There was a time in this world when Ruth Buzzi was on everything…and I'll spell that word out for you: E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Because she was funny on everything. But I don't have to tell you that. What I have to tell you is that I had the pleasure of knowing and working with her a little and she was one of the nicest people I ever met in a business where not everyone is as nice as you wish they could be.
She was. I think I first saw her in the years I was occasionally hanging around on the set of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, watching them tape. Bewildered cameo guest stars would wander onto that set, not quite sure why their agent had booked them into what seemed like an environment of madness. Ruth was often the welcoming committee, greeting them, making them feel welcome and getting them acclimated to that odd world.
I saw her at just about every fundraiser for every good cause, helping raise cash. One thing I will never forget, I wrote about back in a post about autograph shows, which were not as prevalent as they are these days…
It involved the late comedian Pat Paulsen who, at the time of course, was not a late comedian. Alas, he then knew he was about to become one. He'd been diagnosed with something terminal — the big "C," I believe — and was out on a crusade to accrue cash to leave his family. Pat was a very sweet, very funny man who had managed to not rack up much of a fortune during his years on television — though I suspect his last minute putsch for dollars was less a matter of needing cash than of needing something constructive to do. Whatever, for his last few months, he was appearing everywhere he could, performing and signing, making whatever money he could make.
Colleagues were abetting him. Ruth Buzzi was sitting with him that day, dolled up in the Gladys Ormphby outfit she wore on Laugh-In, signing and posing for photos, with and without him, all proceeds going to Pat.
She did a lot of things like that. A very nice woman and, as I can't say often enough here, a very funny one. I got to voice-direct her once for an animated feature that I'm not sure was ever released but she was very, very good in it. She was very, very good in everything. Sorry to hear this morning that she left us at the age of 88. Here's a good overview of her amazing career.