‘I Looking back on his life Lewis realizes he'd chosen “applause over tears and booze over fears.” The day he chose to face his alcohol problem he was making his toughest choice ever… life over death, sobriety over addiction. “I consider myself very blessed to have overcome that. The two biggest things that have happened to me have been having the courage to try to make a living in the performing arts and getting sober,” they were both major life changing experiences says Lewis. “The business really gave me life, maybe too much of it, you know.”
But can a stand-up comic perform an act that's based on the very same anxieties he's busy conquering in his life? “You know, I really like myself now. People say, how can you still do the stand-up? I have a bottomless pit of dysfunctions and memories,” assures Lewis. “That's what I do best live. I like to tell people, ‘Boy, isn't it a nightmare…’”
And what has been Lewis' latest nightmare, his latest ‘moment from hell?’… facing the stack full of blank pages and turning them into a book. “I remember the day when I had absolutely nothing written yet… before I even got a computer… I remember the moment as if it was only a moment ago. I put the first blank page in and I said, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do? Do I have it in me?’ It reminded me of twenty-nine, thirty years prior when I said, ‘Am I going to be a comedian?’… I was writing little jokes down, thinking… this is going to build into six minutes, and then ten, and then twenty, and then it's going to build into some kind of crazy act.”
Richard Lewis began his comedy career writing stand up material for other comics. Although he was having some success writing for others Lewis felt frustrated. “Most of the stuff I thought was best they rejected,” admits Lewis saying that whenever he wrote material that truly came from the heart it never seemed to fit the other comics' stage personas. Then when Lewis' father died suddenly of a heart attack he found the need to express himself, to work through the pain of his loss, just too great to ignore. “I was destined to go on stage, but when my father died it was so traumatic for me that it jet propelled me on stage,” recalls Lewis. “Everybody around me… close to me… was in their own worlds, for better or for worse, I didn't feel I had an audience. I felt more comfortable in front of strangers, unfortunately, give me a microphone and a stage and I was at a family reunion.”
He started off doing some observational humor but that didn't last long. “I got really bored with it. It's a great form of humor, but, I really felt the need to express myself and what was going on inside Richard's brain. If I have any strength, on stage, I think it's that when people see me they know who I am,” says Lewis of his stand up act. “I've always been pretty real on stage. I realized if people were laughing at what I was going through then I must have been touching a chord. I'm like anyone else except that I have this incredible, insatiable need to express it.”
And although Richard Lewis has always felt his strength, as a stand up comic, comes from his being HIMSELF on stage he says, “(In the past) I never really felt I ratcheted it up as honest as I could. It's really helped me,” confides Lewis of the impact his recovery from alcoholism and the writing of his book have had on his life. “In all areas of life, obviously, but performing for sure. It's upgraded my stand up. I am absolutely fearless on stage. I'll say anything I want without any secrets.”
“I really wanted to write this book. Not only can it help others,” says Lewis of his autobiography's honest portrayal of his battle with alcoholism. “But I felt it would be very cathartic for me. The book enabled me to really cleanse myself of everything comedically and personally. In fact, when I gave it to my shrink to read she went, ‘Oh, I've been a failure. I have so much more to do.’”
Lewis wasn't certain a book would come out of his efforts when he sat down at the typewriter and stared at that first blank sheet of paper. Now that it's all finished he can honestly say, “I'm really happy about it, I think anyone who finishes anything is, even an ash tray in high school.”
Richard Lewis' The Other Great Depression is available from PublicAffairs (www.publicaffairsbooks.com). His double CD, Live From Hell (Before and After) from Live Archives (www.livearchive.com) and his latest HBO special from Rhino Video (www.Rhino.com) are also available. Visit www.richardlewisonline.com for other items, interesting info, book signings and updates.
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