Most Popular
-
Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
-
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
-
Houston St. Patrick's Day Guide
Our guide to going green for St. Paddy's
-
Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
-
Live-Action Role-Players Get Boffed in Amtgard
Amid flailing swords and flying shields, these modern-day knights fight on
-
Barack Obama and Me (255)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
-
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (24)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
-
Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (7)
All This Useless Beauty
-
What's the Problem Houston? (5)
The city's skuzzy alt-rock scene thinks it is dying
-
Live-Action Role-Players Get Boffed in Amtgard (5)
Amid flailing swords and flying shields, these modern-day knights fight on
-
Lisa Lampanelli
-
Lisa Landolt and Jo Barrett
Two law-school-grads-turned-chick-lit-authors show us amore might be the death of us yet
-
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Parade
Watch downtown turn into cowpoke heaven
-
Free First Sundays: Family Flicks
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston hosts four kid-friendly films
-
One for Doc Concert
HSPVA grads say thanks to Director of Jazz Studies Emeritus Dr. Robert Morgan
-
Secret Crimes of the Characters from “Gilligan’s Island”
06:24AM 03/18/08 -
Monotonix Rules South By Southwest 2008
12:45PM 03/17/08 -
John Royal’s NCAA Picks
05:01PM 03/17/08 -
Bushmills 1608 for St. Paddy’s Day
06:06AM 03/17/08
What we are writing about
- American Gangster
- Amy Sillman: Suitors...
- birth defects
- Bob Dylan
- Christmas Tree-O
- Continental Club
- Houston art
- Houston local music
- Houston music stores
- Houston Rockets
- Houston theater
- I'm Not There
- illegal immigrants
- Main Street Theater
- McGonigel's Mucky Duck
- Meridian
- Perspectives 158:...
- players' scoring averages
- Proletariat
- Rudyard's
- Rumors
- Sig's Lagoon
- Somerville
- Sound Exchange
- toxic industrial...
- Toyota Center
- Turkeys of the Year
- Verizon Wireless Theater
- Warehouse Live
- Wii
Recent Articles By Edith Sorenson
-
Cinema Dog Daze
Films fuel the fads for special pets -- then comes the fallout
-
Southern Specialty
You can take TV chef Tanya Holland out of the South, but you can't take the South out of her
-
Poison
Friday, May 31
-
Furniture for Dummies
The Funiture Guys espouse their unusual theory about DIY projects at the Houston House Beautiful Show
-
Air Sic
In cargo holds or plane cabins, critters are taking more than flights of fancy
National Features
-
Phoenix New Times
Canine Crusaders
That drug-sniffing dog up ahead? He may not be your best friend.
By Ray Stern -
Broward-Palm Beach New Times
The Muscle Men
Thanks to a string of Florida "anti-aging clinics," baseball's steroid scandal isn't limited to superstars.
By Michael J. Mooney -
Miami New Times
Picked On
Farm workers earn nada in America's green-bean capital.
By Janine Zeitlin -
Village Voice
"Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal"
An election-season essay from one of America's greatest playwrights.
By David Mamet
Honestly Neurotic
Go see Richard Lewis, even if you haven't forgiven him for doing Wagons East!
By Edith Sorenson
Published: February 22, 2001From an ordinary sap, any mention of intemperance might come off as crude, possibly even mean-spirited. Yet a rare talent such as Richard Lewis can zero in on this uncomfortable, unpleasant subject and somehow make us feel a little better about our own greasy, frantic lives.
-
Richard Lewis
Where:
Details:
8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Saturday, February 24
8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
(713)524-2333
Subject(s): Richard Lewis
Lewis still wears the same '70s hairstyle he sported as a guest on the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, though more hair products seem to be required to keep the dwindling layers in proper poof. He has done what comics have to do: endless turns in front of those ubiquitous brick walls on cable comedy shows; a lame but well-meaning sitcom (Anything But Love); an indie movie that banked on the misguided notion of what being a victim, and what being noble, means (Drunks). Now he's back to doing what comics should do: presenting genuine insights about our wretched lives.
Surprisingly, the man who has appeared hundreds of times on Letterman as the self-doubting neurotic -- the guy, in fact, who introduced the modifier "from hell" into common parlance -- doesn't think he's been shooting straight with his fans. "After nearly 25 fun-loving, excruciating years of devoting myself solely to expressing my innermost feelings publicly for laughs, attention and a living," Lewis says, "it suddenly dawned on me that not only wasn't I being as honest with my audiences as I thought I was, but much more importantly, I wasn't honest with myself, and was soon spiraling out of control as a raging alcoholic."
Though his comedy may not be appreciably better or worse for his recovery, Lewis's personal life is much improved, and he now has a second career as an author. His memoir, The Other Great Depression: How I'm Overcoming on a Daily Basis at Least a Million Addictions and Dysfunctions and Finding a Spiritual (Sometimes) Life, was released last Christmas. So now we can get a little empathy for our insecurities in book form.
