Cultural Nitpickery

“He was a wonderful man. Let me tell you a great story. He’ll never remember this. I used to live about two miles from the Beverly Hills Hotel when I grew up. In grammar school, I must have been in seventh grade, I was in the candy store in the Beverly Hills Hotel and Jonathan Winters was there, and he was my idol! There was nobody like him! He was all by himself and he was doing 15 minutes for, like a tootsie pop! This guy was doing material for gum! He came up to me, I was just a little kid, and he just started, he was on! He was brilliant, he was funny. I said, would you come home with me? He said, yeah, sure. He came home with me. I swear to god. My mother was cooking in the kitchen, I walk in. I said look Ma, it’s Jonathan Winters! “OH MY GOD!! EGGS !! THEY LOOK LIKE EYES ON A MONSTER!!” … He did 45 minutes in our kitchen! … He went home with me. What comedian would ever have done that? Milton Berle drove me a mile and let me off in the middle of the street. Wouldn’t come all the way home. It was the only time that ever happened. I said would you come home and meet my mother and say hello to my mom, he came home with me. That’s what kind of great guy he was.” —- Albert Brooks, 1988.