So many deaths, People.
I guess that’s what happens. Wait. I’m sure that’s what happens. To all of us.
I’m at an age where I see a lot of the people I knew and looked up to in the generation or two before mine die. It’s a natural thing. It is the norm. It’s not as hard as seeing peers pass somehow but it’s sad and jarring when the news comes in.
Richard Belzer, The Belz, is dead. He was 78.
Belzer was a like a mythological being to me when I was kid. In the early to mid-seventies when I was starting to become obsessed with standups and funny people I read an article. I think it was in Rolling Stone. It was about the original Catch a Rising Star, the club in NYC. It was all about the house MC, Richard Belzer. In my recollection it described him as an edgy, button-pushing, drugged up maniac of a comic. I was fascinated with anyone who was a drugged up anything. The article describe him doing a Mick Jagger impression and basically being a menace of a clown on stage in between acts. I was blown away by just the idea that this guy existed. I hadn’t heard of him or seen any of his comedy. It was kind of hard to come by. The concept of Belz was burned into my mind.
At some point I saw the movie The Groove Tube and there was Belz in the cast with a pre-SNL Chevy Chase. He was in a sketch called The Dealers and to this day I think he actually vomited in the car. This just solidified him in my mind as a rebel and cool fuck up.
After I started doing comedy and meeting some of the older guys I would hear stories here and there about him but he stayed the badass in that story in my mind for a long time.
He was never a huge comic but he was The Belz.
When I got to LA in the mid-eighties and took the job as a doorman at The Comedy Store I was amazed and thrilled to find out that Richard was a regular there and doing spots. The Belz was around. I remember meeting him in the kitchen of the Store and just feeling beside myself. It was fucking Richard Belzer. The guy from that article. The myth.
I would see him do sets all the time and I got to know him. I was busy losing my mind on cocaine but he understood. He never judged. He was one of the nicest guys I’ve met in this business. He kind of looked out for me a bit. He would drive up in his Eldorado and always wore a suit. Class act. We would get high in the back and talk and he’d tell stories sometimes. Because of that story I read when I was a kid I always felt like he somehow was part of the reason I did comedy.
I didn’t watch Homicide or Law & Order so I don’t know him as Munch but I knew him as a sweet guy, a funny guy, a real mensch who I looked up to.
We were in touch here and there over the years and I’m sorry we weren’t closer and I’m sorry he never did the show.
I will remember Richard fondly and with love and respect.
Today I talk to the formidable Michelle Yeoh about here amazing career and life. On Thursday I talk to the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) who directed Michelle in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Enjoyed both conversations immensely.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
