Last Friday, I had the pleasure of seeing Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. It is a 3-hour tour-de-force, as Crystal, on stage alone, tells stories about his family and his remarkable childhood.
We've known for years that Crystal is a remarkable impressionist. His Sammy Davis Jr. is almost more like Sammy than Sammy. I had also read that his father promoted jazz concerts, and had many of the major figures of jazz as friends. I did not, however, know that his uncle was a major jazz record producer. It was he who made it possible for Billie Holiday to record Strange Fruit. And it was Billie Holiday who took a young Billy Crystal to see his first movie, Shane. As the little boy on screen cried out, "Shane, come back" at the end of the picture, Holiday remarked to the youngster on his knee, "Shane ain't coming back."
Stories like that are delightful. Others, like his hearing-impaired relative who could not hear his own constant farting, are just side-splittingly funny.
Crystal has an amazing amount of energy. He is now touring the world with this show. If you have an opportunity to see it, do so. If that's not possible, buy the book. Or at least go to Amazon's web page about it. There's a video clip of Billy talking about the book, and its got a few laughs itself.
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