Lewis Katz was the type of guy who would treat a group of waiters from Boca Raton to an annual gambling trip to the Bahamas, or take the cashier from his neighborhood coffee shop to the Super Bowl. So when he died tragically in a plane crash in Bedford, Mass. last weekend, it's no wonder could count presidents, senators and governors among his friends.

Katz, who had recently won an auction to buy the Philadelphia Inquirer, was a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party. He was a former owner of the New Jersey Nets, a former co-owner of the New Jersey Devils and had minority interest in the New York Yankees.

He's known as the type of guy who could tell Jimmy Carter a dirty joke—and then giggle while getting thrown out of a restaurant by the Secret Service. He played Nerf basketball with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. So maybe it's no surprise, either, that a memorial service in his honor had more than a few colorful anecdotes.

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Humor at a funeral is risky business. Of the 15 speakers who gathered to memorialize Katz, only a few attempted it. They're all accomplished speakers, but they remind us that life is for the living. If you need to lighten the mood at a somber event, take advice from the masters.>

1. Tell tales of debauchery featuring a public figure (and, if you can, make it the President of the United States).

Jimmy Carter might be one of America's most accomplished former presidents, but he's a sort of common denominator for humor. Cory Booker knows this.

One of my favorite stories is how Lewis Katz, on a receiving line for a president of the United States—not President Clinton but President Carter—made a bet with his friend that he can tell the president a dirty joke and get away with it.

I wish there was a camera on Drew (Katz's son) right now because he looks so scared that I actually might tell the joke that his father told. Let's just say the joke was… dirty. And he whispered into Jimmy Carter's ear. At which point the Secret Service grabbed him very unceremoniously and kicked him out of the establishment.

I don't think there has ever been, in the history of the United States, someone who was grabbed by the Secret Service and kicked out of an establishment and was laughing and smiling the entire way, because indeed he had won the bet.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was the third speaker, but this slightly off-color joke paved the way for others.

I remember once when a great fundraiser who will remain nameless was talking to Lewis about lunch and Lewis asked me to go along, I guess for protection—although he didn't need any protection. The fundraiser was just incredible at persuading people to do stuff and to give big checks and was telling Lewis about the opportunity to have this building built in his honor.

Finally, he reached the crescendo and and he said 'Lewis, we can name the building after your mother.' Without missing a second, Lewis leaned over and whispered to him 'I never really liked my mother.'"

Rendell went on to say that Katz, of course, loved his mother.

Bill Cosby wore sweatpants and a t-shirt to this memorial service. He got up and told a joke that had nothing to do with the deceased.

I will now tell a joke. It has nothing to do with Lewis. It's just that, the feeling here is not one I'm quite used to, where the people are confused about whether they are supposed to clap applaud or whatever. These stories about Lewis keep coming and coming.

The joke is about a man who died, and he was not a nice man. A terrible person. And this is a true story. I won't name the person. The funeral was held in a synagogue. It had nothing to do with the culture or religion. That's who he was. The rabbi said, 'Before we close the coffin, someone has to come up and say something nice about the deceased.' They waited. The rabbi said, 'I'm very serious. I'm not closing this coffin until someone says something nice about the deceased.' A man got up whose shoes were too large for his feet and you could hear the heels clopping . He came up and stood in front of the coffin and said,"His brother was worse."

[link href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Noi1T8QxAzE#t=134m45s' link_updater_label='external' target='_blank']4. Pretend you only got up to give a speech by accident.

Bill Cosby pretends he had to get up to pee and ended up giving a eulogy.

That's all I have to say. The reason I got up was because I wanted to go to the bathroom. And because my eyesight is not good and there was a step off and the people got excited I said, 'I want to pee.' And uh (Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed) Snider said, 'Sit down!' He said 'You're old enough that you can pee on yourself and people will forgive you.' Let me get back to my finishing punch.

5. Tell a [link href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Noi1T8QxAzE#t=72m00s' link_updater_label='external' target='_blank']good personal anecdote

Nobody is better at the anecdote than former President Bill Clinton.

We win in '92 and there's this big fundraiser. Lou's the head of it. So we're sitting up there and I notice he looks a little nervous. I say, 'This is a great turnout. What are you nervous about?'

He said, 'Look, before I get up to introduce you, you have to lean over and whisper in my ear.' I said, 'Okay, what do you want me to say.'

He said, 'I don't care. Say anything you want buddy. If you whisper in my ear, they'll think I'm close to you and I can get them to give more money.'

And he said, 'Hey, I might get lucky and they'll use our parking too.'

So he's about to get up and I whispered, 'Lou, you're a putz." So help me, he didn't smile. He nodded his head gravely as if I had just given him the nuclear codes and he walked up and made his speech."

6. Tell a story that makes you the butt of the joke.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker relates a story in which Katz dressed him up as a member of the Hasidic Jewish sect the Lebavitchers.

I was asked by him one time in my entire life for a favor. Something I had never heard before. I was so excited about doing this favor for him until he asked me would I come to the Southern Jersey Lubavitch dinner and present him with the award that the Lebavitchers (a Hasidic Jewish sect) were giving him. I immediately knew that he is so mischievous that he wanted someone that is very obviously a goy to give the speech for him.

Now, if that wasn't enough, when I got up and tried to speak—it's the only time it's ever happened in my life where I was to be honoring someone—Lewis, sitting at a table, began to heckle me when I was trying to say nice things about him. As I tried to go on and demonstrate my knowledge of Judaism, that was just to his delight. Before the speech was over he had shaken down a rabbi not for money, but for his black hat and his tzizit (a specially knotted ritual tassel worn by observant Jews).

He couldn't quite get the tzizit off, but before I knew it, he's standing on stage with a Lebavitcher's hat, trying to give the culmination of my speech that I thought was going to be meaningful but now everybody is just laughing at me.

Melissa Silver, Katz's daughter, could go toe-to-toe with monotone comic Steven Wright. These two excellent one-liners lit Bill Clinton up like a Christmas tree.

I had an interesting moment this morning with the police escort, because the only dealings I have ever had with the police, my daddy was trying to get me out of...

He once made the colossal mistake of hiring me. I was asked to make three copies of a huge case he was working on. Somehow, the sorter of the copy machine and I didn't get along, and within hours, needless to say, I was gainfully unemployed.

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