Don Rickles answered the phone that November afternoon in 2012 in classic Rickles fashion:
"You're calling from Tucson? I got chills," he said. "So you live there? Do you want me to call someone and get your family out of there? You sound like a pleasant, lovely lady. How can you live in Tucson?"
Back then, Rickles, who died Thursday from kidney failure at the age of 90, was days away from making his first trip to Tucson in decades. He was thinking he might need a survival kit to make it through his standup gig at Casino del Sol.ย
"I understand. I was in World War II. That was easy compared to what I'm going through in Tucson," he joked.ย
Rickles was 86 years old and still traveling around the country doing a couple dozen standup shows a year. His schedule was already booked into 2013.
"I've been blessed, I really have," he said back then. "I'm going just as good as ever. Young people are coming to see me, which makes me very happy. Things are good. Retirement is so far in the distance, thank God."
Rickles may have slowed down in recent years, but he never really retired. When we spoke with him, he was animated and personable, talking with the casualness of old friends. He referred to you by name and it felt like you were talking to an old friend, someone who was listening for more than just the questions you asked but for some commonality that connected you. He cracked jokes, laid down quips and made fun of us and our town with abandon, almost previewing that December show; if you were in the audience that night sitting anywhere where he could see you, chances were you became a target of some rude comment that didn't feel so rude when the room erupted in laughter.
Only once in that long-ago phone call did Rickles turn off his funny switch. It was when he recalled his son, Larry, who had died the previous year.ย
"It's the holidays," he said, and you could sense the smile on his face fading away. "But we're going to get through it. We have been. It never goes away."
"You should never know that sorrow," he added.ย
Rickles' health was declining in recent years, but even that didn't completely slow him down. According to the New York Times, Rickles continued performing concerts and on TV, including appearing as one of the final guests on โLate Show With David Letterman" in 2015.
