roubly presents

DRV

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News

C

oming to Motown as part of
the Jewish Community
Center's "Encore" series
March 6 at West Bloomfield
High School, Carl Reiner gave a pre-
view, with Detroit reminiscences, to

The Jewish News:

JN: What do you have planned for
your appearance in Michigan?
CR: I do what I call prepared rambling,
depending on the evening, the con-
stituency and how I feel about things. I
usually have a good time, and if I have a
good time, most people do. I always do
a question and answer session, and I
always get wonderful questions.

JN: Can you tell us about other
appearances you've made in Michigan?
CR: We did a Broadway road company
of Call Me Mister in 1947, and Detroit
was the last stop before we went to
Chicago. My son Robbie (producer-
director-actor Rob Reiner) was 5 weeks
old. There were two weeks in Detroit
and Cleveland when I did not see my
little son, but my wife brought him out
to Chicago because that was a six-
month run. We stayed at a hotel, and
that's where he started to grow.

JN: If you were writing "Your Show
of Shows" today, what are some of
the themes you would include?
CR: "Your Show of Shows" had some
of the most brilliant writers (Neil
Simon, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks),
and they would use the same subjects
that everybody's using today. They
would be at least as funny as the best
and probably in better taste.

/-

JN: If you were coming to Michigan
to deliver a very serious speech about
today's issues, what would you want
to communicate?
CR: My son Rob has been working on
[programs concerning] child develop-
ment to age 3, and I've been involved
with it a little bit. It had national
exposure with a TV show last year
with the president and Colin Powell,
the point being to make sure every
baby is loved. You'll find that all the
anti-social acts are done by people
who didn't have a loving upbringing.
The important thing is spending
money for early child development.

On
WeNies

JN: What do Rob's brother and sister do?
CR: His sister, Annie, who's two years
younger than he, is a psychoanalyst,
playwright, painter and poet. She's pub-
lished three books of poems, and she's
having a book on psychiatry published
this year. She's had plays produced, and
she's had art shows. My young son,
Lucas, who was born 12 years after the
other children, is an artist and has shows
in New York. He also writes. He has one
movie that was produced, and now he's
writing another one. There's a lot of
activity in the Reiner clan. My wife sings
jazz in clubs. She's got a second CD
coming out and a third next year.

JN: When you go out to be enter-
tained by others, where do you like
to go?
CR: Most of the time, we go to the
movies. We try to see movies about
people and their relationships. I'd be
interested in knowing what the
Jewish community in Detroit thinks
about Life Is Beautiful. That was one
of the ones nominated for an
Academy Award, and it's a comedy
about the Holocaust. I saw it, but I
didn't know how to think about it. I
have a sister-in-law who was in the
Holocaust, and my son's mother-in-
law is a survivor, so I wonder. I also
love sports. I'm an avid baseball fan.
I've had tickets to the Dodgers'
games for the last 40 years. When I
was a kid, I knew every Detroit
ballplayer because I followed every
team in the league. When Hank -
Greenberg, a Jewish kid from the
Bronx, became an idol not only in
Detroit but in the whole baseball
community, I followed his career.

JN: What causes claim your time?
CR: I've always-done benefits for a lot
of things. For 25 years, I've had a ten-
nis tournament for learning-disabled
children. I've had a Big Brothers bash
for 25 years, and I've been involved
with the Young Musicians Foundation
for 15 years. I'm doing it less and less
now because my time is becoming
more valuable. As you get older, you
don't have much time to do all the
things you want to do.

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JN: What is the 2000 Year Old Man
looking forward to at the millennium?
CR: We've got a full year to think
about it, but we're looking forward to
continuing.

3/5
1999

Detroit Jewish News

75