Billy Crystal began his stand-up career at age 9. He cracked jokes in front of his family, inspired by a Borscht Belt comic he had just heard in the Catskills.
He killed. He knew right then and there he wanted to do comedy for a living.
Problem: His mom blanched at punch lines featuring private parts and urine. But his more sympathetic dad set him aside and advised him, “Know your audience.”
For the next 52 years, Crystal has honed that skill with precision, be it in film (“When Harry Met Sally,” “City Slickers,” “Analyze This”), TV (“Saturday Night Live,” “Soap,” Oscar hosting) and now, the stage.
His Tony-winning, one-person play “700 Sundays” comes to Atlanta for five days starting Wednesday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
For Crystal, Atlanta is like a second home. He has dozens of cousins and other relatives here.
In fact, he purposely chose Atlanta for this current tour so his aging aunt could see it. Unfortunately, she passed away six months ago.
“It’s going to be a bittersweet return,” he said. “But I love Atlanta.” He recalls attending Atlanta Crackers games in the 1950s and visiting Stone Mountain. “But what I remember most is the loving family I have there. I’m looking forward to seeing them.”
Indeed, family is the crux of “700 Sundays.” The title stems from his dad, a musician and record shop owner, who worked two or three jobs at a time. Billy and his brothers only got to spend quality time with him on Sundays.
Jack died of a heart attack when Billy was just 15. In Crystal’s estimation, he spent 700 Sundays with his father.
But the play is about more than his dad. He tells stories about his life growing up in Long Beach, N.Y. His Uncle Milt founded Commodore Records and nurtured the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. His wacky Uncle Berns helped Crystal hone his comedy skills. He cherished visits to Yankee Stadium to watch Mickey Mantle swat home runs.
And of course, his mom kept the family together after his dad passed. He said her death soon after 9/11 shook him to the core as much as his dad’s.
“It was obviously a big moment that makes you think, ‘Oooh ... now I’m an orphan,” Crystal said in a phone interview earlier this month. “Another favorite relative had died a month before. It became a time of self-examination. I kept thinking of that Grimm’s fairy tale ‘Rumpelstiltskin.’ This creature turns straw into gold. I had to turn something that was tough in my life and make it into something funny, moving and honest.”
So 370 performances later, he said, “it’s been the most remarkable experience in my life.”
While Crystal wouldn’t define each performance as therapy, spending a couple of hours paying comedic homage to his family is therapeutic, if not cathartic. “It’s very freeing to exchange these feelings that I was going through with a theater audience,” he said. “ ‘700 Sundays’ is my story but it became their story. I’ve gotten thousands of letters thanking me for putting a face on the grieving process.”
Indeed, since his childhood home was where he perfected his craft, the stage is designed like his old living room. “So I’m always home,” he said. “I’m literally there. I try to be an intimate performer. This group of stories lends itself to that.”
He took some time off from doing the play, but when Uncle Berns died recently, he decided to revive it. “He was the spirit that kept me so engaged in my life,” Crystal said. “He was the most inspirational person you can imagine. He could sing opera. He could paint. He was a Renaissance man who was still drawing when he died at age 94. I talk about him more now than when the show first opened.”
Crystal’s natural ability to connect with people (without offending the Hollywood elite) made him an ideal Oscar host and arguably the most popular in recent history. He’s done it eight times but not since 2004.
“I’m very flattered after every show that audiences still want me to be the guy,” he said. “That means a great deal to me. But at some point, I say to myself, ‘What else can I do with this?’ It’s sort of a thankless job sometimes.”
But he said he might host the Oscars again with one caveat: “You can only do things when you want to do them.”
On stage
“700 Sundays” starring Billy Crystal
8 p.m. Wed. through Sat.; 5 p.m. Dec. 20; $30-$175
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta ; 1- 800-982-2787 or
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