When the late Richard Lewis finally caught Joyce Lapinsky’s attention in 1998, she was the one who immediately laid all of her cards on the table. In a 2010 interview with Paul Freeman, Lewis recalled, “I guessed [Lapinsky] was Italian and 33. She said, ‘Let’s nip this in the bud. I’m 42. I’m a Jew from Minnesota. So if that bugs you… And if children are a major thing…’ She was like reading my mind.”
Lapinsky was no stranger to quirky humor, having worked as a producer on “Idiots and Armadillos,” a live comedy routine in 1998. A year later, she produced “Robert Schimmel: Unprotected,” another comedy but in documentary form. She switched careers in 2005 and became a program development consultant for Urban Farming, a nonprofit organization. In 2014, Lapinsky returned to the world of entertainment as a producer on “House of a Lifetime: Richard Lewis,” a tour of the late Lewis’ home.
Although Lapinsky and Lewis hit it off at Ringo Starr’s party, they were actually meant to meet years earlier. Lewis revealed in his interview with Freeman that a mutual friend had tried to set them up, but Lapinsky wasn’t interested at the time. “I was an active drunk and drug addict then, so it wouldn’t have worked out anyway,” Lewis shared. Fortunately for both of them, meeting later in life seemed to have worked out perfectly, and the late comedian always expressed his love and gratitude for Lapinsky.
