“ … there is something very interesting about Leonard [Cohen] that not too many people know, or would expect. He’s hilarious! One of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He did everything possible to crack up the band at any given opportunity. He stood on his head to get motorists’ attention when our tour bus broke down in Europe. He read comic books aloud to us (and in that deeply serious voice, we were dying from laughing so hard), and would raid the hotel kitchen at night and cook for us. He bought me an extremely silly cuckoo clock in Switzerland. When we played The Troubadour in LA, someone outside the club kept yelling up to his dressing room window, ‘Leonard, I need to talk to you about death!’ Leonard calmly went to the window and said, ‘Friend, can this wait until after my gig? Death is so final.’
— Emily Bindiger, a backup singer who worked with Leonard Cohen as described above. She is the female vocalist on the studio version duet of “Who By Fire.” From If You Need Someone To Crack You Up, Leonard Cohen Is Your Man
