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David Steinberg

 
Artist: David Steinberg
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Shelley Berman
  • Active: '70s, '80s, '90s
  • Genres: Comedy
  • Instrument: French Horn, Trumpet
  • Representative Albums: "Disguised As a Normal Person," "Booga, Booga," "Incredible Shrinking God"

Biography

The Canadian TV/film comedian/producer was a regular on the talk-show circuit during the '70s, parlaying his hip talk into a few successful comedy recordings. ~ Larry Lapka, All Music Guide
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Director: David Steinberg
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Aug 09, 1942 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
  • Occupation: Director, Actor, Writer
  • Active: '80s-'90s
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Land Before Time, The End, All Dogs Go to Heaven
  • First Major Screen Credit: The David Steinberg Show (1974)

Biography

The son of a Rumanian rabbi, Canadian actor/comedian David Steinberg was considered the quiet member of his large family -- until he developed a gift for lying. Steinberg's prevarications did not endear him to his father, who said "I kiss the train that takes you away" when Steinberg left Winnipeg to study theology in Israel. All plans for a rabbinical career ended when Steinberg happened to catch Lenny Bruce's act, whereupon he decided to become a comedian. Paul Sills of Chicago's Second City troupe hired Steinberg after seeing the young comic in a University of California production of Candide, but Steinberg didn't really fit in with the communal spirit of Second City and chose to strike out as a solo actor. He appeared in Broadway productions as Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights and Little Murders, both failures. Finally he attained a new agent who guided Steinberg through the Playboy-club circuit in the late '60s. Steinberg confused many club patrons by avoiding standard mother-in-law jokes in favor of conceptual comedy - humor based on observations of everyday life. One of his routines centered around a sanctimonious minister's sermon, and on the strength of this Steinberg was hired for guest spots on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. After his appearance on October 27, 1968, Steinberg was deluged with angry mail complaining about his "blasphemous" performance; the Smothers refused to cave in to pressure and used Steinberg on other programs, including their final taping in April 1969, which remained untelecast after the brothers were fired by CBS. Adverse publicity or no, Steinberg was hired to emcee a 45-minute ABC-TV variety program, The Music Scene, in 1969, where his comic gifts were stifled and he was expected to merely point fingers as the singing groups were introduced. In 1972, when censorial pressure had subsided somewhat at CBS thanks to the advent of All in the Family, Steinberg was hired by the network for a summer replacement series, The David Steinberg Show. The program played to so-so ratings, but did give Steinberg a brief spurt of popularity wherein fans could be heard repeating his catchphrases "Boogie boogie boogie" and "Get OFF me." Steinberg's fame crested in the mid '70s, after which he faded from television. In the early '80s Steinberg turned to film directing with such movies as Paternity (1980) and Going Berserk (1982), and in 1985 he gave TV another try with a series of syndicated interview specials. Still occasionally acting into the late '80s, David Steinberg could be seen as Meegosh in the Ron Howard fantasy epic Willow (1989). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: David Steinberg
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
See also: David A. Steinberg and David H. Steinberg
David Steinberg
David Steinberg 2009 portrait.jpg
Steinberg at the 2009 premiere of Whatever Works
Born August 9, 1942 (1942-08-09) (age 67)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Website http://davidsteinberg.tv
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1991
The 63rd Annual Academy Awards
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1992
The 64th Annual Academy Awards

David Steinberg (born August 9, 1942) is a Canadian comedian, actor, director, writer and author. He was at the height of his popularity as a stand-up comic in the United States during the late 1960s and the 1970s. He appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show 196 times and served as guest host 12 times. Steinberg also directed episodes of many of the most successful television comedies of the last fifteen years, including Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mad About You, Friends and over 35 episodes of Designing Women.

Contents

Career

Born into a Jewish family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, David Steinberg began his comedy career at The Second City in Chicago in 1964.[1]

One of Steinberg's most notorious performances was on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he did satirical sermons. The sketch caused CBS to receive the most complaints they'd ever had.[citation needed] The Smothers Brothers were told by the network that they could have Steinberg on the show again, on the condition that he would not do the sermons again.[2] Nevertheless, Tommy Smothers asked Steinberg to do it again, and he did a sermon in which he said "The Old Testament scholars say that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The Gentiles, the New Testament scholars say, 'Hold it, Jews, no.' They literally grabbed the Jews by the Old Testament." This incident helped lead to the cancellation of the show. The Jonah sketch never aired.[3]

In 1972, Steinberg starred in the in The David Steinberg Show in the United States. Nearly identical in format to the later The Larry Sanders Show, this series also went backstage at a fictional TV series.[1] The show was re-imagined in 1976 as SCTV in Canada and it helped launch the careers of a number of top Canadian comic actors, including Martin Short, John Candy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, and Joe Flaherty.[1]

Steinberg performed some notable stand-up comedy during the 1970s as well, including "The Incredible Shrinking God" (LP MCA 73013, 1968) contains ten of his comedic sermons and mini-sermons, as recorded live during his stand-up routine at Second City. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2003.[4]

Steinberg currently hosts Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg on TV Land in the U.S.[5], an informal interview-style show in which David Steinberg talks with famous comedians and comic actors. The first season featured Larry David, Jon Lovitz, Martin Short, Bob Newhart, and George Lopez. The second season featured Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Roseanne Barr, Jon Stewart, Garry Shandling and Ray Romano. The program is filmed before a live audience at UCLA.[6]

His first book, The Book of David was published in June 2007 by Simon and Schuster.

Recordings

David Steinberg ...Disguised As A Normal Person... (Elektra Records LP, EKS-74065, 1970).

Awards

Steinberg has received five Emmy Award nominations, winning two as one of the writers of Academy Awards programs in 1991 and 1992. He received a CableACE Award in 1992 for his stand up comedy Cats, Cops and Stuff. He has been nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for directing Seinfeld (1992) and Mad About You (1997), and has been nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award (2000) and a Gemini (2001).[7] His parody of the novel Ragtime won him a Playboy Humor Award.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "David Steinberg - Northern Stars". 2002. http://www.northernstars.ca/actorsstu/steinbergbio.html. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  2. ^ "David Steinberg Just Wants to Talk Comedy". CBSNews.com. 2007-03-11. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/11/sunday/main2556729.shtml. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  3. ^ "The Book of David: Paging Mr. Steinberg". npr.org. 2007-08-20. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13749298. Retrieved 2007-09-19. 
  4. ^ "Canada's Walk of Fame: David Steinberg: actor, comedian, director". 2003. http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/03_david_steinberg.xml.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  5. ^ "Sit Down with David Steinberg". http://www.tvland.com/originals/sitdown/season2/. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  6. ^ David Steinberg's official site. Retrieved on July 7, 2007.
  7. ^ Awards for David Steinberg. IMDb. Retrieved on July 7, 2007.

External links


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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "David Steinberg".  Read more