AT THE MOVIES - He's still in your face - A new documentary captures the myriad sides of insult comic Don Rickles.
There are various ways to gauge the longevity of Don Rickles. His longtime publicist, Paul Shefrin, is the son of Rickles' previous publicist, Gene Shefrin, just as Rickles' longtime business manager, Bill Braunstein, is the son of Rickles' previous business manager, Jerry Braunstein.
"There was no voting, they were just given the jobs," Rickles said of the sons.
Rickles is 81 and enjoying a little bit of a renaissance, as it happens, with a memoir, "Rickles' Book," and now "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project," a feature-length documentary directed by John Landis, of "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers" movie fame. The film screens at the AFI Film Festival Friday night and debuts on HBO Dec. 2.
The Rickles vault will always contain vintage "Tonight Show" clips and his appearances on Dean Martin celebrity roasts, Rickles brandishing his malice in a way that somewhere came back around to him as an ambassador of goodwill.
Today, when it comes to the art of the insult, the air is thicker but the skin is thinner (see Chris Rock versus Sean Penn at the Academy Awards in 2005). Maybe that's why Rickles holds up; he is, finally, still better than anyone at making ridicule seem cathartic. Despite this fact, no one had ever captured his live act on film, largely because Rickles himself never wanted to participate.
"Mr. Warmth" offers generous portions of Rickles performing last November at the Stardust in Las Vegas, before that hotel and casino was imploded. (Rickles said he just signed up for dates at the Orleans.)
According to Shefrin, Rickles does his act approximately 75 times a year. Occasionally, Rickles said, he can get the Indian casinos he plays to send him a private plane, but there's no mistaking his stunning endurance, and the mental acuity it takes to work a room, firing off insults at various customers who've paid for this very privilege.
Landis, who figures he's seen Rickles perform 50 times, says 65% to 70% of the act doesn't much change (ribbing the band; interludes of singing; assaulting the guy in the front row with: "That your wife?").
"But then there's always that 30 to 40% you've never heard before," Landis said. "The truth is he's a performance artist. I always thought so. He tells no jokes. There are no Don Rickles impersonators."
