Atlantic City Weekly

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This month marks 15 years for comedian/actor/author Richard Lewis (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Drunks) being sober. Lewis is funny as ever and busy as ever, too. Along with a bunch of other coals in the fire, the Brooklyn-born comic will appear at the Hilton in Atlantic City on Saturday, Aug. 29, with Curb co-star Susie Essman co-headlining.

Lewis called from Los Angeles for an early morning chat with Atlantic City Weekly — 7:30am Pacific time — just prior to heading to the studio to rehearse for a few upcoming episodes of the FOX sitcom Til Death.

Good morning. Where are you, California?

Tragically, yeah.

Do you usually get up this early?

No, it depends on when the nightmares end. You know, the dragons ran out of steam and I’m up. ... Actually I’m up early this morning because I’m doing — this is really sort of a cool month for me — I’m shooting three episodes in two days for my old friend Brad Garrett’s show [Til Death] on FOX. It’s a little complicated to do three separate shows, particularly in two days, because they’ll shoot it and then they’ll have the live audience in for another show so I start rehearsal today and then — bingo! — be ready.

So what else is going on?

Well, it’s sort of an interesting time because there’s a book coming out [this week] called [I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up Comedy’s Golden Era by William Knoedelseder (PublicAffairs)] — and not just because I’m on the cover. It’s about all this turmoil that happened back during my generation, back in the ’70s in Hollywood, which culminated in a comedy strike and sadly in a suicide by a guy who was literally the first young guy I ever met, before I even became a comedian, at an open-mike night in New York and he moved out here and we were great friends and, obviously, he had a lot of problems. His name was Steve Lubetkin. In fact, I’m told that Tom Hanks bought the film rights for the book. It’s really a compelling story.

You’re going to be on Turner Classic Movies next month too, right?

Yeah, [I taped that] months ago. That’s going to be on Sept. 21. That was really fun because I was able to pick some of my favorite movies. I did a Buster Keaton [Steamboat Bill Jr.] and a [Stanley] Kubrick [Dr. Strangelove]. Keaton was sort of my silent idol. They gave me a whole list and then I picked four or five of them that I really loved.

You were about to say you had just wrapped filming on something?

Yes, an eight-day shoot, which was unbelievable, on The Cleaner, with Benjamin Bratt. It’ll be on A&E on the 15th and it’s the finale and I play a heroin addict. I mean, I’m a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, but I never shot heroin or used needles. It was funny because I was e-mailing all the producers and the guy that the show is based on. I was panicked. I was like, “Look, I’m a recovering alcoholic and I’ve done drugs and all that, but I don’t want to look like a moron on the show with all my rock ‘n’ roll recovering heroin addicts calling me and teasing me, you know?” I was like I need to come early; I need lessons!

How did it go?

Well, the good news is I handled it pretty well. The bad news was I did it in like eight seconds! I was like, Oh my God! Thank God I never did this, because I’d never be talking to you on the phone!

Congratulations on 15 years of being sober.

Look, I’ve had a long career — it’s been like 39, 40 years of doing this stuff and going to the Hilton, and I just played Vegas last week and I did Town Hall a few months ago. And I tell young comedians — not to sound, well, I guess after you turn 60 you start to preach involuntarily, it’s almost like a disease — it’s all about the journey. I mean clearly with Curb Your Enthusiasm starting its seventh season in a few weeks, it’s a journey. I’ve had some luck, but I’ve dedicated myself to the arts. I married late in life, I don’t have any kids; I just have a lot of nephews with their 10 children and nieces, but I tell someone, “OK, so you did a great Tonight Show or Letterman or Ferguson, but it’s all forgotten now. What’s going to happen in three weeks when you go on again?” I’m really proud that I’m still doing this thing.

You certainly should be.
          
You know what really hits me? When I do nightclubs — I occasionally do them because I feel like a boxer, after six shows in four days you’re really ready to step into the ring — but when you do two shows on Friday and Saturday, when you do just an hour or so — and I really just leave it all on the stage — then go back to the hotel and have to turn around and then go right back, it’s murder. I mean when I was younger maybe it didn't’t matter to me that much, but boy it’s murder. So I don’t do too many of those. Of course, at the Hilton I’ll be co-headlining with Essman. We’ve been doing a lot of these together and we have a blast together. She’s funny and she’s also a hell of a nice woman so we have a great time. And Curb has been really meaningful to her and certainly has been great for my career. It’s opened up a whole new audience for me over the last eight or nine years. It’s funny, my demographics are from like five to 80! It’s ridiculous. 

I spoke with you a few years ago and you were talking about a gig in Martha’s Vineyard where there were a lot of Curb cast members in the audience and other celebrities —

Yeah, I remember that. That was actually a pretty high-profile gig. I mean you’d be staring right out lookin’ at about 30, you know, movie stars and politicians. There are always times when people come in the audience: I remember doing a concert in Cleveland and Jackson Browne and J.D. Souther were there. They both came to the late show and I’m staring right down the pike at Jackson and Souther and it’s like, because they had never seen me perform. I had been friends with them, particularly Souther, for decades, but these are those moments when you pray to God that you have a good show. That’s like, you know, getting back to what we said, it’s only that show that matters. And it was the late show and in the first show I destroyed the room, but it didn’t matter because they were not there. For someone who felt so judged as a child, it’s interesting that I picked a profession where I’m judged every day!