"How’re ya doin’, kid?"

The voice is unmistakably Jerry Lewis. The thought of how many famous people (not me) Lewis has greeted like that is thrilling. Fifteen minutes later when he suddenly exclaims: "Steve, I'm through with you, I gotta go" it is one of the coolest brushoffs I've ever received.

Lewis is appearing Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, making up a date postponed in February so he could accept the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars. Lewis' thoughts on that honor are elsewhere on tampabay.com and in the Times. But I had so much good material left from talking to this supremely confident, occasionally profane comedy legend that I have to post more here.

Enjoy Lewis' thoughts on:

Today's coarser comedians -- "I don’t believe in four-letter words for an audience. I don’t believe someone that has the ability to make an audience laugh needs to go that way. Lenny Bruce was already an intellectual when he started cursing onstage. If Lenny had continued on, maybe (comedy) would’ve picked up on an intellectual level, or a level of some brain matter.

"I’m talking about the guy who opens a nightclub act with: ‘How the f--- are you?’ Whether they think that’s cute or hip, or whatever they think it is, they all do the same thing. The shock value is going away because we have so much of that in life.

"The comedy creative process is battling everything that’s happening in the world. You can’t tiptoe with kitten paws when you just had a g-- d--- Bengal tiger do the joke. If you indeed stay with what you believe is funny without examining the culture, you’ll get killed and your work will suffer."

Who makes him laugh -- "You can’t discuss George Carlin without putting him at the top of the list. Robin Williams can destroy me anytime, and he does. Nathan Lane can do anything, and is brilliant when he does it. We’ve got wonderful people out there who are like that, coming in the business or who have been in it for a while. We need it desperately. Because in lieu of that we’re getting what’s available, and that’s rough."

Waiting so long for the academy to show him respect -- "I worked very hard to be recognized and they recognized me. A lot of people thought it should’ve been sooner. But if it never happened, nobody would’ve thought anything."

Why his 1971 book, The Total Film-Maker, is still vital in a digital world -- "It’s mandatory reading (in some film schools) in Europe because it deals with basics that never change. There is such a speed at which the technology is moving, that wonderful things are being missed, taken for granted. But this is the same thing that happened when we went from silent (movies) to sound. Same thing."

On the Bernie Madoff scandal-- "It’s a tragedy but it’s pretty funny. If that son of a b---- took down enough people to pick up $50 billion, that’s pretty funny. The people who got burned deserved it. We all got hurt by it. I couldn’t believe when I saw the list of foundations that shut down, that were dealing with children. I just wish (Madoff’s) last name was “Schweinan,” anything but Jewish. He took us back 4,000 years, which is a shame."

His favorite part of his stage act -- "I do a Q&A with the audience that runs about 20 or 30 minutes that gets f------ hysterical, absolutely hysterical. I’m very proud of it because it’s off the top of my head. It’s all then and there, depending on who you’re talking to. Great fun, and never the same, of course.

"It starts to get long sometimes because the ham in me comes out and I realize I’m on for two hours, twenty. The only complaint comes from my lungs: ‘Hey, schmuck, get off the stage.' ''