TVSquad

Don Rickles, the premiere insult comic, will be honored with the first Pinnacle Award at the Comedy and Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado next month. The ceremony will include a screening of John Landis' documentary about the comedian, The Rickles Project. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Landis and Rickles.

Rickles got his start playing night clubs, later moving on to film and television. He appeared on several of Dean Martin's "Roasts" and was also the star of his own television series in the '70s, C.P.O. Sharkey, one of a few short-lived shows featuring Rickles (others included Daddy Dearest and The Don Rickles Show). Rickles also guest starred on several other television series, such as The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, and Newhart.

I've always admired Rickles for doing a type of comedy I don't think many can pull off. It's easy to get on stage and hurl rants and insults, but Rickles could sell it in such a way that you knew it was all just a put on. When it comes down to choosing between someone like Rickles and younger comics who want merely to spew vitriol at the audience and society in general, I'll take Rickles any day.