Make 'Em Laugh by Debbie Reynolds

BOOK REVIEW - Five Stars

Make 'Em Laugh by Debbie Reynolds

An upbeat in-depth autobiography of a self-motivated entertainer who positively impacted my entire life from the 1940s. My wife Jane and I had the good fortune to visit the Debbie Reynolds live performance at Las Vegas. While we waited in line the jovial ushers asked where we were from, and I told them Yucatan, Mexico. What happened next was amazing. We were ushered to the front row center. Dynamic Debbie came on stage, bouncy, and bubbly. She centered the show around her Mexican family connection. She came down to shake our hands and welcome us. The audience felt her spontaneous and energizing entertainment abilities. This lady was a world-class performer, and we were totally impressed.

Excerpts:

I love slapstick, physical humor, and being spontaneous. And, as I’ve said before, I’ll do anything to get a laugh. Sometimes talk shows offered the perfect opportunity to do this.

I was seated next to Jack Benny at the desk. During our conversation, I admired his tie, which had a lot of bright colors, like pink and orange. Jack took it off and handed it to me. “It doesn’t match your handkerchief,” I said. He handed me his handkerchief. Emphatically, I pushed it back into Jack’s pocket. Jack took a pause, looked at the audience with a grin, then turned to me. “Were you that rough on Eddie Fisher?” he cracked. I’m sure I blushed, but instead of answering him, I dove under the desk. I reached up and grabbed Jack by his jacket, pulled him to the floor, undid the jacket, and threw it over the desk, followed closely by his wastebasket. I tossed my shoes in the air. A sock or two flew over the desk. The audience screamed at our mock striptease. When we came up from beneath the desk, Jack’s shirt was open to the waist. I was now holding his jacket. He pulled himself back together while the audience continued howling with laughter. At the end of the segment, he helped me put on my shoe. I didn’t feel like Cinderella, despite his gallant move.

“I didn’t plan it,” I told him. “I just thought I ought to do something amusing as nothing much was happening on the show.”