Robert Klein: The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue

By JULIETTE ROSSANT When I first heard that veteran comedian Robert Klein had a new book out, I rushed to get a copy. After all, this man, along with George Carlin and Second City pal David Steinberg among others, charted the new comedic territory of the early 1970s. They followed other greats like Mort Sahl, Shelley Berman, Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen and Bill Cosby -- just to name a few. If you don't know these names, do yourself a favor and get acquainted, because there might have been no Saturday Night Live nor Second City Television, no Steve Martin nor Blues Brothers without Mr. Klein & Co. Of course, like other intelligent, neurotic comedians, Robert Klein has not always been consistent, starting with a career that has ranged from stand-up to stage to film. So, when I picked up The Amorous Schoolboy of Decatur Avenue: A Child of the Fifties Looks Back (Simon and Schuster June 2005), and Mr. Klein greeted me with not one but three prefaces (all by him), to pre-boil, boil, and post-boil (basically, overboil) the notion that "It's time I wrote a book" (p. xvi) of solid content, well, I started to panic. Having been been afraid the book would be overly serious rather than comedic, now I was afraid that it would be dishing out schmaltz. Within the first few pages, however, The Amorous Schoolboy of Decatur Avenue delivers on the promise of five decades of Robert Klein performances. Many sources of comedic inspriation are revealed, as are personal details that celebrities these days too often omit or wallow in. For a super-charged, neurotic comedian, Klein neither omits or wallows: he reminisces steadily, from the characters in his apartment building to school to great loves, right through light encounters with squirrels and heavy encounters of sex, including abortions. In fact, Mr. Klein recalls his early life with rather brutal honesty, mixing the courage of a seasoned professional and the sagacity of a septagenarian with the voice of the boy and youth he was. The pace is steady, and the reminiscence is real. The chapter on working as a busboy for the summer up a Catskill hotel is must-reading both for kitchen brigade seniors as well as anyone who has ever had interns or summert-time help. Klein's is the true, gritty counter-voice to the sexs-drug-and-rock'n'roll rollicking of Tony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain somehow only recalls the glamor of each excessive moment, a la Rolling Stone Magazine: Klein remembers not only the humor but the outrage and embarrassment of those hormone-driven years. My favorite Food memory is one of squirrel -- but I'm not going to spoil one bit of it for anyone: go read it for yourself. Mr. Klein's first major album, Child of the 50s remains one of my all-time favorites -- in part for some of the funniest Food routines of the 20th Century. You can sample some online, courtesy of Real.com and Amazon.com: just click on the titles: "School Lunch," "All Night Grocery," or simply "Words." In summary, maybe those three prefaces are just there to ratchet down expectations, either to relieve the reader once the book really starts or to stave off reviewer criticisms. Having known Mr. Klein's work for some years, I suspect these reasons and more. However, he need not have smothered the book with three prefaces which sound like variations on a theme by an accordion "or its vicious little brother, the miniature concertina": the book's content was already "solid for our show." Thank you, again, Mr. Klein. Related links: Excerpt (MSNBC.com) HBO (MSNBC.com) New York Times Previous articles: Christy Campbell: The Botanist and the Vintner Kathleen Daelemans: Getting Thin and Loving Food! Aroma: Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel Tyler Florence: Eat This Book The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski Bobby Flay's Grilling for Life Mother's Day Gift: Finding Betty Crocker The Sensual Language of Baklava: Diana Abu-Jaber Paula Deen & Friends Roland Mesnier's Dessert University Puerto Rico: Grand Cuisine of the Caribbean Don Pintabona: Shared Table Annabel Karmel: First Meals Nigella Lawson's Feast Cook Like a Kyrgyz Ozzi Dining Downunder and Bushfood Personal Favorites: The Chefs of Las Vegas Anne Willan: The Good Cook Gale Gand's short+sweet More Food from Alton Brown Manju Malhi's India With Passion SOS: Baking from the Heart Madhur Jaffrey: Our Lady of India, CBE Amazon UK's Steamy Xmas Chefs All Hail Alfred Portale Agassi's Star Palate: Celebrity Chefs Book links: Publisher Amazon.com Technorati Tags: chefs food restaurants cooking branding cookbook biography comedy comedians stand-up --> back to superchefblog