Don Rickles upon his death
I saw Don Rickles perform on stage twice. After a show at the casino in Osceola, he stood atop a balcony inside the hotel and blessed all of us below as if he was the Pope. He anointed us with bottled water and called us dummies. He was so offensive that he wasn't offensive at all. Not only was he the funniest comic, in my book, but I would argue that he may have been the most important because of the purity of his style and what he represented about the power of laughter to disarm every human exchange. For decades, no performer could follow Don on stage. He punctured everything that came close to him. Though he was 90 years old, he had more to give us, and that adds to the tragedy of his death. He walked the highest tightrope of all the comics with what Bob Newhart called "that act of his," but Don made the balance look easy because he did it so well for so long. He's gone and we don't have another one.
posted by CM @ 10:20 PM
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