The David Steinberg Show

On this day in 1974 (50 years ago today), Canadian comedian David Steinberg (b. 1942) got an excellent 32nd birthday present — Richard Nixon resigned. Despite having been inspired to become a comedian by the example of Lenny Bruce, and despite having come up in an age of political comedy, Steinberg wasn’t a political comedian himself (though he did have a bit on one of his records about Nixon’s face resembling a human foot). But he was considered edgy enough at the time to have contributed to the cancellation of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. His original schtick was improvising parodies of Rabbinical sermons, which rested on the two pillars of his existence until then: his father was a rabbi and he has gotten his performing start at Second City in Chicago.

When I was a kid in the early ’70s, Steinberg was one of the hottest comedians in the country. He was, for example, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson over 140 times, second only to Bob Hope, and guest hosted over a dozen times. He is extremely charming and good looking and likeable. He possesses a certain quality of reserve and bookishness, not unlike what one found in Dick Cavett and David Frost. That was in, at the moment. Tony Randall revealed that when Steinberg was on The Odd Couple, he had to help out with things to do to make an impression. But he was young and came across as smart and hip, and sort of mildly offbeat. He had an infectious smile. In the early years he made a complete sweep of all the talk and variety shows. In addition to Carson and The Smothers Brothers, he did The Ed Sullivan Show,The Dean Martin Show, This is Tom Jones, Playboy After Dark, Flip, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour,Hollywood Squares, Mike Douglas, Merv, etc.

From 1969 to 1970 Steinberg guest hosted 14 editions of a show called Music Scene. One of his guests was Groucho Marx, who became a personal friend during those years (see great Vanity Piece here). At his peak, Steinberg hosted a summer replacement sketch show called The David Steinberg Show in 1972. Better remembered is his second show by that name, produced in Canada in 1975, for his supporting cast included Bill Saluga and SCTV cast members Joe Flaherty,Dave Thomas, John Candy, and Martin Short. The show had a playful “show within a show” format not unlike the sitcoms of Jack Benny,George Burns and Gracie Allen, Garry Shandling’s two sit-coms and 30 Rock.

Steinberg also had a minor career in an actor. On Broadway he was in the original production of Jules Feiffer’s Little Murders(1967) and the Sidney Poitier-directed Morningside Heights (1968). He had small roles in the movies Fearless Frank (1967), The Lost Man (1968), The End (1978) and Nothing Personal (1980), and actually co-starred with Susan Sarandon in Nothing Short of Paradise (1979).

Looking for new challenges (and regained career momentum, no doubt), in the ’80s Steinberg reinvented himself as a director, starting with the Burt Reynolds comedy Paternity (1981) and Going Berzerk (1983) with John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy. Then he moved into television, directing episodes of such major shows as Newhart,Designing Women,Seinfeld,Mad About You, Friends, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and dozens of others. From 2012-2015 he produced and hosted Inside Comedy on Showtime, where he interviewed dozens of top comedians, past and present, over the course of four seasons.

Steinberg’s still in the biz! See his official web site here.

For more about variety entertainmentconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.