Billy Crystal, the iconic actor and comedian best known for ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and hosting the Academy Awards, has no shortage of Hollywood stories. But few are quite as memorable as his encounters with the late comedy legend Milton Berle. Crystal recently shared two separate occasions on which Berle slapped him across the face, and somehow, both stories are entirely wholesome.Crystal, 78, appeared on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ on April 15, joking that he “may be the last one alive to know Milton Berle stories” before launching into his recollections.
Billy Crystal and Milton Berle’s first encounter — on live television
Crystal recalled finding himself on a panel with Berle and Carl Reiner on what would be the final episode of ‘Tonight Starring Steve Allen’. “I sat in between the two of them, these two bookends, the giants of television,” he told Colbert. “This was a man who sold more television sets. Milton was Mr Television for a reason. He helped kill the movie business in the beginning because people stayed home to watch this new amazing thing called television.“Around 20 minutes into the taping, the crew informed the trio that the cameras “were not registering” anything, meaning they had no choice but to start over. Berle seized the moment. “Milton Berle turns to me and says, ‘Looks like I’m on,'” Crystal recounted. “He then asks for a mic and goes out in front of the audience and does a bunch of time, and it’s just hilarious, but weird.”Crystal continued, “He’s doing it, he’s walking on his ankles, he’s doing everything. And he finishes, comes back, we give him a standing ovation, and he looks at me, and he slaps me in the face.” Crystal clarified that the unexpected slap was purely for laughs, adding that Berle then invited him over to his house to “smoke some dope” and see his impression of Jerry Lewis directing a movie.
Billy Crystal and Milton Berle’s second encounter — at Spago in Los Angeles
The pair bumped into each other again a few weeks later while Crystal was having dinner with comedian Alan King at the Los Angeles restaurant Spago. Crystal explained that Berle kept popping his head up from behind him to make absurd noises, unbeknownst to King, who was facing Crystal. “Then there was the cigar under the upper lip. This went on forever and ever and ever, and I’m just dying,” he said.Eventually, Berle walked over to Crystal’s table and launched into his Jerry Lewis impression. “Now, listen, your wife has left you, you’re lonely, you’ve been drinking too much. Life is meaningless,” Crystal recalled Berle saying, slipping into an over-the-top impression of the late comedian. “You’re in a hotel all by yourself, right? You have to reach inside yourself, Bill. Just think about any loss in your life, any pain. You have to summon it and say, ‘This really is sucky.'” And then, just as before, Berle slapped him in the face again. “He hipped me into the ground,” Crystal recalled.For Crystal, both encounters with Berle ended the same way, with a slap to the face and a story he has clearly never forgotten.
