Jonathan Winters is Gone

[Richard M Roberts]

A really Sad Day, but it was great that he lived so long and continued to be funny, brilliant, and original pretty much to the end. Even in his last few years, he would manage to do a video, interview, pop up on Youtube, and out would come that mad genius.

And his paintings were equally mad, brilliant, and funny.

Seek out some Jonathan Winters in the next few days if you haven't heard any in awhile, remind yourself how great he was, and what the World of Comedy, such as it is these days, has lost.

Truly, Rest in Peace John.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Paul E. Gierucki]

I've posted this elsewhere but would like to share it here as well --

I met him briefly in 1998 when we were appearing at a 3 Stooges convention in Burbank. Very kind and impossibly funny.

He also figured in one of the strangest moments of my life;

I was standing in the lobby of the Hilton convention center with Ted Healy replacement stooge and Spike Jones musician Paul “Mousie” Garner. We were laughing so hard, Mouse was always so damn funny, that I had not noticed the crowd gathering around us. At one point I glanced up (Mouse was half my size) and was stunned to find myself flanked by, get this, the great Jonathan Winters, the inimitable Gary Owens, actress Adrian Booth, Milton’s older brother Phil Berle, Bela Lugosi Jr., Adam West dressed in a snappy Hawaiian shirt, and little Billy Barty off to the side on a tiny scooter! It was the most eclectic group of people imaginable, all just standing there listening to us swap ancient jokes! I paused for a moment to take it in -- recognizing that this odd group of people had never been, nor were they ever likely to be together in one place again. It was one of the most interesting and genuinely surreal moments of my life.