Member Review

If you're my age and can remember that there was a longtime host of "The Tonight Show" even before Jay Leno, then there's a pretty good chance that you're familiar with the comedy of David Steinberg.

Steinberg was a "The Tonight Show" regular having been on the show 140 times, second only to Bob Hope, and has been referred to by The New York Times as a "comic institution." He's more present in your life than you've likely ever realized having successfully segued into television directing with such series as "Mad About You," "Seinfeld," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Friends," and "Weeds."

A Canadian rabbi's son, Steinberg enrolled at Hebrew Theological College at age 15 and the master's program in English Lit at University of Chicago four years later.

Then, he saw Lenny Bruce (I'm jealous) perform live and his comedy life was chosen.

"Inside Comedy" is not, however, your usual comedian's memoir but instead a journey through the comedy and comedians of Steinberg's time. We're talking the last five decades of comedy, the years of comedy classics like Sid Caesar, Lucille Ball, George Burns, and Mel Brooks to comedy icons like Lenny Bruce and and Bob Newhart to folks like Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, and contemporary legends like Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, and Dave Chappelle among many others.

Steinberg shares personal stories, testimonies, conversations, interviews, opinions, random thoughts, and tidbits both familiar and seemingly fresh.

"Inside Comedy" often feels like an interview with Steinberg himself, practically as if we're on "The Tonight Show" couch together, as he reminisces and tells his tales of directing, touring, directing, and actually interviews many of comedy's most legendary names. At times, the list of names is so overwhelming that you have to stop to soak it in while you also stop to wonder about some of those popular names of this generation whose names aren't between these pages.

The same quality that makes "Inside Comedy" so engaging can occasionally make it maddening. Steinberg squeezes in so many stories and anecdotes that some big names get only surface treatment while other big names get several pages and obvious adoration.

For the most part "Inside Comedy" avoids anything resembling controversy. This is truly a book of adoration and snark is rare. Instead, "Inside Comedy" invites us into a world where the best understand what it takes to become and maintain being the best.

It can't be overly stated that a good majority of "Inside Comedy" feels like a conversation and even a monologue, at times exhaustingly so. Most evenings as I sat down to read, I did so 15-20% of the book of the time because that was simply all my already tired mind could integrate as Steinberg easily and quickly transitions from story to story and anecdote to anecdote with nary a narrative transition to be found. "Inside Comedy" reads like what it must feel like to live in Steinberg's head after 50+ years in the comedy world.

There are times in "Inside Comedy" when you feel like you're getting a special glimpse inside the soul, wit, and bite of comedy and comedians of the last five decades. There are other times when, well, not so much. There are some familiar stories here and some anecdotes that feel like casual banter interesting primarily to the person sharing them. However, Steinberg so enthusiastically shares it all that you can't help but be energized by them all.

Never less than entertaining, "Inside Comedy" reads like you've sat down with Steinberg on "The Tonight Show" couch and he's sharing his stories from a lifetime of making Americans, and Canadians, laugh. It's an endlessly fascinating world and "Inside Comedy" is a fascinating literary work from David Steinberg.