A Very Touching Tribute To Muhammad Ali by Billy Crystal

ladies and gentlemen Billy Crystal thank you ladies and gentlemen we're at the halfway point I was clean-shaven when this started dear Loni family friends mr. president members of the clergy all these amazing people here in Louisville today this outpouring of love and respect proves at 35 years after he stopped fighting he is still the champion of the world last week when we heard the news time stopped there was no war there were no terrorists no global catastrophes the world stopped took a deep breath inside since then my mind has been racing through my relationship with this amazing man which is now 42 years that I know him every moment I can think of his cherished and while others can tell you if his accomplishments he wanted me to speak and tell you have some personal moments that we had together I met him in 1974 I was just getting started as a stand-up comedian and struggling but I had one good routine it was a three-minute conversation between Howard Cosell Muhammad Ali where I would imitate both of them Ali had just defeated George Foreman and regained the heavyweight title sport magazine made him the man of the year and Dick Schaap a wonderful writer and a great man was the editor for sport and he was going to host this televised dinner honoring Muhammad Ali so dick called my agent looking for a comedian who did some sports material as fate would have it that comedian was not available and she wisely said it's destiny man and she wisely said listen I got this young kid and he does this great imitation of Ollie and constantly be perfect for his I don't know why but Dick said okay I'll try him if he's thinks I can cut him out of the show I couldn't believe it my first time on television and it would be with Ali I rather the Plaza Hotel the event was jammed I met mr. shap would let it become a part of my family and he said well how should I introduce you nobody knows who you are and I said just say one of Ali's closest and dearest friends and my thought was I'll get right to the microphone go into my Howard Cosell and I'll be fine and then I never sleep live into the jammed ballroom and that's when I saw him for the first time in person it's very hard to describe how much he meant to me you had to live in his time it's great to look at clips and it's amazing that we had them but to live in his time watching his fights it's experiencing the genius of his talent was absolutely extraordinary every one of his fights was an aura of a Super Bowl he did things nobody would do he predicted the round that he would knock somebody out and and then he would do it he was funny he was beautiful he was the most perfect athlete you ever saw and those were his own words but he was so much more than a fighter as time went on with Bobby Kennedy gone Martin Luther King gone Malcolm X guy who was that a relate to when Vietnam exploded in our face there were millions of young men my age Ejim eligible for the draft were war that we didn't believe in all of us huddled on the conveyer belt that was rapidly feeding the war machine but was ally who stood up for us by standing up for himself and after he was stripped of the title after he was stripped of the title and the right to fight anywhere in the world he gave speeches at colleges and on television that totally reached me he seemed as comfortable talking to kings and queens as the lost and unrequited he never lost his sense of humor even as he lost everything else he was always himself willing to give up everything for what he believed in and his passionate rhetoric about the life and plight of black people in our country resonated strongly in my house I grew up in a house that was dedicated to civil rights my father was a producer of jazz concerts in New York City and was one of the first to integrate bands in the 40s and 50s jazz musicians refer to my dad as the Branch Rickey of jazz my uncle and my family Jewish people produced strange fruit Billie Holiday's classic song describing the lynching of African Americans in this country and so I felt him and now there he was just a few feet from me I couldn't stop looking at him and he seemed to like glow and he was like in slow motion his amazing face smiling and laughing I was seated a few seats from him on the dais and in the room all of these athletes in their individual sports great ones Gino Marchetti the Baltimore Colts Franco Harris to the Steelers Archie Griffin would won the Heisman from Ohio State literary legends Neil Simon George Plimpton all in the days fawning over Ollie who then looked at me with an expression that seemed to say what is Joel Grey doing here mr. shap introduce me is one of Ali's closest and dearest friends two people clapped my wife and the agent I rose Ali's still staring at me I pass right behind him got to the podium went right into the Cosell hello everyone Howard Cosell coming to you live from Zaire some would pronounce it's air they're wrong it got big laughs and then I went into the alley everybody's talking about George Foreman talk about George Foreman george farmers ugly is so slow george was slow i can't boo boo and then i rope-a-dope a robot on George that I'm so fast at 33 years of age I'm so fast I can turn the lights be in my bed before the room gets dog Howard I'm announcing tonight that I got new religious beliefs from now on I want to be known as easiest gu is I am now an Orthodox Jew is he as good I am the greatest of all ha the audience exploded see no one had ever done him before and here it was a white kid from Long Island imitating the greatest of all time and he was loving it when I was done he gave me this big bear hug and he whispered in my ear you're my little brother which is what he always called me until the last time that I saw him we were always there for each other if he needed me for something I was there he came to anything I asked him to do most memorable he was an honorary chairman for a dinner and a very important event where I was being honored by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem he did all of this promotion for it he came to the dinner he sat with my family of the entire evening he took photographs with everybody the most famous Muslim men in the world honoring his Jewish friend and because he was there because he was there we raised a great deal of money and I was able to to use it to endow the University in Jerusalem was something that I told him about and it was something that he loved the theory of and it thrives to this day it's called peace through the Performing Arts it's a theater group where Israeli Arab and Palestinian actors writers and directors all work together in peace creating original works of art and that doesn't happen without him I had so many so many funny unusual moments with him I said next time on howard cosell funeral a very somber day to be sure closed casket was on the stage Mohamed I was sitting somewhere over there next to each other and he quietly whispered to me little brother do you think he's wearing his hairpiece so I said uh I don't think so well then how will God recognize him so I said champ once he opens his mouth God will know so we started laughing it was a muffled laugh at first but then we couldn't contain ourselves here we were at a Funeral me with Muhammad Ali laughing like two little kids who heard something dirty in church you know we're just laughing and laughing then he looked at me and he whispered how it was a good man one time he asked me if I would like to run with him one morning do or work with him I said will that be amazing where do you run he said I run at this Country Club and I run on a golf course early in the morning it's very private nobody bothers me we'll have a great time I said champ I can't run there that the club has a reputation from being restricted was restricted me they don't allow Jews there they don't have any Jewish members he was incensed I'm a Black Muslim and they let me run their little brother I'm never going to run there again and he didn't my favorite memory my favorite member haps was 1979 he had just retired and there was a retirement party at the Forum Los Angeles for Muhammad and 20,000 of his closest friends in Los Angeles I performed a piece that I had created the the imitation had grown into a life story it's called 15 rounds and I playing from the age of 18 until he's 36 ready for the rematch with Leon Spinks I posted it on the internet last week footage that nobody had ever seen before of me portraying Ali doing his life for him all those years ago in 1979 there were 20,000 people there but I was doing it only for him it's one of my favorite performances that I've ever done in my life I sort of got lost in him I I didn't even know where I was at the end of the performance and suddenly I'm backstage with another heavyweight champion Richard Pryor and Pryor is holding on to me crying and then I see Ali coming and he's got a full head of steam he's looking only me and he nudge mr. Pryor aside and he whispered in my ear with a big bear hug little brother you made my life better than it was but didn't he make all of our lives a little bit better than they were that that my friends is my history with a man I've labored to come up with a way to describe the legend he was a tremendous bolt of lightning created by mother nature out of thin air a fantastic combination of power and beauty we've seen still photographs of lightning bolts at the moment of impact ferocious and its strength magnificent and its elegance and at the moment of impact it lights up everything around it so you can see everything clearly Muhammad Ali struck us in the middle of America's darkest night in the heart of its most threatening Gathering Storm his power toppled the mightiest of foes and his intense light shined on America and we were able to see clearly injustice inequality poverty pride self-realization courage laughter love joy and religious freedom for all Ali forced us to take a look at ourselves this brash young man who thrilled us angered us confused and challenged us ultimately became a silent messenger of peace who taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people not walls my friends my friends only once in a thousand years or so do we get to hear a Mozart I'll see a Picasso read a Shakespeare Alley was one of them and yet at his heart he was still a kid from Louisville who ran with the gods and walked with a crippled and smiled at the foolishness of it all he is gone but he will never die he was my big brother thank you

Channel: FOX 10 Phoenix

Views: 4,004,502

Keywords: Muhammad Ali, Ali, Muhammad Ali funeral, Billy Crystal, Crystal ali funeral

Id: Go2kSgiuR3c

Length: 14min 17sec (857 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2016