Variety Business Managers Elite Honors Matt Lichtenberg

Matt Lichtenberg had what he calls his "come to Jesus" moment during a bus ride through the Bronx in the late 1970s. At the time, he was drifting. He had left New Paltz College in upstate New York to study photography at the University of Buffalo, then, at the urging of his father, transferred to business-oriented Baruch College in Manhattan. By chance, he struck up a conversation with a man sitting next him, dressed in a suit and a tie, who suggested he give his profession a try: accounting.

Heeding the man's advice, Lichtenberg took an accounting class, which led to a job with a somewhat shady family-run business in New York's Garment District. "I was bookkeeper-slash-driver-slash-anything," says Lichtenberg. "It was a lot of energy. People would come and go, new and old. Bankruptcy every other year. And they were kind of like mobsters. So it was actually a lot of fun."

It may be unfair to say it was the perfect preparation for Hollywood, but it did set in motion a chain of events that resulted in a decades-long entertainment industry career that Lichtenberg will be honored for, along with his philanthropic efforts, at Variety's Business Managers Elite breakfast presented by City National Bank at the London in West Hollywood Nov. 19.

As a partner at Level Four Business Management, Lichtenberg oversees the financial lives of a roster of clients that includes Will Ferrell, Larry David and Joe Rogan. "First and foremost, he's just a great guy that I would trust with anything," says Ferrell's UTA agent Martin Lesak, who has known Lichtenberg for more than a quarter of century and socialized with him regularly. "He's super thoughtful when it comes to any money moves and always there for his friends, as well. I can't think of a better combination for a business manager than what he brings to the table."

It's no coincidence that Lichtenberg's client list is rich with comic talent. One of his oldest friends is comedian Paul Provenza. Their mothers, both teachers, were best friends, and the two first bonded goofing around in the junior high school orchestra, where Lichtenberg played bassoon and Provenza bass clarinet. Years later, they bumped into each other in Times Square. Provenza, already working as a standup, told Lichtenberg that he was thinking about moving to Los Angeles. Lichtenberg, by then working as an accountant at Price Waterhouse (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers), confessed he was considering doing the same. The pair decided they would be roommates.

Lichtenberg transferred to Price Waterhouse's Century City office, where he worked on major corporate accounts like Carnation and Shell Oil. "I was schlepping up to Bakersfield and climbing on top of oil tanks to make sure that they had oil in them and they weren't faking their inventory," recalls Lichtenberg.

At night, he led a different life. The year was 1980, and it was a special time in the world of standup. After closing the Improv comedy club in Hollywood, he'd go hang out at Canter's Deli on Fairfax Avenue until the wee hours of the morning with Provenza and other rising young comics, including Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, George Wallace, Kevin Nealon, Dom Irrera and John Mendoza. Then he'd drive back to the apartment he shared with Provenza in Marina Del Rey and grab a few hours of sleep, before heading north again to his job at Price Waterhouse in Century City.

"Finally, I was tired of waking up that early, tired of wearing a three-piece suit, and I knew I wanted to figure out how to get into these guys' lives, because I saw that comedy was blowing up," says Lichtenberg.

Lichtenberg found his entre via a job at Jess Morgan & Co., a business management firm with a stable of high-profile music clients including Lionel Richie, Tina Turner and Linda Ronstadt. "You didn't wear a suit, you were talking to celebrities, you felt important," recalls Lichtenberg. More significantly, "I learned how to teach people how to understand their own finances and speak to them in a language they understood."

After three years at Jess Morgan & Co., Lichtenberg left to start his own firm with a roster of clients that included Provenza, Mendoza, comic duo the Funny Boys (Jonathan Schmock and Jim Vallely), Improv co-owner Mark Lonow and his stepdaughter Claudia Lonow, who was then co-starring in the nighttime soap "Knots Landing." He went to partner with Phil London to form London & Lichtenberg in 1989, then with Ralph Goldman, Eric Wasserman and Howard Grossman in Goldman, Lichtenberg, Wasserman and Grossman (GLWG) in 1995.

"They had a really big music practice, but very little in the acting and the comedy worlds," says Lichtenberg of his partners in GLWG, "and I basically brought that to the company."

During this period, a few of Lichtenberg's former Jess Morgan & Co. co-workers also broke out on their own. In 1987, his onetime boss John Rigney started his own business management company with clients that included a then-unheralded actor-comedian named Jim Carrey. He was joined by two other Morgan albums, Mark Friedman and Charles Clancy, in 1993 and 1994, respectively.

For the next 13 years, Lichtenberg and his former co-workers at Rigney/Friedman/Clancy (RFC) led roughly parallel existences, occasionally running into each other at out-of-town events like the Aspen Comedy Festival and Just for Laughs in Montreal. The RFC contingent regularly discussed the possibility of joining forces with Lichtenberg, who had grown frustrated at GLWM after it was acquired by JP Morgan Chase in 2000, but the timing was never right. Until it was.

"Our lease was coming up and his lease was coming up," says Friedman. "So it was the perfect time to join his people and our people together in a new place. And that's how we ended up at our current offices 17 years ago."

The two sides brought complementary skills to the table. "Jonn was a very tough boss, but he ran a really tight ship, and Mark is really good at running a business," says Lichtenberg. "I'm good at getting business."

Rigney says Lichtenberg relates to his clients almost like a rabbi. "He's kind of the guy that people tell everything to," says Rigney. "He's a really smart man, and he can listen and listen and then pop something very valuable into the conversation."

Lichtenberg's caring side is also apparent in his philanthropic efforts. Inspired by his wife and children, all of whom are classical pianists, he's a patron of the L.A. Philharmonic. He also sits on the board of the Beverly Hills Performing Arts Center, a nonprofit that puts on music, comedy and educational events at venues including the Saban Theatre.

However, Lichtenberg's greatest service to the community is the work he does for his clients. A few years back, Provenza's income dipped so dramatically, it no longer made sense for him to spend money on a business manager. But Lichtenberg's years of good advice and wise investments saved his old friend and former client from financial disaster.

"I called him recently to say thanks for looking out for me, because everything he did for me is entirely responsible for me being able to survive and be OK," says Provenza.