Ramis reflects on comedy career, recent honor

The weather was wet, but the wit dry when Harold Ramis arrived at Chicago's Music Box Theatre to show his new movie "Year One" and accept a lifetime achievement award at the opening of the Very Funny Festival: Just For Laughs.

"It's so much better than being in a 'Where Are They Now?' special," he quipped to a standing-room-only audience.

"I'm glad it's not happening at the end of my career," he said of the award, "but in conjunction with a film as I'm still doing it."

I caught up with the Chicago-born comedy icon Tuesday night during his stroll down the red carpet in front of the Music Box Theatre and tossed a few questions his way.

What's the funniest movie ever made that he didn't work on?

"I howl when I see a Preston Sturges film called 'Unfaithfully Yours'," Ramis replied. "There are a couple of scenes in Carl Reiner's 'Enter Laughing' that are ridiculously funny and I've seen them 40 or 50 times."

During a brief presentation before the showing of "Year One," viewers clapped and whistled through a montage of Ramis' hit movies, among them "Ghostbusters," "Analyze This," "Caddyshack," "Stripes," and his masterwork "Groundhog Day," filmed in Woodstock.

In accepting his lifetime achievement award, Ramis thanked his fans for continuing to appreciate "the old stuff" as well as his new movies.

What's the secret to creating movies that still resonate with audiences a generation later?

"Even though comedy is skewing pretty young right now in demographics, we, at least the men, are stuck in our adolescence somewhere," Ramis said. "Most women agree with that. So the things that I found funny at 18, I still find funny."

The comedy festival wraps up Sunday, June 21, with "George Lopez: Tall, Dark and Chicano" at 8 p.m. in the Rosemont Theatre. It's the first time the festival has been located in the Windy City. Go to justforlaughschicago.com for information.

"Chicago is the comedy capital of the world," Ramis proclaimed. "We already knew that. Now the rest of the world does."

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