Longtime drama coach Behar dies

By Ed Koch (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:10 a.m.

Joe Behar, a local drama teacher who long operated the Las Vegas Community Drama Workshop and the Comedy Corner that helped launch the career of comedian Drew Carey, died Monday at Nathan Adelson Hospice. He was 70.

Services for Behar, a Las Vegas resident of 30 years, will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Palm Mortuary-Downtown. A graveside service will be at noon on Dec. 2 at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

Behar was a realistic drama coach, noting that while few of his students would make the big time, they at least would learn the tools for dealing with the heartbreak of the business.

"This is all about overcoming fears -- fear of being in front of an audience, fear of rejection," Behar told the Sun in a Feb. 29, 2000, story. "But rejection builds character. The more you get rejected, the stronger you will become. You won't get rejected by staying at home, but you won't get any jobs, either."

Behar's free weekly actors workshop and the standup comedy club he started with comedian Rip Taylor in the 1970s had several Las Vegas locations over the years.

Carey, star of the long-running ABC-TV sitcom "The Drew Carey Show," attended the Community Drama Workshop on and off for two years at the beginning of his career and also did his act at the Comedy Corner in the 1970s.

One of Behar's most prized possessions was a T-shirt autographed by Carey in 1991. Carey wrote on the garment: "I owe it all to the Joe Behar Community Workshop, now put the gun down. Thanks. Drew Carey."

When Hollywood productions came to Las Vegas some of Behar's students were cast as extras. Some of his students also did local TV commercials and performed in dinner theater murder mysteries.

Born April 1, 1933, in Chicago, Behar became interested in acting when he was growing up in Los Angeles. After graduating from high school in 1951 he attended an acting class that included the legendary James Dean.

After college and a stint in the Army, Behar pursued an acting career.

"I starved with the best of them," he told the Sun in 2000, noting he didn't like the insecurity of acting so he gave it up.

Instead, he turned to rewriting television scripts, which became his career.

In the late 1960s Behar and actor Ed Asner ("Lou Grant"), teamed up to teach a weekly acting class in Los Angeles. When Behar moved to Las Vegas in 1973, he opened his actors workshop.

Behar also wrote for the local Israelite newspaper.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Behar of Las Vegas; a daughter, Alana Riener of California; a sister, Suzan Hoffman of California; a brother, Leo Behar of California; and two grandchildren.