Drugs?
“Drugs scare me to death because they can destroy you so quickly,” Jonathan Winters said. “And you get squirrelly. I’m squirrelly anyway.”
Throughout a 56-year career that includes countless appearances on late-night TV, a starring role among the all-stars of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and close to a dozen Grammy-nominated comedy albums, Winters has remained someone whom Springfield can be proud to call its own — he’s just naturally that weird.
“People ask me, ‘What are you on?’ ” he explained. “I say, ‘A roll. No poppy seeds on it. Just a roll.’ ”
Even at 85, Winters can’t be stopped.
The Springfield-raised comedy great admittedly walks a little slower these days, but his mind still fires on all cylinders.
He’s on his fourth pacemaker, “But I can see women and money,” he said. “My vision is good.”
The second recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999 — second only to Richard Pryor — Winters is as revered as comics come.
Robin Williams has called him his mentor.
Williams also is among the comics who appear in a new indie mockumentary, “Certifiably Jonathan,” in which Winters faces a scenario in which he looses his sense of humor.
It’s up to a who’s who of comedy — everyone from Tim Conway to Sarah Silverman — to help get it back.
It wouldn’t be the first time Winters has had an obstacle to overcome.
“My mother wasn’t too happy with my success,” he confessed. “I made it bigger than she did.”
His mother, Alice Bahman, hosted a talk show locally on WIZE radio and appeared often in Springfield Civic Theatre plays.
She had brought 7-year-old Johnny to Springfield from Dayton after the divorce from her husband, an alcoholic banker.
“All mothers and dads weren’t that great,” he said. “I found that out over the years. I was looking for that stamp of approval. It was always, ‘I didn’t think you were that funny.’ ‘Yeah, you’re hilarious in that seersucker coat selling toxic securities.’ ”
His marriage in 1948 would give him the support system he needed to go on to conquer the New York comedy scene.
“It’s who believes in you,” Winters said. “If you don’t get those two people at home believing in you, it makes a rough start.”
Contact this reporter at amcginn@coxohio.com.
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