If It's Raining On Them, It's Raining On Us

When asked what Bill’s favorite show business story was, Bill discussed a moment when he was waiting in a car outside the TIFF Theatre in Toronto. Hundreds of fans had been lined up since daybreak to score free tickets for screenings of “Stripes,” “Groundhog Day” and “Ghostbusters.” Followers were dressed in full costume to pay homage to a diverse range of his roles. Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival were gambling that if they declared Friday “Bill Murray Day,” the elusive actor would turn up for his own day. And so Bill found himself in a car outside the theater, ready to surprise everybody once all the fans got inside. “Just about when I was going from the car to the auditorium, all of a sudden, there was a huge cloudburst. And they’re like, ‘Wait here, Mr. Murray, wait here in the car,’ and I’m like, ‘What for?’ Because there’s all these people and everybody’s dressed up in Ghostbusters gear. A real entertainer would never sit safe and dry in the car because if it’s raining on you, it’s raining on me. That’s the way the old school guys do it. "I remember I went to see George Burns at the Hollywood Bowl. It was an outdoor venue. And it starts to drizzle. The way they had the show is, Burns would come out and do some stuff, Carol Channing would come out and do some stuff, Burns would come out and do some stuff, then Carol Channing would have changed her clothes and come out and done another thing. She kept doing costume changes and he kept doing, you know, funny bits in between. "The drizzle was consistent and Carol came out with a parasol over her head. Burns, continuing to speak, gently steps over and takes the parasol and closes it. That was a 95-year-old man going, ‘No, this is show business. If it’s raining on them, it’s raining on us.'"