MARIETTA - Billy Crystal is coming to Cobb, and he's bringing his funny family with him.

Crystal, 61, will present his one-man show called "700 Sundays" at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre from Dec. 16 to Dec. 21. Tickets are $70 to $175 and are available through Ticketmaster.

In 2005, the short, skinny comedian who has often hosted the Oscars and who may be forever known as Harry from the 1980s iconic film "When Harry Met Sally," published a book of memoirs of his childhood and relatives, with their eccentricities and assorted bodily sounds. The book's title, "700 Sundays," refers to the number of Sundays Crystal shared with his father, who died when Billy was just 15.

Theater audiences get to meet additional people from Crystal's life through his portrayals, he said.

"The show just keeps evolving. We keep finding little pieces to put in it. After 370 shows, it's always fresh, every night, for me," the comedian said by phone Friday from West Palm Beach, Fla., where he is performing the show this weekend. Atlanta is the last stop on a six-city tour.

As for which is his favorite persona to portray, Crystal couldn't say.

"I have so much fun doing the show, and I go in and out of them so quickly. There's an old jazz man I do who imparts so much to me. They're all a part of me, but I like having my own voice. '700 Sundays' has been the greatest creative thing I've ever been a part of. I love every show that I do. It's a very informal evening, and a very personal one. It's very funny, and very touching.

"Families are universal, and at the end of the night, my family becomes their family," he said, referring to the audience. "This came about just after my mother died, and there was 9/11, and I had lost a couple of other relatives. I had taken a lot of body blows and I realized it was time for me to talk about them to relieve my own pain."

He began the project on the stage, before writing the book. The show ran on Broadway in 2005, taking in more than $1 million in its highest grossing week at the Broadhurst Theatre. Crystal won the 2005 Tony Award for Special Theatrical Event for the show.

"It was great to do it in a theatrical way, to make it into something cathartic," Crystal said of "Sundays." "It's combining the best of what I do as standup and as an actor."

Crystal grew up in Long Beach, Long Island, N.Y., the youngest of three sons of Jack and Helen Crystal. He and his wife, Janice, have two daughters and three young grandchildren.

He also has family in Atlanta, and was last here about two years ago. His mother's sister, Jean Greenberg, was a well-known obstetrician-gynecologist in Atlanta before her death last summer.

Crystal said the Harry Burns character in "Harry...Sally" was one of his favorites, though his voice role as Mike Wazowski in "Monsters Inc." is scoring points with his grandchildren.

"They're realizing that I was Mike, and that's a big deal to them. I love little Mike," he said. (For others who love little Mike, a sequel is coming, he said.)

"People just make me laugh. Janice makes me laugh. That's probably the key to being married 40 years," he said. "I find laughs in anyone who really does it right, and I so appreciate that. Mel Brooks is the funniest person I've ever been around. He's in a special place by himself."

"700 Sundays" shares a lot about Crystal's life and talents, such as how he saw his first movie with "Miss Billie" Holliday and earned a baseball scholarship to college. One thing he can't do is sing harmony, he said.

"I have a tin left ear," he said.

What would surprise fans to learn about him?

"That I didn't have an affair with Tiger Woods," he dead-panned.