Comedian Jim Breuer turned 50 last June, and for the first time, that big clock of life started ticking really loudly.
“You clearly have a timeline on your life,” he explained last week, calling from a frigid New York City to chat about his Dec. 28 concert at the Rialto Theatre. “You can sit there and go, wow, 10 years and I’m 60. You can look at the clock and you are definitely staring down the barrel of mortality.”
But six months into his fifth decade, Breuer, a “Saturday Night Live” alum who has appeared in a handful of comedies, including “Half Baked,” sort of looks at 50 as being the new 30.
“Comedy-wise, I feel like I’m the best I’ve ever been and, as a man, I think I feel like I’m sort of peaking right now, if that makes sense,” he explained. “I have a lot of knowledge and wisdom and I know how to pace myself. I can still get nutso, but I know how to pace my nutsoism.”
Coping with life in his 50s will likely come up at his Tucson show, as will his family life with his three kids and wife of 25 years. But he won’t crack wise about sex, he won’t drop an F-bomb and he won’t utter a word about Donald Trump, Republicans, Democrats or anything even remotely associated with politics.
“I don’t do politics at all, but I do do topics of what’s going on,” he said. “Politics makes people extremely ugly.”
So what will he talk about when he performs his first Tucson concert since 2013?
Life: “I talk a lot about where I am in life being 50. Mortality, dealing with mortality. Being a dad, being married for 25 years and where I see the world going.”
Over the heads of the young: “You mention bands that you think surely everyone should know, who U2 is, and they have zero clue what you’re talking about. Or certain movies where you go, ‘Oh, my gawd, one of the greatest movies is ‘Goodfellas,’ and (younger people in the audience) have zero clue what that is. To them, that is our parents’ 1920s and ’30s films: ‘Oh my gawd, Doris Day was fantastic!’”
No politics zone: “I think politics is the greatest brainwashing in the history of mankind. People really have no clue what they are discussing or debating. They really are just watching whatever channel they are rooting for, and that’s it. They made their decision. It’s professional wrestling on a whole new demented level, if you ask me.”
Santa, please bring Jim ...: “Sleep. I’m asking for rest and peace and sleep, that’s all I care about. I don’t want any gifts. ... I have all the gifts I ever needed.”
I resolve to ... “To continue to give people inspiration and make them laugh to heal whatever dark situation they are in.”
Mature comedy vs. cheap jokes: “If I had to go toe-to-toe with any star or any comedian out there, I feel like I would do quite a battle with the best of them. I just don’t have that popularity, which I don’t mind. At the end of the day, I may be the cleanest of them all, which is a lot harder to pull off.”
