Phat Albert



Here you can listen to a 1996 Fresh Air interview with comedy genius Albert Brooks. He talks mostly about his parents and his standup career, which included a nightmare gig in Tacoma, Washington.

The following is from the intro to Brooks's Playboy interview, which was in the August 1999 issue. You can read the entire interview here.

Comedians, in fact, revere him in outsize fashion. David Letterman has said: "He's above all of us." Steve Martin has said: "He is someone you respect and fear at the same time, because of his brilliance." Such fear is justifiable. Carrie Fisher was once trapped for a weekend on a boat with Albert Brooks and reported: "He never slept and he was never not funny; and, finally, I was scared that he'd follow me everywhere and keep me laughing until I got physically ill and died." Albert Brooks himself has admitted: "My biggest fear is of being too funny and murdering people by making them cough and then winding up in a lawsuit."

Other articles about Brooks can be found here.

Here are a bunch of links to online stuff related to Brooks.

Here's an Albert Brooks fan site with a lot of good stuff on it, including sound clips (three of the sounds clips are from a 1982 Late Night with David Letterman interview).

Brooks has voiced characters on several episodes of The Simpsons. For example, he was the motivational speaker Brad Goodman in the episode "Bart's Inner Child," which was written by George Meyer, and is one of the very best episodes of the popular animated series.

Super Dave Osborne and Albert Brooks are brothers. Their real names are, respectively, Bob Einstein and Albert Einstein.