by Marissa Maier
After 50 years in the comedy business, stand up performer David Brenner reveals highlights from his own career and insights into the changing world of comedy.
You graduated from Temple University with honors in mass communication. Did you know then that you wanted to be a comedian or did you have a sense that you needed a more practical degree or job?
I was born funny, genetically. I was the class comedian and I made everyone laugh. [But] someone who is very astute in the philosophy of life and sees life differently doesn’t necessarily mean they will be a philosopher. They could end up being a plumber.
[My humor] was a genetic gift. My father was the funniest man that I met. My three sons are funny. My uncles and aunts are funny. It permeates through the whole family.
[Stand up comedy] seemed silly. Who would stand up in front of people and make them laugh? When I did an act at Sheepshead Bay [in Brooklyn] for $35 for the weekend for three shows, when they handed me the money I was dumbfounded that I was getting paid for being funny. It was like someone asking if I had brown eyes and saying “here is $20.” I never gave it value other than to have fun and make people laugh. It was an accident. I did it as a lark.
Before you became a well-known comedian you worked on numerous television documentaries. How did you transition to becoming a stand up comedian?
It was more like an eruption. How did you make that eruption you should ask. In my youthful naiveté I would present the problems of the world and possible solutions. I thought somebody would do something about them and it wasn’t true. Nothing changed. You take my documentaries, dust them off and ignore hairstyles and clothing styles, you would think [they were current]: capital punishment, overspending by the Pentagon, women as victims of rape by the system, migratory workers, misunderstanding the welfare system and so on and so forth.
I thought “I’m not going to change anything, I have to do something. I went to Nevis and got a little house. It rained for three days, but I had a radio and listened to the BBC news. All day I was listening to the news, I thought, “People better laugh because this world is going to hell.” I started going to comedy clubs. I thought good or bad I would do this for a year. I was working since I was eight-and-a-half years old. I quit the docs and started doing this. I wanted to do television so that years later if I became a Wall Street guy, you would say, “What are you about?” [And I would say,] “George bring the tape from that safe.”
I auditioned for my first appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson while I was working at a place on MacDougal Street called the Bitter End. Comedians like Richard Pryor were there. I got slugged into it. I was a comedian nearing on a year. My young agent, without telling me, brought the [Tonight Show] man to my act. I was doing my hip, liberal, devastating act. He said to my agent, “David Brenner does vomit material. Not only will he never do the Tonight Show, we won’t let him into 30 Rock.” I thought, “that is the show I am going to do before I quit.” So I got myself together and I went in for a cold audition in this little tiny theater. It was the 24th of December and my agent called me on January 7 to say, “The Tonight Show wants you tomorrow night.” I said, “I was born ready.” I went out there and it was magic. I had three dollars left to my name but after that night I had $10,000 worth of job offers.
I saw the video of your first Tonight Show appearance and Johnny Carson refers to your act as a bit warped even though now the material seems very tame. How have you seen comedy change and the boundaries of what you can and can't say in your act?
It was the beginning of observational comedy. No one did that ... It wasn’t so much that we were being censored. In my opinion it was more that the country had been polarized and the public became uptight. The public suddenly censored themselves. In D.C. I found out something early in my career. If you take a liberal side and make fun of it, then the whole room laughs. When you make fun of the conservative side of an issue, only the liberals laugh.
[Even today] it is frightening the way the first amendment is being trashed by the people not the government.
One day I talked to my younger sons, ages 15 and 12. I said to my boys, “We come from a family in which every male member has served in the armed forces and many were war heroes. If there is ever a draft, I want you to remember three words: Canada, Australia,” and at that time I said Iceland, but now I have to replace Iceland with New Zealand.
You made 158 appearances on the Tonight Show, which I think is the most of any guest, and you also hosted for Carson. What was your most memorable interview?
I had my own show, too, called Nightlife. There are a few interviews that were special. My favorite was Helen Gurley Brown. She would always bring up a subject. It was like a dart board and there were a hundred funny darts you could throw. She just gave you fodder for every joke.
Another was Aretha Franklin. We went to Detroit to her home where we taped a Christmas special. She sang with Billy Preston, my band leader. It didn’t have a studio audience. At the end, they pan back to show that there is no audience in the bleachers and they took a shot of me sitting at my desk. You could see hundreds of empty seats and they played “Holy Night.” Just for the people in the control room, I said something about how it’s lonesome to be a Jew at Christmas. I’m always ad libing.
What has been your favorite political scandal to riff on? What current events do you find yourself turning into comedy?
I haven’t been able to put a lock on Obama. I was rooting for Obama and I am not so much anymore. [In my act] I do go into the congress, Afghanistan and Iraq. I get involved in the economy and the security spending. Homeland security is another one, but immigration makes people a little nervous.
Your fifth book, “I Think There’s a Terrorist in My Soup,” is about using comedy to deal with the troubles of the world. How did you use humor when you were growing up in South Philadelphia?
I used it all the time to get through being poor and having to go to work when I was not quite nine years old. There is a funny side to everything. It doesn’t mean that it is socially acceptable. You got to find the funny side.
I was with my father walking down the street [when I was young] and he said, “There is something funny in everything. Look at Mr. Connolly.”
Mr. Connolly was a big guy and it was a hot day. His car had a flat tire and he couldn’t get the bolts to work. He was cursing and throwing his tools down. He was sweating and angry. I said “There is nothing funny about that. He is really angry.”
My father said, “Open up your third eye and look for what is funny in Mr. Connoly’s troubles.”
I looked and I said, “Well his pants are all the way down.” And my father said, “Exactly.”
David Brenner performs at the Bay Street Theatre, Long Wharf, on Saturday, August 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $60. To purchase tickets or for more information call 725-9500.
