The Present Never Ends

According to an article in this week's Chicago Reader, when Del Close, improv master and impresario* lay in a hospital bed dying, he basically threw a party and many of his former students and associates came to pay their final respects.

It turns out Del was a pagan, and he invited a pagan priest and a pagan priestess to come and conduct the Ritual of the Four Elements for him.

I really like this part: "The god blesses you with the strength you already have - the strength of humor. For in the middle of a joke, there is no past, there is no future, there is only the present, and the present never ends."

*Del Close taught and inspired some of our best comic talents including: Mike Nichols, Elaine May, John Belushi, John Candy, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Tina Fey and Larry David's "father" Shelly Berman. Now that's quite the comedy cavalcade!