Billy Crystal built one of Broadway’s biggest solo hits on his conversations with God. He says those conversations have stopped.
The 78-year-old comedian told “CBS Sunday Morning” that a year of loss has ended his trust in the divine. Asked by correspondent Tracy Smith if he still talks to God, he replied, “I don’t trust him.” He pointed to a run of tragedies and a world he described as frightening and in poor shape.
The losses are specific. The Palisades fire destroyed the Los Angeles house where Crystal and his family lived for 46 years. In December, Rob Reiner, Crystal’s longtime friend and the director of “When Harry Met Sally,” and Reiner’s wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Brentwood home. Prosecutors charged their son Nick, 32, with two counts of first-degree murder.
Crystal organized the Reiner tribute at the March Oscars, then told Stephen Colbert in April that Reiner was “the most human person that I ever met.”
The interview promotes “860,” Crystal’s new one-man show, named for the address of his lost home. He wrote it and performs it under director Scott Ellis. Previews are underway at a Shubert theater, with an Oct. 21 opening and a strictly limited 12-week run.
His earlier show, “700 Sundays,” won a Tony in 2004 and traced the death of his father when Crystal was 15, with God as a recurring conversation partner. Crystal has reached for humor again. Laughter heals, he said, and has always worked that way for him. After the fire, his daughters found a rock in the wreckage engraved with the word “Laughter.”
Ten months on, he said, the scale of the losses still defies comprehension. Performing “860” has helped him process them, and he says he is doing fine and feels optimistic at 78.
