From: Minneapolis Star and Tribune

Date: October 25, 1984

Headline: Comic Hodgson Quits While He's Ahead

Subline: Comedy's fun, but it's time to get back to reality.

Photo(s): Joel Hodgson [still perfecting that shy look.]

Author: Strickler, Jeff

Joel Hodgson has had it all. Fame. Stardom. Even an entourage. People--very important people--were clamoring for him. David Letterman wanted him. So did "Saturday Night Live". And HBO. And Showtime. And NBC honchoBrandon Tartikoff.

Yes, he's had it all, but he's also had all that he can take. He's not just taking a sabbatical, he insists, but giving up show business. He will perform this weekend (in a gig that started last night) and next at the Comedy Gallery and then quit. After his last performance Nov. 4, he's even auctioning off his magic props and stage clothes.

"I can't wait to be normal," he said as he munched on french fries and a chicken sandwich earlier this week. "I want this to be over with so I can get back to normal. I hope I'm forgotten real quickly. I want to be 'Joel Who?' real quick."

At 24, Hodgson is living in what many people would consider a dream come true. In fact, he admits, he's living in his dream come true.

Just 3 1/2 years ago he was unknown Minneapolis comic stepping onto the stage at the Comedy Cabaret. Now he's performing on live TV in front of 20 million viewers.

"It's always been my dream, ever since I was a little kid, to be on TV," he said.

And he's done just that. He's been on "Late Night with David Letterman" five times. He's been on "Saturday Night Live" four times. He's been on HBO. He's been on Showtime.

But dreams are fleeting apparitions. For Hodgson, it's time to get back to reality.

"I never really thought of this as a lifetime career," he said. "I never felt my act was designed to go on forever and ever. I'm not sad about it. It was great adventure to do all this stuff. It's a nice little career. But it's not for me.... It's been a fantastic experience, but I can't accept it as a real experience."

He said he's been considering quitting for 18 months. He's analyzed it, reanalyzed it and rereanalyzed it. Each analysis confirmed that it was the right thing to do.

"I don't want to wake up in six months and say, 'Oh my God, what did I do!' And I don't think that's going to happen. I've admitted that it's the end of the story for me. It was a great story. It had a great beginning, a great middle and a great end.

"But it's over. I think that's why you see a lot of people go on long after they've quit being funny, because they can't admit that it's over.

"I'm not going to miss it. For one thing, I've always been convinced that I was in comedy for a different reason than other people. I never felt that I needed the stage as much as they do. I was much more clinical. While they were up there striking in the dark, I was a speech-communication major in college. For my senior project, I broke down my act according to Nancy Harper's Paradigm of Communication. I really understood what I was doing."

Events also helped persuade him to quit. One of the biggest was the brouhaha that followed his decision last year to turn down an offer of a starring role in a TV situation-comedy.

"That showed me just how strange Hollywood is," he said. "It was a show called "High School USA", a rip-off of "Fast Times at Ridgemount High". It was a bad show. It was (NBC Entertainment President) Brandon Tartikoff's baby, but it was terrible. So I turned it down.

"And the people in Hollywood went crazy. They offered me three times the amount of money. They couldn't handle it. And I suppose I know why. Here's this kid, a nobody, turning them down. And they had to go back totheir boss and say, 'This kid doesn't want to do your show because he doesn't think it's funny." And it wasn't; it ran three times and it was canceled.

"But the people in L.A. couldn't understand. To them, it didn't mean much that the show was bad. They figure exposure on any show is good. But if I'm going to trade my face and my image to help someone else accomplish something, I want to believe in what I'm doing. And I couldn't believe in that show."

Nor could he believe in the way people responded when he tried to defend his principles. "They were patronizing. They would say, 'Yeah, I really respect that.' It was so funny to hear that town talk, because that town is really sick. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. If I had thought it through, I think I would have realized this even sooner.

"In Hollywood, people cluster around you and tell you that you're a genius after every show. Whether the show was good or bad, it doesn't matter, people come up and say they loved it. I've looked at my shows. I know some of them were bad.

"But there's always this group of people around you patting you on the back. And if enough people come up and tell me I'm good, I start to believe it. Or at least I have to make them believe it so they will relax. You have to accept the lie--and I don't feel I could do that.

"Hollywood works on your ego. They make you think you are bigger, better, stronger, happier than the average person. I know that's not true. I can't believe Erik Estrada has more fun than I do.

"(Hollywood) builds you up so that you dwarf everyone around you. They make my accomplishments seem huge and everybody else's seem small. That's not true. I don't believe that."

For example, he said, he doesn't think his success on TV is any more noteworthy than the success of a friend who has launched a furniture refinishing business. They each succeeded in what they set out to accomplish. And the more Hodgson talked to his friends back home, the more he came to realize that was where he belonged.

"I've been really fortunate to have brave and strong friends who would care for me regardless," he said. "They let me step back and see that all the attention I was getting was for something I did, not something I was. That's nobody's fault. That's the nature of what TV can do for you; it makes you bigger than you are.

"Being known gets in the way a lot. It's not any fun--it's terrible. It's frightening. Lots of people like me, but they don't really like me, they like that person I've made up on stage. They can't talk to *me*--that's the worst part.

"And you never know why they're interested in you. You'll be sitting in a restaurant like this, and you'll notice that somebody across the room is looking at you. Why? I don't know if they're looking at me because they recognize Joel Hodgson or because I have food on my chin. I can't be presumptuous and assume they recognize me. But I can't be naive, either. It's horrible."

Before leaving Hollywood, Hodgson had one more thing to accomplish: proving that he was leaving on his own terms.

People had been preaching to him that he was just a victim of burnout and overload and that a complete makeover of his act would revitalize his energies. He didn't want to do that--in fact, he resisited for a longtime--but he finally took one shot at it, just to prove he could do it.

"On my last Letterman I did all stuff that nobody had seen," he said. "It was my move to break the traditional Joel mold. It worked fine. In fact, some people throught it was my best stuff--but that's TV again. But it proved that I could break away from my club material. It proved that I could keep going. I wanted to feel that it was my decision (to quit), not theirs.

"Everybody was saying, 'Grow and evolve.' I think I can do that, but what good would it do. My comedy now is based on something that is very real. But if I react to what is not real, then it's not real, it's not correct. I would not subject myself to that. I would not subject other people to that. I'd rather let the act go to sleep." As his retirement date grows closer, Hodgson is growing more comfortable with his decision. He wants to write a book on magic, and he's under contract to develop some new magic tricks. But he also plans to get a job, perhaps with his friend who refinishes furniture.

"I've gotten so much credit every time I've done Letterman," he said. But I've never gotten credit for doing a good job. Now I feel I have to do that. I've never been a good worker--a regular, normal worker. I would like to be a good worker."