The Caveman is evolving.
You wouldn’t know it to look at him out of makeup, but this comedic performer, writer and producer got his first break playing the ever-famous, metrosexual cavemen that somehow eluded extinction while developing a taste for racquet ball and “duck with mango salsa,” and was insulted by GEICO’s ad tagline, “So easy, a caveman can do it.”
In fact, John Lehr appeared in the first ad in 2004, as the caveman holding a boom mike on the set of a television commercial, who gets offended by the tenor of the commercial and its demeaning comments about cavemen, and storms off the set. His first line was: "Not cool!" In a later ads, Lehr played the caveman in therapy with actress Talia Shire, in the tennis spot with Billy Jean King and in Superbowl spots with Phil Simms.
You might say Lehr has come a long way since then. You might even say he's evolved.
Though it was a great move financially, Lehr, now 52, said the caveman stint came after what really changed his life. Lehr has clocked more than two decades of sobriety, and he says that decision was the beginning of the evolution into a genuinely satisfying life.
Lehr came to Los Angeles, California in the late 90s at the behest of Fox Broadcasting Company’s Eve Szurley. She’d discovered him in Chicago doing improv with his then-partner, Chris Hogan. She got the two signed in a holding deal with NBC for $15,000 each.
And though Lehr quickly parlayed that opportunity into a show on E! of NBC Universal, called “News Weasels” and later won feature film roles on three of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Noah Baumbach’s movies including ”Kicking and Screaming,” “Mr. Jealousy,” and “Highball,” he said it didn't satisfy him.
“I came to LA really unhappy,” Lehr said. “I was later diagnosed with depression.”
But it was traffic stop that would change everything for Lehr. “I was driving on acid, and I got pulled over in Ventura County,” Lehr said. “I spent the night in jail on acid. I was looking at serious time in jail. My lawyer told me to get in a program, and I have been sober ever since.”
According to the University of Pennsylvania Health System, there are 2.5 million older adults with an alcohol or drug problem; 6% to 11% of elderly hospital admissions are a result of alcohol or drug problems; widowers over the age of 75 have the highest rate of alcoholism in the U.S.; nearly 50% of nursing home residents have alcohol related problems; older adults are hospitalized as often for alcoholic related problems as for heart attacks; and nearly 17 million prescriptions for tranquilizers are prescribed for older adults each year. (Benzodiazepines, a type of tranquilizing drug, are the most commonly misused and abused prescription medications.)
At 23 years of sobriety and county, the news is good for Lehr. According to The Recovery Village, an addiction treatment center with facilities and programs in several states, relapses from alcohol and drug addiction go down over time. They report that 60% of people who are sober for two years remain alcohol-free, and “for people who have been sober for five years, they are very likely to stay sober, although the threat of relapse is always present.”
A recovering alcoholic and drug addict, Lehr now speaks openly about his years of addiction and of sobriety. Under the banner “Cold. Sober. Comedy,” Lehr performs and MC’s at fundraisers, non-profits and sober communities about his personal and career struggles, his continuing sober journey and the importance of an authentic sense of humor. Lehr recently debuted his newest monologue “Wait, I Have to Give a Crap About Other People?” at the Annual Sober St. Paddy’s Day Comedy Night for the Atlanta Caron Treatment Center.
He's set to appear July 1 at the Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE) 10th National Collegiate Recovery Conference at Boston University. “I will be speaking to the people who run the program at colleges all over the country,” Lehr said. “What I talk about is how to stay sober. [Addicts] just don’t know how to live life on life’s terms. I tell them, ‘If you’re not having fun, you’re not going to stay sober. If you can’t find the sweetness and light to life, you’re screwed.’”
Lehr said he found the light of his life in his wife, author Jennifer Lehr and their two children. He said he found spiritual satisfaction in Judaism after attending the University of Judaism in Los Angeles among a room full of “blonde non-Jews with big rings on.”
Lehr’s critically acclaimed “Comedic Lectures” have had sold out runs in Los Angeles and New York. He has also done improvisational performances at the Organic Theater and Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, the Montreal Comedy Festival and the Chicago Improvisational Festival.
After years of living a life of chemical influence, Lehr said, he had to learn to just live all over again. “Quitting the drugs and alcohol—as hard as it is—is the easy part,” Lehr said. “What’s really hard is living without the drugs and the alcohol. I didn’t know how to be sober. What people don’t realize about addicts and alcoholics, it makes it easier to live with them. Take it away and then the real dragon comes out.”
Lehr said he started doing drugs in high school. Born and raised in Overland Park, Kansas, Lehr graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois in 1988 and set out to be a teacher, doing improv on the side. He worked as a substitute teacher at both Kilmer Elementary School on the Northside of Chicago, Illinois and at Locke High School in South-Central Los Angeles. He still uses experiences from the famous neighborhoods for his monologues.
He said the dangerous reputation of the South-Central Los Angeles high school didn’t scare him then. “I was crazy. I didn’t care. I remember I passed around a role call sheet and someone wrote: ‘F--- you white guy’ on it,” Lehr said, laughing. “Another time when my car was parked in the faculty lot, they had ripped off my stereo.” He said they took the stereo even though it didn’t have the faceplate on it, that at the time was designed to deter thieves. “They left a note that said: ‘Next time leave the faceplate,’ But they spelled leave l-i-v-e.” But the worst thing, according to Lehr, was that the thieves used a tool from the shop class he was teaching in the school. He didn’t care about that either. He simply took the tool back into class and went on with his day.
Much has happened to Lehr in television, film and theater, since the caveman ads. The mega-talented improviser went on to star as Leslie Pool in “10 Items or Less,” from Sony on TBS for three seasons and recently starred as Sheriff Hoyle on Hulu’s original comedy western “Quickdraw” for two seasons. Lehr also co-created, wrote and executive produced both series which incredibly were all done in improv.
Lehr appeared in the television series, “Friends” as Chandler’s roommate before Joey in the episode, “The One With the Flashback.” That role led to him being cast as a series regular on “Jesse” with Christina Applegate for Warner Brothers and NBC. “I made $16,000 a week,” Lehr said. “I had never seen so much money in my life, and I paid off all of my student loans with it.
Lehr said it was “Jesse” that got him “money, health insurance and therapy.” But it was the caveman job that paid off his house and put money in his account. It’s what sends his kids to the best schools and allows him to do what he loves. It was also what got him into the Oscars.
“They sent me to the Oscars in full makeup and cast a babe model to be my date on the Red Carpet,” he said. “The funny thing was that all the stars wanted to take pictures with me. Gary Busey, John Voight, all of them. And this gorgeous actress comes up and starts hitting on me. I drop character and say, ‘You realize I’m not really a caveman. I’m an actor with hair glued on, and I’m married. She goes, ‘I don’t care. Let’s have sex.’”
Some of Lehr’s hosting credits include “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” for ABC; CBS’ special “Clash of the Commercials” with co-host Heidi Klum; and “John Lehr’s Movie Club” for TBS.
Under their banner Howler Monkey Productions, Lehr and producing partner Nancy Hower have created multiple projects, most involving their unique improvisationally-based “hybrid” style found in “QuickDraw” (Hulu) “10 Items” (TBS) “Jailbait (Crackle) and “Memron” (a Slamdance award-winner and the film that got the two together). With Lehr starring and Howler directing, the team completed comedy pilots “Let It Ride,” (Comedy Central), “Retreat!” (NBC), “Team McPhearson (Fox) and “King of Beers” (EUE/Sokolow). The team’s script and development deals include “The Loop” (HBO), “Troubadour” (MTV), “Life on Mars” (Sony/BBC), “LARP” (Echo Lake) and “Saltwater Summer” (Disney).
Lehr was pretty hush hush about it, but he did cop to working on a “huge” project currently with Kirstie Alley of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and “Cheers” fame.
He said he has fashioned a live show about what he’s learned in his life while trying to make it in Hollywood, becoming a wildly famous guy “that no one knew,” and getting sober. “It’s a live show about all of it. I call it ‘Three Harsh Tokes.’ Number one: I’m not God. I may not know who or what God is, but I know it’s not me. Number two: I’m never going to fully recover, but as long as I’m seeking God or a higher power in others’ views, I’m okay. I don’t have to find it. I just have to seek it. And number three: I can’t fix myself."
Though he spends a big part of his professional life making jokes about getting sober, Lehr takes it seriously. Well mostly anyway. He’s also about to come out with a new comedy on marijuana featuring Tommy Chong of the iconic comedy due of the American counter-culture “Cheech & Chong.”
“I am pro-drinking, pro-legalization of marijuana. I’m not a teetotaler,” he said. “I know where I came from. You don’t know that I had to wait in a park at 3 in the morning for Earl to show up with seeds and stems.”
