stuffed cabbage. My father was a kosher caterer, I love the history of the Jews, I'm proud to be a Jew," he says. "So since I don't lie about almost anything on stage, from fear of intimacy to my recovery, you name it, certainly the last thing I'd want to run away from is my Judaic roots and heritage."
In fact, Lewis has exper-ienced a resurgence of Jewish faith within the last several years. He recalls attending a service several years ago in which he had a singular experience: "I hadn't really gone to a complete service for years, and I went, and I just got this tremendous rush of my childhood and all of the strength that Judaism had given me growing up.
"And being at the service and hearing the prayers and the songs and the rabbi's sermon, it all came back so suddenly and it so easily fit into my spirituality, but it fit in, in a Jewish way, which was something that was kind of lacking in my recovery. It was like having a Jewish energizer drink. It was Jewish Gatorade. I just felt reconnected. I'm more connected now, and I'm making incremental steps to get back to what I studied pretty hard. I was a damn good student in Hebrew school, I might add."
One of Lewis's reconnections with Judaism is his six-year relationship with a Jewish woman.
"The fact that she's Jewish, to me, it wouldn't have mattered. It just so happens that she is. But at this point, being in love, and being in love with a Jewish woman, is somehow perhaps is more important now than it might have been when I was in my 20s or 30s.
"And we do have such a shared background. We have a lot of shorthand between us. And 'oy' means a tremendous amount. I can say 'oy' to this woman and it speaks volumes. I don't have time to explain the 'oy' and the Queen Esther and Haman, really. I'm too old to go through the depth of my 'oys.'"
Complaining aside, Lewis is grateful for a 33-year-long career in comedy and his continued sobriety.
"It's impossible for me to extricate my recovery from alcohol from anything," he says. "I'm just clearheaded now, more than ever. I'm neurotic, yeah, racked with low self-esteem - yeah, always. Fear of intimacy - yeah, but clear-headed about it. I'm so clear-headed that I despise myself even more lately, but the truth is I'm healthier than I have ever been and have much more gratitude.
"One of the ways I stay sober, and it's not easy by any stretch, I don't think a day goes by when I don't get a call or an e-mail from someone's who's having trouble. And if I hung up and had a glass of champagne - a bottle, it would become a bottle very fast - I wouldn't be able to help this person. And it's quite a luxury to help somebody turn their life around. And it's not worth drinking and losing that."
Lewis calls the Tempe Improv one of the most beautiful nightclubs in the country, although he takes issue with some aspects of the Arizona desert: "I'm not happy with the heat. I'm not happy with some of the lizards. I really am afraid of insects, and I rarely leave my hotel."
As for the performances at the Improv, Lewis alludes to a "provocative, R-rated, more political act." However, fans of his trademark complaining will find the show hits home for them, too.
"I really feel like my strength as a comedian is to describe dysfunction," Lewis says. "And I have a bottomless pit of memories about it. And when people laugh about it, they feel less alone, number one, and I feel less alone, and the bottom line is when they leave the Tempe Improv after hearing me, it's a no-lose situation. The fact is they'll say, 'We're not Richard Lewis. Mazel tov.'"
Details
- What: Stand-up comedy with Richard Lewis
- When: 8 p.m. Thursday, June 17, and Sunday, June 20; 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday, June 18, and Saturday, June 19.
- Where: Tempe Improv, 930 E. University Drive, Tempe
- Cost: $19, Thursday and Sunday; $22 Friday and Saturday
- Call: 480-921-9877
|
|
