 |
 |
Benefit Shows for Victims
Tuesday
October 9, 2001
Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby, and Chris Rock were just a few of the world famous funnymen featured at Monday night's comedy fundraiser benefiting the families of the World Trade Center victims. George Wallace said, “My involvement in the show is try to come up with some jokes. We want to put some smiles on some faces.”
|
So how did Seinfeld get top comedians like George Wallace to take the stage at Carnegie Hall for free? Chris Rock says, “Jerry was sitting around on a stack of money, counting it like he normally does on a Sunday. And he gave me a call and said, ‘I’ve got 400 million, but I’m not happy. The thing that would make me happy is giving to the firefighters.’”
Actually Seinfeld, who rubbed elbows backstage with mayor Rudy Giuliani, says his wife Jessica came up with the idea for the concert while they were baking cookies for firefighters. He says, “It was my wife's idea. We were baking cookies and she's a very civic minded, generous person and she wanted to do something more than just bake cookies. So I thought why don't I just call some people I know and we can put together some sort of show to raise money.”
There were no TV cameras in the concert hall because Seinfeld wanted the performances to be a special treat for audience members like Bill Clinton. Some of the tickets went as high as $2500 a piece. “Saturday Night Live” comedian Will Ferrell hosted the show, and was happy to bring laughter back to New York. He says, “It's really important. It's kind of a natural part of the healing process.”
George Wallace says, “This is New York, we're still number one. We can bounce back and we can do it through laughter, no matter what.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
