Rest in Peace Jackie Mason, My Friend

Sometimes an epic screw-up can lead to an amazing opportunity. Such is the case with how I met my longtime friend Jackie Mason.

In college, I was running a comedy magazine. I went to Montreal to cover the Just for Laughs comedy festival as part of the job. Jackie was doing a big show and a friend of mine took me backstage to meet him. I asked Jackie if I could interview him for my magazine, and to my surprise, he gave me his number and told me to set it up when I was back in New York.

Cut to the diner in the Wellington Hotel, where a 20-year-old starstruck comedian sat with a microphone and a mini-disc recorder interviewing the legend himself. The interview was great and I couldn’t wait to go type it up. When the time came, however, and I tried to play it back, the mini-disc was skipping and I couldn’t make out Jackie’s answers. He had told me at the end of the interview that if I needed more information, I could call him.

And so began a string of phone calls to Jackie.

In the first one, I asked: “I was just wondering if you could clarify your answer on what made you get started in comedy.”

Then I called him up again. “I was just hoping you could clarify what you meant when I asked you, ‘Do you have any advice for young comedians?’”

I still needed more, so I called him one more time. “I was hoping you could expound upon the answer to my question, ‘Who were your influences?’”

By that third time, he had caught on. “You lost the interview, didn’t you?!” he exclaimed.

I said, “Yeah, pretty much.”

“OK,” he said. “Come by and we’ll do it again.”

That night, I recorded a second and even better interview with Jackie. It went so well that at the end of it, I invited him to be a guest on my new college radio show. With this, he blew up in anger.

“First I give you an interview. Then I give you a second interview. Now you want a third interview? You’ve got some nerve.”

What followed was language not suitable for print. I left kicking myself. I was devastated. I felt so stupid. I had upset one of my comedy heroes.

To my surprise, the next day I got an unexpected phone call from a blocked number. It was Jackie. “I think I was a bit harsh with you last night. Can I make it up and buy you dinner tonight? I will be with my manager Jyll and some friends at an Italian restaurant in Midtown. Want to join?”

That night I wound up doing some impressions at the table. Jackie loved them, and the next day I got another phone call. “I have some friends coming by tonight. I want them to hear your impressions. Are you available?”

From there we began hanging out every day. When the Jackie Mason issue of my comedy magazine came out, he was blown away. He kept repeating, “I can’t believe how beautiful and glossy this looks. It’s so colorful, and the pages are so well laid out.” In fact, he was so impressed that he agreed to write a column for me called “Jackie Mason’s True Hollywood Stories.” It featured his incredible stories and ran in every subsequent issue for the life of the magazine.

And then when Jackie’s Broadway show “Freshly Squeezed” opened at the Helen Hayes Theater, he offered me a job selling his merchandise. Every night after the show, we would go to Sardi’s, and he’d introduce me to all kinds of people.

On one of my days off, he called me and invited me to come see the show and meet his friend who would be there: George Carlin. He introduced me to George as a brilliant, young comedian and after the show we all hung out and laughed together. Both of them talked comedy with me like I was one of them. It was a huge gift, and one that led to a close friendship with George as well in the years that followed.

The morning that the news of George Carlin’s death was announced, Jackie called me to talk about him. He described him to me as “more than a comedian. He was a modern day philosopher,” which I used as the name of my podcast on which I interviewed comedians about philosophy for several years. I called it “Modern Day Philosophers.” I even got to have Jackie on my show.

I thought it then and I’ll say it now: Jackie was also a Modern Day Philosopher, and a great one at that.

I thought it then and I’ll say it now: Jackie was also a Modern Day Philosopher, and a great one at that. He was a complex person who would say and do controversial things. He was truly, politically incorrect, at times offensive and provocative, someone who loved to push buttons and piss people off on occasion. Someone who loved getting pastries at Au Bon Pain after 2 p.m. when they would sell the ones from that morning for 25 cents. Someone who loved people. But maybe, more than anything, someone who loved the absurdity of life and life itself.

He was, to me, an inspiration, a mentor, a teacher, an employer, a co-conspirator, a contrarian and provocateur. And above all, a friend.

He will forever be missed and the world will never be as funny without him.

Daniel Lobell is a comedian and podcaster living in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Fair Enough comic book series and hosts the Doctorpedia podcast.