
Richard Lewis is happier now, but the neuroses lives on
BY THOMAS BOND
Get Out
Richard Lewis hates himself. Still.
Through more than three decades as a stand-up comedian, he's made a living of self-loathing and venting his neuroses to adoring audiences. His recent marriage and a decade of sobriety haven't changed that a bit.
“I have so much clarity now that I despise myself even more!” Lewis says. “With all this clarity, I started to see so many faults that I used to drink to avoid.
“I joked about being a victim of ‘a date from hell’ or ‘a relative from hell,’ but I've realized that I was a date from hell and I was an uncle from hell — I was all of that! I have hours of material that just rape and pillage my personality and I love doing it because it's very cathartic.”
That said, Lewis isn't unhappy — especially in his first marriage.
“I finally don't have to put on an act for a woman ever again,” he says. “When it dawned on me that she is accepting me for all my warts and flaws, as my shrink says to me, ‘This is as good as it gets.’ So I decided to marry the woman who made me feel that way.”
Apart from his stand-up tours, Lewis makes frequent appearances as himself on the critically acclaimed HBO comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — a show starring and helmed by longtime pal Larry David.
“It's a labor of love to work with a childhood friend,” Lewis says. “Although, as children, we hated one another! We had met as teenagers at some sports camp, and I really despised him. He was a jerk, and I was probably a jerk, too.”
The pair crossed paths again as stand-up comedians in the early ’70s.
“We became best friends and we loved each other’s work and one night we were looking at each other and it was like ‘Why do I hate you suddenly?’ It was scary.” Lewis says. “We retraced our childhoods and when we got to Camp All-America — a great sports camp back in the early ’60s — and we realized that he was the (same) Larry David and I was the (same) Richard Lewis, we almost came to blows instinctively. It was a billion-to-one shot!”
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