STILL NUTTY
Starring in his first film in more than 20 years, legendary funny guy Jerry Lewis looks back on an amazing career
IT would be understandable if Jerry Lewis quietly retired to his home in Las Vegas. But although the star of “The Nutty Professor,” “The Bellboy” and other comedy classics turned 90 in March, he has other plans. On Sept. 2, Lewis returns to the big screen in “Max Rose,” his first starring role in more than 20 years. In the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel recently, he sat down with The Post for a look at his storied career.
Dressed in a red V-neck sweater, a cane in hand, Lewis is still as quick with a quip as he was when he headlined the Copacabana in the 1940s, and he raves about his new movie. “I got the ‘Max Rose’ script, and I fell in love with it,” he says. “It just hit me. It was something that needed to be made.”
Lewis plays the title character, a retired jazz musician on a quest to determine if his recently deceased wife was faithful to him. For casual fans who only know Lewis for his zany, “Hey, lady!”-shrieking roles, it might come as a surprise to see him tackle such a dramatic role. “To ask a pratfall comedian, a dishes-in-theface comic like me, to lay back and bring none of that stuff to the script because it doesn’t call for it? That’s tough,” he says.
While his on-screen persona is off-the-wall, in person Lewis projects a grandfatherly air and is in a reflective mood. A former film instructor at USC, he speaks academically about comedy.
“The connection between pathos and broad comedy is very tight,” he says of his dramatic turn in “Max Rose.” “But you do far more work in a comedy scene than you do in a straight scene. It’s much harder.”
Lewis was born in 1926 in Newark, NJ, to showbiz parents. He honed his craft as a comedian working the Jerry Lewis reflects fondly on his comedy partner Dean Martin. “Jewish Alps” resorts in the Catskills. “I learned from my dad that when you walk in front of an audience, they are the kings and queens, and you’re but the jester,” he says. “And if you don’t think that way, you’re going to get very, very conceited.”
While Lewis is excited to discuss his new movie, he lights up when the topic of his comedy partner comes up. From 1946 to ’56, Lewis was the putz to Dean Martin’s playboy. The Martin and Lewis comedy team headlined nightclubs and massive theaters, and made 16 movies in that 10-year span. The pair experienced an acrimonious breakup and didn’t speak for decades, but reconciled 10 years before Martin’s death in 1995. Now Lewis speaks glowingly of him.
“I think of Dean every day and I think of his greatness,” Lewis says. When asked if he had a favorite Martin and Lewis movie, Lewis doesn’t hesitate. “All 16 of ’em,” he says. “We had such great fun. We used to tease each other, ‘Are we gonna take the money for this?’ ”
Of course, “Max Rose” isn’t Lewis’ first foray into dramatic work. In 1982, he starred alongside Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard in Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy.” It’s a role that Lewis remembers fondly.
“I had a goddamn ball doing ‘King of Comedy,’” he says. “It was brilliant just watching De Niro work. It made you forget your own scene, because he was something to see. His work ethic was incredible. If I was directing Bobby De Niro, he wouldn’t have done half the stuff he did in ‘King of Comedy.’”
Before concluding, I ask if Lewis has a favorite joke to tell. For the first time, he falls silent. He closes his eyes and leans back for a few seconds. Then he taps his head. “I’m looking through a room with 6 million pages of jokes up here,” he says. “I can’t think of just one. Oh, what pages I just flew through! If Fred Astaire was sitting here, you couldn’t ask him to get up and do a little dance.”
But as I’m getting ready to leave, Lewis speaks up. “A man is sitting in a car that’s crashed into a tree. He’s bleeding and cut. A cop says, ‘Are you comfortable?’ And the man says, ‘Well . . . I make a nice living.’” Lewis flashes a smile, satisfied and confident that the jester had scored with his audience.