Holy Crap

Jimmy "Dy-no-mite!" Walker had quite the writing room in the 70s: Leno, Letterman, Paul Mooney, Robert Schimmel, Richard Jeni, Louie Anderson and more:

That room was like the Roman Colosseum of comedy, except everyone sat on leather couches and the only blood was from egos being stabbed. The writers were incredibly competitive. Their self-esteem was on the line, and so too was money. Although I paid many of them on a weekly basis, others would get paid only if I bought a joke, usually for $25. They could be vicious with each other, much like when we hung out at the Camelot in New York or, now in LA, at the Jewish restaurant Canter’s or Theodore’s coffeehouse.

Of course, nobody my age or younger thinks of him as a standup comedian, but still.