I ENTERTAINMENT I * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE BREAK YOUR YOM KIPPUR FAST WITH OUR DELICIOUS FOOD AND BEAUTIFUL TRAYS K. LEFKOFSKY STAR DELI A HAPPY, HEALTHFUL AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR. CO. Wishes Its Friends, Relatives and Customers 14555 W. 12 MILE, Just West of Telegraph, Southfield OPEN 7 DAYS 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 352-7377 00000 1/4 Shelley Berman has had a long career as a comedian. Shelley Berman Turns To Career On The Stage Heartiest Wishes To Our Customers and Friends For A Healthy and Happy MICHAEL ELKIN Special to The Jewish News T New Year LELLI'S INN 7618 Woodward 871-1590 Detroit's Finest Italian-American Cuisine Since 1941 From Nick Sorise and John Reaser and the staff of 744 755 W. Big Beaver, Concourse Top of Troy Bldg. Wishing Our Customers and Friends A Happy and Healthy New Year 82 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988 362-1262 his is one interview I could phone in. "Hello, yes, this is Shelley Berman. I'm fine, I'm fine. So let's talk." Why not? The man's a natural. At sixty-something, Berman still handles a phone call like a pro — which he is, of course, gaining fame so many years ago for his com- edy shtick where he would hold a comical and imaginary conversation on the phone, hanging up on hung up fan- tasy callers. His has been a long distance career, traveling from nightclub to recording studio (the Grammy Award- winning "Inside Shelley Ber- man") to publishing ("Up in the Air With Shelley Ber- man") to television to Broad- way ("Insideoutsideandalla- round Shelley Berman"). I am chuckling as we chat, learning more as I delve in- sideoutsideandallaround Shelley Berman as he rehearses for his role as the flamboyant transvestite Albin in "La Cage aux Folles." "This isn't just an acting challenge, it's a musical challenge," he says of the role that requires him to sing the show-stopper "I Am What I Am." And exactly what is Shelley Berman? Is he the same com- ic who connived us so long ago into once believing he really held those magical con- versations on the phone? Push the right buttons and see. "I don't see a need to adapt my kind of humor," says Ber- man. "Kids today get hold of my records and they love it. They don't know where to buy them. Kids are smart enough to know what appeals. But to- day the market rules." And Berman is not sitting on the throne. "I don't feel like getting modern," he says. Modern humor is cursed with a need for profanity, he laments, and that's not funny. "It's contemptuous dialogue. Today, we have thrown our subtleties away." There is nothing subtle about Albin, whose romance with Georges is threatened when Georges's son — courtesy of a one-night stand many years back — brings home his unsuspecting pro- spective in-laws. "This is not just another role," says Berman, who has played in "Fiddler on the Roof' and "The Prisoner of Second Avenue." "I am assuming the characteristics of the opposite sex to play Albin — but I am not sure what the opposite sex is," he says. "Maybe it's just external." Inside Shelley Berman .. . If he were starting out today, his phone routine would have to be changed. "I'd have to use a push-button instead of a dial," he says. But little else would be dif- ferent. "Comedy doesn't change," he says. "Laughs don't change. Art illuminates life. All that changes is the way you illuminate." Though in the spotlight, Berman is not in the same limelight he once owned. "No one asks most comedians to make records today," says Berman, who recalls his pleasure at earning the first Grammy for a non-musical record.