Of Hockey Pucks and Burger Challenges

Last night, I had an amazing experience- I got to meet a true old-school comedy legend.

I've seen "Mr. Warmth"- Don Rickles- live before, but, when my friend Dave Plier of the Museum of Broadcast Communications and WGN-AM offered the chance to see him again, with a group of great people- I jumped at the chance! And so, along with such luminaries as Bill Leff and the WGN Morning News' Jeff Hoover, we headed up to Milwaukee for another round with the Sultan of Insultin'.

Jeff had been working on getting us the chance to actually meet Mr. Rickles in person- and, after playing phone tag all day, eventually got word that we could go backstage to say hello to the star, though it would have to be brief. Fine by us!

This time around, there was no opening act- it was all Rickles, interspersed with some classic video bits. This was only his second show back after six months off, recuperating from a leg operation, and instead of stalking the stage, doing  physical comedy and going out in the audience of the full house, he was confined to a chair on stage- cane in hand- and it seemed to frustrate him.

His act, of course, was the same one he's been doing for decades-he insults everything, and everyone, every race, color and creed; and, while all of us sat there with our jaws dropped at some of the stuff he-and only he- could get away with saying, it was undeniably funny. One can speculate that his "ad-libs" are most likely banked in his brain, just waiting for the perfect moment to be used, but- he makes it seem like he just thought of everything for the first time.

He seemed a little rusty at times,maybe not as smooth as at previous performances, but some of that can certainly be attributed to his being off the stage for a few months,plus having a new musical conductor who had just joined his act. Regardless- he had the audience in stitches,. the laughs and applause just kept coming, and  everybody in attendance had a great time.

After the show, we all waited for what seemed like along time, and we started to have our doubts- maybe he didn't feel up to having guests, even for a brief moment- maybe our little meet and greet wasn't going to happen- but, that would have been okay with us- we'd watched a show biz legend in action. Just when we were weighing our options, word came that we could go back and meet Mr. Rickles. Our merry band made our way backstage, somewhat nervously to be honest, and entered a dressing room where Don,his wife, and a couple other of the staff were. As we filed in, with perfect timing, he cracked "who let these guys in?"- and then proceeded to greet each of us, asking our names, asking what we do, etc. He couldn't have been more charming and kind. Yes, I just wrote that about Don Rickles.

Remember how we were warned the meeting would most likely be brief? He talked with us for somewhere between twenty and thirty minutes! I think he was flattered and impressed by the fact that we all were fans, and knew a lot of, and truly appreciated, his work. I mentioned his good friend Don Adams, and his appearnces on "Get Smart" and  some specials with him, and he told us some funny stories about trying to get through scenes with Adams. We covered  so many things, and HE actually kept the conversation going, bringing up various topics. At NO time did he (or any of his group) even hint that we should be hitting the road. He graciously let us take a group picture with him, and reminded us of upcoming appearances he'll have with Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman, and, as we politely made our move to exit before wearing out our welcome, he bid farewell to each of us warmly, and , several times, made a point of asking that us radio and TV guys help "keep his name out there". Like we even need to?! And, no- not once did he call anyone a hockey puck.

Who knew that Don Rickles really IS "Mr. Warmth"? We were honored to have such a great experience with an old school classic comedian, the likes of which we will never see again.

You WILL see me again, live and in person- this Sunday at the Squared Circle restaurant in Chicago's Lincoln Park area- where I'll challenge  a different kind of legendary performer- famous wrestling manager Jim Cornette- to a special "Svengoolie Burger Challenge"! Will the racquet-wielding wiseguy be up to the challenge? Join him, me, our hostess the lovely Lisa Marie Varon aka Victoria in WWE, plus our Sven staff and the Squared Circle staff, for some bigtime fun -from 3-6 pm! We will have Sven shirts available, and I know Jim has a wide range of merchandise for his fans- and Lisa's menu has some great food to tempt you, including that Sven burger (though you can eat one with no challenge necessary)-plus some amazing milk shakes! All the info for Sunday is right here on our site, under the "appearances" tab. I hope you'll come out and join us for a good time!

And, join us back here in just a couple days or so- for the lowdown on this week's Sven show!