You know, when everyone tells you it couldn’t have gone any better, when your agent (who reps among others, the great Michael Chabon) tells you she doesn’t remember a better book event, when someone leaves a message and says she wishes the interview had been three hours rather than an hour and a half, even the self-loathingest alternator in your hard-wiring has to admit that things went okay. And by “you,” I mean Jay McInerney…

It was indeed a great event, and the video above features a few stories that Bill did not include in his recap. One was about an appearance Richard Simmons made on The Late Show with David Letterman, with Richard coming out on stage all oiled up, in his normal outfit of boas around his neck and little shorts on. This was back when Dave still smoked cigars, and Simmons asked in his flirtatious ways, “David, will you teach me how to smoke a cigar?” Skip to 3:50 in the video to hear the punchline that had everybody in stitches.

Next up in our Funny People series is Kate Clinton on Jun 11, when she will be here with Randy Cohen, better known as the writer of The Ethicist column at the New York Times.

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