Martin Neil Lewis (born 24 July 1952) is a US-based English humorist, writer, radio/TV host, producer, and marketing strategist. He is known for his participation in a variety of projects in the arts and entertainment worlds including his work as the co-creator and co-producer of the Secret Policeman's Balls benefit shows for Amnesty International[1] (a series he created with Monty Python alumnus John Cleese and Amnesty fund-raising officer Peter Walker) and as a comedic performer and writer on American TV. He hosts his own daily radio show, heard in America on Sirius Satellite Radio and worldwide on Sirius Internet Radio. He is an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post website.[2]
Described by L.A. Weekly as "a true Renaissance Man",[3] Lewis' career has encompassed work in music, comedy, TV, radio, film, theatre, books and politics. Lewis' official website credits the diversity in his professional life to his having been inspired by individuals with whom he worked early in his career and who were noted polymaths, including Sir Peter Ustinov, Peter Cook and Monty Python alumni Michael Palin and Terry Jones.[4][5]
Producer
Lewis has worked since 1974 as a producer of comedy and music recordings, stage shows, films, music videos, TV shows, DVDs and radio programs.[6][7][8]
Arguably his most notable work has been co-creating and producing[9] the Secret Policeman's Ball series of benefits for Amnesty International (initially held 1976–1981) that brought together comedic talents (including Monty Python, Beyond The Fringe, Rowan Atkinson and Billy Connolly) and rock musicians (including Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Tom Robinson, Donovan and Bob Geldof.) In addition to producing the original stage shows, Lewis produced albums, TV specials and movies that documented the shows. The film of the fourth show of the series, The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, was a box office success in the UK and US in 1982 and also inspired a book co-edited by Lewis. The series continued through the 1980s and 1990s (though the Secret Policeman's Ball name was not used after the 1989 show). In 2006, Amnesty revived the Secret Policeman's Ball title for its fundraising shows and this prompted multiple press articles in Britain reflecting on the impact of the original shows, including the attribution by Bob Geldof that Live Aid had been inspired in part by the shows.[10]
A series of live, acoustic performances by rock musicians Pete Townshend, Sting, Phil Collins, Tom Robinson, Donovan and Bob Geldof that Lewis conceived and produced for the 1979 and 1981 Secret Policeman's shows are widely regarded as being one of the inspirations for the "Unplugged" format that was introduced by MTV in 1989.[11]
As a film producer, Lewis gained a reputation in the 1980s for engaging respected, veteran film directors such as Sam Peckinpah and Lindsay Anderson to work on film projects centered on contemporary music. Lewis produced Peckinpah's last works, a series of music videos featuring Julian Lennon.[15][16] Anderson was hired by Lewis to direct Wham! in China: Foreign Skies, a film that documented the 1985 tour of China by the George Michael-led pop group Wham! which was the first visit to China by Western pop artists.[17][18]
In 1999, Lewis produced a special American tribute for It's... the Monty Python Story[22] - the BBC's four-hour TV special on Monty Python's 30th anniversary. For this, Lewis conceived an animated sequence featuring the characters from South Park and he produced this tribute with series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.[23]
Lewis' work in the DVD field includes producing the DVD edition of the Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night.[24] He was Associate Producer of the DVD editions of the 1979 Who documentary The Kids Are Alright[25][26] and the DVD release of all four full-length shows featuring live appearances by the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.[27]
Lewis has appeared on American TV since 1990 as a satirist, commentator, comedic performer and special correspondent.[30][31] He has been co-host of US TV specials celebrating award shows (The Academy Awards, The Golden Globes, The British Academy Awards, and The BRIT Awards (the British Grammys)). He frequently appears as a commentator discussing politics and pop culture on a broad array of major US TV networks.[32][33][34] He has appeared as a satirist or comedic performer on shows such Politically Incorrect[35] HBO's Night Rap,[36] VH1's My Generation, and The Tom Arnold Show. He has also appeared on British TV, serving as US correspondent for BBC shows such as The Terry Wogan Show and Good Morning.
From 1998 to 2004 Lewis was a regular commentator on the British radio program Up All Night on BBC Radio Five Live (heard in the UK and worldwide on the internet) offering perspectives on American politics and pop culture.[40][bettersourceneeded] He was a Special Correspondent for the show during the political conventions in the 2000 and 2004 US presidential elections and also reported for the show from Washington DC during the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush.[41]
Comedic performer
Lewis has written two autobiographical one-man stage-shows - Great Exploitations! and Murder, He Wrote!Great Exploitations! was selected for inclusion in the 9th Annual Toyota Comedy Festival (June 2001) in New York and was the debut production at the Steven Spielberg Theatre in Los Angeles in July 1999.[42]
Lewis wrote the extensive "companion narrative" for the 1998 re-publication of Beatles manager Brian Epstein's 1964 autobiography A Cellarful of Noise (Pocket Books, 1998).
Lewis re-commenced his journalistic career in 2000 when he was invited to become a Special Correspondent for TIME.com,[53] for which he covered the 2000 United States presidential election and various cultural events in 2001. Lewis writes columns for various online publications including Salon.com, the Huffington Post[54] (for which he is a regular contributor) and his own Agent Provocateur literary website.[55]
Publicity and marketing strategist
Lewis also works as a publicity and marketing consultant through his company Springtime![56] which he founded in 1977.
Bob and Harvey Weinstein - founders of Miramax Films and the Weinstein Company have credited Lewis with providing the inspiration and prototype for their own expertise in movie marketing. A story about Lewis in The Hollywood Reporter in June 2001 included a joint statement by the Weinstein Brothers: "Back in 1982 when we were starting Miramax Films, Martin Lewis was the producer of what became our first hit movie - The Secret Policeman's Other Ball starring the Monty Pythons. Martin had a background in publicity and marketing and came up with a great campaign for the movie, creating a huge buzz and getting us free publicity, which was crucial to the film's success. We learned a lot about publicity and marketing from our experience with Martin Lewis."[57][full citation needed]
In 1994-1996 he reunited with Derek Taylor when he was engaged by Capitol Records as US marketing strategist for the Beatles' Anthology and Live at the BBC projects.[61][62][63]
Other notable projects in recent years include the worldwide launch of Sir Paul McCartney's Music & Animation Collection DVD of animated musical films for children (2004),[64] the 50th anniversary of the movie Blackboard Jungle and the 50th anniversary of the song "Rock Around the Clock" (2005).[65]
His work as a marketing and publicity strategist includes two successful Oscar campaigns for movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture: the 2005 Best Picture winner Crash and the 2011 Best Picture winner The King's Speech.[66]
The promotional website Lewis wrote for the 2000 theatrical reissue of A Hard Day's Night won a Gold Pencil Award[67] for the Best Promotional Website of 2000, awarded annually by The One Club.
Film festival producer
Lewis is a long-term member of the Board of Trustees of The American Cinematheque.[68] He has produced and hosted multiple film festivals in Los Angeles since 1993 including the Mods & Rockers Film Festival[69] celebrating 1960s and rock-related movies (presented annually since 1999)[70]- and Lust For Glory! the official 25th Anniversary celebrations of the Monty Python troupe (1994). Other film festivals produced and hosted by Lewis in Hollywood have saluted Peter Sellers, Richard Pryor, Peter Cook, Graham Chapman, Ken Russell, Nicolas Roeg, and the feature film output of Britain's Channel Four. He also organized the official celebrations marking the 90th birthday of actor Glenn Ford in 2006.[71][72]
In 2009, Lewis instigated, produced and hosted The Secret Policeman's Film Festival an in-depth retrospective of 25 films and TV specials produced as fund-raisers for Amnesty International over the preceding three decades. The festival was presented over five weeks in the summer of 2009 in New York at Lincoln Center and the Paley Center For Media, Manhattan and in Los Angeles at the American Cinematheque's Grauman's Egyptian Theatre and the Paley Center For Media, Beverly Hills. The festival was subsequently presented in Washington DC in December 2009 at the American Film Institute coinciding with International Human Rights Day.[74][75][76]
In 2008, Lewis proposed to NASA that the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" be transmitted towards the North Star, Polaris, via the Deep Space Network antenna. The transmission was timed to coincide with celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of NASA, the 50th anniversary of the launch of America's first satellite, Explorer 1, and the 40th anniversary of the Beatles recording John Lennon's composition "Across the Universe".[81][82][83]
Artist management
Lewis is credited with discovering British comedian Alexei Sayle at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival and orchestrating Sayle's breakthrough success in 1980–1984.[84] Other artists who have engaged Lewis' services include Eric Burdon, Donovan, and The Comets. Since 1973, he has been the manager of the infamous Portsmouth Sinfonia,[59][85] the self-described World's Worst Orchestra, whose alumni include ambient pioneer Brian Eno, film composer Michael Nyman, avant-garde composer Gavin Bryars, and rock producer Clive Langer.[59][60]
Social activism
Lewis' work with Amnesty International has been credited by politically conscious and active artists such as Bono, Sting and Peter Gabriel as having been a factor in the growing social activism of rock musicians since the early 1980s.[86] In a 1986 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Bono said: "I saw The Secret Policeman's Ball and it became a part of me. It sowed a seed..." Live Aid and Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof's first-ever participation in a benefit show was at 1981's The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, the event where he first worked with Midge Ure who later collaborated on Geldof's worldwide fund-raisers.
Lewis was born in Ashtead, in the county of Surrey, in southern England. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family. He was raised in Hampstead, in parts a bohemian enclave in northwest London. He was educated at a private school - University College School in Hampstead - but was expelled at the age of 14.[89] He had no formal education after his expulsion.
He lived and worked in London until he moved to America in 1982. Between 1982 and 1988 he lived and worked in New York, where he was married to the former Robin Sloan, who later divorced him. He moved to Los Angeles in 1988 and has lived and worked there since. Lewis is single.[89]
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↑ Lewis contributed writing for the book How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It, edited by Peter Gordon, Dan Kieran and Paul Hamilton (Snowbooks, 2006, ISBN1-905005-23-7)
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