Billy Crystal: The pain behind the comedy

Billy Crystal says he has still not come to terms with the shocking and sudden death of his best mate Robin Williams and has so many questions about his 'descent'.

The enduring funnyman gave a rare serious interview with Sunday Night's Rahni Sadler where he said he was in Europe when Williams died and although they talked, he had no idea the extent of his problems.

"He wasn't feeling well and he was, he was having some problems. He told me about the Parkinson's diagnosis," 68 year-old Crystal said.

"I was in Europe when it happened. I was in Rome and we were on vacation and we had been communicating.

"I wasn't around him you know as apparently as this descent was happening and so I was totally shocked"

The pair had been friends since they both started out doing stand up in a comedy club and Crystal said he loved the comic 'more than a brother sometimes'.

Billy got married when he was 21 – and quickly began a family, looking after daughter Jenny during the day and working comedy clubs at night where he forged a strong partnership with Robin Williams.

"We were just really special together, onstage and off. We really loved being with each other."

"It's going to be two years in August [since Williams' death], it still makes no sense. It still makes no sense."

"People to this day want answers and I don't have answers. I don't know. I just have more questions and I just have more pain you know."

Then in the 80s they both made it big in Hollywood together, Robin Williams in classics like Good Will Hunting and Billy Crystal in one of Hollywood’s all time favourites — When Harry Met Sally.

Crystal has more recently made his name as on of Hollywood's most entertaining MCs, hosting the Oscars nine times, once while suffering pneumonia.

"Paul Newman was [backstage] who I had never met at that point and it was like you know, he's getting dressed and they come in with a guy who puts this thing in my arm to give me fluids."

He says that hosting the Oscars has lost its shine in recent years due to social media.

"When I first started, there were like, two or three critics that you thought alright, I hope I get a good review from them."

"Now there's millions of them."

Never one to miss an opportunity to joke around, he shared some of his own social media acronyms for the older generation:

GNIB -Good news, it's benign
WAI - Where am I?
DTLSTY - Does this look swollen to you?"

The man who began his career as a stand-up comic has never lost his love of performing live and will bring his latest production to Australia later this year.

Find out more about the Australian tour at the Dainty Group website, tickets are on sale Monday April 18.