Interview with Comedian Steven Wright

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Wright talks Red Sox, suicide by falling satellite debris, 'Boardwalk Empire' and what he has in store for his Borgata return Friday night.

By Jeff Schwachter

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Nov. 3, 2011

He still has a pony. (He does.)

Steven Wright hasn't lost a step.

Even if it's at a snail's pace, much like his trademark dry delivery on stage (and in person - listen).

The 55-year-old comic is as genius in concert — or on a late-night TV talk show, or on his numerous DVDs and CDs — as he was when he was first coming of age as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s.

After graduating the Boston liberal arts school Emerson College — where he worked on the radio station as a DJ — Wright started performing at the Comedy Connection in Boston.

A native and resident of Massachusetts, Wright soon launched himself into the upper echelons of the 1980s comedy world and was — and still is — considered in a league of his own when it comes to comedians and stand-up comedy in general.

A die-hard Red Sox fan, whose often seen wearing the team's traditional Navy blue baseball cap, Wright loves baseball likes he loves good art. Good books. Good music.

He plays guitar. He writes songs. Loves Bob Dylan, especially 1985's Empire Burlesque — released the same year as Wright's Grammy-nominated Best Comedy Album I Have a Pony — once brainstormed with the late author Kurt Vonnegut and started making regular guest spots on Craig Ferguson's late-night TV show in 2009.

He says he's been painting a lot this year.

LISTEN: To Steven Wright speaking with Atlantic City Weekly.

Wright has also dabbled in acting, most notably as dentist Larry Stillman in the 1985 Madonna movie Desperately Seeking Susan. In 1992, he supplied the voice of the unseen radio DJ in the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs.

Steven Wright can't be summed up in a nutshell of any variety and that is why millions of people adore him. His hats. His grin. His organic sense of humor and his often-brilliant notions about the world we live in.

Wright, who returns to Atlantic City's Borgata on Friday, Nov. 4, spoke with Atlantic City Weekly in the midst of his beloved Red Sox's recent unraveling.

I think the last time I interviewed you was in 2007, the last time the Sox won the World Series — for the second time in a few years.

Aren't you horrified by what’s happening?

Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Even though you’re not going to be here for a few weeks, there’s a lot happening with the Sox right now. First of all, it’s fall in New England and must be beautiful there.

Yes, it is.

What do you think of the termination of manager Terry Francona?

Well, I think it wasn’t so much he was fired, I think he quit. I think the players weren’t really into it, like you said, and they were into drinking beer and eating chicken and he couldn’t reach these different players that he’d reached before and it wasn’t going like a unit, it wasn’t going like an all-together thing. It was apathetic. I wasn’t aware of that during the season, but apparently that’s what was going on.

Eating chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse, that’s allowed?

It’s wild.

I guess you can blame people for not making sure those things don’t happen, but I think the players should be more to blame than Theo [Epstein]or Terry [Francona], but I guess Theo [Epstein’s] leaving on his own accord.

And Now Ortiz is thinking about going, right? 

Yup, he’s a free agent. Back when I talked to you in '07, the Manny and Ortiz combo was still going strong. Do you think once Manny (Ramirez) left the Sox the team lost a lot of power and personality?

Yes, character, interest, power. But apparently he was nuts, so …

Yeah, and on major steroids. Why is J.D. Drew still on our team?

Yeah, that was insane, 70-something million.

Yeah, why? I don't know, as a longtime Red Sox fan, in 2004 and then again in '07 [when the Sox won the World series for the first times in decades], it was almost like anything that happened after that is almost like a letdown. Even if they beat the Yankees in a series it doesn’t seem to have the same impact, anymore. The teams are always changing.

Yeah, the rivalry with the Yankees definitely doesn’t have the same meaning.

You’re touring this fall from New England to California, and then back to Atlantic City at the Borgata — what do you have in store for this series of shows?

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