:ENTERTAINMENT

KING
OF COMEDY

started singing, dancing, making a
fool of myself from the time I was
six or seven," said comedian Alan
King, who will be at Adat Shalom
Synagogue next Thursday to help
conclude this , year's Allied Jewish
Campaign.
"I wanted to be adored. I wanted
my place in the sun. I wanted to be
recognized."
Recognition he got and, as he
emphasized during a recent telephone
interview, he got it the old-fashioned
way: he earned it.
"I performed on street corners, in
backyards, in cellar clubs, wherever. I
worked anywhere and everywhere. I
never had a hit record or a smash TV
show, and I certainly never woke up
one morning and found myself a star. I
was just around for a very long time,
and there wag' a kind of evolution ..."
Born Irwin Alan Kniberg in New
York City, King, who'll be 60 this
year, grew up in the poverty of the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and

I

For Alan King,
discontent
is what
it's all about

VICTORIA BELYEU DIAZ

Special to The Jewish.News

IN

LISTINGS WELCOME

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Screening a' film? Staging a
play? If so; The Jewish News
wants to hear about it in our
new entertainment calendar,
Going Places. Send concert,
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lication.

56 Friday, April 3, 1987

on New York's Lower East Side.
While in his early teens, he left
school Cl
" didn't drop out, I was thrown
out") and went on tour with a Major
Bowes Amateur Show, performing
musical impressions of popular singers
and a few musical instruments. The
act, he said, was so bad, "I don't even
want to think about it." After several
months, he returned home for his bar
mitzvah. Then, shortly thereafter, he
organized a band, in which he took a
turn on drums. But the musical
venture didn't work out, he recalled,
because he got so tired of carrying the
drums around town.
Later, he took up boxing for a
short while. "That' didn't last because I
was getting my brains rearranged a
lot."
People seemed to think that the
brash young man had a real way with
comedy, though, and, as a result, he
found himself doing more and more of
it.
"What I did in those days was
completely different from what I do

WEEK OF APRIL3•9

SPECIAL EVENTS

CONG. BETH SHALOM,
B'NAI MOSHE, TEMPLE
EMANU-EL: B'nai Moshe
Synagogue, Klezmer Con-
cert of Jewish Folk Music -
by Kapelye, the Yiddish
Klezmer Band, 3 p.m. Sun-
day, admission, 547-7970.
OLYMPIC AND WORLD FIG-
URE SKATING CHAM-
PIONS: Joe Louis Arena, ice
extravaganza, 8 p.m. Satur-
day, admission 567-6000.

MUSIC

DETROIT SYMPHONY OR-
CHESTRA: Ford Auditorium,
conductor Adam Fischer,

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

L ACES

10:45 a.m. today, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, conductor Jerzy
Semkow, 8 p.m. Thursday,
admission, 567-1400.
LYRIC
CHAMBER
ENSEMBLE: Edsel and
Eleanor Ford House, • 1100
Lakeshore Dr., Grosse Pointe
Shores, Masterpieces for
Clarinet and Strings, 3:30
p.m. Sunday, admission,
357-1111.
OAKLAND UNIVERSITY:
Varner Recital Hall, Oakland
University, Spring celebra-
tion concert,•8 p.m. today
and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sun-
day, admission, 370-3013.
DETROIT CHAMBER WINDS:
Wallace Smith Theater, Oak-
land Community College,

Farmington Hills, flutist
Julius Baker, 8 p.m. today,
admission, 851-8DCW.
INSTITUTE OF MUSIC AND
DANCE: Boughton Au-
ditorium, 200 E. Kirby, De-
troit, Winkler/ Berman Duo,
2 p.m. Sunday, admission,
831-2870.

CHILDREN

PEANUT BUTTER PLAYERS:
,Austin Hall, 18000 E. Warren,
Detroit, The Electric Sun-
shine Man; 1 p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays through April
26, admission, reservations,
559-6727.

OAKLAND UNIVERSITY:
Varner Recital Hall, Babar

the Elephant, 1 p.m. Mon-
day, noon Tuesday, 11:30
a.m. and 1 p.m. Wednesday,
admission, 370-3013.

THEATER

DETROIT
REPERTORY
THEATRE: 13103 Woodrow
Wilson, Detroit, Waiting for
Godot, now through April 19,
admission, 868-1347.

JIMMY CAUNCE PROD-
UCTIONS, INC.: Somerset
Dinner Theatre, It Had to Be
You, dinner 6 and 7 p.m.,
curtain 8:15 p.m., through
June 13, admission, 649-
6629.
Continued on Page 64