THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510200066
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
IF THE GUINNESS people kept records of such things, Carl Reiner would be listed under Most Hyphenated Man in Show Business.
Writer-director-producer-actor-author.
And lecturer. The king of comedy appears in his newest role tonight when he kicks off the Tidewater Jewish Forum's 1995-96 season at the Pavilion Theater in Virginia Beach.
But at the moment, Reiner is discussing wiring. Just before he was due on the phone for an interview, one of the living room lamps in his Beverly Hills home blew up. Blam! Just like that.
As an electrician, it's a good thing he's in show business.
``Boy, are we lucky,'' Reiner said. ``The flames shot up about 10 feet. It must've been - I don't know what happened. Old wiring. There was a lot of hysteria going on. But everything's all right.
``Gimme two minutes to go upstairs to a better phone.''
Virginia Beach is one of the first stops on a lecture circuit that has beckoned for years. Until now, though, Reiner had resisted.
``I wasn't too comfortable about going out and making lectures because I don't like being lectured at,'' he said. ``I did a thing at the Museum of Broadcasting about a year ago. They honored me with a thing and so I spoke for an hour.
``But I realized that whenever I speak about what I want to speak about, there are people who want to hear what they want to know about. So I throw open the second half to questions and that becomes the most lively part.''
Expect the same tonight. Reiner will spend the first half of his lecture on a subject dear to fans of vintage comedy. ``I'll just talk about who I am and how I became who I am.''
Time won't allow a discourse. It barely allows a crash course:
He co-starred with Sid Caesar on the pioneering ``Your Show of Shows.''
He created ``The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' the best sitcom ever.
He interviewed ``The 2,000 Year Old Man,'' guter chaver Mel Brooks.
He directed ``All of Me,'' ``The Jerk,'' ``Oh, God!'' and lots of other movies.
He wrote three novels, including last summer's semi-autobiographical, ``Continue Laughing.''
He is the father of Rob Reiner.
He won a dozen Emmys, most recently for a guest shot last season on ``Mad About You.''
``That was sort of a surprise,'' Reiner said. ``I hadn't meant to do any situation comedy. After I did the Van Dyke show I said, `Well, that's it. That's my contribution to situation comedy.' I turned down a lot of chances, you know, to perform as somebody's father, uncle, whatever.''
Paul Reiser, creator and co-star of ``Mad About You,'' made a different pitch. He wanted Alan Brady, the comic Reiner played on ``The Dick Van Dyke Show.''
``I thought the idea was so good I couldn't turn it down,'' he said. ``And look, they awarded me for it. I did it for pleasure and they gave me an award.''
Pleasure is pretty much what continues to drive Carl Reiner at 73.
It's not the mortgage. Following a promo tour for ``Continue Laughing,'' he and his wife of 51 years, jazz vocalist Estelle Reiner, spent the summer at their home in the south of France.
``Keeping alive is a very important thing when you're living,'' he said. ``When you die, you don't have to think about it. One of the things that keeps people alive is the work they do, if the work they do they love doing.
``Now, when we get into show business at an early age, it's not because someone said, `Hey, there's a good place to make a living.' They get into it because they're driven. They have an urge to perform for whatever the reasons, and there are many psychological and neurotic reasons for jumping up and showing themselves off.
``Hold on one second. Someone's bothering on the other line. My wife is singing with her accompanist so I have to answer the phones.''
Timing is everything - in comedy and interviews. Reiner doesn't miss a beat when he gets back on the line.
``So, there's nobody in show business that I know of who doesn't want to be there. And we love that work, and we love to do it as long as they will allow us to do it.
``Now it's a young person's world, so you have to make your own work. You don't wait for someone to call you. Writing a book was one of those things. I've never been a lecturer, so I like this little development in my life.''
Even with that busy schedule - he'll begin work on a movie in the spring - Reiner keeps abreast with the state of situation comedy. As one of its founding fathers, he could hardly do otherwise.
He's a big fan of ``Mad About You'' and ``Friends.'' ``And `Seinfeld' I adore because it makes me laugh.'' But he's not surprised that their success has spawned a rash of imitators.
``Look at all the shows. They're all about unmarried people struggling to find a mate, or they lost a mate because they couldn't get along.''
That isn't necessarily bad. In fact, Reiner sees today's almost-anything-goes rules as a blessing, and not just for the people trying to eke out a living in the business.
``Comedy has always been there,'' he said. ``The more chaos the world gets in, the more the comedians come to the fore and start pointing fingers. Have you ever heard as many jokes about our system of jurisprudence since the O.J. trial?
``We needed court jesters to say, `Hey, you got no clothes on, you're an idiot,' and make it funny. It's ever thus and it will be ever thus.'' MEMO: IN PERSON
Who: Carl Reiner; presented by the Tidewater Jewish Forum
When: Tonight at 8
Where: Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater
Tickets: $22.50; order at 671-8100
Information: 489-1371
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Carl Reiner
Photos from career
by CNB