Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
The Set-up: A Prologue 1
1 Celebrations 5
2 A Kid at the Studio 9
3 The Boys 13
4 Socks and Moxie-Jerry Seinfeld 21
5 The Wives 31
6 Stirring the Sauce-Joy Behar 37
7 Hotels 45
8 Comedy Begins at Home-Billy Crystal 51
9 On the Road 57
10 The First Laugh-Robin Williams 65
11 The Funny Barber 71
12 He Said/He Said-Ben-Jerry Stiller 79
13 aka Orson 87
14 Testifying-Chris Rock 91
15 Beverly Hills, My Neighborhood 103
16 My Dad 113
17 Harry and the Parakeet 121
18 Angelo's Boy-Jay Leno 127
19 Miss Independence 135
20 My Big Brown Eyes 139
21 Killing and Dying-Alan Alda 147
22 Comedians in Their Dressing Rooms 153
23 A Phone Call with Mr. Warmth-Don Rickles 155
24 The Two Dannys 165
25 Turn-ons-Conan O'Brien 169
26 The Bow 179
27 Twenty Questions-Stephen Colbert 181
28 Dinner at the Goldbergs 189
29 The Survivor-Joan Rivers 195
30 Obsession 205
31 Fall-Down Funny-George Lopez 217
32 Tony's Pilot 223
33 Oh, Donald 229
34 Lew Parker 233
35 The Comedian's Comedian 241
36 Growing Up Free 245
37 One-Girl Show-Lily Tomlin 253
38 Rose Marie 265
39 The Book-Kathy Griffin 273
40 Capra, Orson (the Other One), and Me 283
41 The Wright Stuff-Steven Wright 293
42 Growing a Feminist 303
43 The Joke on Me 313
44 The Making of a Wisenheimer-Tina Fey 319
45 The Reluctant Interview: An Improv 327
46 The Storyteller-Whoopi Goldberg 337
47 Against the Odds 343
48 Legends of Comedy 345
49 The Elm House 351
50 Mother and Marge 357
51 The Only Jew in the Neighborhood-Jon Stewart 361
52 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 371
Epilogue 379
About the Author 381
Credits and Permissions 382
