A handful of lucky students receive career advice from a living legend

By Linda Slupsky
Epoch Times StaffCreated: May 3, 2010Last Updated: May 3, 2010

JERRY LEWIS: Gives advice on filmmaking and life. (Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images)

ORANGE, Calif.—Legendary entertainer and philanthropist Jerry Lewis was the guest speaker at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts last Monday, offering advice and insights to an audience of film director hopefuls. 

Lewis began by presenting a glimpse into his career in comedy, acting, directing, writing and producing, and humanitarian work with a montage of movie clips, stories, and joke telling. 

“I get nothing but joy out of this,” said Lewis, 84. Even with more than 60 years in the business, he revealed, he started to prepare for the presentation nearly two weeks in advance. “You as an individual filmmaker, you can begin tomorrow,” he added, offering a healthy dose of optimism and encouragement. 

He told his wide-eyed audience to “shoot anything and everything,” and said that he is never more than 30 feet from a camera. He spoke about how, at one point in his career, he sat and filmed people from his car on the streets of London while they waited to cross the street. Then he would go home and analyze the film shots to try to determine their occupations.

Another piece of advice the legend gave his students was this, “You need to be a good man before you are a good director.” He explained that there is that certain something in another human being; the goal is to see if you can bring it out of them. Lewis also advised that you can’t be afraid to show your natural instincts. 

When you come across a challenge, Lewis quipped, “Hug him! Hit him with a hug. He won’t hug you back, but when he gets better, he will.” Lewis said that sentiment is contagious—more contagious than hate.

Lewis said that if you are going to think you can’t do something, you won’t, and other people will pick up on this. He added, we will find the answers if we think that something is important in our lives. “Count your blessings when things go wrong. Ask yourself what would I be doing if not this?” 

According to Lewis, you do not need to go further than your “independent government,” in other words, “yourself” to find the answers. “Trust it.” He said to trust all the attributes that you were given at birth.

The legend looked back on his career a bit, to the delight of those in attendance.

For his work in the “King of Comedy,” Lewis spoke about working with Robert De Niro. He said that once he kidded with De Niro that on take 21 they should go to 36 or 48. He said that De Niro could see the difference between take 3 and 38, even if no one else could. Lewis would see a frown on De Niro’s face until he got what he wanted. Lewis said, “I could tell my children that working with Bobby De Niro made your father better.” Lewis added that he considered his best film work to be in “The Nutty Professor.” 

As for Lewis’s humanitarian work, one of the audience members spoke up. A Brooklyn father of a Chapman Freshman told Lewis that he was at Lewis’s first telethon in New York, and that he should get credit and a Nobel Peace Prize for all his efforts. Lewis humbly admitted that he had been nominated.

Lewis referred to his partner throughout the presentation, never calling him by name. He said, “My partner and I didn’t talk for 20 years.” It wasn’t until Frank Sinatra got them together on a Muscular Dystrophy telethon in 1976 that they reunited. They kept in touch every week or couple of weeks until Martin passed away in 1995. Lewis said that you could see his reaction to their reunion on his face in the video. Tears fell from both Martin and Lewis’s faces when they met. Lewis said that he had to silence his 400 crewmembers about what was planned, and added, “It was glorious.”

Lewis said that he has been a comic mischief since age 9, and that even on his 84th birthday, he is still 9. He said that because of this, it has allowed him to generate nearly $2.5 billion in donations for his kids. 

As he looked ahead, Lewis said that he was going to beat George Burns’s record of living to 100, so he plans to live to 101. This allows enough time for him to see his Chapman Freshman daughter Danielle graduate, walk her down the aisle to get married, and see her first child born.

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