I saw Gilbert perform in 1985 and when he entered to applause he said, “Thank you, thank you very much.” He then continued to say “thank you” repeatedly for ten full minutes. It was the nerviest, funniest thing I had seen. So sorry to lose this sweet and delightfully funny man.
My HARSH WRITING ADVICE is this: Write a fast and terrible first draft, then put it down and walk away. Next time you read it, you'll see that all the baloney has risen to the top so you can scoop it off and replace it. Everything worth reading is done in the re-write. The end.