Schtick Figure

Talk show host Steve Levy might just be the
haredest-working man in cable access.

By JAKE AUSTEN

   Just like a “real” late-night talk show, Steve Levy’s - cable access talk show has a good-looking, well-dressed host. It opens with a monologue filled with corny Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart jokes and has a studio audience.
   Unlike a “real” late-night talk show, The Steve Levy Show is hosted by a full-time software director with no previous experi-ence in stand-up, stage, or televi-sion--a guy who spends five full minutes per episode wiping the sweat off his brow After the tap-ing, the 50 or so spectators are invited out to get a beer with the host and crew.
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   Levy bills his year-old cable access program as “Chicago’s first and best nationwide late -night comedy television talk show” He’ll take the stark stage this Friday at CAN-TV’s West Loop studio, conducting light-hearted interviews with local actors, introducing a local band, and telling jokes like:
   “President Bush recently asked Bill Clinton to advise him about what to do in Iraq. Clinton said ‘You don’t pull out ... until you hear her husband’s front keys in the door.”’
   In the years before he launched the show, Levy’s time was filled with the challenges of owning his own software company, and with his dedication to playing hockey in several recreational leagues. But two years ago, a sports injury left him unable to participate in athletics, and that coupled with the selling of his company (he now works at a larger firm) left him with a hole in his life that he decided to fill by emulating the talk show hosts he had followed religiously since childhood.
   “I always watched [Johnny] Carson when I was young, and I switched over to Letterman when I was about 12,” he says. “I loved his quirky sense of humor. I watched him every night through high school.”
   Now, every weeknight Levy watches The Daily Show with Jon Stewart . When the show ends, he turns to The Late Show with David Letterman, and follows that with Late Night with Conan O’Brien. All the while his TiVo is hard at work recording The Tonight Show, The Charlie Rose Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
   “I typically watch the opening monologue of all of them and part of the first interview,” explains the 33-year-old Chicagoan.
   Though he is a fan of the hosts, Levy’s interest goes beyond laughing at their jokes. He’s sizing up the competition and studying their techniques.
   Such devotion may bring to mind Robert DeNiro’s obsessive character Rupert Pupkin from The King of Comedy, who staged an imaginary gabfest in his basement. Before he had a show, Levy used to bring a video camera to the beach and the dog park to do never-to-be-broadcast “man on the street” interviews with strangers.
   But unlike Pupkin, Levy’s motivation has nothing to do with celebrity. “It’s not about being famous at all. I just really wanted to try something new in my life that was original and creative. And I wanted to do something that really inspired and excited the people who work on it with me and the people who watch the show.”
   Before doing this, Levy didn’t know anything about being on television. He had taken acting classes for the last 10 years at Improv Olympic and ACT One studios, but never pursued acting as a career or even a hobby.
   “I studied not with a goal of being on TV or in plays, I did it because I never really explored my creative side in college where I studied math and statistics,” he says. “When I took acting it was just to learn something about myself.”
   What he eventually learned was that he needed an original, creative outlet – and using the tenacity that he had developed in the business world he soon found his way to CAN TV.
   “I didn’t really know anything about cable access,” he says. “I was just doing a lot of research online, figuring out how I could put this show together, and I basically I stumbled upon it.”
   Levy was a quick study, taking access classes, working on access productions, and learning the ins and outs of television production. Then last summer he began producing his own talk show, through his early episod3es bear little resemblance to today’s “Steve Levy Show.”
   “It was a standard interview show; I was doing these serious topics. My guests were people like Lee Goodman, who was a Democratic candidate for Congress, and Nicolle Adelman, a Shakespearian actress. But even then I was gravitating toward comedy. When Lee Goodman would be talking about Iraq and I’d make jokes about it, I realized it was time to change the format.”
   His first move was to look for comedy writers, through Craig’s List, to help him craft his monologues.
   “I put an ad out there, ‘Comedy talk show looking for writers. Great experience, minimal pay.’ and I got 200 resumes,” he says. “I picked out the people that looked like I would get along with and ended up meeting with three writers. I was very up front and hose4st about my lack of experience, but they believed in what I was doing and they really love working on the show. Originally I was paying writers $20 a show, but now I just buy everyone dinner at our writing meetings.”
   His writing pool established, Levy set out to expand his team. His production crew is made up of fellow access producers, some of whom he works with on their show in exchange for their labor, and some of whom he pays. A student web designer volunteered to create his site, A musician associate composed theme music for the show. And a DePaul University student who learned about his show online became Levy’s intern, working as a production assistant on the show and researching the possibility of national expansion.
   “I actually already consider the show national,” Levy explains, “because so many people around the country watch the webcasts. In the last three weeks, 5,000 people have watched the show online. but someday I would love to be on network television, going head-to-head with Conan O’Brien.”
   While he may have lofty goals for the show and may emulate commercial programming, it is the noncommercial nature of access that he finds most appealing. “With the show I never think about money,” he says.
   “I would not be disappointed if this just stayed on cable access,” Levy says. “Success for me is really sharing the show. People say ‘Steve, you’re going to be really successful because you work on that thing all the time,’ but I feel I am already successful.
   “I take this really seriously,” he adds. “ I better, because I just ordered 3,000 bumper stickers.”

   Tapings of The Steve Levy Show are free to the public. To join the show’s e-mail list, or to obtain a sample DVD of the show, e-mail slevy@stevelevyshow.com or visit www.stevelevyshow.com.

Chicago Journal
August 11, 2005
by Jake Austen, contributing writer

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