“I’m eclectic,” he told The Times in 1988. “I can take on other people’s voices, which is why I’m good at adaptation — I think. That’s a gift. But part of it is due to the years I wrote for television variety; I wrote for hundreds of different comedians and actors. That was always fun to do: What’s a joke for the Smothers Brothers as opposed to a joke for Jonathan Winters as opposed to a joke for Alan King?”