Las Vegas comedians reflect on the legacy of Don Rickles

By Brock Radke (contact)

Saturday, April 8, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Louie Anderson was at the airport when he first heard of the passing of Don Rickles. Anderson had been in contact with Rickles recently because he was planning to host the comedy legend on his podcast in the coming weeks. “We were setting up a time to do it,” Anderson said. “I said a prayer for him and his family. Mindy, his daughter, is a friend of mine and has opened for me a few times and I’m very sad for her. She adored her father. And what a challenging thing, to be a comic when your dad is Don Rickles.”

Most comedians stood in the shadow of Rickles, who died from kidney failure in his home in Los Angeles Thursday at the age of 90. He was a giant in the entertainment world and perhaps an even bigger star in Las Vegas, where he first performed in 1959 at the Sahara. He was booked to play the Smith Center later this month.

“There are big stars around the country and then there are big stars in Vegas,” Anderson said. “He did movies and he did TV but in Las Vegas, he was cross-generational. He was there when Dean Martin and the Rat Pack and those guys were around, and he was there when my group came along, and he was there now with the new generation of comics after hours. To work through that many generations is amazing. He was just so beloved, and I loved him and I started to miss him immediately when I heard.”

Although Rickles was perhaps best known for his acidic, insulting zingers, Anderson recalled his kindness. “That might have been his act but it was all for show, and he started that in a different time, a different era. I don’t think you can do that kind of thing now in comedy, with the Twitter universe. Somehow he was able to escape all that.”

Vinnie Favorito, who’s had his own one-man show in Las Vegas for 14 years and currently performs at Westgate Las Vegas, said he idolized Rickles. “We all lose the guys we look up to and I definitely lost mine,” he said. “Milton Berle gave me the nickname of ‘Rickles with venom,’ and that was a huge compliment but I’ll never be him. He was the best.”

Favorito first met Rickles in Atlantic City when he was working the Comedy Stop and Rickles was in the big theater in the same casino. “We were in the gift shop and I went over and when I said my name, he said, ‘So you’re the kid, the one I’m going to pass the torch to, they say.’ Those words were so special to me. When I was a kid I used to watch the Dean Martin roasts all the time and he was the one I always waited for, more than anybody. I saw him live at the Stardust and he was unbelievable. He was a real legend, and a hero for me.”

Longtime Luxor resident Carrot Top worked with Rickles on the 1998 film Dennis the Menace Strikes Again! — Rickles starred as George Wilson — and learned a lot from the experience. “He just had his own style and grace. Just sitting on the set with him was one of those pinch-me moments,” he said. “More recently, last year I was at this restaurant in L.A., a real trendy place, and everyone was in there … Larry King, Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue, and my agent pointed out Don Rickles, who had like 10 people at his table. I went over and said, ‘I don’t want to bother you, I just wanted to say hey,’ and asked if he remembered working with me, and he said, ‘Of course I remember. I’ve been trying to forget everything you and I have ever done together, thanks for ruining my evening.’

“And then since he was getting into it, I started joking around, saying ‘What is this, the Last Supper?’ And he said, ‘Oh, because I’m old? Are you trying to be funny? You should have started trying to be funny in the beginning of your career.’ I walked back to my table thinking, man, how awesome was that? Every comic wants to get yelled at by Don Rickles.”

Saturday Night Live alum Jon Lovitz, who performs with Dana Carvey at the Foundry at SLS Las Vegas, echoed the sentiment — getting razzed by Rickles was earning a badge of honor. “He only does it if he likes you,” Lovitz said. “It’s a tricky thing to do because you want to be funny but not mean. It’s hard to do right. Just the way he did it, you could tell he liked you and was teasing you.

“I only saw him [live] once. I think he was 83 and he was just unbelievable, his energy and his delivery. I saw him after the show and asked if he was [improvising] the whole show or if it was written, and he said it was about fifty-fifty. He was just so unique. He performed at the Sahara a lot and we’re there at SLS now, so it’s a place with so much history and it’s an honor to perform there.”

Lovitz also marveled at the density of a Rickles set: “If you ever saw him live, you know he has twice as many jokes in his show in an hour than you’ve ever seen any comedian do, just nonstop packed. He was better at that than any comedian I’ve ever seen.”

Marty Allen is a TV comedy institution who first made his mark in the same era as Rickles, in the 1950s. Allen, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday with a show at the South Point, said he made it a point to see his favorite comedian every time Rickles came to Las Vegas.

“I just love the way he worked,” Allen said. “I always got hysterical when all of a sudden he apologized to the person he had [picked on]. He had a talent for that kind of comedy I don’t think anybody had seen or heard before.

“When I wanted to laugh, I just went, and it wasn’t like going to see my friend, it was just going to see a guy in action. I respected him for his talent. I don’t know anybody that came close to him in talent. I just marveled at his performances.”