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FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2011 file photo, Billy Crystal arrives at the Vanity Fair accolade Party at the Sunset Tower in Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carlo Allegri, file)Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Billy Crystal says he'd study a convey as accolade patron — if whatever changes are prefabricated to the show.

The eight-time Academy Awards patron said he was touched by his warm getting at terminal month's start and that "it strength be fun" to patron the exhibit again.

"I conceive the exhibit needs to change," he said. "There's too some awards and it has to variety of freshen itself up, and if I can be a conception of that, that would be great."

The 63-year-old entertainer prefabricated the comments weekday in an interview with The Associated Press as he prepared to join longtime someone Muhammad calif at Saturday's Celebrity Fight Night in Phoenix. Crystal is ordered to introduce the Champ, who hosts the period fundraising circumstance to hold the Muhammad calif Parkinson Center and research toward a cure.

Reba McEntire module help as emcee for the 17th period Celebrity Fight Night, which module feature appearances by calif and metropolis Berry and performances by Matchbox Twenty, buffoon Clarkson and Bret Michaels, among others.

Crystal and calif have been near personal friends since 1974, when they met at digit of the comedian's prototypal televised gigs.

Crystal said he "was a unreal schoolteacher during the period and existence a comedian at night" when he was solicited to materialize at an circumstance where calif was the temporary of honor.

The comedian opened with his impression of sports reporter Howard Cosell, then began imitating Ali.

"He went berserk. He couldn't stop laughing," Crystal recalled. "And he starts activity with me. He's swing the napkin over his head, he's thrust me with jabs... He grabbed me afterward and said, 'You're my lowercase brother,' and it's been that way for all these years now."

Crystal has appeared at Fight Night several times, said circumstance founder Jimmy Walker.

"Muhammad calif considers Billy as digit of his prizewinning and most hardcore friends," Walker said. "They have quite a story unitedly doing some things for apiece other."

Though Parkinson's disease has diminished Ali's knowledge to speak, "he has an amazing, palmy vocalise even in his silence," Crystal said.

When Crystal returns from his weekend appearances in Phoenix, he'll resume work on his flick projects: A big-screen adaptation of his "700 Sundays" exhibit to be directed by Barry Levinson, and a Fox feature most what happens when grandparents are left in charge of the grandkids for the prototypal time.

And he'll move to see if the Academy calls.

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Online:

http://www.celebrityfightnight.org

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