While it's not my intent to turn this into a look-who-died-now-blog, I have to report that stand-up comedian Richard Jeni is gone -- apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot.
The details are still hazy, but it seems he was having breakfast with his girlfriend. Got up, went into the shower, and shot himself. She called for help, and he was still alive when the police arrived, but died a few hours later in the hospital.
Reading between the lines, you can get the idea that he was depressed -- he'd cancelled some appearances, and some of the people interviewed indicated they knew he was having some problems, though they didn't say what.
It's well-known that comedians sometimes turn to humor to compensate for less-than-funny personal lives -- the act becomes therapy -- and it pays the bills.
Jeni was a regular on the Carson and Leno shows, had HBO specials, was in a few movies, even had a short-lived TV series. For my money, he was hands-down the funniest stand-up working. The one time we managed to see him in person, he had my kind-hearted, animal-loving, anti-cruelty wife laughing so hard she was crying -- and this doing a routine about orcas torturing and killing a baby seal.
You had to be there.
He was clever, his humor was sophisticated, and he was truly, deeply, genuinely funny. I never saw anybody work an audience as completely as he did. In one early routine, he hummed the first few bars of the theme for the National Geographic TV Show -- dah, dah, dah, daaah-dah! --
then held the mike out and waited as the audience filled in the rest, like a call-and-response blues singer.
What a shame. What a terrible waste of talent.
I agree. Up here in the Seattle area, the host of 103.7 The Mountain's morning show played Jeni's PMS & Red Wine skit in memoriam. It had me laughing so hard I almost crashed my car.
ReplyDeleteRIP, man.
The old saw has it that a comic says funny things, but a comedian says things funny. Jeni could take the most mundane subject and spin it into a tornado of belly laughs. His routine about smoke coming out of the bathroom on a jetliner, with Steve the Stuttering Steward and his seatmate, the Fungal Roman Emperor was one of my favorites, but PMS and red wine had me howling so loud the dogs started singing in harmony.
ReplyDeleteHe had the gift. Such a shame to lose him.