I don’t like to write after midnight anymore, I end up so jazzed-up, so laden with adrenaline that I can’t fall asleep for hours.\u00c2\u00a0 But standing in the kitchen eating pineapple I realized that Howard Stern does what Johnny Carson used to, before David Letterman reinvented late night TV as scripted comedy bits and the informational interview bit the dust.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t leave the car.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to hear what Lewis had to say.<\/p>\n
They were talking about the Tonys.\u00c2\u00a0 Lewis blew a gasket.\u00c2\u00a0 Thought the whole show was an advertisement not to come.\u00c2\u00a0 Was he bitter?\u00c2\u00a0 You betcha.\u00c2\u00a0 He wrote forty plays and made no headway.\u00c2\u00a0 Even now that he’s a famous comedian they won’t produce his plays.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s written three books, but Broadway just doesn’t give a shit.<\/p>\n
He didn’t turn to comedy until he was forty.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, he didn’t go professional until then, he worked stand-up on an amateur level.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he’s 61 and he headlines theatres, goes on the road in a bus with a road manager and a merch guy and a sound guy…he can’t get over the fact that 2,500 people a night come to see him, he’s thrilled.<\/p>\n
Making it…<\/p>\n
Howard asked Lewis if he resented the low brow comics.\u00c2\u00a0 I figured Howard was referencing Dane Cook, but Lewis talked about Larry the Cable Guy, from twenty years before, when he was working under his real name.\u00c2\u00a0 Lewis said he couldn’t resent the guy, even though he was horrific then and funny in an horrific way today, because Larry did the work.\u00c2\u00a0 Every morning he woke up and called radio stations.<\/p>\n
And then there were the great comedians, like Dom Irrera, who never got their due, never broke through.<\/p>\n
Howard put it to Lewis directly.\u00c2\u00a0 Did he sacrifice his whole life, not get married, not have kids in pursuit of his dream of being a playwright.<\/p>\n
OF COURSE!<\/p>\n
He was a schmuck in his parents’ eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 He borrowed money from his more successful brother.\u00c2\u00a0 Girls thought it was cool he was a playwright for three dates, and then dumped him.<\/p>\n
Making it is so hard.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to do the work.\u00c2\u00a0 And then sometimes it still doesn’t happen.<\/p>\n
And it sustains only when you’re honest.\u00c2\u00a0 Lewis gave shit to the baby boomers, said we should invade BP like we invaded Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 He was testing the limits, intellectually, and it was stimulating.<\/p>\n
I get it, I get it, Howard Stern can be juvenile, talking about farts and doodies, but if you don’t think he’s good, just look at all the people who tried to follow in his footsteps and failed, like Diamond Dave and Adam Carolla.<\/p>\n
Howard’s a pro.\u00c2\u00a0 His show is as well-oiled as Letterman’s.\u00c2\u00a0 But instead of poking fun at life, Howard Stern’s show is life itself.<\/p>\n
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