If confidence is key to a comedy career, then Jerry Lewis was an all-time great based on hubris alone. Not only was Lewis on top of the laughs game, as he told Larry Wilde in The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy, but he knew more about most fields than the people who studied the subjects in college.

“Would you know what the procedure for brain surgery is from reading books?” Lewis asked. “I could tell you because I watched it. Same thing with an appendectomy, tonsillectomy, amputation, I’ve seen (them).”

But Lewis’ practical knowledge extended far beyond the medical field. “You think you could articulate about what makes a submarine go 400 feet below the surface of the water by reading about it? Or being in it, like I was? Or jumping,” Lewis offered. “Did you ever jump in a parachute? You can read about it, but that ain’t gonna tell you anything.