
A series of video clips preceded Billy Crystal to the stage at Saturday night’s Power of Love gala at MGM Grand Garden. Sylvester Stallone and Rob Gronkowski were among those sending in messages.
Crystal took the stage and said, “You mean, I could have just sent a video?”
Crystal opened with some quick jabs at Jimmy Kimmel. “This is semi-exciting for me. It’s a venerable ‘Who’s that?’ of entertainment, all here to pay tribute to our good friend, Jimmy Kimmel,” Crystal said. “I’m happy to like to talk briefly about Jimmy, because that’s all the time that it really takes.”
Crystal said Kimmel asked him after hosting the Oscars for the third time, mulling a fourth appearance. “He said, ‘How the hell did you do this nine times?’” Crystal said. “And I said, ‘Very well!’”
The crowd laughed. But Crystal’s personal participation was especially poignant. The comic, actor and filmmaker lost his Pacific Palisades home of 46 years in the Los Angeles wildfires. Kimmel was among the first to contact Crystal as the fires swept through the region.
“He said, ‘Sorry to hear about what happened to you and your family,” Crystal said. He expressed gratitude that Kimmel turned the back lot of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Hollywood studio into a donation center. “Those extensions of kindness are what I’m living on now, myself. You can lose these things, and we lost everything. But what you can’t replace … are great friends.”
Kimmel recalled a job in high school, during which Crystal was a companion.
“When I was at Clark High School, I delivered pizza,” Kimmel said. “One of the cassettes tapes I listened to when I was driving around, delivering pizza, was a Billy Crystal comedy album. I listened to it like 150 times. And if you’d told me that Billy Crystal would fly here three weeks after his house burned down to honor me, I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my head around it.”
Father Bill on the bill
A bald individual who addresses large crowds drew a lot of laughs, and it wasn’t Jeff Ross.
Father Bill Kenny, Kimmel’s priest since his childhood at Christ The King Catholic Church, appeared alongside Jason Bateman. The “Ozark” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star was the set-up man as Father Bill spun some Kimmel yarns. “Father Bill, you’ve known Jimmy since he was 9 years old. What kind of stunts would he pull?’
“Unfortunately, I have known Jimmy since he was 9 years old,” Kenny started. “Whenever we went to a restaurant, for lunch or dinner, it was always my birthday. He would tell the waitstaff, ‘It’s his birthday,’ and I had 20 birthdays a year.”
Kimmel ordered BLTs, but disassembled the order. “He’d order, ‘Instead of bacon, can I have a slice of ham?’ The waitress crosses off bacon. “I really don’t like tomatoes. Can you pull the tomato out of there?’ So she crosses off tomato. “And instead of lettuce, can I have some cheese?’ So now you have a ham-and-cheese sandwich, and the waitress was just stupefied.”
Later in the night, as Earth Wind & Fire closed with “September,” Father Bill posed for a selfie with bassist Verdine White, Anthony Anderson and Ross. I don’t know whose phone that was but we need to find and post that shot.
Viva Guillermo
Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez revised the Elvis jumpsuit he wore during “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tapings at Planet Hollywood in 2019.
“I love you tender, congratulations, and Viva Las Vegas!” Guillermo called out.
Kimmel said, “If you smelled Guillermo’s breath, you’d know he’s halftime to Tequilatown.”
Best of Ross
Kimmel said the event felt like attending his own funeral. “And speaking of dying onstage, let’s hear it for Jeff Ross!” Delivering comedy to a large crowd of gala attendees is a challenge. Pointing out the attire of one attendee near the stage, “I’ve never seen a cougar dressed like a leopard before.”
Ross got landed some shots, including one at his own expense. “I look like Vin Diesel if he were neither fast nor furious.” Bringing up Kimmel’s penchant for crying on his show, “Jimmy cries so much, they dropped him into the Palisades.”
Ross said Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health co-founders Larry and Camille Ruvo made the right call to hold a major fundraiser in Las Vegas. “Larry, I love your strategy. ‘Lemme put a bunch of Hollywood stars on a private jet to Vegas. There’s no (expletive) way I’m going to Cleveland.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.