Baby Gorilla Is Saved: Artie Lange Coming Back To Radio This Fall

In a candid and wide-ranging new interview the comedian Artie Lange talks about the rehabilitation treatment he has undergone in his year-and-a-half hiatus from performing, and discusses the details of a new radio program he plans to host in September.

During a conversation recorded for the “Fixing Joe” podcast hosted by his friend and fellow comedian Joe Matarese (and which we were pointed to by laughspin.com), Mr. Lange said he would begin broadcasting a show for Fox Sports Radio on Sept. 12, though the network said this was not the case.

Mr. Lange described the new program, which he said he would host with the comedian Nick DiPaolo, as a “a sports entertainment kind of comedy show,” and said it would be carried in about 250 markets in the United States. He added that there was a possibility the DirecTV satellite service might show the program on television “if it goes well enough.”

Dan Bell, a spokesman for Fox Sports, said, “That’s not true. Nothing against him. We’re looking for a more traditional sports-host personality.” A press representative for Mr. Lange wrote in an e-mail, “We are excited by the overwhelming interest in Nick and Artie. But there is no job to confirm for them at this time.”

Mr. Lange cautioned in the podcast interview, “Nothing’s been signed yet but we’re going to do it.” He added: “This is a bad negotiating tactic, but it’s either this or opening a landscape business for me at this point.”

Mr. Lange has been on a hiatus from “The Howard Stern Show” since late 2009. Throughout the interview, which Mr. Matarase described as “two old friends talking about things from their heart,” Mr. Lange talked about the help he has sought for anxiety and his addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Mr. Lange said in the last year and a half he had been in two rehabilitation facilities and three psychiatric wards. “I’ve got to say,” he said with a laugh, “you haven’t lived till you’ve played Scrabble in a psych ward. It’s really a fun time.”

He said he felt compelled to get clean after the deaths of the comedians Mitch Hedberg, who died of a drug overdose in 2005, and Greg Giraldo, a close friend who died in September and had an overdose of prescription drugs a few days earlier.

“The whole idea of death started to freak me out more than it ever did,” Mr. Lange said. He added: “It just made me want to stick around. It really did.”

Having spent so much time away from comedy stages and broadcast booths, Mr. Lange said he realized there was value to working out his issues in front of an audience.

“It’s weird because standup can be like therapy,” he said. “Comedians can’t be satisfied with just having fun with our friends. We’ve got to figure out a way to do it on stage. I’ve got to figure out a way to make a guy paying $11 for a Rolling Rock laugh at this.”