Speaking of old comedians: Jerry Lewis will be 88 on March 16. On March 15, he's doing two shows at the La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts here in Southern California. Tickets are still available here.
I'm not going for two reasons. One is that I have tickets to see Lewis Black that evening in Beverly Hills…and while I could conceivably catch Jerry's matinee in La Mirada and make it to Mr. Black's show in time, I fear the whiplash between the two Lewises' approaches to comedy, experienced on the same day, could be lethal.
Also, I've seen Jerry live about a half-dozen times and he doesn't make me laugh anymore. He just makes me uncomfortable. I respect the accomplishments and there's something admirable about him still performing at his age. It's great that people who love him and his work will be able to go and applaud him and forever say, "I saw Jerry in person." All well and good. But it's like being around Mickey Rooney. He rambles and he gets his own history all wrong and he lashes out at the darnedest people for the darnedest reasons and sometimes, it's like watching an exposed raw nerve, waiting for someone to touch it and…
Well, I've stopped finding it interesting or amusing. If you love the guy and you're anywhere near La Mirada, by all means go. That's a great theater, by the way, even if the traffic between there and L.A. can sometimes get a bit gnarly. I guess that's a third reason I don't want to try and make a double feature that day. And if you go, let me know if he wedges a drinking glass into his mouth and/or does the typewriter bit. Who would have thought that routine would outlive the typewriter?