Rediscovering Richard

Friday, May 4, 2001 | 4:12 a.m.

It was 9:30 on a recent morning and Richard Lewis had just awakened.

"I had about 300,000 nightmares," he said over the telephone from his Los Angeles home, still a little sleepy.

Within seconds the comedian was making jokes, rambling about his new book, his addictions and other dysfunctions -- all in the stream-of-consciousness style he's known for.

For three decades he has entertained millions with onstage humorous journeys into the depths of his own neurosis.

Lewis has headlined HBO specials and landed roles in such movies as "Drunks" and "Leaving Las Vegas," and starred on the sitcom "Anything But Love" with Jamie Lee Curtis.

Record label Live Archive recently released Lewis' first CD, "Live From Hell: Before and After," a double CD that includes stand-up comedy from Lewis' first Showtime special in 1985, as well as Lewis free-associating with journalist Bill Zehme.

But his most personal project can be found on bookstore shelves, in the "Recovery" section.

"The Other Great Depression" (PublicAffairs, $23) is Lewis' recently released biographical collection of dark, sometimes humorous and deeply personal essays on childhood, alcoholism and the long road to recovery.

Following a break from stand-up comedy to write the book, followed by a promotional tour, Lewis is on his "The Wreck in Progress Tour,"which stops Friday at Sunset Station:

Las Vegas Sun: You are known for revealing your mental dysfunctions onstage. Did your audiences know that you had an alcohol addiction?

Richard Lewis: I hid that pretty well from my craft. I quit stand-up comedy for 2 1/2 years because drinking was that important. That's a lot of (missed) shows ... I didn't want to burn the bridge.

Sun: So you were protecting your career?

RL: I protected my career, but I was losing my life.

There have been millions of people who have seen me (onstage). I was as honest as I could be to them. There weren't many dark secrets I held back. But what I felt I had to go back and tell people is, "OK, I'm an alcoholic." It has opened up a whole world of new material.

Sun: Is that why you wrote the book?

RL: I wrote this book because I felt I was very lucky after all these years.

I wrote the book because I really felt the need to come clean with myself in a way that I couldn't onstage. Stand-up is about Richard Lewis, but on the alcohol end I was able to talk about it in a way that made people laugh -- take the stigma off it.

This was a very painful thing for me to write about in a lot of ways. This was a case where it was clearly a case about my disease.

Sun: Did people in the entertainment business know you had a drinking problem?

RL: I fell asleep at a (movie) premiere. A buddy of mine, a comedian, called me (and said), "Hey, if you don't think people know, they know tonight."

Sun: In your book you mention the friends who tried to intervene during the dark years. How important was that to you?

RL: When you finally hit bottom -- all these phone calls, all the books ... and benevolent moments in your life -- it makes it easier to help yourself. All the help I got was never wasted.

Sun: What kind of response have you received about the book?

RL: At book-signings people come over and talk to me. I had couples in their 40s come over with a 15-year-old son who was having ... problems. It's just been easily the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Standing ovations are fabulous. but when someone says, "Hey my son read your book ..."

I'm still anxious and depressed but I have much more gratitude. There's a twinkle in my eye that I've never had before.

Sun: When you first walked onstage nearly 30 years ago and talked about your personal issues, was it cleansing?

RL: Unbelievably cleansing. Cathartic. It was fabulous. Going onstage, talking about Richard Lewis validated me.

I went to dinner with Phyllis Diller last night. We were talking about how lucky we were to go onstage and talk about stuff that was driving us mad.

The self-loathing, self-hatred -- all of that sticks with you. Stuff goes on in your childhood -- you can't re-create your childhood.

Sun: Why do you think your audiences in particular have been so taken with your neurosis?

RL: There's a whole lot of observational comics and that's fine ... I feel much more honest telling (audiences) how I feel. But what I've found through the years is that what I'm feeling is what other people are feeling. My worst audience is healthy people. If that room is filled with tremendously healthy people, I go into the tank.

Sun: How prepared are you when you walk onstage?

RL: I have hours and hours of material. I ad-lib a lot. I'll just start writing stuff onstage.

Even when it might look like I'm rambling, I've been looking through hundreds of pages of material, so when I get onstage I blow up with comedy.

I bring it on the plane, the road. So by the time I've hit the concert stage I've spent literally hundreds of hours going over this stuff. I rarely do material I've done before. I never know what I'm going to say from night to night.

Sun: Your stand-up material, how much of it includes recovery?

RL: I've talked about my recovery for years now. I don't preach, I just talk about me.

This disease is hanging around in every room in my house, every liquor store, every restaurant. It's waiting for me.

Right now I'm feeling pretty great ... until I walk onstage. I promise the audience I will be a basket case.

Sun: Do you have any comments about Robert Downey Jr.'s situation?

RL: I am as sad about Robert as I am about any person who has this disease. I just wish he would get it like I got it and a million of others, and just throw in the towel and say, "I quit." This isn't a disease where you can just go in and take a pill and make it better. I'm sure that Junior knows that. If anything (this) shows how powerful a disease can be.

Sun: In addition to guest appearances on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," what else is going on?

RL: I'm working on that. I'm touring.

I'm starting to write this play. ... about this mid-life crisis that unfortunately I've found myself in. My shrink thinks I was in a mid-life crisis when I was 18.

It's all very creative right now. It's exciting to walk into a book store and see my book and my CD. I never had a CD before.

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