Comedy writer Alan Zweibel visited Chautauqua Institution on Monday to essentially kick off the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival and served as a precursor to the grand opening of The National Comedy Center. P-J Photo by Jordan W. Patterson

CHAUTAUQUA — Comedy writer Alan Zweibel told stories of his comedy writing beginnings which included him literally hiding behind a plant during his first big “Saturday Night Live” meeting where he met his life-long platonic friend and comedic actress Gilda Radner.

Zweibel wrote a book about their friendship called “Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner: A Sort of Love Story,” and subsequently by recalling his start in show business on Monday, he told much of that sort of love story once more.

Zweibel visited Chautauqua Institution on Monday to essentially kick off the Lucille Ball Festival and served as the precursor to the grand opening of the National Comedy Center.

Zweibel has previously worked on “Saturday Night Live,” “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “Late Show With David Letterman” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Zweibel has won five Emmys and two Writers Guild of America awards through out his career.

He collaborated with comedian, writer, actor and producer Billy Crystal numerous times, but most notably on the Tony award-winning play, adapted from Crystal’s autobiography, “700 Sundays.” The original SNL writer also authored “The Other Shulman,” “Lunatics,” “North,” among others.

Inside the Smith-Wilkes Hall, in association with The National Comedy Center, Zweibel recounted various stories, but primarily told the story of he and Radner’s friendship. Zweibel was introduced by the institution’s Chief of Staff Matt Ewalt. A video clip was shown comprised of various scenes from Zweibel’s numerous contributions to television shows and movies over the course of his career.

Zweibel took those in attendance back in history to how he even began writing comedy and where he began.

“I find the whole thing incredibly ironic because, initially, it wasn’t even my idea to become a comedy writer. This was a decision made for me about 40 years ago by every law school in the United States,” Zweibel joked.

Throughout the afternoon lecture, Zweibel told stories that generated much laughter – primarily at his own expense – from the crowd which included comedian Lewis Black who will be at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

Zweibel’s writing career began by writing jokes for comedians in the Catskills where he initially earned $7 dollars per joke. He said writing for those comedians was often difficult because they didn’t have personas, unlike comedians Zweibel would later write for like Rodney Dangerfield.

He later decided to put together his best jokes and perform stand-up comedy in New York City as a way to advertise his writing capabilities. Following one of his sets, he was told by a man in the audience that he was the worst comedian the unknown man had ever witnessed. That man happened to be Lorne Michaels, creator of SNL. While Michaels wasn’t a fan of Zweibel’s performance, he was fond of the actual writing and gave Zweibel an interview for which he prepared 1,100 jokes. After Michaels read the first joke during the interview, according to Zweibel, he was given a job as a comedic writer in 1972.

“This was everything I dreamed of,” Zweibel said of how he felt at the time.

It was at the first meeting among cast members and writers where he met Radner – while they were hiding behind a plant. Out of nervousness from working on their first TV show, the two hid behind the plant and began their long friendship. Behind the plant, the two made each other laugh for first time, something that Zweibel would continue to do throughout Radner’s life because, as he put it, that was his job.

Radner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer some time after the original members left SNL. Radner told Zweibel about the diagnosis and requested one thing from him: laughter. Zweibel recalled Radner telling him that “comedy was her only weapon against (her cancer).”

Zweibel said he would call her at night to tell her jokes and send her tapes of the “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.”

“That was my role,” Zweibel said. “That’s where the writer in me kicked in.”

When Radner started to feel ill again, Zweibel said he was convinced of his role prior to her death.

“I had to make my platonic friend laugh,” he said. “That was my job. That’s what the writer had to do.”