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Edinburgh Fringe 2011: A cup of tea with Lewis Schaffer
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Winner of the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award, veteran Fringe performer and ecclectic comedian Lewis Schaffer is one of the most intriguing comics on the circuit. Leon Worden settles down to a cup of tea for a quick chit chat with him and his new Polish assistant. Read on...
18 years is a long time to be making it show business. That is how long Lewis Schaffer has been a comedian and at 54 he doesn’t think he’ll become a household name any time soon. The name of his show, Free until famous, captures this self deprecating realism.
Mr Schaffer can be found of late frequenting a little sandwich shop on Nicolson St between shows. Strangely he drinks tea – having lived most of his life in New York one might expect him to prefer coffee. He kindly bought me cup of tea also.
SSP: Are you enjoying being in Edinburgh?
“No”
Referring to his life as a comedian and sitting in this little cafe scribbling notes down on two crumpled scraps of paper, he says “I’m fifty-four, this is a one pound cup of tea, I could be drinking a three pound cup of tea. Michael McIntyre drinks five pound cups of tea”
SSP: You have been compared by a blogger to Bill Bryson, this is interesting, would you like to be a darling of the Anglo-American club?
“No, because I’m not an Anglophile, the only Anglos I like are my kids”
SSP: Are you interested in British politics? What do you think of the coalition?
“If you pick Labour or Liberal democrat, you pick the one that represents what is most important to you and you try to ignore the other parties. But even if you vote for an independent, he’s just one guy, you’re not going to agree with everything, he’s not your guy, unless you’re Rupert Murdoch, then he’s your guy.
Every political party is a coalition. Like my political party, the Taliban, I don’t support what they do, their policy on the Euro...but I’m in favour of arranged marriages...”
SSP: You live in Peckham now, but you grew up in Brooklyn...
“I grew up in a rich place for Jews, but we weren’t rich, we were rich compared to other people”
SSP: Was part of becoming a comedian rebellion against the expectations of that life?
“No, my dad wanted me to become a comedian, he would always mention that he was offered a chance to be at the Pasadena Play House which is some Hollywood training ground...but my mother would say to me 'I’m the funny one, [meaning herself] not your father, I’m the funny one...'”
SSP: Do you get on with the other performers?
“Ask her” he says gesturing to the cafe assistant Polina.
“He has no friends” says Polina.
He accuses her of being in the Polish secret police – clearly he has been abusing her for the last few days. “What is your name”, I ask Polina.
“Polina”
“Polina!” says Schaffer. We both start writing it down.
“He is so annoying...”, she says. Schaffer tries to cut in. Polina retorts though, “Shut up, you are an idiot.” Schaffer then starts to imitate her accent,
“She smack my bottom...she smack my bottom”
“You bastard, shut up”, says Polina, but in a playful way, the kind of way a Polish girl can call you bastard and it sounds affectionate.
Schaffer clearly likes to poke people with his comedy. During his show he is fond of touching the audience, patting people on the head and getting right up close to them. In his act he says “I’m needy”. And on the evidence of his coffee shop performance this confession is believable. There is a petulance to him that is common to many comedians.
SSP: What does it feel like when he tells a joke and there is no reaction from the audience?
“Have you ever made love to a woman...and she doesn’t move?”
SSP: What was his favourite meal that his mum would make him as a child?
“We can’t talk about this because it’s too close to the bone.”
Want to read more about Lewis Schaffer? Check out there online comedy morsels:
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Lewis Schaffer 