by dan pine
staff writer
The older Robert Klein gets, the more Jewish he gets. “I say ‘oy’ involuntarily a lot,” notes the New York-based comedian. “A Yankee swings at a bad pitch, I say, ‘Oy!’”
At 65, Klein has finally edged into “gray eminence” status among American comics. Though he may serve up his share of “oy vays” like an old man sending back soup in a deli, there’s nothing aged about Klein’s trenchant –– and hilarious –– observations about life, love and Jews … always Jews.
Klein will perform at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on Saturday, April 28.
“I’ve always been a high profile Jew,” says Klein by phone from his Manhattan apartment. “I always talked about the Jewish experience the way Richard Pryor talked about the black experience. I believe I can make an intelligent 9-year-old child laugh, but I prefer to raise the level of the argument, without talking past people.”
Since the late 1960s, Klein has done double duty as both an actor and comic. The Bronx native trained at both Yale University’s esteemed drama department and with Chicago’s Second City improv ensemble. His credits include lead roles on Broadway –– he starred in the original production of Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosenzweig” –– as well as the nation’s comedy club circuit.
Along with comic geniuses such as Pryor and George Carlin, Klein has often been credited with introducing a smarter, hipper, more politically barbed brand of humor.
That led to early appearances on a fledgling show called “Saturday Night Live” (he was in the first “Cheeseburger, cheeseburger” sketch with John Belushi) and he was one of the first comedians to host a special on the then-new cable network, HBO.
Klein admits, though, that one of the most searing experiences of his life came much earlier, while attending Alfred University in upstate New York. There he faced overt anti-Semitism for the first time, and he never forgot it.
“I’m still quite embittered,” he says. “New York is a very diverse state, and there are some Mississippi types.”
Yet some of his best routines were born out of the experience. One classic bit recalled his starring role as Shylock in a campus production of “Merchant of Venice,” movingly reciting the lines “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions,” and the anti-Semitic audience heckling, “No! Jew, Jew, Jew!”
In 2005, Klein published an autobiography, “The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue,” recounting his early experiences, including those challenging college days. It was well received but, laments Klein, “America dumbed down just when I chose to write a book. Journalism is so awful and frivolous. The anchors look great but the writing is so error prone.”
He also has a few bones to pick with the direction of stand-up comedy. “I’m not for any kind of censorship,” he says, “but I do decry some of the vulgarity and cruelty. Constant vulgarity is akin to lack of civility. I got a mixed review in the New York Times, accusing me of not cursing.”
Not that he’s a saint or paints himself as such. As his autobiography shows, Klein has his share of flaws, and he still admits to anger issues. In his marriage, which ended in a messy divorce, Klein recalls a moment of violence. “I threw a cup of rice pudding,” he says, “and started to clean it up in the same motion.”
He may have reached Medicare status, but Klein remains very busy writing, acting and touring the country with his stand-up comedy. He says he’s excited about returning to San Francisco, a city he first played in 1967 at the famed hungry i. The upcoming JCC show is stirring up memories for the comedian.
“I thought of the flower children going to San Francisco,” he remembers of that first visit. “Then I saw a pimp beating up one of his girls, and I thought, ‘Maybe San Francisco is more like New York than I thought.’”
Robert Klein performs 8 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at the JCC of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. Tickets: $50-$55. Information: (415) 292-1233.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California