Quotes About Jack Benny

Jack Benny was a very warm person and a very appreciative person.

I used to start my questionnaires by asking, 'Which would you rather hear on the radio tonight – Jack Benny or a Shakespeare play?' If the respondent said Shakespeare, I knew he was a liar and broke off the interview.

I've always been the king of silence. I've always been a minimalist comedian. I've taken my influence from Jack Benny, who was the king of that... I've always done 'less is more.'

I used to hear on the radio people like Jack Benny or Bob Hope, but I never had any interest in their type of humor. I thought that I could do something more substantially meaningful with significant, thoughtful, analytical reflections on real life situations.

My idol was Jack Benny and he was the master of subtlety and timing.

I have a very strong visual memory of the first time I made him laugh. That was remarkable. I was like, "Oh, God, I just made Jack Benny laugh."

I was turning down cigarette campaigns before it became fashionable. I wouldn't let CBS Radio sell 'The Stan Freberg Show' to R.J. Reynolds and American Tobacco, which had sponsored Jack Benny, the man I replaced.

It's very, very corrupting to the spirit, doing comedy. And you have to be almost a saint, like Jack Benny was, like Steve Martin is, to avoid the corrupting of it, because there's very little work where the actual work and the reward are simultaneous, and comedy is that.

When they asked Jack Benny to do something for the Actor's Orphanage - he shot both his parents and moved in.

I began my show business career playing violin in San Francisco at the corner of Market and Taylor. I understand that there is a theater there now.

WAITER: [serving Jack's drink] ... and one Shirley Temple. JACK: [sips drink] Wait a minute! You put Scotch in this Shirley Temple! WAITER: She's a big girl, now.