JERRY LEWIS Keeps 'Em Laughing

Jerry Lewis Friars Roast

June 9, 2006

The set up for this event is the same every year.

The press set up behind a small 'wall' (about 4' high and 3' thick). We shoot from behind the wall as the talent passes in front and on the stage. It has never been an ideal shoot.

You spend the event shooting various old school comedians and lesser talent (Tony Roberts, Pat Cooper, Steven Van Zandt).

Finally they bring out Jerry Lewis. Of course, everyone is trying to say hello to him, so all the press are blocked from getting a shot. After this mayhem, we finally get Jerry to pose with the Friar Award. But we can't get him solo and the entire stage is cluttered with riff-raff.

Jerry does eventually come to sit directly in front of the press. He then proceeds to place the entire rim of his drink in his mouth and do some classic Jerry Lewis faces.

After all this silliness, an entire mob of press chases him to the adjacent room, where he proceeds to hide under a tablecloth to get away from the photographers.

As we were running to the other room, Andrea took a nasty spill and wiped out on the floor. (Hope you're O.K.)

Funny event: As a group of photographers were waiting outside the event in the halls of the Hilton for Jerry to exit, Ice T and Coco come walking down the hall. We try to stop them, but Ice T rushes pass and says they can't stop because they're "In The Mix".

About 3 minutes later, Coco comes back to us and asks if we want to take her picture. We tell her "Sorry, right now we're 'In The Mix'." We refused to shoot her and she just said "Oh..." and walked away.

Priceless!