Steven Wright in the Boston Globe, bonus interview questions

I am back in the Boston Globe today interviewing Steven Wright about his show tonight at the Wilbur Theatre Comedy Connection, the benefit he's playing June 14 at the Ahavath Torah Congregation, the synagogue of his friend and longtime opening act, Bob Lazarus, who died in January. You can read the interview here.

Here are a few bonus questions, most of which didn't make it into the final Q&A in the Globe.

Can we look forward to I Still Still Have a Pony in 23 years?

Did you put two “stills” in there? That’s good. I wasn’t sure what I would name the next one but now I think you’ve nailed it. Maybe I Had a Pony.

And make people wonder, what happened to the pony?

All these titles about the pony, and then the pony’s never mentioned.

“We don’t like to talk about what happened to the pony?” That’s probably too long for an album title.

That’s funny. “We don’t like talking about what happened to the pony,” that’s the title? That’s good.

Are you thinking of doing another album or special soon?

No, not soon. Just touring, building up material on the road and stuff.

Where do you try out new material these days? Is there anywhere you go to work out?

When I’m the road I can just try it during my show. I went to the Laugh Factory last week, that’s a club in Los Angeles, trying to figure out the Letterman material [his appearance airs June 5]. Sometimes I’ll go into a small club and sometimes I’ll do it during the show.

I know you would sometimes drop by the Comedy Studio or the old Connection here.

Yeah, yeah. I haven’t done that in a while. It’s too bad the Connection moved. That was a good room.

Do you get down to the clubs at all, even just to watch?

Occasionally, I might go to Giggles, because usually some of my friends are playing there. I’ve done some short sets in there, too. I like that place.

Boston Comedy Community Reacts To Lazarus News

There has been an outpour of sentiment surrounding Sunday’s loss of Boston veteran comic Bob Lazarus around the web, from members of the Boston comedy community near and far. Barry Crimmins posted a touching portrait of an unrelentingly positive (but never naïve) friend and colleague. The Boston Phoenix has posted a short obituary. And over at The Comedy Studio site, people are posting news and tributes.

One Kvetch poster noted there is a fund for donations set up:

Donations may be made to the Carly Lazarus College Fund, Kathi Lazarus, Trustee, and mailed to Rabbi Jonathan Hausman, Ahavath Torah Congregation, 1179 Central St., Stoughton, MA 02072.

Bob Lazarus 1956-2009

Boston comedian Bob Lazarus died in his home in Stoughton last night. He had been battling leukemia since the summer of 2007. He is survived by his wife Kathi and his daughter Carly.

I only really knew Lazarus, or “Laz,” as his friends called him, for a couple of years. The first time I met him was a few years ago at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway theater. I would see him in the audience there, and occasionally onstage. But I only really came to know him better after his leukemia diagnosis, when I interviewed him for the Boston Globe before the first benefit held for him at Giggles in 2007.

There are dozens of people in this scene who know Lazarus better than I do, and I can say that no one who knew his name here ever had anything but kind words to say about him. His passing is a sad event for the whole Boston comedy community, a community Lazarus had been a part of since 1978. Benefits for his treatments drew Lazarus’s fellow veterans from the Ding Ho days like Steven Wright, Tony V., Barry Crimmins, Jimmy Tingle, Steve Sweeney, Lenny Clarke, Mike McDonald, and Mike Donovan. And when Laz had his great set at the Wright’s Boston Comedy Hall of Fame induction show December 15, the comics were laughing loudest.

From my e-mails and brief conversations with Lazarus, I can tell you that he faced some very dark times with his sense of humor intact. In early December, his condition took a turn for the worst. But with the prospect of getting onstage with old friends a few days away, it didn’t take him long to bounce back. Within a week of that bad news, Lazarus e-mailed me to say he would be allowed to get onstage at the Wright show, saying, “The odds of me getting leukemia in the first place were pretty slim, so who's to say I can't win?”

Later that day, he wrote back that he wasn’t going to reveal how bad things had gotten in his act, but he was still going to have a bit of fun at the expense of his leukemia. “That's a little tough to poke fun at, but I am going to wear a shirt asking for donations with my address on the back,” he said. And anticipating that I might take him seriously and print that, he said, “I am joking.”

Services will be held at the Stanetsky Memorial Chapels in Canton, Ma on Tuesday afternoon. 781-821-4600 or 1-800-842-4280

More on Lazarus:

Lazarus’s MySpace

Mike Donovan’s Tribute

Boston Globe, November 23, 2007

Shecky Magazine Interview

WBZ Interview

Boston Comedy Hall of Fame Update

Bob Lazarus, who is fighting leukemia, has been given clearance by his doctors to make his first appearance in public since late July, and his first comedy appearance since the middle of June, at the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame show, at which Steven Wright will become the first inductee.

The Boston Comedy Hall of Fame show is at Showcase Live Monday at 8 PM.

Bob Lazarus Update

Last year at this time, I was writing about Stoughton resident and veteran comic Bob Lazarus’s fight with leukemia and a benefit thrown for him at Giggles with Steven Wright, Tony V., Jimmy Tingle, and a host of other local luminaries. Lazarus had one more hospital stay left in his treatment, and felt good enough to show up at Giggles and perform a bit at his own benefit. (There was also a benefit at the Regent Theatre in May, a Ding Ho reunion show that featured the above as well as Barry Crimmins, Steve Sweeney, Mike MacDonald and others).

A year later, Lazarus is still battling leukemia. He has a stem cell transplant this summer, and now calls August 22 his new “born on” date. A stem cell transplant is given like a blood transfusion, the desired result being a replacement of the patient's immune system. Lazarus's donor is a 37-year-old woman he hopes to meet someday.

“I have the immune system of a 37 year old,” he says, “and this incredible desire to buy a purse and matching pumps.”

His signature mop of black hair is coming back (he mentions to note it has been dyed since '87), but he says he feels like he could rub his head briskly and it would all come out. Some of his diet restrictions were lifted in time to enjoy a few Thanksgiving treats. He considers himself lucky to qualify for MassHealth Premium Assistance, which is paying his Blue Cross while he is unable to work.

Since it’s still dangerous for Lazarus to go out in public, he still can’t work (he’s limited to taking a long walk every day the weather cooperates). “I have to wait until I'm allowed to be in public places,” he says. “Probably not until next summer; maybe a little sooner.”