Richard Lewis still finds plenty to despise about himself

By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Richard Lewis didn't choose the comedy career path. A career pathology is more like it.

He began his comedy career in 1971, when comics such as George Carlin and Richard Pryor were dragging comedy out of supper clubs and television variety shows into the dawning arena rock culture.

Onstage, his panicky observations melded the existential dread of Franz Kafka with the self-deprecating hypochondria of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. His cable television specials had life-affirming titles like "I'm In Pain," "I'm Exhausted" and "I'm Doomed."

He performs today through Sunday at the Pittsburgh Improv at the Waterfront in Homestead. He promises audiences they won't regret coming to see him humiliate himself.

Calling from Los Angeles, Lewis still speaks in the hurtling cadences of a man trying to forget that we're all going to die someday.

"Just know that when they leave the club and they realize they're not me, their whole life is upgraded immediately," Lewis says. "It's a no-lose coming to the club."

He starred with Jamie Lee Curtis in the acclaimed sitcom "Anything But Love," which ran from 1989 to 1992. Times were good. He says he remembers sitting in his hotel room prior to a sold-out appearance at the Syria Mosque in Oakland and watching the red-coated parking lot attendants hold up signs that read: "Richard Lewis Parking."

"It was just one of those moments that flashed on me because it really brought back memories of realizing how long a journey I've been on," he says.

Fourteen years earlier, he'd done a show at a Pittsburgh steakhouse where he had to perform next to the buffet chef. One of the few people in the audience was an intern from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" named Michael Keaton.

Once success was in his grasp, however, the lanky, lion-maned Lewis drank and drugged himself nearly to death. Sober for 14 years, he's been enjoying a career resurgence playing himself on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which has run for seven seasons on HBO. It was created by "Seinfeld's" Larry David, who Lewis knew when they were both teenagers attending summer basketball camp.

Back then, he says, they hated each other so much they nearly came to blows. Now, he talks about sitting in a diner and trying to get David to commit to an eighth season of "Curb."

"It's like getting information out of Howard Hughes," Lewis says. "Basically, he said, 'Tell the journalists ...'

"I said, 'What?' I said, 'Tell me, what do I tell someone from Pittsburgh, for example?'

"'Tell them probably.'

"I said, 'They're going to scream at me for being vague!'"

His autobiography, "The Other Great Depression," was just reissued with a new afterword written by Lewis. He also recorded an audio version of the book. It compelled him to spend two days in a recording studio, narrating his cringe-worthy excesses as a drunk and a drug addict to a couple of very straight-laced sound engineers in the booth.

"'Richard, we couldn't hear you when you were discussing the prostitute and this particular line. Could you do it again?' Like I was doing some third-grade play. It was hysterical. They were so straight. But they got me through it."

While his enthusiasm for his recovery sometimes verges on evangelism, Lewis says he's not going to preach to comedy club audiences, including those at the Pittsburgh Improv.

"People ask me, 'Gee, you got married, you're not an alcoholic anymore, how can you be funny?'" he says. "The truth is, now that I have this clarity, I despise myself even more."

William Loeffler can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or 412-320-7986.