Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades

The subtitle of David Steinberg’s Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades is wonderfully apt. Steinberg has been a comedian for over fifty years and continues his work today with not only this book but also his TV show Inside Comedy. He was taught by an older generation of comedians, but because of his long career he has influenced a younger one, some members of whom have shown him the same reverence he has for the older greats like Mel Brooks and the Marx Brothers.

Steinberg’s collection of more than seventy-five interviews and loving-yet-snarky ruminations captures the rarely seen side of these comedians: their humanity. This background contrasts with the stories stand-up comedians tell to connect with their audiences; such humanity can be seen, for example, in the longtime friendship between Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve, dating back to their time together at Julliard. Steinberg pulls back the curtain on these comedians, who have had full lives far beyond what they tell us or what we hear in the news. He drops little-known information like the topic of Conan O’Brien’s senior thesis at Harvard (children as symbols in Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner’s works, in case you wondered) and what brought O’Brien from a planned career in government into stand-up. Then, we get to read about the stories they tell each other, the memories they share, and their own thoughts on what makes something funny.

The connections between these iconic performers are detailed in reverent tones. Readers can easily see how Mel Brooks and others influenced entire groups of comics, up to and including Will Ferrell and Billy Crystal. Steinberg reflects on his own experiences with the “heavy hitters” of comedy from every generation in the field: Jonathan Winters, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, and Carol Burnett share the stage with Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle, Martin Short, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, and more as Steinberg chronicles his life in relation to all of these figures.

Most of this memoir is in chronological order, with the first chapters introducing us to him as Jewish Canadian. Both of these pieces of his identity are important to him and offer him ways to relate to others, as reflected in his repeated use of the Yiddish term “mensch” to refer to the comedians and comic actors (two different, but closely related, categories of funny people) whom he greatly admires. Steinberg lovingly details how he found his calling after he heard a Lenny Bruce routine and discovered Second City, the improvisational group. It was, in fact, a sketch Steinberg did while part of this group that became John Belushi’s memorable samurai character on Saturday Night Live.

However, the memoir is not always chronological. Neither memory nor Steinberg’s retelling of his life in comedy always follow a consecutive line. In the middle of the chapter about his time on Broadway, he begins digressing. Lily Tomlin and Richard Pryor become the focus of the latter half of the chapter, and Steinberg meanders through his memories of both of them. This is also the subject of the next chapter (titled “The Comedians’ Comedians”). It seems odd to move back and forth across many years in the same chapter as he is describing the two Broadway plays in which he performed. Discussion of Tomlin and Pryor could have easily been moved from the Broadway chapter to the following one.

The following chapter is a “who’s who” that slings readers around enough to give them whiplash, even while the writing is both amusing and thought provoking. Included in this chapter are his stories about the legends Carl Reiner and Robin Williams. While Steinberg humorously retells these stories, the shifts in time from the 1990s to the 1970s to recent events can be disconcerting. The next chapter about the Hillcrest Country Club is...