It makes me wonder about Foster Brooks on the Dean Martin roast shows. He was hysterically funny playing a drunk but you have to wonder how much of it was acting and how much real.
Foster Brooks apparently was a teetotaler.
That was Foster Brooks’ act. Dean Martin was not a real drinker - usually it was apple juice in the glass - those guys were professionals, with a lot of class
From what I understand, Foster Brooks did drink in his younger days (before he hit the big time), but quit cold turkey. The fact that so many people wondered whether he was really drunk, or just acting like it, says a lot about how good his routine really was. Other comedians who did a "drunk act" always played it to the extreme - staggering wildly, excessively slurring their words, singing "Sweet Adeline", etc. The genius of Foster Brooks was that he did just the opposite - he played a guy who was obviously drunk, but trying very hard not to let on that he was drunk.