David Brenner: The Philly Kid

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000 | 8:31 a.m.

Who: "David Brenner: Back with a Vengeance."

When: 9 p.m. Friday and Sunday; 7 p.m. Saturday.

Where: C2K nightclub at the Venetian hotel-casino.

Cost: $38.50, $47.50 and $53.

Information: Call 948-3007 or 414-2001.

You can count David Brenner among the growing number of Regis Philbin fans.

Like a lot of people in the nation, Brenner is amazed at the surge of popularity the talk show/game show host is experiencing.

"The one thing he proved is that you don't have to be 23 years old to host a show and be successful," Brenner said in a recent phone interview from New York. "This guy saved a whole damn network and he's in his 60s. And that opened the door for everybody over 40, or at least it should."

If it seems like Brenner's admiration is pinned to some underlying self-motivation, it is. The 55-year-old comedian hopes Philbin's success will open the door for him too, revitalizing a once-dominant career that had him appearing on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 150 times as guest and guest host.

His quest continues Saturday with a live HBO special, appropriately titled "David Brenner: Back With a Vengeance," which airs at 10 p.m. locally on a tape delay (the show will go out live to the East Coast at 7 p.m.) from the C2K nightclub at the Venetian hotel-casino. (He'll also be performing at the club Friday and Sunday.)

Although the performance will be broadcast live, something far from revolutionary, Brenner thinks the fact that the show will be mostly ad-libbed is. He promises the show will focus on current events -- as current as can be, up to and including items from that day's 6 p.m. news, one hour before he takes the stage.

All this effort, Brenner hopes, will convince people in the business that "the 23-year-old Yale graduates" who are running the show should take notice of him again. "I want to startle the industry. Not so much the public, because they're (already) behind me. I want the industry to say 'Wow, nobody else does that.' "

But if comments Brenner has heard from some of those suits and ties -- such as: "Johnny Carson? My mother liked him" -- mean anything, then he's got an uphill battle.

Still, it's a war he's prepared for.

Losing Touch

As Brenner, who was born and bred in Philadelphia, headed into the last decade of the 20th century, his then 20-plus-year career in comedy was chugging along nicely, with regular appearances on the "Tonight Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman." Then there were his club dates: Brenner routinely played all over the United States in 3,000- to 5,000-seat venues.

In 1991, however, most of that came to a halt when Brenner began a four-and-a-half-year custody battle for his oldest son Cole, who was 9.

Brenner compares his situation to another custody fight that is currently grabbing all the headlines: Elian Gonzalez. Both involve boys being used as pawns, he said, in a much bigger game. "(Elian's) being used as a tool for political advantage. I would never let my boy be used as a tool for a custody battle."

And although the struggle ended happily for Brenner -- he won custody of Cody in 1995 -- it wasn't without its cost. In order to avoid becoming an absentee father, during the custody suit Brenner was forced to cancel most of his touring, playing only 50 club dates a year. This, he said, reduced his income by 80 percent.

In terms of his career, it would exact an even heavier toll. "That's when they were giving out talk shows and sitcoms, and I was turning everybody down," he said.

And with so much competition in the comedy business, those openings didn't last long. Soon the phones quit ringing, and Brenner began to quietly fade from the memories of many of those in the industry. It's an experience that easily could have left Brenner bitter. Instead, he would rather focus on his return.

"I took myself out of the rat race and I was one of the best rats in it. I took myself out to fight for my son. And when I got done, I didn't know where the hell the rats were and where the race was. And now the whole idea is to come back from that and take my place again."

Brenner said that he began to contemplate coming back following a conversation with his middle son, Slade, who was 3 at the time. Brenner was leaving for the airport to go to a show when Slade told him to call him when he got there.

"He said, 'I just want you to know that when you leave to go to work, even though you're not home, you're still in my heart.' And I sat in the airport and thought, 'Wait a minute, look at this. I jump in front of a bullet to save my oldest son, and now innocently I'm causing damage to my two boys by being away so much.'

"I thought, 'I gotta get my career back. I gotta get my career back for them.' "

Three days later Brenner moved from his home in Aspen, Colo., to Los Angeles. Two weeks after that he moved his whole family as well, including longtime companion Elizabeth, and youngest son Wyatt. That was one year ago.

It was shortly after arriving in L.A. that Brenner had the idea for the special. Having had three previous specials on HBO, it seemed only natural that he turn to the cable channel again, so Brenner met with HBO President Chris Albrecht. During their conversation, Brenner said that he convinced Albrecht to not only green-light his project, but also to accept his demands: The show would be live, unrehearsed, at the Venetian, on Feb. 19 ("to be the first comedy special of the new millennium") and to have director Marty Callner at the helm (Callner also directed Brenner's other HBO specials).

Albrecht agreed to everything.

"I think (Albrecht) thought of me as the Tony Bennett of comedians," Brenner said. "Tony Bennett had all this great talent, he was so famous, he was so loved by the public. But his career was in a slide. Then his son came along and said, 'the problem is you gotta get to the young people,' and he got him on MTV.

"(Bennett) was always talented. But now, not only is he famous, but also popular again. That's the same thing with me, and I think Chris Albrecht saw that."

As for the show itself, the special will be a departure for those used to Brenner's familiar observational style of comedy, something he pioneered in the '70s. ("I saw a sign at the International Pancakes in L.A. on the door leading in that read 'We have menus in braille.' I said to the manager, 'Excuse me, why don't you make the sign bigger in case they're across the street.") Instead, the comedian said he will focus more on topics people can relate to: crime, lawsuits, marriage, divorce and, of course, politics.

"(The public) doesn't want to hear stuff that's funny that doesn't pertain to them. I mean, other comedians are doing my act, and that's fine, let them carry on my act. But I gotta get a new dimension."

The whole process, he hopes, will lead to more work -- the jobs he missed out on in the early '90s. And let it be known to would-be suitors that Brenner is not picky: From the wacky next-door neighbor or daily delivery boy in a sitcom to game show host, he's open to anything as long as it's funny and the pay's good.

Still, if he had his druthers, Brenner said he'd like to get a permanent Las Vegas gig out of the special. "I used to play 20, 25 weeks a year in Vegas during my heyday. I would love that to come back. There have been some other hotels sniffing around, so somebody is going to make me an offer."

But if nothing comes of it, he's prepared. He's had a glorious career, he reasoned, and would be content to either stay in L.A., or move his family back to Aspen. And then one day, when his sons are older, he knows they'll ask him about his former life as a standup comedian.

"And I'll say 'Sure, let me show you a tape. Here, this is from 'Politically Incorrect,' this is from 'Letterman,' this is from HBO' -- whatever it is. What's the difference? In a hundred years they're not going to know any of us."