My father wasn't much for show business. He was an insurance man - very well-liked, very warm. He had a lot of friends.
Political correctness? In my humor, I never talk about politics. I was never much into all that.
I'm always watching films. The Academy pretty much sends me every film that's ever been done. I enjoy watching them, especially with the people I know.
To me, the stand up part in my life is great. I know I can do that. When I get an acting chance, I'm really thrilled.
To this day, to this very day, except for television, I've never had a writer. Anything I've ever done on the stage, happened on the stage and I developed it from there. It started doing impressions and jokes - which I did very poorly. To this day I can't tell a joke. That sounds nuts, but it's true. I exaggerate it and it becomes a joke. Everything I've ever done I've done out on the stage and it became a performance over many many years.
My father when walked into a room, you could tell that everybody loved him. They really did. He was quite a man. My mother was more into the show biz atmosphere than he was.
Hell, do I remember the first joke? I was never a jokester.
I've never been mean-spirited, in my opinion. I never did anything below the belt.
I don't do impressions.
I never went out looking for glory.
I was a mother's boy.
People think being in your seventies means sitting around in a chair with a blanket over your legs, drooling.
I would describe myself as a guy that's very normal but has the tendency to rib people, but never in a mean-spirited way.
Well, I call myself an actor. I always wanted to be one.
I grew up in an Orthodox family, as I grew older, I became Conservative and that's how it ended up. But I've developed that Jewish feel to my act from my surroundings and my family.