The son of a Rumanian rabbi, Canadian actor/comedian David Steinberg was considered the tranquil member of his big extraction -- until he developed a dole on lying. Steinberg's prevarications did not endear him to his get, who said "I kiss the train that takes you away" when Steinberg left-wing Winnipeg to swotting theology in Israel. All plans for a rabbinical career ended when Steinberg happened to hooked Lenny Bruce's act, whereupon he decided to become a comedian. Paul Sills of Ch... icago's Second City troupe hired Steinberg after seeing the young comic in a University of California production of Candide, but Steinberg didn't indeed fit in with the communal spirit of Second Bishopric and chose to strike distant as a solo actor. He appeared in Broadway productions as Play up perform Me Back to Morningside Heights and Little Murders, both failures. Lastly he attained a new agent who guided Steinberg result of the Playboy-club circuit in the late '60s. Steinberg confused many baton patrons by avoiding standard mother-in-law jokes in favor of conceptual comedy - humor based on observations of diurnal lifeblood.

One of his routines centered throughout a sanctimonious minister's sermon, and on the gameness of this Steinberg was hired for guest spots on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. After his show on October 27, 1968, Steinberg was deluged with irritated mail complaining about his "blasphemous" performance; the Smothers refused to cave in to pressure and used Steinberg on other programs, including their final taping in April 1969, which remained untelecast after the brothers were fired by CBS. Adverse publicity or no, Steinberg was hired to emcee a 45-minute ABC-TV variety program, The Music Episode, in 1969, where his comic gifts were stifled and he was expected to solely thought fingers as the singing groups were introduced. In 1972, when censorial pressure had subsided a certain extent at CBS thanks to the advent of All in the Family, Steinberg was hired by the network for a summer replacement series, The David Steinberg Overshadow.

The program played to so-so ratings, but did dispense Steinberg a compendious access of popularity wherein fans could be heard repeating his catchphrases "Boogie boogie boogie" and "Get OFF me." Steinberg's fame crested in the mid '70s, after which he faded from TV. In the untimely '80s Steinberg turned to film directing with such movies as Paternity (1980) and Going Frenzied (1982), and in 1985 he gave TV another try with a series of syndicated talk specials. Still occasionally acting into the modern development '80s, David Steinberg could be seen as Meegosh in the Ron Howard creativity epic Willow (1989).