John Lehr has done it all. A night in jail, LSD, an orgy with
three large women in a trailer park in Missouri, converted to
Judaism and more that wouldn’t be fit to print. The crazy
thing is that he is still alive to talk about it and very willing
to do so.
Starting Oct. 21 and running on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings
at The Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, “A Series of
Comedic Lectures by John Lehr” features Lehr assuming the
persona of a professor teaching the audience about episodes from
his crazy life.
Co-creator and longtime friend John McCray helped Lehr come up
with the idea of doing the routines in a mock-lecture format. But
playing professor isn’t too big of a stretch for Lehr, who
used to teach and took his fair share of outlandish classes in
college.
“One of the craziest classes I’ve ever taken was
called “˜Hallucinogenics and their Relationship to Attaining
Spiritual Nirvana’ at Northwestern (University),” said
Lehr. “It was taught by this crazy, old guy who had basically
taken too many drugs in his life.”
Lehr’s lectures are just as absurd. Each of the six
one-hour-and-15-minute routines explores a different combination of
stories from his life; he starts with a thesis and uses primitive
devices such as a pointer stick and a pull-down map (the elementary
school variety) to support his points.
Lectures range in content from the “Albino Pigeon”
talk about his night in jail while on LSD and his painful
re-circumcision upon converting to Judaism, to “The Lehr
Curse,” in which he compares his failures with those of his
father and ponders the point of having children himself.
“My wife and I have talked about having kids. That’s
what my lecture “˜The Lehr Curse’ is about,” Lehr
said. “How many people do you know who actually have a good
relationship with their parents? Why would I want to do that to
anyone?”
Lehr’s acting stretches beyond the comic stage to include
roles such as “The Sweetest Thing” and “Mr.
Jealousy.” He even hosted the ABC reality TV series
“I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” The latter
was an experience that involved daily battles with
pseudo-celebrities, poisonous snakes and bugs of all shapes and
extreme sizes.
“When I was doing (the reality TV series), I went into my
bag to get my toothbrush, and out crawled this two-inch cockroach
out of my luggage,” said Lehr. “All the bugs there were
disgusting, and the celebrities were “¦ you know.”
His intentionally vague attitude toward celebrities aside, Lehr
still enjoys performing on stage. For now, the comic is perfectly
content with just his podium and chalkboard, entertaining his
pupils of all ages.
“People really seem to dig it. Students are great because
they are open to (my humor) and really react to anything
that’s not pretentious, and old people like it too,”
said Lehr.
“A Series of Comedic Lectures by John Lehr” runs
from Oct. 21 to Nov. 26, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. at The
Powerhouse Theatre. Tickets are $15. Visit www.comediclectures.com
for more information.