WEBVTT - Dick Van Dyke: Aging, Joy + Rescue Dolphins! 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.400 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another fine edition of 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:13.600 the podcast. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:20.080 That is Sweeping America, Mopping America. We're sweeping America, sucking up. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.720 Our little show is called Really No Really Podcast, where 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.480 I Jason Alexander, and my friend and co host mister 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.960 Peter Tilden. We explore things that make us go really no, Really, 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.400 That's exactly. 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:34.159 What we do. So you don't know. 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.479 We're recently talking about projecting forward. What what do we 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:42.080 think will be like when we're older, and frankly, we 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:47.680 can't get much older than we do. About everything we 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.440 are complaining, I already have aches and pains that I'm 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:52.920 not enjoying. The hair keeps going. I didn't think I 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.600 could lose more hair, but it's going. More is growing, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.120 clipping inside the nose. I have a bad add about everything, 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.800 and everybody we know that's going through this has become 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.360 the most miserable bunch of people on the planet. There's 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.679 a reason young people don't want to be near us. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.240 We're not pleasant. Yes, by the way, my wife want 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.160 to be near us so well, that has nothing to 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.160 do with your age. By the way, we are, we 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.400 have in our studio today a gentleman who is the 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.679 antithesis of everything I was just talking about, absolutely the opposite. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.000 Now I'll save his name for the end is you 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.559 absolutely know him, and you've known him all your life, 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:36.319 as have I. A multiple award winner, Golden Globes, Tony's, Grammy's, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.920 Daytime Emmy, Primetime Emmys. He's in the Television Hall of Fame. 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.039 He's on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He's got a 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.120 Screen Actors Killed Lifetime Achievement Award. He should frankly have 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:50.880 twenty of them. He's a Kennedy Center Honor recipient. I'll 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.559 just name the big one, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.400 the comic and his own. 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.760 Titular, The hell are You Show? 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.560 The Dick Van Dyke Show in our studio today, A 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.920 legend and someone who I really am. Just I pinch 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.720 myself and I'm amazed, and I go, I know this man. 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.840 Say hello, Peter to uh mister Dick Van Dyke and 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:15.560 his lovely wife. 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:16.720 Such a pleasure. 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.480 And to Jason's point, I don't think I've ever seen 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.040 you not happy and not joyous. 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.000 You always seem. 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.560 We'll talk to Arlene about that. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.880 That's no, but that's that is who that's what you 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.600 put out. That's the vibe that you put out. And 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.400 much like my partner here, when people see him because 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.119 of the role he played on Seinfeld, it doesn't matter 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:40.960 where we are in the world, they break into a smile. 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.079 It's an amazing way to go through the world. But 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:51.080 you know, mine is because I played the biggest schmuck 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.480 in the world there and they're so But for you, 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:58.120 it's because there is real joy. You know, there was 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:04.000 intended joy, and particularly in your career, you got to 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.200 them when they were very young and they have carried 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.840 that that connection with you all their life. So I 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.799 have to imagine when when people see you and they 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:15.600 light up, you know. 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:16.399 It's wonderful. 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:17.680 Is it a great way to go through? 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:19.080 The greatest feeling in the world. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.400 And Dick, do you ever feel like you have to? 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.240 Can you have a bad day out there? Can you? 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.680 Can you ever not give them back what they're hoping for? 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:29.120 No? 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.920 I always do that, But at ninety seven, sometimes I 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:33.280 don't have good days, you know. 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:38.240 Yeah, yeah, but still not in a tabloids. I've never 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.320 seen a negative I don't Did you hang out with 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:41.160 a Hollywood crowd? 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:45.240 Because this is really Hollywood. Everybody I knew in the 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:46.200 business is dead. 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:54.480 Okay, wow and clearly normally Yeah, who's one hundred? Right? 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:59.520 And mel Brooks about a year younger than I. The 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:01.680 three of them are the only shipbors. 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:03.880 That's that's true. 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.240 I mean, that's My mom passed away a few years ago, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.400 but she was ninety eight she passed. And one of 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:12.920 the things I want to talk to you about today is, 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.720 you know, you exude this joyfulness. You really do in 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.440 your career reflects so much of that. But you've gone 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.760 through some really hard stuff. Oh yeah, really hard stuff. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.040 And that's why I really wanted to talk to you today, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:29.839 because you know, we're all going through hard stuff. People 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.719 go through hard stuff. But you managed to get to 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:37.520 this joyful place even at a challenging age like ninety seven, 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.479 where your world, the people that you've lived your life 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.120 with are starting to leave us or have left us. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.800 The world gets smaller and smaller. We talked about that 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.039 a little bit, and yes, if I'm at sixty three, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.000 I've got little aches and pains and things where I go, 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.800 this is not going well. I mean, so how do 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.120 you what to the extent, what is the secret of 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.880 your if there if. 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.680 They're having a beautiful young wife that helps, who is 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:09.680 a doll and a great sense to him? And we sing. 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.160 We're a duet. We sing together, and it's it's just 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:18.120 it's great. I'm having a second uh youth. Really, I'm 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.680 having such a ball. I work out three days a week. 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.360 I go to the gym, and I wrote a book 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.960 called Keep Moving, you know, about exercising. And when I 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.719 see I always feel old until I see somebody else 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.080 my age, and then I feel pretty good. 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.640 Yeah, yeah, and you're not. You know, Jason said, I 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:38.360 had lunch with Dick. I said, did he do a jig? 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.240 Did he dance? He said, how did you know? I said, 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.719 because he always anytime I've been around him, he does 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.960 a jig. And you're that You're that mobile still too, 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.520 which is amazing. And I don't know how much that hurts. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:50.520 I just said, when you sat down, I said, when 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.880 you get older, it used to be when you got 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:53.960 up is when you made noise. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.640 Now it's when you sit down. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:06:00.440 And yeah, back to the Hollywood thing, and you're joy. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.599 How did you navigate that world? He got a three 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.279 picture deal with United Artists. You had a show named 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.640 after you. Your first sitcom has your name. 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.600 And not only named after you, but I only recently 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.240 found out that Carl wrote it for himself. 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.360 Carl went after he did the pilot. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.799 That, well, no, you never saw the pilot. 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:21.160 I never saw the pilot. 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:27.080 It's not very good. It isn't very good. Carl was 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.640 not a good actor. He could do comedy, but somehow 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:33.200 he was never believable. 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:34.160 He was wrong. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.080 Pretty amazing, but dick. So in a tough business, you 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.440 got a sitcom that Carl Reiner was supposed to start 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.800 in and they put your name. How did that happen 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:43.919 that your name ended up? 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.960 They couldn't think about the title. We sat, we worked, 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.280 and we could not think of the title. So that 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.359 and then the first year, nobody ever heard of me, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.720 and we were on against Perry Como and they canceled this, 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.400 and Sheldon Leonard, who was the producer, Yeah, went to 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.200 Cincinnati and talked to the P and G guys and 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.960 talked them in letting us, are you pison disappeared? 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:08.960 Amazing? 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.160 No, wait, So in the first year of the show, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.880 it wasn't It wasn't responding with audience. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.120 So we were on against Perry Como and he got 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:17.640 all these. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.360 And he was just he was taking the audience. 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.080 Oh, I got Dick, kept saying, Who's Who's Dick Van Dyke? 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:22.560 Right? 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.760 Yeah, yeah? What is it? Amazing? 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.160 How that what that did for your career. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.520 It's such history and what you guys accomplished. It was 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:34.560 such an iconic show. And I understand he wrote six 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.960 episodes so everybody would know what what the roles were. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.320 Right for the first he wrote all thirty nine s 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:43.040 the thirty. 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.239 Nine episodes of season. That alone is back then. Wow wow. 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.400 And then we got some really good guys, Sam dan 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.440 Off and Bill Perski, great writers. Yeah, such fun and 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:56.400 I always got to help, you know, I could come 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:57.680 up with a line thirty. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.400 I'm just trying to think thirty nine episode. Not only 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:01.680 was it thirty nine episodes. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.720 Now, sure, half the show was a family show, you know, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.400 the family with you and Mary telling more, but the 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.560 other half was really inside baseball. What's it like inside 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.080 a TV comedy running room. Nobody would do that today, 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:14.800 they would go. 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.080 To inside Nobody's gonna care about it? 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.520 And by the way, for that time period, Rose Marie 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:25.280 was the first portrayal of a single female that didn't 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:27.760 need a guy that wasn't making dinner for somebody. It 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.480 was so ahead of its time, though, another piece of trivia. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.840 Because I heard you sing it no more, Amsterdam wrote 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:35.560 lyrics to us. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.240 That's right, he wrote, He wrote the lyrics for it. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:39.079 Do you remember them? 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:39.640 Oh? Sure? 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:41.559 Can you do them a little? 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:44.360 You think that you got trouble, well, troubles uh bubble, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:47.040 So tell will mister trouble to get lost? Why not 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.880 hold your head up by and stop crying, start sighing, 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.640 and don't forget to keep your fingers crossed when you 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.720 know the joy of living is loving and giving. You'll 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:57.880 be there when the win they dies are tossed a 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.480 smile as Jester Frown's turned up, So I down, so smiler, 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.760 brown or defrost and don't forget to keep your favous 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:05.199 cross But. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.000 That's not wrong? Is that great? 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.920 By the way, for a second, Mary Amsterdam's the state 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.839 just got twenty away from something went wait a minute, 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.000 I didn't want somebody. And much like Seinfeld, there's so 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.520 many parallelization. As far as Tony winners and as far 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.680 as Joey Carl decided after five years to pull up, 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:24.720 they never wanted to go past five, like Jerry didn't 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:26.600 want to go piss on that could the show could 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.400 have gone on, correct, Yeah, Carl. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:30.560 Was the only one that didn't want to go on. 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.319 He wanted to move on into movies and everything and 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:35.600 the rest of us. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.040 What was what were you? 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.200 What were you thinking when when you're on a joyous 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.560 hit show and the boss wants to pull the plug? 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:44.640 What were you? 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.079 I mean, did you go that's it, I'm done, I'm 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:47.880 I'm finished. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.000 Yeah, I didn't know what we were going to do. 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.559 Everybody and Mary Taylor Moore, you. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.360 Had the movie, you had Mary Poppins in between those 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:57.520 did Poppins? 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.640 Yeah, that would be big. Was that during the run 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:01.040 of the show. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.360 Yeah, uh huh, yeah it was yeah, right, that's right. 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.800 During the time off we shot it only took four months. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:13.440 Chitty Bang Bank took over a year. Really, we couldn't 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:20.240 find any sun in England. Wow, sure, always waiting for 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:25.000 the Yeah we got a shot. Wow. A great thing 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.199 with me was I always wanted to be an entertainer, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.439 but you know what happened to me. I wanted to 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.000 be a working actor. What happened to me is still 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.800 I'm shocked that I had such wonderful things happened to. 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:38.640 Me, iconic things. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.160 And when you were beginning as an entertainer, because I 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.440 know you did. You did a pantomime act with a partner, right, 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.360 a partner and you were a radio host, right, or 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:49.959 a television host of something. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.320 I was a radio announcer at seventeen. During the war, 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.880 everybody got drafted, right, and I got to be a 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.280 radio announcer at seventeen. I thought that was the future, 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:01.560 you know. 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:03.880 And did you do CBS mornings too? Were you on 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.520 the CBS Morning show for looks? That's unbelievable for a year, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.720 I did it and there was no network to the coast. 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.520 It was an hour and a half show. We'd do 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:15.800 it once and then do it again. 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:18.120 I had to do it twice, so it was the 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:24.400 second time, second time better. Walter Cronkite was my newsman. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.760 That hack, that hack. What happened to him. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.120 Back when they you know, voyces mint something on and 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.640 he would They transferred him to evening, of course, and 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.760 he thought he was firing. And he came to me 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.120 and said, Dick, what did I do? I should do? 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:43.560 I can't fire anything, you know what? 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.520 I love it, Dick said, Dick Van like to me saying, 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.400 Schmuck's the world too. 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:49.440 It's the world to me. 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.120 Yeah, but that takes me back to so the reason 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:53.880 I was saying, you know, you started in a panami 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:55.680 mact and then you were doing you know, sort of 0:11:55.720 --> 0:12:01.080 announce work. When did musical comedy, singing and dancing? And 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.360 I think you told me a story that when you 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.720 got by by Berdie on Broadway, you hadn't really danced. 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.880 No, So how did all that? 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.040 Who said I can get this guy to dance because 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.720 you're an iconic dancer, Gower Champion. 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.160 I was looking for work. I was auditioning for everything 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:24.480 except maybe opera and Shakespeare. I tried out for Tom 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:26.800 Poston beat me out of a couple of they. I 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:31.680 went in and sang a little song, Yeah, Ray Bolger 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:35.800 once a little bit of a soft shoe. And I 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.560 think Galerg saw himself on the park. We were exactly 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.520 the same size and shape. Yeah, And it came up 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.520 on the stage. He said you've got the part and 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.680 I said, mister Champian, I can't dance. I don't dance. 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.080 He said, I'll teach him, and he did. It was 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:52.280 like learning to fly. 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.520 It was amazing, great. Yeah, I mean I worked with 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:57.800 Cheetah on Broadway. 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:58.600 Is she something? 0:12:58.760 --> 0:12:59.559 What were you in with it? 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.920 I was in the show with her and Liza Minelli 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.000 called the Rink. They played a mother and daughter. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.839 Yeah, and she a fireball or what? Oh? 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.760 She is? She is my idol. She's my idol. 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.480 She carried me in that show. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.840 Well you will you tell the story of put on 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:14.520 a Happy Face? 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:16.360 Do you remember what you told me? 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.360 Well? Yeah, but I just read her book. I'm reading 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:24.080 it down because, uh, we were in Philadelphia during tryouts 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:25.959 and they came in with put her on a Happy 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.600 Face for Cheetah, And my impression was she said, Dick's 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.360 got nothing to do in the first act, why don't 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.719 you let him have it? So I've always credited her, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.240 but in the book she says they took the song 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.719 and gave it to Dick, and she just was I miffed, no, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:41.600 because I had a lot of other things to do, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.880 which is not Yeah, I thought Cheta gave it to me. 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.360 Well you know what, that's because the Cheetah we know 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:54.160 would have given it to you, I think. But what's 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.240 what's so fascinating to me is not only did you 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.720 learn to dance, but but it's almost as if you 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.040 have your own unique style and your choreographers have figured 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.800 out how to put a world of dance on you. 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.720 I think if I'd had training, it wouldn't have been 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.120 as unique. 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.760 You would have been like everybody else, had my own moves. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:19.360 And there's a joy to that too. 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.320 And by the way, I know that you love Stan 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.480 Laurel and and you can see some of that in 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:24.600 everything that you do. 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:26.960 And you did get to be friendly with him. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.960 At one point, yes, I did, and he noticed that. 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:35.280 I really he got it. He really pointed out, that's mine, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.120 that's my Oh yeah, wow. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:38.520 Where was he when you met him? Was he in 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:39.720 a picture home or was he returned? 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.000 No, he was on at the Oceania apartments in Santa Monica. 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:47.440 And then I got to meet Buster Keaton also spend. 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:48.280 A day with him. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.360 Oh my god, tell how you found them, because you 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:51.800 told me. 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:54.840 I was looking through the Santa Monica fold book one 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.000 day for a number, and there it was Stan Laurel 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.360 in the fold I just called them up and. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.680 He invited me, and then what's And then I got 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.240 to ask you briefly about the alcoholism because you talked 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.120 about it before and people hear about it. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.200 You admitting the alcoholism that you went. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.400 Oh back at that point in time, that was pretty 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.640 brave and pretty amazing to do, because that could have 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.400 tanked you could have had the public who saw you 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.400 one way completely changed their attitude about you. It's not 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:26.400 like today where people are brave coming out about their 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.880 addictions and victim is a thing. 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.240 This was a major thing. How did you decide that 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:32.560 you were going to go public with that? 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.200 Well, I just thought I should. You know, I've knew 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.440 so many people who couldn't get out of it. I 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.480 was in my thirties and I didn't drink. I moved 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.680 to a neighborhood out in the island where they had 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.760 parties every Saturday, and I started to drink with them 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.920 before I knew it. I was hung up on this stuff. 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.800 I couldn't believe it. Say it was smoking, But did 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:56.240 you use it? 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.040 Did you use the alcohol because you had nerves for 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:00.320 performing that it help? 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:01.160 No? 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.720 No, I never drank at work or before work. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:05.640 Socially, it was performing. 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:10.560 Social yeah, So it was all social stuff. So do 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.240 you feel like it It did not ever have an 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:14.240 impact on your work. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.480 No, I don't think it did. I remember a couple 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.600 of times a music man, I was all I did 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.080 it for a year, Yeah, on the road, and a 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.600 couple of times you go out at night and I'd 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.640 have a hangover the next day, right, and doing trouble. 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.400 Yeah that is that is trouble. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.720 So that's even more interesting to me because because it 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:41.040 wasn't impacting your work, you had to assess, I don't 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.880 want this in my life. Yes, it wasn't that you 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.880 weren't going to make a paycheck. It was that you 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:47.920 just got to a point where said, oh, this is 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:48.920 not what I want to be doing. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:51.520 You go uh. 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:56.120 An alcoholic will go from a happy drunk eventually into 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.040 a mean drunk and an unhappy guy. And I was 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:04.240 getting test and I just hated it. Right, trying to 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:07.359 quit smoking that was twice as hard as. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:07.959 You got cooked. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.480 I've never seen much worse than alcohol. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:12.560 How long did it take? 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:18.320 Forever? I'm still chewing still gum? The next team gum 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.840 in is fifty years, I think. But I went to 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.560 a place called Shiic. Well, you they put you in 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.840 like a phone booth with a big tub of sand 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:28.960 and you have to sit in there and smoked an 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.520 entire pack of cigarettes as fast as you can, and 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.400 you begin to get dizzy and everything. I finally fear 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.560 said they let me out, and I said, boy, that 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.080 was and I lit a cigarette and they gave me 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:42.840 my money back. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:47.240 Wow, wait a minute. The sand that was their whole act. 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:48.000 That was the whole deal. 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.159 That was That was how they were going to break you. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:50.920 And it didn't work. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.280 So did you do? So? You did it? For people 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:55.679 that don't know. 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:57.600 You did a movie called Cold Turkey, which is about 0:17:57.640 --> 0:17:59.800 a town that's trying to go Cold Turkey and cigarettes 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:00.960 gonna they're gonna. 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:01.480 Be paid to do it. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.040 Was that while you were a smoker after before it 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:06.040 was uh. 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.560 I had come to Norman with an idea for one 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.159 guy and you couldn't whip it, so he made it 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.280 the whole town. We were both trying to quit and 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.040 he had a room full of local people. It was 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.280 supposed to be smoke filled, and every he was smoking 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:24.280 one note, lady was not holding it right, and Norman said, no, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.399 you have to. And I saw this. He smoked a 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.800 pack of cigarettes. But we finally both quit. During that 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.240 During that period it was fun. If you look back 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:37.159 to the fifties and sixties. 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.600 By the way, they had ads with doctors smoking cigarettes 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:41.280 and saying how good it was. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.760 That was also a different times. How to promote that 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:45.679 stuff commercials for that. 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.080 Very and I did a commercial firm. My god, we 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:50.080 regret that. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:51.240 Who knew? 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.520 Nobody knew. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:19:00.360 I read that early on you considered potentially going into 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:00.960 the ministry. 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.879