Final chapter for troubled comic

Don Becker dies at age 53

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 19, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Don Becker in 1994

Playwright, stand-up comic and creator of his own mythology, Don Becker left a mark on most who met him, whether a result of his caustic sense of comedy, his own struggles or his encouragement of those around him.

Mr. Becker was found dead in his home Thursday. He fell, hitting his head in the kitchen, after a period of dizzy spells. The coroner has not determined the cause or time of death. He was 53.

He was born on Aug. 13, 1954.

A graduate of East High School, Mr. Becker began his career as a talk radio host in 1979. He went on to work as a stand-up comic, although he suffered from stage fright.

He also was plagued by mental illness, and in 1987, during a psychotic episode, lost an arm after laying it on a railroad track.

Such was his popularity among stand-ups that Robin Williams, Roseanne Barr, Louie Anderson and Dennis Miller all came to Denver to perform in a benefit for him.

"I can attest to what a brilliant comic he was," said Edith Weiss, who worked the comedy clubs with him at the time. "Whatever he chose to do, whether it was poetry or writing plays or his comedy, it was just brilliant."

The lost arm became part of Mr. Becker's complicated persona, said his friend Kenn Penn. Mr. Becker named his 1994 one-man show Back on a Limb.

"It kind of became urban legend from all kinds of crazy stories, and I don't know how many Don really tried to squelch either," Penn said.

Penn got to know Mr. Becker through the theater. A prolific playwright, Mr. Becker was best known for his play Lucifer Tonite.

During different runs, he and other actors played the title character. Penn served as set designer on that play and on Mr. Becker's The Subgenius Police.

He and Mr. Becker were collaborating on a graphic novel, and Penn saw Mr. Becker a few days before he died.

"He seemed really sick, down, but he was kind of off and on," Penn said. "He was a really, really clever and funny person. I think he found a lot of humor in everything.

"He was a complicated guy. But he was so highly likable. I don't think I ever knew anybody who was so blatantly open and really unashamed."

Brian Freeland, artistic director of The LIDA Project, premiered Becker's play Kurt Cobain Was Right in 1997.

"It was a pretty scathing anti-Clinton piece, actually. It was quite timely," Freeland said. "Don had his own drummer, that's for sure.

"An incredibly brilliant man, but you felt a lot of times like he was three or four steps ahead of you and you needed to catch up to him, and by the time you caught up to him he was three or four steps ahead again."

A private memorial service is planned for the family.

Mr. Becker described his own philosophy to The Rocky Mountain News in 1997.

"I was talking to Louie Anderson once," he said. "Louie said that he wanted to tell jokes that made people slap their thigh and say 'I always thought that!' Well, I want to tell jokes that make people scratch their heads and say 'I never thought of that.' "

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