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At 92NY, Joy Behar, Alan Alda & Roger Rosenblatt Turn Aging Into a Sharp, Funny Life Lesson Ahead of June 7 Book Release
With Rosenblatt’s More Rules for Aging out June 7, the longtime friends and cultural icons share candid, comedic reflections on growing older, creativity, and resilience during a packed 92NY conversation in Manhattan.
Joy Behar. Alan Alda. Roger Rosenblatt.
Three famously funny, intellectually curious friends walked into the 92nd Street Y (92NY) in Manhattan to talk about aging, writing, and what it means to keep showing up for life with humor intact.
All writers, longtime friends, and accomplished media personalities, they brought a mix of candor and comedy to a packed audience.
Having lived for at least eight decades, each offered their own lived philosophy on aging, resilience and reinvention.
“The point was to sell Roger’s book, More Rules for Aging,” said Behar, who moderated the conversation. “Alan, age 90, talked about his Parkinson’s and how he always looks for a solution for things that puzzle him — like how not to fall when he puts his pants on.”
Rosenblatt, a New York Times contributor and author of 23 books, is having a moment with his latest release — a follow-up to his national bestseller published 25 years ago, when he was 60.
“The new book doesn’t come out until June 7, and it’s already No. 1,” he said with a chuckle.
Asked what prompted him to revisit aging a quarter-century later, Rosenblatt didn’t hesitate.
“A desire for money,” he said in his trademark deadpan. “It took me 25 years to discover I’m broke.”
Then he added: “Actually, my good friends Gary Trudeau and Jane Pauley encouraged me to write the book. And Ginny — my wife — she’s crazy for money.”
A noted writing teacher for more than 60 years (he retired about five years ago), Rosenblatt said writing More Rules for Aging: Making the Most of Your Ridiculous, Wondrous Life (Turtle Point Press) was “a breeze,” completed in about 22 days.
He explained that his original Rules for Aging was really about living, while the new book is more explicitly about growing older.
Rosenblatt on Aging: No One Is Thinking About You
“I’ve lived long enough to have these kinds of thoughts within me,” he said.
Among them:
- Nobody is thinking about you.
- Run when you hear, “We must do this again” (said at the end of a pointless social event; nobody means it).
- Screw it up royally. Life is an assembly of creative mistakes.
- Don’t question everything you don’t understand. The older you get, the more wonderful life appears. “Where heartbreak is, beauty intrudes. Wondrously.”
- Do not seek immortality. It won’t come through your works or achievements — but through the good feeling you have for others, and they for you. That goes on forever.
At 85, Rosenblatt appears comfortable in his skin. He still writes for The New York Times about once a month and is matter-of-fact about where he is in life.
“I have no ambitions anymore but to treat my friends well and take care of my family — it’s a calming realization,” he said. “You learn to cherish what you have and not look for what you don’t.”
He described the 92NY conversation with Behar and Alda as “an absolute hoot.”
“They packed the place, and we are all good friends,” he said. “We talked about all the nonsense we’ve lived through.”
Joy Behar on Aging & Humor
As for Behar, 83, her approach to aging is characteristically blunt and funny.
“Being old is a pain in the ass … but this is my favorite decade,” she said. “If it wasn’t for some bitch Pilates instructor who just crippled me, and the fact that I have to pee 20 times a night and sometimes get vertigo, I’m enjoying my 80s.”
“I’m in demand — can you believe it? I was just asked to do a gig in Toronto. I’m writing my plays, I’m constantly working on what I can do with my characters … I’m enjoying the ride.”
More Rules for Aging: Making the Most of Your Ridiculous, Wondrous Life by Roger Rosenblatt (Turtle Point Press) will be available June 7 wherever books are sold.
