Go you have it youre gonna make it hes out with a new book. That showcases his jokes illustrated by carl titolo. Reflections from hell is Richard Lewiss guide on how not to live. It focuses a lot on his parents. I had a not a great upbringing. Was an alcoholic and a drug addict for a long time. I was with a lot i was in horrible relationships by my own doing. I wasnt wasnt always their fault i own up to a lotta that. As an actor lewis starred in larry davids curb your enthusiasim. The first met when they were 12. In a a summer camp, sports camp. Hated each other never saw each other till we were comedians. Became inseparable best friends. That ran over a course of almost a decade. Larry came over my house you had asked me. And he said, would you mind playing yourself . And now hes staring in another Television Series called blunt talk. Playing a psychiatrist is really a trip for me cause i been in in and outta therapy and psychiatry for f almost my whole life. I spoke to Richard Lewis in new york. You been sober for 21 years almost 21. Almost 21 years sober. Yes. Youre married. Married ten years, you know, son and have a great career. Its been goin on for 45 years, and all sorts of stuff. Its really been this is like a really great time. Touring, and a new book and a new series i tap y you know youve got all this great stuff goin on youre a household name. So then why in the world do you call your book reflections from hell Richard Lewis guide on how not to live . Life cant be that bad. No, its not really well i had a not a great upbringing. Was an alcoholic and a drug addict for a long time. I was with a lot i was in horrible relationships by my own doing. I wasnt wasnt always their fault i own up to a lotta that. Made a lot of amends to people. But so that was my sweet spot in comedy. My my father died before i was a comedian. My brother was ol that point i was really young. I was a mistake, there was no doubt in my mind. I w when i was born, my parents my father looked like moses and my mother was already doing she was already in a Eugene Oneill play, going down. My sister eloped when i when was 12. laugh and my brother was reading you know Allen Ginsburg poems in the village, and im there alone with my poor mother. It was like a combination of long days journey into night and odd couple. And you write a lot about your family so thats why my needs this book. Here but the real right to the nitty gritty cha Carl Nicholas titolo is an artist i met 35 years ago through an old buddy. And i was blown away by this guy. And hes a legendary professor at the school of visual arts in new york for 40 years. But his his art style was very close to my riffing free associating. And i always wanted to collaborate with him but didnt know how. And then about two years ago i came up with an idea actually, look, i have some thoughts. Theyre not jokes. Some of them may be jokes, but n i didnt care about them i ca any thought, and ill call you with five and six he goes i got i like this one goodbye. And then he would do an image and as it turned out, there have been several collaborations like this. Not to be grandiose, but Edgar Allan Poe did the raven and manet illustrated it on each page but, you know, b but how bout a comedians jokes being illustrated. Is that original . Has anybody ever done that . Probably not. I think its really authentic, and for me i been you know if i dont ive had i i when i grew up i had idols, you know when in the arts. The arts saved my life when i was a kid. The family was really dysfunctional. And and so if i saw a movie as a kid and i couldnt believe how great it was, i maybe i didnt understand the art form. Like lets say i when i was 12 or i saw dr. Strangelove. I would sit after the movie was over maybe i didnt i obviously didnt get the total understanding of of the the the russians and this, and the cold war and all. But i knew i saw something so spectacular that in my head Something Like that, a bar was set. But then i got older and i went to college, and i saw the and then the new wave of films came in, with with truffaut and godard. And then i saw cassavetes movies, and then i would listen to miles davis and hendrix. Then i heard lenny bruce and and then became friends and saw Richard Pryor. I went these this these bars, and thats just its just, you know one a few names. I said, if i ever go on stage, and i did it about a month or two after my dad died i said i have to reach for th i have to unravel myself on stage as fearlessly as possible, and see if i get laughs. Because i really did feel pretty much like a chagall painting you know but i was sort of tethered to nothing. Because they were i really didnt have much of a family life. So the audience became my family well, and all that led to what at times was crippling depression you had Serious Problems with addiction. Wha what do you tell people who think, heres a guy who had s all sorts of successful sitcoms, movies books, and all this and they say h they cant understand i know. How somebody like you coulda gone through that. I dunno even know what i know what success means, okay . I get it. And ive learned it ive earned it. I i nothing mattered more to me than be than finding myself on stage and becoming authentic. And i was broke for a long time. But i was still felt like a million bucks, broke, living in horrible places, come going into a club and seeing these famous comedians come over to me, go they you have it laugh youre gonna make it. But you gotta work your ass off. You cant you gotta do this 24 7. These were the the greats telling me this. Has anxiety always been kind of the fuel to your comedy . Youve been dubbed the prince of pain, and you a and in the book you know you you describe yourself as the best sparring partner i can have. So does beating yourself up defuse the anxiety, or does it actually make it better . Thats a great question. God, i havent seen my therapist in quite a while, laugh just reminded me. I am not as unhappy as people think i am. But my sweet spot, and theres and one of the lines is that desperation is my sweet spot. Thats a craft that i honed. And even though i got so i got even though i got sober, i got more grateful, i got more spiritual in my old in my later years. Still, when i hear, ladies and gentlemen, Richard Lewis, and my goal is to make people laugh. First of all im not entirely not depressed a lot of the time, either by the w lemme just i dont wanna paint this rosy picture. But its much rosier than being near death on crystal meth lets put it that way. But you write in the book youve got one that says happiness is overrated. Theres nothing to fear but life itself. Well, because life has dealt me a lotta bad blows. Nothing close to majority of the world. And what bugs me is that when people say, hey hey, you hang out with the stones. Or yeah you were you know i used to work for the clintons a lot when he was running, and and gore and youre in the white house, and how can you be t i go hey hey hey time out man. You know i suffer from depression. I have obsessivecompulsive disorder. I work my butt off you know for the i i have no children so its all th my art, until i met my wife. And then it was takin care of her. And my sister has four kids, ten grandchildren, two greatgrandchildren, and i try to be some kinda role model. laugh sort of frightening i understand. Does she let them watch you . Huh . Well, not until theyre 30. laughter you know talkin about your family your your your good friend larry david he says that you use shrink as much as teenagers use like. And yeah, i know. So pardon me for acting like a shrink, but lets talk about your family. I mean, you really go after your parents in this book especially your mom i know. And you write the worst audience i ever had were my parents. My mother tried to switch me at birth. Yeah. After i was born my mother asked her friends to breastfeed laugh me. How much of a role did your mom play in in your dark years . Well, what do you think . laugh listen, i heres the deal. I made amends with my mother when she my mother was very ill she had a lot of emotional problems in her late 30s on, and until she got old. And i tried my best to understand it. But again, realize, back you know when she was having her problems i was an active addict. So, you know i couldnt have been easy either. So i mean, when she really lost it at the end. My sister made my older i have an older sister and an older brother. She was with her and made sure she would get the best care, and so did i. And all of us tried to do what we could do. And i remember something when she was in the hospital, and she was near death. And she really f didnt know who she was at that point. I and i grabbed onto her. And i said, look, i was far from perfect. Neither one of us were. But i love you and and and please forgive anything i did. And if you and if you can cause i forgive you for everything. I mean i did, and i do. Whats the p i didnt ho i dont hold onto it. And i said just squeeze me. And you have to understand, this is at a point where she was insane basically. And she grabbed my hand and squeezed it, and ill tap you know, ill always remember that. But that doesnt mean that i cant mine those feelings, because we did have a pretty tough relationship. And i and im no comic if im not tellin the truth. Comedian, rather. I prefer that word. And one of the truths you like to tell is describing things as being from hell. And yes, which is now literally n c yes, and i was gonna say, one of the funniest headlines i have ever read was something fro that said, Yale University gives Richard Lewis hell laugh i know. Thats laugh yeah. And what it was referring to is the fact that the yale book of quotations gave you credit for that phrase. Anything being from hell is now well well, listen you are the the author of it. Listen. Its in light of the fact that the worlds gone in has been insane forever, anyway. I mean, its just now were now were living now and we see whats going on. It means very little to me except in a very small swath of of humanity in my life, i popularized a phrase back in the 70s and 80s, when i did about 50 or 60 David Letterman shows. And ev and i and i chose that metaphor, like and i was probably yes, i was an active alcoholic, so i never took responsibility for my actions. So it was like, oh, i just came from a wedding from hell, or a Family Reunion from hell. cause i always felt like, im the victim. So i used that all the time. And it was then but then i got bummed out because i saw in ads like in movie ads, boss from hell. I said this is this is startin to bug me cause theyre startin to market it. And and i know i popularized it so i tried to get to this bartletts quotations cause bartlett sic said no to you. Said no to me. This editor said nah im sorry, my my nieces he was he was probably 60s at the time he says, my nieces just came back from college after their semester and they said, oh, it was a semester from hell. i went, oh, no kidding. They said that . They then they must you know you mean they werent watching letterman latenight shows in college back in the 80s and is in the nine you know. So i finally couldnt take it anymore, and outta the blue yale saved the day and and youve been immortalized as and bartletts being from hell. laugh yeah. Its the lunch from hell what . What did you say . Im saying, this is the lunch from hell. Where did you hear rhat expression . Girlfriend . You see what i mean . Kills me. Richard lewis and larry david are now the best of friends, but it it wasnt always that way. More on their bromance ahead on talk to al jazeera. The new Al Jazeera America primetime. Get the real news youve been looking for. At 7 00, a thorough wrapup of the days events. Then at 8 00, John Seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. And at 9 00, get a global perspective on the news. Weeknights on Al Jazeera America. Putting loved ones in a nursing home. Hoping for the best. My father died because of the neglect. Are they betraying your trust . Its a forprofit business. Im antonio morra youre watching talk to al jazeera my guest this week is comedian Richard Lewis. Whos whos your favorite comedian of all time . Well, theres theres two. Lenny bruce, for what he did for the First Amendment and his body of his work but perhaps the greatest standup comedian other than, i think, lenny and maybe the arguably the greatest standup comedian, is Richard Pryor. Because Richard Pryor had so many tools. So Richard Pryor, to me, is the greatest individual standup of all time. And and lenny bruce, the most important. You became successful pretty early. You started goin i was on the tonight show i was on with carson in two almost two and a half years, and thats not thats pretty fast. And i had a lotta breaks too. I had letterman gave me he came over to me, and he says, you know, youre youre good with johnny. Some nights are better than others. But when you do standup, the cameras right there. And if i was and i w im real f kinetic, and no, i what did you ask me . laugh w you were talkin about it was so prof oh yeah well letterman says, oh yes, he did exactly. Hes called me in in 81, before his late night show for and he said, you can come on as often as you want in fact, you can write for the show if you wanna move back to new york. I went no. I just had moved to l. A. Five years or so before. And i said but he says dont do standup anymore, on tv. I mean specials is one thing, and concerts and everything, you know. But he says, when you come on my show, he tells me youre just gonna sit. And he set a precedent for me which i never broke. I have never done standup on television. So, like when new shows come out and they say, oh, we we want do five six i says, no, no. What what is this open mic night . You know b been doin it 45 years. It doesnt happen often. Ooh i finally got black kswiss thats a whole other story. Anyways. So youre goofy. Im g. Yeah. You from one little thing from to another then you Start Talking about your shoes. Which by the way. I know you mreant that in yiddish goofy means quite a man. What do you think after all those years of being on letterman, and how important he was to your career the fact that hes decided to hang it up . Well, i mean that was his decision. We were never close friends, i was just lucky that he was a fan. How important was he to you and to other comedians . He was the most important show to be on so then i, you know auditioned for a show after letterman sort of made me somewhat of a known, you know comedian. More than that after eight or ten years and 50 or 60 shots. And i auditioned for a sitcom and i got the role opposite, you know jamie lee curtis. And, you know, me being you know her l her lover, ultimately was you know i got ridiculed by j i would say over 100,000 cabbies laugh in america. And before we had television sex, they used to the cabs in new york go, hey why dont you sleep with her . laugh its jamie lee curtis. I went its a sitcom you moron. Im not the writer. But then i used to get paranoid and i used to fax and email. Not email it was then fax. When do when do i sleep with ms. Curtis . This is im g i cant take it. Im Walking Around in disguises all over america. laugh so that was great. And so now youre back in the sitcom world as you were saying. Well, then larry well then i then, larry david well then you did of course you did curb your enthusiasm yeah, and that lasted that ra ran over the course of almost a decade. And i cou and larry came over my house you had asked me. And he said, would you mind playing yourself . I because he knew that i i did a scene in leaving las vegas. And i did i played a junkie in this indie which i really love called drunks. And and i like doing se some serious stuff. I mean it was fun bein being in a mel brooks and stuff but i enjoy doing other stuff. So what did larry tell you . Larry says, i know does cause it do its i was typecast plenty by then, not getting oh, that Richard Lewis hes oh, hes. So you might as well just play yourself, was larrys yeah, well well he didnt say that but i had to make the de first of all to turn down larry david would have been a huge career at at 49 i was 50. I said, you know who gets this opportunity . And who knew it would be such a cult hit . So i said, im in. But i made but i m you know, we were born in the same hospital. I had the right to ask him for anything i wanted, and we had others laugh other weird mystical things happen in our life. Met when teenagers hated one another, didnt know each other till we were comics, and then we i recognized him. I went youre that bleep . laugh youre that ass . You became friends and then you realized he was the the guy i we were enemies in a c from from camp. In a day camp. In a a summer camp, sports camp. Hated each other never saw each other till we were comedians. Became inseparable best friends. I must have put a few back i went, it was like, you look like rosemarys baby to me. laugh like, half a sheep, half a comic. Whatever i say i was drunk. And he gets nervous hes he wasnt a drinker or a drug guy. And and then and i we realized that we were the same two kids. Not to mention born in the same hospital, and i had to stay around cause i was a a premie. So he was born three days later but i was still there, going, come on. laugh hurry up. You know laugh wha what can i be . I dont wanna live with a caterpillar. laugh so things worked out, fortunately. But he was mocking me then, he tried to strangle me with my mothers umbilical cord. We fought we still fight we still fight. But he said, do you wanna play yourself . I went yes. With you ill do anything. And thank god i did. Because the show did it did s was such a b groundbreaking sitcom. Im im a fan of the show. I think its the funniest thing thats ever been on television personally. But y w did it change the way people perceived you, the fact that you were playing yourself . Well i i was more narcissistic on that show than i am, believe it or not, laugh because they they were thats the kinda characters that they were. And sometimes i was a little uncomfortable, and they would make me go a little deeper into my into ego. Like, you know you know but some of them it was so hilarious i an hes has such great instincts, i said you know what . Let it go. You know let me just b