David Brenner prides himself on rarely repeating a joke. But to celebrate his 40th anniversary in comedy this year, he decided to make an exception.

A self-described news junkie, Mr. Brenner said he'd been struck in recent months by what he called "the horrors of the recession."

"I'm inundated with news, and the more I saw, the more I thought, 'People have got to laugh,'" he said. "So I thought, I'll go on a national tour and use the best jokes and routines from my whole career."

Mr. Brenner, 72, will appear at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Palace Theatre, Greensburg, on his "Leave 'Em Laughing" tour.

To put together a show of his best moments, Mr. Brenner said he had to do something he dreaded -- go back over video footage of his many TV appearances.

That's no small task for a performer who holds the record for number of performances (158) on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and continues to appear frequently on news and entertainment programs, such as Jon Stewart's "Daily Show."

"Instead of 'David's Greatest Hits,' it'll be 'David's Greatest Bits,'" he said. "I'm including everything from birth up to five minutes ago."

A Philadelphia native, Mr. Brenner has a lot of ground to cover, starting with a hard-knock childhood in some of that city's worst neighborhoods.

Born in 1937 in South Philly, Mr. Brenner moved to West Philly with his family "as we hit poverty level."

His father, Louis Yehuda Brenner, was a vaudeville entertainer as a young man. Mr. Brenner has often said he inherited his comedic gift from him.

Voted class president in high school, Mr. Brenner went on to graduate from Philadelphia's Temple University with honors in mass communications.

Mr. Brenner said his youth in tough neighborhoods shaped him as a comedian.

"You think you're going to 'get out,' and I'm not knocking Philly here -- any bad section of a city is so bad," he said.

"But you don't realize how much of who you are -- how much that's good -- you've taken from the streets where you've grown up."

His gift for making people laugh kept him out of fights and in peers' good graces, he added.

"My father always said comedy was what got people through tough times. He called it 'putting a bandage on a wound.'

"And in a bad neighborhood, there's a whole lot of wounds."

During the 1950s, Mr. Brenner had a successful career as a writer, producer and director of Emmy Award-winning TV documentaries before he began to think of trying stand-up.

In 1962, just 18 months after doing stand-up for the first time, he hit the big time with an appearance on "Tonight."

He said he admires contemporary comedians such as Chris Rock, but believes comedy has lost something, including two of its biggest stars with the deaths of Richard Pryor, in 2005, and George Carlin, in June 2008.

And as the father of three sons, including ones ages 11 and 14, he said he's seen the pressure for new, but not necessarily good, material that comes out of 24-hour technologies such as cable TV, Twitter and YouTube.

"There's been a dumbing-down of what we accept as funny, just as there's been a dumbing-down of our culture in general," he said. "The good news is that the bar can't get any lower."

In addition to his frequent TV appearances and tour dates, Mr. Brenner is the author of several books, including "I Think There's A Terrorist In My Soup: How to Survive Personal and World Problems with Laughter -- Seriously."

Along with his 2001-03 tour, "Laughter to the People," the book was an attempt to "get America laughing again" after the events of Sept. 11, he said.

Although Mr. Brenner seems to have plenty of energy, he said he's recently had to start thinking of himself as older.

In February, on "The Howard Stern Show," he admitted he had been subtracting nine years from his age since the 1960s. He is not 63.

"When I started, it was, 'Don't trust anyone over 30.' I was one of the top comedians on the college circuit, and my manager said we were starting to lose bookings because of my age."

Lying about his age grew to be a terrible inconvenience over the years, he added.

"It was like being a CIA agent. Every time someone asked a question about how old I was, when I graduated from college, there was this little pause.

"And imagine what it was like when you dated someone seriously. I couldn't tell them the truth."

Luckily, he said, he has good genes, works hard to stay healthy and keeps in touch with good friends from the comedy world and his neighborhoods in Philadelphia. He has no plans to retire.

"I've wanted to retire before," he said. "But every time I had the money, something happened. I guess the gods of comedy want me to stay out there for a while."

If he could have anything he wanted, he said, he'd like a shot at a cable talk show or network radio show.

"It wouldn't be in the mainstream--I'd be with the Baby Boomers," he said.

And he's been thinking, he added, that after three costly divorces, he needs a new approach to marriage.

"I've never taken a dime from any woman," he said. "But I'm a pretty hip guy. I think now I could marry rich."