Jeffrey Gurian Remembers Richard Belzer and Rick Newman
There’s a tendency when you know someone to think that they’ll be there forever. It’s shocking when they’re suddenly not! In the last two days we lost two icons of the comedy world Richard Belzer and Rick Newman, both friends of mine for more than four decades. So this is a dual tribute to two guys who did lots of things together, including writing the book “How To Be A Stand-Up Comic.”
First a little comedy history. There was a small group of men who shaped the world of comedy back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Budd Friedman opened The Improv, the world’s first comedy club in 1963. It was on 44th Street in Times Square. As Budd himself told me for the first couple of years it wasn’t strictly comedy. It was a hangout for singers, Broadway stars who just got off stage, and comedians like Billy Crystal, Robert Klein and David Brenner.
Danny Aiello was the bouncer. After a couple of years Budd noticed that more people were coming for the comedy than the singing and the world’s first club dedicated only to comedy was born.
Rodney Dangerfield and his partner Tony Bevacqua opened Dangerfields in 1969, and it wasn’t until 1972 when a handsome guy with a big “Jew-fro” and thick moustache named Rick Newman opened Catch A Rising Star on 1st Avenue and 77th Street.
Then in 1976 Richie Tienken joined the scene by opening The Comic Strip just blocks away from Catch. RIchie often told me that rather than look at each other as competitors, he and Rick would help each other out sending comics to each other if someone on the line-up didn’t show up.
When Rick opened Catch, Louis Faranda from Carolines was the bartender, Richard Belzer was his MC, and from then on every venue that Rick opened, he would always have Belzer open the club for him. It was their tradition.
I recall when Rick moved the 1st avenue club to West 28th Street and had the grand opening he and Belzer were sitting in what I recall as a raised balcony of some kind, like a throne, and were greeting people together as they arrived. As of the writing of this column, they’re all gone, every one of them, and comedy will never be the same.
The comics from what is known as The Golden Age of Comedy all lived well into their 90’s. Milton Berle who was my sponsor in the Friars Club was 93, Henny Youngman was 91, Jerry Lewis was 91, Sid Caesar was 92, Marty Allen was 95, Don Rickles was 90, George Burns and Bob Hope made it to 100, and Prof. Irwin Corey made it to 102. Laughter was supposed to lead to longevity. So what happened?
In the last couple of years or so we lost Norm Macdonald, Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, and Louie Anderson, none of them even close to 90. Belzer was only 78.
Remembering Richard Belzer
I first met The Belz back in the 70’s when he was guest hosting SNL. Comedy manager David Jonas who was repping Alan Zweibel and Freddie Prinze at the time arranged for me to attend with his daughter. In those days there were assigned seats, and when I got there Arnold Schwarzenegger was sitting in my seat and I had to ask him to move! I did that very politely I might add! He looked like a building with clothing!
He was so gracious, he apologized sincerely and moved. I think I even told him that if anyone ever bothered him to let me know! I like doing that to really huge guys! I even did it to the head of the Hells Angels who had a great sense of humor.
Arnold and I exchanged information and I wound up writing jokes for him for an appearance on Mike Douglas when he was promoting “Pumping Iron.”
After the show we went backstage and I recall that Candice Bergen was there. Belzer and I became friendly and I eventually started writing jokes for him for the legendary Friars Roasts.
Around 1987 we started something that became a tradition over the next 25 years. We took a picture of me Belz and Paul Shaffer who I had also met back in the 70’s through the famous jingle writer David Lucas. Belzer stood in the middle flanked by me and Paul.
About 5 years later, in 1992, I brought that photo with me, we stood in the same order and took the second photo in the series, now a 2 in 1 photo.
About 10 years after that, around 2002, I brought that 2 in 1 photo, we stood in the same order and got #3, now a 3 in 1 photo! We were pretty sure it couldn’t get any smaller!
But ten years later at The Friars Club around 2012 we decided to try again anyway and managed to get the 4th in the series.
Either Belz or Shaffer called out to me, “Hey Jeff, did you bring the photo?” and I was like “Of course “, so we stood in the same order and got the 4th photo in the series, now forever to be the last! A 4 in 1 photo. It’s a classic. The Friars told me they were going to hang it on their hallowed walls, but I don’t think they ever did.
I think it was at that book signing when it was time for Belz to sign my book, and all he wrote was his name. Like I was a stranger. Just his freakin’ name! I was very offended and told him so. I was like, “ After all these years we’re friends and that’s all you can think of to write to me is your name?”
He snatched the book out of my hands and when he handed it back to me it said, “From your best friend in the world, Richard Belzer.” And he said, “ There is that better?”
Another quick Belzer story. One night I’m home, he calls and says he’s on his way over to my house with Michael Keaton, the star of Beetlejuice, a movie I absolutely loved. He wanted to know if it was ok to stop by. I was thrilled and said “Of course.” I’m still waiting. He never got there and neither did Michael Keaton. To this day I have no idea why and now I will never find out.
When Hulk Hogan dropped him on his head on live TV after putting him in a sleeper hold, relegating him unconscious and then dropping him on the floor and cracking his head open, the money he got from the lawsuit enabled him to buy what he described to me as a “chateau” in France which is where he passed away.
He had a running gag with me that whenever we ran into each other he’d suddenly develop a Jewish accent and say “ Doctor is that YOU?” Well he did it once very loud as I stepped into an elevator at JFL in Montreal packed with comedy executives, and everyone wondered what the heck he was talking about.
In 1992 Belzer starred in a short film I wrote for Playboy TV called “The Bar Channel”. I was hired to write a series of futuristic comedies. One of the other films starred Gilbert Gottfried. I always called on my friends to be in my projects.
The concept was the most futuristic thing we could think of, “ Video Dating” where you would meet girls over a video screen. The World Wide Web didn’t become public till 1994. There were no smart phones, no ipads, no nothing. They had knee pads not ipads! ( Sorry!)
This was two years before any of that. Belzer played two parts, a rich, obnoxious guy and a street guy, a real “greaser” as they used to call them. He’s trying to pick up this girl in a bar. The girl was played by Phoebe Legere. Both Belzer characters are talking to her on video monitors. They get into an argument with each other and a bouncer comes along, grabs the two TV’s and throws them out of the bar. It’s on my Comedy Matters TV You Tube channel if you want to see it.
Remembering Rick Newman
My first official interview with Rick Newman was at Columbus Café around 1985 where we both hung out. Columbus was the biggest celeb hangout that Manhattan ever had. On any given night you’d find Danny Aiello, Mike Tyson, Bruce Willis, Paul Sorvino, Christopher Reeve, Peter Max, Regis Philbin, Stallone if he was in town and lots more. It’s where I met all those guys and even David Bowie, but that’s another story.
I remember Rick and I sitting in a booth during the afternoon so I could interview him and I don’t even remember what it was for. We stayed in touch over the years and he always invited me to anything he was doing that was important.
In 2008 when I started working on the book “Make ‘Em Laugh” about the history of The Comic Strip, that Chris Rock wrote the intro for, I contacted Rick and asked him to be in the book. I told Richie I wanted to do that and he was fine with it. I arranged for Rick to come to The Strip to sit with me and Richie, and it was one of the most special events of my comedy life.
They hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and now they both had white hair and Richie was able to tell Rick to his face that he had been his idol and his inspiration, because Richie got the idea to open The Strip by seeing the success of Catch. I’m not sure that Rick ever knew that. He was very grateful. They hugged and I got the photo of them together. Very special memories of both of them.
In 2014 when I was a regular guest on Ron and Fez, I brought Rick to meet the boys on the Ron and Fez Show on Sirius XM. That was an awesome day and he became a friend of the show. He also called in during a tribute to David Brenner.
As a guest in Rick’s home he had such a great collection of photos to rival my own and he gave me a copy of him and Jay Leno when Jay received the Mark Twain Award at The Kennedy Center in 2014.
I can’t believe that Rick and Belz left us a day or so apart. That’s crazy!
I guess Rick’s opening a new club in Heaven and needed Belz to open it for him! It’s just too insane to wrap your mind around. I’m sure they’re together again making angels laugh!
R.I. P. guys. You both changed the game for sure!
My sincere condolences to both Harlee McBride and Krystine Newman and their respective families!
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