I found this book to be just fascinating. David Steinberg knows comedy. He was one of Johnny Carson's favorite guests, appearing 140 times with the king of late night. He had a chapter on The Tonight Show and gave Carson the highest praise as a brilliant comic who gave Steinberg his big break. He offers his thoughts on the giants of comedy, dating back to Lenny Bruce in the 1960s, and going up to today. David talked about working with some of the biggest names in TV comedy while directing shows like The Golden Girls, Seinfeld, Designing Women, Friends, Mad About You and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He discussed the phenomenon of comedians morphing into serious actors while discussing people such as Steve Martin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Whoopi Goldberg, Will Ferrell, Chris Rock and many more. I listened to this book via Audible, and his final chapter on comedians as actors was five hours in length, but excellent and thought provoking none the less. I think the most obvious example of a talented comic becoming a versatile actor is Robin Williams. We all knew Robin was an inventive comic with a non-stop mind for improvisation. But, look at his work in serious roles like Good Will Hunting, What Dreams May Come, One Hour Photo, Insomnia and Dead Poets Society. He had some brilliant dramatic performances. Williams was friends with Christopher Reeve at the Julliard School of Drama in New York City. Anyone who is a fan of comedy needs to check out this excellent book where Steinberg demonstrates his wealth of knowledge in the subject. The picture above shows three funny guys, from left: Martin Short, Larry David and David Steinberg.
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