David Steinberg Just Wants To Talk Comedy

The Director-Comedian's Interview Show On TV Land Boasts Big Name Guests

(CBS)  Steinberg kept getting laughs with a string of TV shows in the '70s. "The David Steinberg Show" in Canada helped launch the careers of a new generation of funny men like John Candy and Martin Short. But the funny man who looms largest in his career and life is the late Johnny Carson. Only Bob Hope made more appearances on Carson's "Tonight Show."

"With Johnny, we connected immediately," Steinberg said. "You know, I always was doing 'The Tonight Show.' I would come on and announce what my career was — I was doing this show or that show — and it turned out 'The Tonight Show' was my career."

While the audience was still laughing, Steinberg walked away from stand-up.

"The thing about stand-up comedy, as much as I love it and doing it and stardom, is you have to pop yourself up like a Thanksgiving Day balloon every day," he said.

He stepped behind the camera - becoming an award-winning director of hundreds of commercials and dozens of TV sitcoms. These days, he's directing Larry David's HBO hit "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

"Directing is like being a father on set," he said. "Stand-up is like being a kid. So, is it better to be a father than a kid? Not really, but how long can you be a kid? But you know what, I never expected directing to take off and have a whole other career."

At 64, Steinberg remains busy. His first book, "The Book of David," will be out in June. But hosting his show is what he loves most.

"It's my favorite thing to do: Talk to comedians, be around comedy people. It's one of the pleasures in life," he said. "I haven't had one person on that show that just didn't make me laugh almost the whole hour."

Steinberg lives in Beverly Hills with his wife Robyn. He says his multi-faceted career has been his greatest improvisation act. And like his show, he can never be sure where it's going next.

"It would be hard for me to do stand-up because I like to be in my jammies at 10 o'clock at night," he said. "It's an accident, my career is. I just kept working and I never, never looked too far ahead — and I never looked too far back."

[viewer601]

While I found the David Steinberg report very good, I remember a few years back that a cable channel had an hour show hosted by Pat Sajak. He only had 2 guests each for a half hour. I enjoyed it because there was no rush to get to the next 2 minute story. Pat could sit and talk to each guest without the hurried feeling that all the other shows seem to have. I don't think it was appreciated as well as it should have been.