Alan Alda’s talk at the Flint Center on May 13 consisted of equal parts humor and poignant life advice.

Alda first became famous for playing a lead character from the early 70s hit TV show “M*A*S*H.”

Those less familiar with M*A*S*H may recognize him from his recurring role in The Blacklist.

Alda is 79 and still entertained a crowd of strangers better than most people could hope to entertain their friends.

The main reason for Alda’s talk was to promote his new book “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself.”

He did so by stringing together stories that ranged from hilarious to gloomy, often within the span of a single story.

From each story he drew out a small lesson he learned.

“You can’t hold onto something once it’s gone. And even if you manage to grasp onto it in some artificial way, that will only be a shadow of what it was,” Alda said.

This advice was framed by his story of how he dealt with the death of his childhood pet by trying to have it stuffed, which gives you a good sense of how the night played out.

He also spent a good deal of the talk professing that he felt he had no business being up there talking to anyone.

He recalled the numerous times he had been asked to speak at places where he felt unqualified.

“I’ve found that whenever you give advice to someone, you’re really giving yourself advice in a way,” Alda said. “You’re telling them the standards you would like to hold yourself up to.”

From this, the title of his book becomes clear.

Despite how unqualified he may have felt, Alda was entertaining and left the audience with something to think about.