David Brenner is back
to reclaim his comedy crown.
NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
B
ack in 1991, David Brenner was king of
the comedy mountain. The comic had
appeared well over 100 times on the
Tonight Show, which he often guest-host-
ed in the 1970s and '80s. He enjoyed lucrative Las
Vegas gigs and was a perennial guest on TV shows
like Letterman.
Then came the contentious court battle that
knocked him, for a time, off the mountain. Brenner
virtually disappeared for more than four years as he
struggled to win custody of his oldest son, Cole,
now 17. It nearly cost him his career.
The comic had to drastically cut back his perfor-
mance schedule or risk losing custody of Cole. His
income declined by 80 percent as he paid $600,000
in legal fees. Brenner lost his Manhattan brownstone
and his limousine.
By the time he had won the custody battle, the
clubs weren't calling anymore.
Since 1995, Brenner has been immersed in
another fierce battle — to rejuvenate his career. He
took over a nationally syndicated radio show, wrote
a screenplay and worked the clubs.
During a recent telephone interview, it was clear
that all the work has paid off. The comic has sold
the screenplay, a wicked comedy called Willpower,
and signed a multi-performance deal with the
Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. His
new HBO special, David Brenner: Back With a
Vengeance — his fourth special for HBO and first
since 1980 — will be broadcast live from the
Venetian on Feb. 19.
But don't expect to see the old David Brenner,
the master of the "hair-on-the-soap" brand of obser-
vational comedy. "That whole observational thing
was just, `blah, blah, blah,'" he says. "Now I'm more
into observations about things that concern me, like
politics, crime, the economy."
His comeback has taken some thought. When
Brenner, 54, performed on Letterman last year,
applause interrupted his act a record 16 times.
But not a single job offer came his way the next
day.
"People just thought, 'Brenner is always hysteri-
cal,' and went off to lunch," he says. So the comic
thought up a novel way to draw attention with his
HBO special.
Naomi Pfefferman is entertainment editor of the
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.
Instead of performing a
scripted stand-up routine, he'll
improvise a significant portion
of his act, riffing off of news
items he's read that day in USA
Today. "I'll run with the materi-
al, even if it's not tested," he
says. "I do that in small clubs,
and I'll do it live in front of mil-
lions of people on HBO. I know
I have to make the wire higher
and thinner than ever before.
And I have the guts to do it."
If improvising an act before
millions takes guts, it's some-
thing Brenner learned in spades
while growing up in tough,
poor sections of south and west
Philadelphia. "I was in hun-
dreds of street fights," recalls
Brenner, a Jewish gang leader
who always tried to deflect anti-
Semitic violence with jokes.
"We were tough Jews," he says.
Brenner's grandfather was an
Orthodox rabbi whose sons
David Brenner brings his improvisational humor live to
accompanied him to shul wield-
HBO in a special airing tomorrow night.
ing bricks and bottles to fight
the bigots. "Three of my uncles
says. "And then I realized people didn't want to
became rabbis and three became gangsters," Brenner
change."
says. "And my father was not a rabbi."
So Brenner, who had inherited his father's pen-
Lou Brenner was a bookie with steel-gray eyes.
chant for comedy, tried his hand at standup in
He drank whiskey and smoked cigars. He was also
1969. Two years later, he made his stunning debut
the fUnniest person on earth, Brenner says. As a
on the Tonight Show. His career was well on its way.
young man, Lou was a vaudeville comedian who
Today, Brenner lives with his longtime compan-
came home one day with a Hollywood movie con-
ion, Elizabeth, a painter, and their two sons, Slade,
tract in his pocket. Lou's father, the rabbi, nixed the
4, and Wyatt, 21 months. She takes the kids to syn-
deal. He said, You can't work on Shabbat,'"
Brenner says. "So my dad quit.
agogue while Brenner frequently performs for Jewish
groups, including a recent fund-raiser for an
"But I remember going down to the pool hall
Orthodox school.
with my father, the people gathering around him,
These days, Brenner's comedy is reminiscent of
screaming and laughing at his jokes. It was fall-down
his socially conscious documentaries. "I've come full
laughing. And on the way to the pool hall, he would
circle," says the comedian, who also takes pride in
take me to shul. He went every morning to daven.
He wore tsitsit (ritual fringes) and carried a Bible."
his highly improvisational approach.
"Anyone can study a script and perform," he
Lou was a man who cared about people, and
says. "But I write the material, 'right now,' live.
David, as a young man, wanted to change the
Everyone in the audience will have a seat inside
world. While still in his 20s, he made 115 docu-
my comic brain."
mentaries on socially conscious issues such as over-
spending by the Pentagon and poverty. He won an
Emmy Award and headed the distinguished docu-
David Brenner: Back With a Vengeance airs
mentary departments of both Westinghouse and
10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, on HBO.
Metromedia Broadcasting.
"I naively thought I could change things," he
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