00:00:01
this next character was a thrill for me to have on the podcast Mr William
00:00:07
Shatner um we did this one a while back so we do talk about him going in outer space
00:00:13
which was uh an extraordinary to hear it firsthand and he hosted SNL like my
00:00:20
eighth show and he was I've mentioned before one of the funniest hosts ever
00:00:26
and so we talk all about that and and you can talk to this too the other thing about it is he's so philosophical he's
00:00:34
incredibly curious yeah and I'm still in awe of his brain and when you see him
00:00:40
it's like what you know he's 91 or something universally liked kind of guy
00:00:46
Super Famous everyone knows who he is he is such a great life great career and he
00:00:52
always uh like he said curious he's always trying new things he got involved in space we talked about that we had
00:00:57
done this a little while ago so if some things you know I talk about um did you talk about UFOs I might have
00:01:04
asked him about that or you said you believed in it and then he wanted to really get really into that why because
00:01:10
when we take him do you believe in them Roswell just happened that was in 1947. uh so it was a while
00:01:16
ago but uh yeah Thriller album we talk about because it just came out Mike Tyson bit that dude yeah we did a
00:01:23
huge uh some of them get left and I just found this one in the glove compartment I'm like guys we never even aired this
00:01:29
one so uh shatter we had a great time with and you could talk to talk to him
00:01:34
every week if we could he just did a blast yeah Bill Bill chatting her to his friends Billy schatner or BS BB if you
00:01:41
see DiCaprio do you call him Leo or do you call him I call him cap what's up cap I go hey no cap I'm a
00:01:48
goddamn I'm a goddamn husband would that guy say to you since I gotta go to Italy
00:01:54
Town westerns I can think of worse things than that I was doing Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio I don't normally
00:02:00
do little sketches on this podcast it's not what we're about no we'll do them soon though come on keep your garage
00:02:05
peeled all right so William Shatner enjoy this one what a fun fun guest Billy shot
00:02:12
his pants [Music]
00:02:19
you you both are vying for great hair uh it's all an illusion my skull is like a
00:02:26
game of Risk there's only so many soldiers in so much territory there's a
00:02:31
lot of product fluffing I think and a lot of a lot of eruptions eruptions yes
00:02:37
I erupt awesome yeah speaking of eruptions hey how are you Bill it's so nice to see you now you
00:02:44
guys got a thing going here yeah yeah we do well we're discovering in real time
00:02:51
we can think of anyone we want to talk to and uh you were literally the first
00:02:58
person that popped into my head no I'm not kidding I'm not kidding you go to
00:03:03
that Trump you know let me tell you something we're doing very good excuse me excuse me you
00:03:09
did a terrific thing I wouldn't go up you know basis nobody cares listen to me we're doing very well we're doing
00:03:16
terrific many people are saying excuse me excuse me we're not gonna what do you do when he does that I don't know
00:03:22
usually we're at dinner and I let him go because it cracks I do it for my own Amusement but no seriously William
00:03:27
Shatner well wait a minute seriously are you in your bedroom what one of my one
00:03:33
of my bedrooms one of my bedrooms are you wearing pajamas I I I'm doing a uh
00:03:40
Jeffrey tuben let's put it that way I'm uh he literally rolled out it's called
00:03:45
doing a tubing uh or or or or or a single he could have
00:03:52
he could have pleasured himself before after the zoomi just he really reach in
00:03:57
and do it I I've only I didn't see it I didn't I didn't want to watch the
00:04:02
picture it was literally like this like in between zooms he's standing walking
00:04:07
around and then he starts and everyone's like well he reaches down no the camera tilts down he's already kind of doing it
00:04:15
right and he gets caught first wait a minute the camera tilts down like that yeah I think so
00:04:23
[Music] you seriously he he actually he tilted
00:04:31
the camera down so you would see what he was doing yeah and then three months later there was a grace period he was
00:04:36
talking about global Econo economics but all I thought of was the tube and I've did this figure of speech when you're
00:04:43
you were dating in the 1950s this figure of speech bill when did this
00:04:50
when did this come up he's a to a woman he's a very nice guy but he can't be
00:04:56
intelligence but he can't keep it in his pants when did that phrase come in he can't keep it
00:05:03
in his pants
00:05:09
[Laughter]
00:05:14
but she was referring to a pencil I was trying to steal and I put it in my pocket
00:05:20
um are we are we going to start recording our army we're always recording bro we're almost done shoot
00:05:27
the shoot the rehearsal oh uh happy hour Camp I I thought of a question I want to ask yeah I have 38 for you but go ahead
00:05:35
all right this will be the 1A okay you two are
00:05:41
very funny guys your your reputation stand up a series that you're very funny
00:05:47
people naturally professionally is it an onus is it onerous for you like to
00:05:55
have a conversation like this like you're expected to be funny uh not in this particular session no but
00:06:02
in life sometimes you're gonna do an hour we're gonna do an hour right we're gonna talk and we're going to schmooze
00:06:07
and we're gonna yeah you feel it like incumbent upon you to be amusing
00:06:17
because you're known to be amusing you're funny so you got to be funny now
00:06:22
well since this is quote unquote kind of behind the scenes we don't have as much
00:06:28
of the allegiance to jokes per moment like I'm very interested in your whole
00:06:34
life so I like that we're going to work on both frequencies but I'm not so it kind of cancels it out it really does
00:06:40
the question who do I who do I who do you play to who's the most appealing
00:06:46
right exactly I think you'd play I I when I heard about this because Dana did mention you early on we were going to
00:06:51
say let's talk to people from SNL or SNL related like music Act cast member host
00:06:57
whatever just some wispy connection and then we can talk about anything also but we'll touch on it and then Dana put you
00:07:04
on this first list of like and I was like oh cool and then uh I said I don't know him I almost saw you the other
00:07:10
night but I I don't know him but that's someone that is a guy that has so many things
00:07:16
over his life that you can keep asking stuff about that you've been asked a million times we try not to do that
00:07:22
we'll try to get but no I I have a few jokes Deep dive on your new album which
00:07:28
is yeah have you heard it it's incredible uh bill the lyrics uh the one uh Tuffy about
00:07:36
being Jewish in the 19 whatever and getting bullied and how you had to be a badass I think because you're not
00:07:42
reinterpreting A Space Odyssey or or you know rocket man that this is by
00:07:47
autobiographical in the sense I know you had someone working with you but listening to you and your stories
00:07:54
the whole album is autobiographical yeah that's uh that was
00:07:59
that was the point I guess uh the whole thing is Mystical in the way it came together and also there's an addendum to
00:08:06
it that I could talk to you about yeah I would like to know right now yeah well okay so I did uh I did this uh album
00:08:14
called bill and the the thought was well let me just sketch it in it just came
00:08:20
out I mean right it's very nice news yeah it's been out of about about a month um
00:08:26
I became friendly with a uh a guy doesn't write for a living who is
00:08:32
an executive I don't quite remember the circumstances but it turns out we started meeting at a
00:08:38
Chinese restaurant of which you will know so I won't say its name but a weird Chinese restaurant whose main menu is
00:08:47
Duck like oh Chinese stuff sounds like an old joke right two China two Chinese
00:08:53
men went into a and a duck you can't do those jokes anymore so we it became a
00:09:00
routine every time you came in from New York he called Sam here and we'd go to the Chinese river to have a duck and we
00:09:05
became the best of friends there's quite a difference in our ages uh uh but we
00:09:11
have so much in common including people and people we know people we don't know in the work and we just became
00:09:19
inordinately friendly was just a lovely thing that was happening and then one
00:09:25
day he brought a friend of his along to dinner uh to have duck and this friend was a uh a guy
00:09:34
he was friendly with in University and they had a musical group together and this guy whose name is Dan Miller went
00:09:41
on to do uh They Might Be Giants and he's won all kinds of awards and Rob the
00:09:47
the poet went on to do uh uh not to be an Entertainer but to be an executive so
00:09:53
now Dan the musician says to us why don't we write an album oh okay let's
00:10:00
write an album and one of the two of them said let's make it about Bill and Bill said oh okay let's make it about me
00:10:06
because I've written several books about him uh yeah bills so I I've written
00:10:11
several stories about things that have happened to me and and they've became books so we took some of the incidences
00:10:18
that uh that it went through my life like the one that comes to mind that is
00:10:24
most succinct would be I'm leaving home I've graduated from University of
00:10:29
Montreal and I've been an actor since I was very young in Montreal but now I'm
00:10:34
going to the the mecca of Canada Toronto I'm on my way to Toronto I'm leaving
00:10:39
home and I'm crossing a bridge probably across the Saint Lawrence River and I'm
00:10:45
driving a little cheap car my father lent me a couple of hundred dollars and I bought a Morris Minor and it's falling
00:10:51
apart but it's my conveyance and I've got everything thing I own in the car and I'm driving across this bridge and
00:10:57
coming at me is an 18-wheeler oh my God and that 18 wheeler is pushing
00:11:03
this volume of air and the air almost pushes me over the bridge and I almost go over the bridge and all my belongings
00:11:08
to me I'd have died and nobody would have known that I ever existed but I exist and I cross the bridge and the
00:11:14
song is about we're always crossing a bridge and we're
00:11:19
always facing 18 wheelers coming at us so the song although ostensibly about me is generalized is is a more General
00:11:29
appeal and that's what we've done with all the songs on Bill now the the next
00:11:34
part of this conversation or this Soliloquy is
00:11:41
I'm in New York City bill has been released it's gotten phenomenal reviews bill has been
00:11:47
released the three of us are having dinner I'm on my way this is Sunday night and on on Monday morning I'm on my
00:11:54
way to the desert to go up in the air and and we say let's write a song about
00:12:00
space so we start sketching out you know yeah then and then what's his name said little blue dot and then we go in again
00:12:06
and and we figure out what it's like and we kind of sketch out the song when I come down from space uh being having
00:12:14
been in actuality in space I call Rob I said Rob you remember the dinner we had
00:12:19
last week yeah everything we talked about space yeah everything we said that
00:12:24
space is going to be like forget about it has nothing to do and we've we've written a song of what
00:12:32
actually I felt had happened we've got a Monumental song is that so far from the
00:12:37
moon or this is a new song now nice yeah because so far from the moon was is on
00:12:43
bill and it's got a bill and this is the next album well I was so just to go
00:12:51
to that I was driving down the 101 from Santa Ynez and you it was landing and you came out
00:12:59
and of course like everyone has told you first of all how articulate you were because I looked at the Wikipedia page
00:13:05
you're not you know 22 23 24 years of age I felt like you were so present and
00:13:11
then what you said was so emotional and ever the world has talked about it how does it feel now it's been a few weeks
00:13:17
later that you spontaneously came out of there and you talked about that Thin Blue Line shot into outer space The
00:13:22
Whole World's in tears and this happens to you now I mean it just is still a little surreal what
00:13:30
you're saying is really to me is fascinating when I uh two years ago uh a
00:13:37
young producer who produced uh better late than never a series that went on went around the world run away with with
00:13:45
some great guys and it was very successful but it was too expensive that were canceled after two years so this
00:13:51
guy Jason Ehrlich was the the producer of it so he says to me one day I'm know blue origin is going to send a spaceship
00:13:59
up there and uh they're going to get passengers and you should go and I said
00:14:05
Jason nobody oh why would I want to go away I don't need to go I don't need to
00:14:11
go I've got [ __ ] to do yeah exactly I got I got interviews to make he goes
00:14:16
it's 12 minutes you're like okay everyone's got 20 somewhere so uh he
00:14:22
says no they we really really would so he calls Seattle calls them and they say
00:14:28
oh great idea come on up so we fly up to Seattle and we enter the lobby of
00:14:34
of Amazon which is a giant room filled with Star Trek paraphernalia oh wow
00:14:41
unbelievable number the spaceship itself the Enterprise itself is in a big glass
00:14:47
globe and people flock their event and there comes Jeff Bezos hey Jeff and we
00:14:53
take pictures around the the Enterprise then we sit down at the table and they say oh yeah that's you know that's a
00:14:59
really cool idea so we leave Seattle thinking Hmm and I'm thinking well I suppose I you know go up in a space
00:15:06
covid hits a year goes by and nothing happens and then somewhere about six months ago they called and they said you
00:15:13
know Jeff is going to go up uh that's what we hear so uh Jason Ehrlich says well maybe Jeff
00:15:22
will pick you newbie is uh I don't know Sadie Hawkins a lovely lady and he picks
00:15:29
a very young guy and that though so now they go up and I said to Jason you see yeah
00:15:36
and then he cares about me nobody cares about it so now they announce the second vehicle is going to go up and Jesus in
00:15:44
the second film and and I said listen that's like the vice president you know no you they want the president the
00:15:50
president went up the vice president never appears you know I'm not going to go I don't need to go too much trouble around the desert I read with
00:15:57
they call Shadow would you like to go I'm thinking you know
00:16:04
space I like that I like it weightlessness
00:16:09
what's that yeah no no Pilots we don't you don't even press a button like a
00:16:15
ride maybe they'll need a pilot yeah you're actually you're like when you were trying to take over if it sucks I
00:16:22
could give voice commands all right uh I agree to go based on the thrill of
00:16:30
going up it's purely and only yeah in my mind nobody's going to pay any attention they
00:16:36
weren't going to obey any attention to begin with second shot forget about it just oh no
00:16:42
it's going into space it was so big I mean if who who knew I could have
00:16:49
predicted it but I I know from your point of view oh David yeah if I had called you if you just said call me I'll
00:16:56
tell you what it's gonna be like but no you kept your silence and what and what did I know I used to run a PR firm and
00:17:03
it was a home run but if the no but I I was a buy guy they could have said it
00:17:09
would have made sense I go do you want the buy guy and I'd be like bye-bye bye-bye and I go up in the rocket but no
00:17:15
one was listening to me yeah but there's a certain permanence to bye-bye or of Wars yeah
00:17:23
if it had exploded on takeoff that would have been the greatest mic drop it was that possibility because going
00:17:32
through my head yes
00:17:37
that documentary everybody's seen about the Hindenburg yeah exploding and people
00:17:42
running oh the humanity of humanity if it had been filled with helium it would have been oh the humanity oh my God
00:17:49
that's funny now that's funny with hydrogen and that's what they were
00:17:57
putting in the rocket and they said anytime there's a pause bill on the
00:18:02
launch pad go ahead David I was saying he just he got worried because right before they went up they go can you sign
00:18:08
these 200 waivers just press hard 12 copies just initial where if you blow up everything's cool with that on the first
00:18:16
conversation there where there were multiple did you ever Skydive you guys
00:18:21
ever saw that no but I've been in a thrill airplane yeah that's like being on the bus well they take film of you
00:18:29
saying it's okay I mean oh yeah the the plan they go through to make sure
00:18:34
they're not to blame if you die I'm still suing no matter what they would have sued Paramount Pictures or something anybody I'll sue anybody near
00:18:42
me by the way I have to say I know you went up and it was fun but everyone is so horny for Mars like why Mars I to me
00:18:49
and this is my opinion it's even a bigger [ __ ] in the moon like nothing's happening on Mars nothing's
00:18:56
happening on the moon and you know I believe in UFOs and stuff so that's sort of what do you mean you believe that UFO
00:19:02
yeah I mean I think I mean see I told him they are real I don't believe they're
00:19:10
real wait a minute wait a minute there's a there's a difference here UFOs means
00:19:15
unidentified flying up I believe things are unidentified they're everywhere there's [ __ ] going on that's
00:19:21
unidentified there's stuff in my room yeah out there do you know what Fatima Morgana is
00:19:27
I worked with them it was a It's a pasta dish isn't it Morgana from Star Wars
00:19:34
no Fatima Ghana is the is the phenomena
00:19:39
that uh you see in the desert with uh with Oasis why do you see an oasis
00:19:47
in the desert on occasion and Mirage yeah the palm trees and the thing yeah
00:19:53
that's UFO that's being projected from an actual Oasis somewhere it could be a
00:19:58
thousand miles away but as a result of some visual phenomena where that image is
00:20:05
projected into a heat uh shelf occurrent and it and it's a
00:20:11
it's a broadcasting phenomena that like uh like whales bounce off their sound
00:20:18
off of yeah Sonar yeah what warm uh
00:20:23
currents I think we heard thousands of miles away these images bounce off a
00:20:28
Heat current and then appear on earth 100 miles or 10 miles a thousand miles
00:20:34
away right and that's called a fata Morgana so wait a minute you might be
00:20:39
seeing us yeah William Shatner so you're saying Star Trek was not real you're
00:20:44
saying that you didn't go to those planets no no I did thank you Dana
00:20:51
doesn't get it thank you
00:20:57
I I want to do my wish list but in a second I have a wish list well I have a question too okay but this
00:21:04
is is it related to Blue origin so I think instead of coming to blows you could is it related to Blue origin yeah
00:21:11
oh this is my wish list go ahead Elvis the William shatter was the first artist
00:21:18
to go in space and come back down and then we got all this cool poetry basically spontaneously so the next
00:21:25
spaceship I'm thinking Dylan Dr Dre Springsteen Howard Stern Billy eilish
00:21:31
and David Spade you just added me I just added you in but I mean
00:21:37
can we say badly because you interrupted him from asking I did you thought you'd make him you throw him a bone now we're
00:21:43
getting into raw nerve which I love by the way does anyone ever ask you about that show Phil I got a show called I
00:21:51
don't understand I'm doing a talk show called I don't understand again hardly anybody's watching it because it's it's
00:21:57
um streaming but you can look at it but I get all those I do I've done
00:22:05
50 half hours yeah weirdest strangest people and subjects yeah and although
00:22:12
it's the personality driven like like uh raw nerve get
00:22:17
like what's a lie what's a lie oh that's why you're trying to catch me on what's
00:22:24
a UFO no what's a lie well what's a UFO okay talk about a UFO the biggest Lies
00:22:30
We Tell are the are the stories we tell ourselves oh boy heavy well uh that requires
00:22:36
analysis too David yeah take the UFO thing for example sure what do you mean
00:22:42
you believe in UFOs what does that mean UFO is a is
00:22:48
a term you're right unidentified flying object that could be a piece of paper in here it's unidentified means nothing is
00:22:55
it actual aliens from different planet that's a little more specific and have
00:23:00
you seen those pictures it could be fake on the moon where there's like three ships on the side of it waiting in the
00:23:05
wings terrifying I haven't seen that terrifying and there's a lot of stuff like that but I believe since I was a
00:23:12
kid I was into that stuff so but I think you're into that well I'm into it in in as much that
00:23:20
those recent pictures from the Navy Pilots yeah make me think what is that
00:23:26
and then the the the Navy it talks about ships going under the water uh yeah
00:23:31
disappearing into the water what is that we don't know I mean they could be coming from the bottom they don't have
00:23:37
to come from space they could be chilling on the bottom of the ocean shooting with conversations I had with
00:23:42
Bob Ballard who is the guy who filmed the Titanic and what but he's a major uh
00:23:49
a marine biologist so he was looking he'd sent a a
00:23:56
bathosphere down to the separation of tectonic plates at the 30
00:24:02
000 feet under the ocean okay there is a there is a bleeding scar in the ocean uh
00:24:09
I believe where the tectonic plates are separating and there's magma right there
00:24:15
yeah hot stone okay yeah so he puts a bathosphere with people in it down below
00:24:21
and he's like lurking there and he can't come up because there's a cave and finally he gets up and they're coming up
00:24:27
like this slowly and they're looking at the window and they're seeing what seems to be like a
00:24:33
chimney and they're going past the chimney and suddenly they're at the top of the chimney and spewing out of the
00:24:40
chimney is hot 600 degree Fahrenheit water six boiling point of water is to
00:24:47
212 degrees 600 degrees Fahrenheit yeah it's coming out of this plume of water not only it
00:24:54
it's 30 000 feet under so there's 30 000 feet of pressure 600 000 degrees 600
00:25:01
degrees Fahrenheit boiling water and it's all sulfurous okay and as they go by they see 13 foot
00:25:11
worms living there and clams they're living right in those in that
00:25:18
um extreme conditions
00:25:25
what does that say about life can go it can go anywhere the city is terrifying
00:25:30
terrifying well why is it terrifying well I think the most there's it's there's so much unknown that way that we
00:25:36
don't pay attention to oh boy but but unknown doesn't mean necessarily terrifying just to me it does but I
00:25:43
think David that's a clue to your whole character isn't it fear don't lean in that makes
00:25:50
me more scared that means you're on to something but no but you lean back that's scary
00:25:56
self-deprecating yeah no I'm scared of uh six foot worms and did you say
00:26:01
defecating yes I no I said I was just describing an action that I'm performing right now no I said deprecating oh Mr
00:26:08
tubing that's another way is a waist down Affair no one sees I
00:26:16
have a Dennis Miller Story that uh just a light just to change gears I'm sorry this is so many boring but I think you
00:26:23
were the host of SNL and Dennis said that he walked somewhere with you you
00:26:28
might not remember this he was his observation but he told me years ago that when you walk with people that when
00:26:34
you walk with you when people would yell your name you would casually go like that because that's kind of what they wanted and you would just say it while
00:26:41
you talked because it was so ingrained and people just go hey I was going while you're still talking story and what a
00:26:47
great it can't be true can't be true at all I can't even do that that's more of a Spock thing is that I can't do that
00:26:53
yeah he said people why did you do it and you were like casual because you were so famous who it was sort of a fun
00:26:59
complimentary story that you were walking around like what the queen does you know I just sort of regally
00:27:07
thank you very much well let's put a hit out on them nothing what's more of a popular phrase that you
00:27:15
hear is it beam me up Scotty or warp speed captain
00:27:22
you know have you have you gone out and signed autographs yeah oh comic-con's
00:27:27
big one you you you probably don't do them because you're too big of a deal at those things no no I don't do I I don't
00:27:33
do small things I just do very large things yeah you do that or small things
00:27:38
that pay very well I think that's good you're not afraid to say no decide on
00:27:44
the autograph you signed the answer would you sign something so it's a toss-up between those two which is the most popular see hey Dana that was a
00:27:51
good question uh that was a that was a good why shouldn't you be able to ask a good question David because I'm kind of
00:27:57
stupid Dana said but I think that that was because I know starts Gonna Get
00:28:03
Along I've had five years of intensive therapy I started at 60. yeah I learned
00:28:09
I learned a lot you came up a lot in there David does David know about therapy and all that kind of thing I do
00:28:16
I haven't gotten into it but that means I'm not fixed yet but I'm just sort of uh skimming by but Dana teaches me a lot
00:28:23
because Dana and I are old friends and he's very sweet SNL and we have dinners
00:28:29
and I learned a lot from him because he's he knows the drill and so I'm the older Statesman but I do we we get along
00:28:36
really well I've known David since his before SNL there was a movie that David was in
00:28:43
everybody quiet eight heads in a yeah it was a straight roll David and you were
00:28:50
you're you were splitting you were right on the on the ledge of it was a
00:28:56
beautiful performance of of you who are known for your comedy throttled that
00:29:01
that cometic instinct way back and you were very real and and it was really a
00:29:07
good really good performance what movie would that have been Jack and Jill
00:29:12
Tommy Boy no there was one called warning shot where I played it straight uh there's a couple where I don't do
00:29:19
that many and people say you should do it more but the truth is I don't get offered that stuff of course
00:29:25
you have to go out there and find it and Chase it and work for nothing and do all
00:29:30
that and it's a big payoff if you can find there's a thought I'd had and I need you two guys to to corroborate
00:29:38
most if not all Comics people known for the comedy and do stand up and do and
00:29:43
now become traditionally oh you're funny be funny yeah uh started off as actors
00:29:50
and just you you were you were naturally amusing and people said oh you're funny and you developed that gift and finally
00:29:57
the acting roles uh became less and less and the design the demand for you as a
00:30:03
comic became more and more in your careers became that of being funny
00:30:09
is that what happens I I started just as a stand-up with no aspirations to do anything other than no
00:30:16
kidding I try to be they didn't want to be the opposite of what I just said no well I would yeah go I mean the same
00:30:23
thing I I I worship movies you know we talked about Goldfinger the other day
00:30:29
Sean Connery or the Great Escape but for me when I was I had big family five of
00:30:34
us Rough and Tumble childhood when I would see the Danny K show or the Jackie
00:30:40
Gleason Show early on and then Carol Burnett's mother's brothers and flip will though I aspired to that when I saw
00:30:47
laughing when I saw Saturday Night Live I because I could kind of do voices and
00:30:52
I got a lot of attention for that when I was nine eight nine years of age I could talk like the Beatles now okay that was
00:30:58
a big hit with my mom you know at least something was I said Mom you know do you
00:31:04
think you could make me some pancakes and she dropped the batter and screamed so I ran out no it was she's she laughed
00:31:11
but I I what about you being a dramatic actor and then also going on Third Rock
00:31:19
and other things that are overtly comedic and then you went back Boston legally played Denny Crane that that Arc
00:31:26
I mean you your Wikipedia page has just loaded with [ __ ] I I mean it is the most
00:31:31
impressive most uh eclectic career
00:31:36
Twilight Zone just keeps going I I I I I love to make people laugh
00:31:42
but I don't I don't tell jokes per se I mean I can tell you but you're very funny you're personas I have a the same
00:31:50
sense of humor that you guys have you you your mind works oh that's you can make it funny you can make it straighter
00:31:55
you can make it funny you make it funny because you like to see people smile and then laugh and you know so I'm the same
00:32:01
way but my whole uh Genesis was that as an actor but I
00:32:06
always tried to find the fun the comedy the last yeah in in
00:32:12
no matter what it what what it was because people if they're somebody's
00:32:18
just died in their arms uh yeah might be not amusing but might
00:32:24
have an observation that in in in retrospect is funny you know I see you
00:32:30
you seem um just seeing you from a distance in your career and then on talk shows and stuff you do have a lightness
00:32:38
to you that's more of a comedic side to me than some actors are very heavy for
00:32:44
all the drama you've done and so and that's fine too but I just felt like when me and Dana were going to talk to
00:32:49
you you just feel like it's going to be more fun because you're sort of on our that Vibe anyway so you wouldn't take
00:32:57
anything offense or that kind of stuff you're just gonna go back and forth with it and do your and that's absolutely I
00:33:02
think talk shows like the ones uh essentially it's a this is a talk show
00:33:08
or at least you know the the effect is um is you want to be informed you want
00:33:14
to uh you have some insight but you also want to be amused you want to the lab if you can make your laugh and inform you
00:33:21
at the same time it's much more entertaining and and I've gone by that for a long time well I would say two
00:33:27
things one is like I I work with Mickey Rooney in 1981 my first job ever I met a
00:33:33
lot of uh older actors at that point that were bitter but their time in Show
00:33:39
Business and or self-important and you did none of that ever appeared
00:33:46
in your in your Vibe it was you had a sense of humor about the entire ride and
00:33:52
you could do something flat dramatic brilliant or you could do something completely
00:33:57
uh you know hilarious and you just you it to me I I admire that about you that
00:34:04
you never got self-important or bitter and you seem to be having fun I don't know what the self-important about well
00:34:10
I mean a lot of people find a reason maybe to be but all right Wikipedia page feels pretty the research
00:34:17
area of feeling self-important I I know I I don't get it and I never understood
00:34:23
for example Brando said about acting it's Child's Play and he got just
00:34:29
discouraged about it I think that being an actor which is uh
00:34:35
I I mean you're reading somebody else's words but there's so many
00:34:42
colors there's so many nuances that if you're working if you're really working
00:34:48
and thinking about it I could I you know how subtle timing is you don't have to
00:34:54
tell you two guys how you can miss a laugh just by somebody coughing in the audience I mean it's as delicate as a
00:35:01
cobweb and and and to keep that cobweb alive to to make every night uh in your
00:35:09
stand-up or in a play the the the laugh is still there and sometimes the three
00:35:15
of us know only too well the laugh disappears yeah what happened with the laugh that
00:35:21
was there what are you doing that is subtly different from last night that the laugh didn't I did it this weekend I
00:35:28
did two shows and there's one joke or not joke but I sort of talk for a little bit Yeah to do it do it tell us uh uh
00:35:37
give us the example it's not right exactly that well there was one where I said when people
00:35:44
uh sneeze I just said bless you and I said I used to say that but for two
00:35:51
years in the middle recently when they would sneeze I'd say oh [ __ ] we're all gonna
00:35:56
die and then I say it's so real they were like right and then one night it's a big
00:36:04
laugh the next night I added to it and I said and then for a month when it got really bad I said oh [ __ ] we're gonna
00:36:10
for sure die because of your deadly poison boogers that you're shooting out at 3 000 miles an hour into my faculties
00:36:18
and then I go but then I tighten it back up it's just bless you now it's easier
00:36:23
one night they just listened like and stare and the next night they're like hey that's a funny joke and you go and
00:36:29
you read listen back go what was different it's an eyebrow it's just it's it's either you're allowed or quieter
00:36:36
also also I love that phrase that we've all heard and which is worthwhile
00:36:43
discussing it's too soon oh yeah right about anything about about making
00:36:49
political commentary on something that's too soon it's still too soon as a question as
00:36:55
soon as it bombs too soon yeah yeah um yeah some people are still wearing masks well that's true if they don't
00:37:01
laugh too soon exactly I think a lot of it is just Clarity right David I mean if you do a bit and you've got like three
00:37:08
lines you have to say in sequence perfectly to set up the funny part and then you get kind of used to it and
00:37:14
maybe you skip one little phrase and they don't get what the premise is it's one word imagine being imagine being in
00:37:21
a Long Run play of which I have been in more than one and every night
00:37:27
you know that laugh is like a pearl there's there's a A String of Pearls of
00:37:32
laughs that you that that I've come about you're in rehearsal and you don't
00:37:38
know where the where the well the laughs I take my wife please that's a lie but where the other laughs are you really
00:37:44
don't know until the uh staying with your stand-up you write your stand up and then okay that I know that's going
00:37:51
to be funny but is this funny oh suddenly They're laughing why
00:37:59
that's the funny part at once it's crazy yeah
00:38:05
[Music] going to Saturday Night Live for a second to that point is that it read
00:38:12
through you get laughs and you get on the show that's Wednesday Thursday you do a dry rehearsal five ten times in a
00:38:19
row with the crew laughs the first time then there's no laughter Friday you're doing walkthroughs no laughter
00:38:24
everyone's bored look in the ceiling by the time you get to the practice show at like 7 pm on Saturday you're like I
00:38:30
don't even know and then ah this is funny yeah but you're almost everyone's tired of it by that I just want to say I
00:38:36
was on Oprah one time but it was with Chevy Chase and Tina Fey and people and she always asks who's your favorite host
00:38:42
so at that moment because of uh you're the name that came up for me I just saw
00:38:48
William Shatner the reason was one was it was such a thrill being a Star Trek fan it was like maybe my sixth show and
00:38:55
I got to play Con in a sketch I'm doing Ricardo Montalban you know all that was surreal but then I was I noticed your
00:39:03
attitude about SNL like was so light and fun and I said to you you're so loose
00:39:10
and having so much fun why I mean how are you doing this he goes well how else would you do this we're we're under
00:39:17
rehearsed we don't know where we're going you know and it was the perfect attitude of like why take this so
00:39:23
seriously it's impossible when it happens it's great but then the other the other part that is
00:39:29
butt tightening is the word okay uh remember the words you got to
00:39:36
remember the words in this case they're all in front of you so you're not going to forget the words the other thing is
00:39:42
you're riveted looking at the at the cards as against trying to get looser Look Away a little juice you know but
00:39:50
but so many of the people who come on are yeah you know yeah you know and then
00:39:56
I went down the street and and Christopher Walken which I've mentioned just stared straight at the cards and
00:40:02
never looked at anybody and it worked he just looked straight at the car didn't even look over at you don't know why
00:40:09
we're going here not gonna whack you know but with him at work you know Dana that means bore you guys
00:40:16
to the quick story Christopher Walken I don't really do a good impression but he was on a movie I did and we were in a
00:40:22
house with the lights off it was getting dark and then we come out and the lights come on and so we start in the dark so
00:40:28
we're standing in the dark there's probably four of us we can't even see each other and he goes David
00:40:34
have you ever worked with an active dog and I go yeah there's one in this movie
00:40:40
and he goes they're good you know they they know what they're doing they train him pretty well and I go yep and then
00:40:47
dead silent then he goes hey David you ever work with an Arctic Cat
00:40:53
uh I go no and he goes they're no good they they don't do anything like they
00:40:59
have a trainer but if you say go there they don't and then if you yell at them they jump but any cat will do that and I
00:41:05
go yeah yeah and then silence and then he goes hey David you have a look on act
00:41:10
a mouse and I go no way on mouse trap I go oh that's right you
00:41:17
did a movie called Milestone he goes they're good they're smart because you
00:41:22
say go up and take a beat and go to the right and they do I don't know how and I go and he goes I'd work I'd work
00:41:28
again with the mouse and he's deliberately very seriously very
00:41:34
serious he's just telling him no was he doing a routine or was he just telling me it sounds like a great room I know
00:41:40
it's so funny to me we were and the other people in there were going and then he goes then they're like okay rolling and he's like okay quiet I'm
00:41:47
like is it a joke I don't know it just was so great act a mouse
00:41:54
I did a play boys in the band was a big hit and and then uh Crowley was the
00:42:02
author's name and he had written the second play was probably his first play and uh anyway I was we were now in Los
00:42:11
Angeles we were going to go to Broadway on uh Crowley's next play and it wasn't as good as boys and the
00:42:18
band so the opening moment is this actress well-known Broadway actors his name I
00:42:23
can't remember and I come out on the apron in darkness okay and we're holding hands and the
00:42:31
curtains part the lights come up play begins so we walk out onto the apron opening night in Los Angeles sold out
00:42:38
house she clutches my hand and then she turns to me I guess and
00:42:44
Whispers queen of disaster [Laughter]
00:42:50
when it comes that we were yeah got out of Los Angeles
00:42:58
imagine of opening night yeah are we in a disaster that's all your inner
00:43:03
monologue is the whole night is like I have my uh Christopher Walken moment that I don't know how funny it is but it
00:43:09
always stuck with me we're in a wooden spaceship an 8 H right a Jack Handy sketch so we're we're gonna land on
00:43:15
planet Earth but our our Landing door always killed somebody so when we walk
00:43:20
out the the local townspeople are mad kill them hang them high and so in rehearsal he had one line where he would
00:43:27
say let's get out of here but he would just say to me say let's get out of here and then we'd go back in the wooden
00:43:34
spaceship cramped in this little space and he'd laugh for like a minute after everything
00:43:40
let's get out of here just I don't know you know he he is admirable that he's a
00:43:48
wonderful actor really yeah I guess you know something that it strikes me as being astonishing is that he was a tap
00:43:56
dancer he was a dancer yeah and so there are films that at least one that I can
00:44:01
think of where he does a little tap dance routine while waiting around a lamppole yes I thought of course he just
00:44:07
added that or he told me he told the director I can do this what a sensational kind of what a character he
00:44:15
is yeah he was a Childer and and this one Dana when I did one and he's and he's got a broom and he goes what if I
00:44:22
danced around with the broom same thing and we said yeah and he's really good he
00:44:27
did that uh old video Fred Astaire he did a video for like not Moby but back
00:44:33
or someone where he danced very very light on his feet fun to watch I you know the when he was when I was at SNL
00:44:39
had this old southern gentleman who was doing my wardrobe and Christopher Walken
00:44:45
was the guest host and he'd been a child actor and had performed in New York City uh the the the the the the the dresser
00:44:52
was a child no Christopher Walken and the dresser knew him back then oh and
00:44:57
just talked about him now because Chris had this sort of almost scary funny vibe around him and he said to me this old
00:45:04
southern gentleman said about Chris you know he's got the devil in his eyes
00:45:15
his whole thing is the devil I mean it's he's quite a character I wish I I've
00:45:21
never met him I don't think I mean I wouldn't love to have a conversation with him he's uh really interesting
00:45:27
really surprisingly vulnerable he's kind of intimidating but he's very very sweet and uh I you know it's almost
00:45:34
old-fashioned in a sense I I would like to know what you think about this bill it's just when you see Al Pacino in The
00:45:41
Godfather which is brilliant and then my performance I love is when he extenuated
00:45:46
his Cuban accent in Scarface
00:45:53
right and it seems like his actors get older down their career they'll become way more theatrical because maybe
00:46:00
they're bored or something you know they're I think they're looser I think they're losing just loose
00:46:05
you can go in any direction so you go in three directions yeah or you choose one two three you could you don't just say
00:46:12
hello you go uh confidence Maybe
00:46:18
you can play it more real like I don't always say hello in real life I go oh you know you can do anything because
00:46:25
that really happens in real life so you can play there's so many different ways to play almost any line
00:46:30
I'm so I'm answering for you I'm sorry but that's what I know you're absolutely you're right you're absolutely right I
00:46:35
do believe it has to do with confidence if you've gotten older and you're still working then there's this
00:46:43
how about you personally I mean do you feel like did your confidence get to a point did it ebb and Wayne or or did it
00:46:50
go and where is it now absolutely depending on how it's going yeah but
00:46:56
going along that theme it's also interesting how I think you should simplify
00:47:04
I think in a joke the more you can cut away cut
00:47:10
cut Superfluous material away from the words you gotta hone it down to its basic
00:47:18
Simplicity the more simple you are as a individual as an artist as a person as
00:47:26
in a relationship the more honest and simple it becomes then just
00:47:32
being yeah right not trying not crowd pushing you don't make the crowd work I feel
00:47:38
like the self-critical voice that especially in stand up or whatever when you're doing a set and you're giving
00:47:43
yourself a report card the best sets are when that voice disappears and you're
00:47:49
just completely fluid in the moment it's always a really nice place to get though but I did a movie with Bert Lancaster
00:47:54
and Kirk Douglas talk about Simplicity because I'm so I was so in awe of them and we're just shooting a scene around a
00:48:02
little table and they have their lines but they just say them you know Kirk Doug's like I
00:48:07
don't think we should rub the book just that and Bert's like if we don't rob it now we'll never rob it and they just
00:48:13
like they did take but that's it and they're Bert Lancaster Kirk Douglas then I come around to my coverage and I'd go
00:48:20
what do you guys think or whatever and then Kirk Douglas always said I think we got it there's no reason to do another
00:48:25
dick I like when you work with actress and they do 10 of the exact same takes and
00:48:32
you're like I like to screw around and say oh they're gonna pick it if they're good editor but sometimes people go this
00:48:38
is the way I see it this is the way it's going to be and you're not going to get me off it so here it is funny moment I
00:48:45
got a funny moment about that I did a a thing a movie uh Judgment at Nuremberg
00:48:51
it was called and I played a officer at a uh at the lawyer's desk
00:48:58
is this is all from Montgomery Cliff and everything or no that's it oh that movie
00:49:05
oh my God that's so I'm at the desk doing nothing just being uh this
00:49:11
character that's at the desk but I'm seeing everybody come in because everybody comes in to testify yeah so
00:49:17
they all do their thing they do one day Judy Garland Lancaster comes in does his day and he
00:49:24
does you'll have to do them you know I didn't do anything I have a good German I'm telling you I did nothing I was
00:49:30
simply following orders I didn't kill nobody nowhere no how I'm gonna make it green sorry go ahead perfect cut cut
00:49:37
great bird great everybody applaudberg versus thank you very much and he leaves
00:49:43
okay the next morning hey everybody We're stopped the cutting the not doing the
00:49:50
the the the schedule Bert wants to come in and and uh he didn't feel right about doing it he's going to do take two
00:50:02
I never killed anybody you can ask anybody I was sick
00:50:08
thank you very much thank you very much was it like the same reading you just did exactly the same exactly the same
00:50:14
thing hysterical I just want to get it again I laughed and laughed he was sweet he was a very nice man how about this
00:50:20
this is an IMDb roulette question um there is Twilight Zone in there did
00:50:26
you ever do Night Gallery which scared the [ __ ] out of me I I was scared of nights oh yeah 67. remember I I you know
00:50:36
all those jobs back then half hour I love it well there's half hour shows our
00:50:43
shows you did them to make a living I mean you had the rent to play and the children to feed and nobody you know the
00:50:49
audience at large people are going to watch you in this don't understand that
00:50:54
you also have to make a living yeah as an actor and if you're not making 20 million dollars a picture which you put
00:50:59
away and live on the interest uh you you have to work and so some of the jobs you
00:51:05
take because it's working by the way I want to thank bill for you saved me a lot of money
00:51:12
in well there's the story I happened upon and I won't name the stock I happen
00:51:17
upon out of a probably a dumb investment I got a lot of one particular stock
00:51:23
it's kind of famous now but when it when it when it doubled the experts the
00:51:30
experts said no you gotta you gotta sell it because it would gyrate down it would double and then come back right but I
00:51:37
remember you regretting selling Priceline so I held on to it and I still am holding on to it today so I just want
00:51:44
to thank you fantastic so it was the.com bubble yeah it went way up yeah but
00:51:50
because I I was there originally there's a thing called a uh the tie in or you
00:51:56
tie up or you're you can't sell it for a year and a half yeah so it went up and I'm watching it go up I got it for like
00:52:03
25 cents and it went up to 150 or more I'm thinking God I'm gonna be rich and
00:52:10
then I'm sorry I'm done and I can't sell it and then I can sell it and it's back
00:52:16
down to 25 cents so I sold it then it goes back and it went up again thousands of dollars yeah go ahead well I was just
00:52:24
curious about this uh Star Trek and then part of the 70s where you're kind of
00:52:31
doing uh game shows or whatever but then all of a sudden there's seven Star Trek movies
00:52:37
I mean that's never happened to anyone in Show Business a series from the city and then Seven Star Trek movies one in
00:52:42
which you directed I I just think that's a fascinating part of your incredible it was it was it was well did you not get
00:52:49
paid I don't I think it said that you don't get paid a lot on Star Trek because that's an early job right
00:52:55
well we didn't get no it was an early job and we were all uh I I had done I
00:53:02
had done Broadway and a lot of stuff yeah yeah before Star Trek but you know
00:53:08
to get to that level uh you had to star in
00:53:14
even movies didn't do it it you had to do a series and sure and when I did that
00:53:20
series uh it put me in an another another level
00:53:26
and I was able to do those movies and I didn't I stopped doing half hour shows yeah stop playing the heavy on Charlie's
00:53:33
Angels no it just sounds like something someone would do right just for a week of work
00:53:40
do you ever play a bad you did a couple Columbus right yeah yeah those are great how is Peter
00:53:47
fault they were they were Sensational and and I don't know whether this is common knowledge uh they were very
00:53:53
difficult to write for exactly
00:54:00
well it means that you know who the what the criminal is yeah and the whole drama is uh is Colombo learning who the
00:54:08
criminal is but you already you the audience know it is yeah but what's the Jeopardy and then have you seen those
00:54:14
because he plays the the very difficult to make it work yes I've seen Columbo when he he makes a a Side Story like he
00:54:20
goes is this your dog oh I had a dog like this meanwhile I know you killed the guy but does it suck exactly he
00:54:28
played yeah it was kind of a passive aggressive character you when you watch you feel like he knew but he just left
00:54:34
him dangling for weeks yeah that's what I'm saying my wife though that when he unbel
00:54:45
Bill maybe pre-tube an early tubing I was
00:54:51
gonna go oh Peter fall oh Dana yes on um Gemini when when uh this guy did SNL you
00:54:59
were newer you said oh yeah who wrote the uh Star Trek sketch was
00:55:05
that Smiggle probably I don't know it was and and when Mr Shatner were you
00:55:11
okay with that sketch beginning middle Ender oh yeah uh is that that sketch
00:55:19
reminded me or made me aware of the best comedy
00:55:26
is played absolutely real yes if you can be ultra serious yeah
00:55:34
Ultra serious if it's you know there's a comedic Cloud just it's just a
00:55:40
little hint a mist of Comedy so the audience knows it's funny but doesn't
00:55:46
know it's funny yeah you know what I mean there's a balance there that you guys use superb comedians know exactly
00:55:52
what I mean the audience you and I are three of us are talking to might not know what we're talking about but there
00:55:59
is a hint of the actor is in on the comedy yes but it's absolutely real and
00:56:05
that's those those are the comedic actors and then there's the actors who don't have that hint and it becomes
00:56:11
absolutely real it's not funny wacky uh you know there was a TJ hooker
00:56:17
sketch that we did as well and again we played it just flat as real as possible
00:56:23
some of the car was whipping around I can't remember and then there was one where you were played some vain you're
00:56:28
in it in a mirror posing going look at that butt look at these arms do you remember that one oh yeah yeah yeah I
00:56:36
mean you had a killer show yeah I mean that was like everything worked it was a killer show the the epitome of that
00:56:43
was there was a movie I did with uh De Niro and I came on as myself to show him
00:56:51
how to jump over a car and and I said to them look I'm going to
00:56:58
play Hurt and don't cut the camera because you're pretending yeah because
00:57:03
it's going to look real yeah and I'll come up out of the car and I'm gonna play her do not ever worry about the
00:57:11
camera don't no matter what I do I'm gonna do nothing
00:57:17
right so I jump over the car and now I'm being Ultra real oh [ __ ] oh damn oh and
00:57:25
they cut they cut which is the most flattering thing they could have done for you what is it why did you do that
00:57:32
told you not to cut it's almost like a Ralph crandum thing or something that's the funny part that would that
00:57:39
would that was actually funny I did it again but but probably not as well as the first time no where you play Ultra
00:57:46
Ultra and the audience is in on the joke yeah pain is funny I mean look at look
00:57:53
at Laurel and Hardy look at all look at the Three Stooges look at yeah The Three Stooges have gotten when I
00:58:01
think about them now in the abstraction of people hitting your friend with a hammer in his face and on his head is
00:58:08
tough It's it seems funnier now though when I was a kid because I loved admin Costello and I really like the Three
00:58:14
Stooges yeah I've been on Costello had more into like with that who's on
00:58:20
the classic sketch that classic sketch is maybe the most brilliant written yeah
00:58:26
piece of Comedy ever and you delivered full circle I did an
00:58:31
homage to Abbott and Costello Lou Costello when Christopher Walken was in
00:58:37
Wayne's World two and he's very he's kind of the bad guy and I'm playing Garth and he goes goth
00:58:43
like that and I started doing that which is very hard to do
00:58:50
you know and then Mike started doing it but yeah they were uh Aben Costello
00:58:55
meets Frankenstein as a kid watching that on television was like ah professional he couldn't when he saw
00:59:01
Frankenstein and couldn't get it out yeah what's the matter with you I know there's no one here and he's just
00:59:08
pointing
00:59:15
who invents that does does Lou Costello invent that does the director say hey
00:59:21
here's I know I just wonder those early movie stars Vaudeville was such a breeding ground
00:59:28
for all the basics of comedy in fact apparently I don't know that Aban
00:59:34
Costello Who's on First had been performed by some other act at some point that maybe it was no something
00:59:44
the classic sketch in Vaudeville which they they they took but I can't imagine
00:59:50
anybody doing it better because they played it so real uh absolutely the
00:59:56
timing I mean that's just you can't beat those two actors doing that no because they're just thinking required
01:00:04
hours of rehearsal days yeah if that's to your point about this whole podcast I mean one little drop beat one guy
01:00:10
doesn't remember one tiny bit and the whole thing is done in a second yeah it has to be seamless but you know it's
01:00:17
very interesting those vaudevillian stars who became movie stars like the Marx Brothers and kind of filmed their
01:00:24
if you look at the Marx Brothers today they're not they're not I mean
01:00:30
leaning against leaning against the the building what do you think you're doing building up the building uh-huh and he
01:00:36
walks away in the building that was that was a great comic thing but mostly
01:00:41
walking around I don't know it's not because I I when I was a kid watching reruns it
01:00:48
was a little too old-fashioned for me I like Jerry Lewis there's a kid there's some kids yeah but yeah but the
01:00:54
audiences that were being entertained in those early movies were were serious people laughing at the Marx Brothers Who
01:01:01
and the Harpo and the thing today is like ludicrous well it was yeah it was
01:01:06
part of that 30s you know class I think I have this smart comedic palette meanwhile I remember howling at
01:01:13
Gilligan's Island I mean I don't know when I started deciding what was easy funny and what was smart funny but we
01:01:20
were talking about Bob Newhart earlier and Bob Newhart was very dry and I I liked it for some reason even though it
01:01:25
was dry and I was a kid going this smash was funny but it wasn't really like in
01:01:31
your face like a sitcom and then but I liked corny [ __ ] too so I think over
01:01:36
time my my comedy you start to decide what you like and what you want to feel focus on I guess but there but there are
01:01:43
basic tenets of Comedy seeing the banana peel guy coming or the guy slipping and
01:01:49
then you see the banana peel those those academic analysis of of Comedy yeah they work
01:01:57
it's it's absolutely truthful so that that's funny you see the fat man
01:02:02
coming you see the banana peel and they slip and you laugh
01:02:11
yeah it had to be when the guy put his ax down and brought in the dinosaur head
01:02:18
and then they did a joke about slipping on the dinosaur tail that they had to have been laughing yeah
01:02:24
a million years ago at that very basic comedy on the other hand
01:02:29
slapping on the head and and the the those uh jokes that the Marx Brothers did and then the Three Stooges yeah
01:02:37
hitting hitting people yeah it was funny then but not funny now and
01:02:43
I guess that's the changing tastes of funny although I think there are there
01:02:49
are eternals of Comedy that remain from Greek times to now well they say there's
01:02:57
only 12 notes and everybody The Beatles and Beethoven and everybody
01:03:02
plays with those notes and there's probably these basic tenets of comedy and we're just keep redoing the studio
01:03:08
and you try to add a little something you do your version of that comedy yeah like people say oh this movie is similar
01:03:15
to that movie and you're like but it's two new people doing it 20 years later and it's just different
01:03:21
but there are certain themes you're going to go into the old girlfriend comes back or you do this so every
01:03:27
comedy movie and every movie movie you know you're gonna fall into the same themes what are
01:03:33
you gonna do with it are you going to make put some spin on it a little English to make it yours
01:03:39
[Music] I was I was drawn to the musicality of
01:03:45
Monty Python and Andy Kaufman and the non-punchline punchline so there's a
01:03:52
perfect example of Kaufman yes uh the reality and how it made it so straight
01:03:59
yeah we played it so straight in fact when he was on Taxi that was
01:04:05
funny but when he did the wrestling that wasn't funny right I was not a huge Andy
01:04:11
Kaufman guy unpopular opinion I say that again I wasn't a huge Andy
01:04:16
Kaufman guy like Mickey Mouse maybe I to me growing up very much it had to have a
01:04:22
payoff or I didn't I didn't really get what was going on and when everything was like wrestling was so straight if it
01:04:28
was a long play I just wasn't grabbing it and some of his stuff was really
01:04:33
appreciated by a lot of Comedians and I was one of the few going I don't I like taxi like taxi I got I'm
01:04:40
gonna say what did you think of Taxi I did like this performance yeah yeah
01:04:45
funny characters it was funny it was a real character yeah and and it was funny the way he talked and the way he acted
01:04:51
that was cool in his attempt I mean it's a really interesting
01:04:57
delighted to hear people talk about it Andy Kaufman did he desperately look for another gig in
01:05:05
being the wrestler uh did he or did he go nuts and think you know I mean what
01:05:10
what happened to Andy Kaufman playing this wonderful actor that's a really good question I don't know I mean I
01:05:17
there was something uh it was like Live gladiatorian Theater when he would go
01:05:23
there and then he loved playing he was satirizing sort of the big time wrestling guy uh being an anarchist in
01:05:30
the in the arena and screaming at the crowd but uh the late great Robin Williams told me a story once who knew
01:05:35
Andy back in that time and he met him for lunch or somewhere and he noticed that Andy had the wrestling clothes on
01:05:43
underneath his real clothes this is just him out in the world and Robin remember
01:05:48
saying oh oh Andy what are you doing what are you doing like baby yeah maybe maybe he tipped over some place that we
01:05:54
don't know where the line between performance and reality I don't know but uh like you're trying to get people that
01:06:00
are guessing ahead of what you're doing and you're doing this long play and then you do a joke that's too much of a Long
01:06:06
play and you start to lose people because you're out thinking everyone and at certain point he lost me imagine
01:06:13
the courage it took for uh dick Sean yes I remember him very well died on stage
01:06:19
okay so you remember the the great joke he told of uh there's old Grandpa coming
01:06:25
up from the Civil War and then he walks by yeah the grandpa
01:06:31
they pretend Grandpa walks by he says three minutes preparing you
01:06:37
for the grandpa to walk past him what happens if the audience doesn't laugh
01:06:43
which must happen yeah well I I know how many minutes do you get away with keeping them I think they're gonna give
01:06:50
up I think there's a lot of anger that floats around in comedy and some of the best comedy uh and I do think that Andy
01:06:56
had his good measure uh I I sometimes stay at the park of Meridian in New York and they'll play
01:07:02
chaplain shorts in the elevator and just go there's a lot of Pathos and it's
01:07:07
brilliant but there's a lot of anger floating around the way he walks and stuff and comedians sometimes are the
01:07:13
bullied ones sometimes the underdog and so that always is informing I mean I was
01:07:19
before I had therapy more passive aggressive people pleasing this was my disease but in my characters the church
01:07:26
lady was kind of cruel in a funny way Hans and Franz said I could beat you up
01:07:31
you're a loser so you just wonder you know if you turn the sound off and watch certain comedians you just go
01:07:37
that's kind of an angry walk you know well yeah and you could name those comedians right now I know but we might
01:07:44
get sued right well guys it's been uh we're finished
01:07:49
with part one we'll take a break
01:07:57
honestly don't know how you're you're just don't you seem decades younger as
01:08:04
you articulate and philosophize with us and the strength of your voice I don't really even understand it I don't even
01:08:10
need to have an answer I'm just observing it I don't have an answer I don't have to have an answer good I
01:08:15
don't know but I do think just for the rest of us and I remember Lauren Michael saying this you just keep going
01:08:21
there is no retirement in Show Business you just keep going I that's the truth
01:08:27
you know you just play older people like why not yeah but in your case I don't know anything else I can't go be a carpenter now this
01:08:33
is it right well right you know there is a stage that's another thing when you're in your 20s I've got
01:08:41
grandchildren who want to be actors you know and they're 15 16 years old
01:08:46
so you're 20 21 you're an actor you're pretty uh boy or girl you got physical
01:08:51
Beauty and then you get to be about 30 and you're now half a step behind the 18
01:08:58
year old coming up you've got a decision to make are you going to continue
01:09:04
so now you're going through your your passages and you go through your 30s and
01:09:09
you're still trying to do it now you're in your 40s what are you going to do okay no one
01:09:17
thinks that far ahead no I think yeah I mean you well what what about what about
01:09:23
the 50s what happens in the 50s it's too late and you're in your 50s
01:09:28
you're both successful uh in that you've made a living you've achieved a a
01:09:36
modicum of Fame and you have some treasure in your uh talent and and in
01:09:44
your uh bedroom you know we've got like you got white sheets for God's sake you
01:09:49
know uh but there come points in your life that being an actor is uh you don't have
01:09:58
any skill to fall back on you don't you can't become a plumber in another uh a
01:10:04
plumber gains experience and gets to be a better plumber right uh an actor gains experience and it doesn't matter
01:10:11
when I when I grew up all the comedians were old it was just different you know Bob Hope Jack Benny they're all in their
01:10:18
70s like in the you know yeah but they they manufactured a joke they had a
01:10:23
writer or hopefully sometimes they wrote it yeah yeah and they would make a political joke you know it was funny so
01:10:30
you'd know you had a a a a known quantity with a Bob Hope uh uh I want to
01:10:38
tell you yeah a Jack Benny and you guys are you guys are the the Latter-Day Bob
01:10:45
hopes you'll go to an event and be amusing in your character in your in your comedy you'll work till your your
01:10:52
uh where what you fall off stage that's not funny Dana's Carol Channing you can easily
01:10:57
well hello I once punched I played Regis on a a short film and Carol Channing I
01:11:03
was running down the street in New York I go I gotta go I gotta go get the David Letterman but I'm sorry I've got to go and Carol Channing was doing a cameo I'm
01:11:10
sorry Carol I gotta go and so then I I as Regis I Cole cocked her and knocked
01:11:16
her down it's just uh stuff you're doing Dave's waiting for me I'd love to talk to you honest to God you're one of the
01:11:21
greatest but I gotta go okay don't you love regis's voice I mean wasn't it it's
01:11:27
just something about it you know kid you're terrific you do the space things and all you do that's beautiful
01:11:34
tremendous job everybody's talking about it you're the Talk of the Town you're a captain cook your daddy Craig who knows
01:11:41
where you're going you're in outer space ladies and gentlemen William Shatner was here today and I'm telling you something
01:11:46
it was quite a treat joy and I love you very much I love the charm reviews guys
01:11:51
you you're you're you two are wonderful together you're going to be uh
01:11:56
we're so glad have you on and keep doing what you're doing and we'll have you back the next time you go in space we're
01:12:02
having you back Perfect all right I'll be there take care bill good luck be well
01:12:08
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01:12:29
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