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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: When David Letterman started Late Night in The New York

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Speaker 1: Times said he was quote more of an acquired taste

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Speaker 1: than most comedians unquote. Now it's time, ladies and gentlemen,

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Speaker 1: for a segment of this program, and we like to

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Speaker 1: call stupid petricks. We grew up on Johnny, a true

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Speaker 1: gentleman who could deliver a smooth set up and punchline,

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Speaker 1: occasionally helped by a wink. But suddenly with Late Night,

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Speaker 1: the ultimate punchline was the fact that some gap toothed,

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Speaker 1: unknown smartass even had a show. His pet tricks were

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Speaker 1: stupid on purpose, and so was he. Tune in and

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Speaker 1: you might catch him lowering himself into a water tank

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Speaker 1: wearing a suit made from three thousand, four hundred Alka

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Speaker 1: Seltzer temples. We have the oxygen here, and I have

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Speaker 1: been asked about twelve times by various members of the

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Speaker 1: staff to remind you don't try this at home. I

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Speaker 1: know you have the nine gallon tank, I know you

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Speaker 1: have the oxygen. I know you have the suit of

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Speaker 1: ox a Selzer and a staff of a hundred people.

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Speaker 1: Dave seized every opportunity to remind us that his big

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Speaker 1: network show was a ridiculous waste of time. But if

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Speaker 1: you were in on the joke, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: people were, it was also a stroke of genius. There's

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Speaker 1: a little something the boys at Late Night R and

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Speaker 1: D have been fooling around with. We call it sky bowling. Today,

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Speaker 1: David Letterman is an institution and has forever changed American comedy.

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Speaker 1: Before let him in, the extended drum roll was sincere.

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Speaker 1: After let Himan, it would never be without at least

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Speaker 1: a hint of irony. His show changed America, and after

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Speaker 1: thirty years, Dave's changed as well. I do a lot

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Speaker 1: less work than I used to do. I just got

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Speaker 1: to a point where I have no patience for meetings,

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Speaker 1: so I don't go to any meetings. I can't make

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Speaker 1: decisions anymore. I don't like making decisions. You know, we

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Speaker 1: have a dozen producers. They can have the meetings and

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Speaker 1: they can make the decisions, and I'll just come down

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Speaker 1: and somebody tell me what to do and we go.

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Speaker 1: And it was different before. Yeah, I used to be

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Speaker 1: involved in everything big and large. I don't think that

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Speaker 1: was necessarily good, but at the time I thought it

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Speaker 1: was what was required when you had your own show.

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Speaker 1: You had to had to have everything you know in

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Speaker 1: your view and certainly influence each little choice the guests

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Speaker 1: that are on the show. Do you still help select

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Speaker 1: the guests? Throw or someone else takes the people who

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Speaker 1: select them? Occasionally I will think of, Oh I heard

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Speaker 1: about somebody that did so and so. Could we look

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Speaker 1: into that and this and that? Very little, very little,

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Speaker 1: I mean, these people do that. We've have the good

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Speaker 1: luck of these people who haven't been together for a long, long,

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Speaker 1: long long time. They all know what the expectation is.

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Speaker 1: Of course, when you're in that situation, the bad version

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Speaker 1: of it is, oh god, it's the same thing. It's

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Speaker 1: the assembly line. We're just building the same car over

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Speaker 1: and over and over again. You feel that way sometimes

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Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm the biggest defender of that. I'm sixty five.

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Speaker 1: I don't have the energy I had when I was

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Speaker 1: thirty five. There are certain things I like about the

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Speaker 1: show now that I like more than before work, such

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Speaker 1: as I like talking to people and the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: learn something, or if I have a natural curiosity about somebody,

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Speaker 1: I really look forward to that, or if I have

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Speaker 1: something that I know is going to be silly and stupid,

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Speaker 1: and I want my authorship out there on this something

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Speaker 1: silly and stupid. Then I get eager about that. But

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Speaker 1: in the old days, we just were going twenty hours

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Speaker 1: a day. We'd be out on the streets, we'd be

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Speaker 1: going to New Jersey, we'd be up all night shooting,

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Speaker 1: and there would be contests, And I can't do that

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Speaker 1: show anymore. The more successful the show has become, and

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Speaker 1: the more successful you would become, do you find that

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Speaker 1: in terms of programming the show you have to rely

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Speaker 1: more on stars. Is there a kind of person It's

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Speaker 1: it's completely different. In the beginning, when we started the

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Speaker 1: late night show at NBC, we had a liaison between

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Speaker 1: Johnny Carson and ourselves named Dave Tabot. He had worked

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Speaker 1: at NBC and then had become close with Johnny, and

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Speaker 1: so Johnny hired him. And he was a guy who,

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Speaker 1: honest to God, talked like this. Dave came in to

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Speaker 1: make sure there were no conflicts between our show and

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Speaker 1: the tonight show. He says, for example, let's just say

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Speaker 1: that Bob Hope is arrested for using drugs and we

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Speaker 1: just all just just like, really, in what universe? Is

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Speaker 1: that all likelihood? And he says you can't then do

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Speaker 1: jokes about Bob Hope. I said, okay, all right, we've

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Speaker 1: got that. We were not allowed to use do a monologue,

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Speaker 1: and we were not allowed to have an orchestra. And

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Speaker 1: we also felt that a way to distinguish ourselves, since

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Speaker 1: Johnny had the big stars that people really wanted, we

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Speaker 1: would then kind of have fringe people. That's exactly right,

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Speaker 1: and so we we sort of mind that vain as

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Speaker 1: much as we could. It was sort of a fortunate

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Speaker 1: coincidence that we were prohibited in that sense because we

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Speaker 1: weren't really interested in having mainstream people on two. Again.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how effective it was in in terms

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Speaker 1: of programming. I don't know if people noticed the difference

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Speaker 1: and appreciated it or just thought, oh, they can't get

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Speaker 1: very good guests, and oh it's completely different. It's you know,

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Speaker 1: Broadway cavalcade of stars. And that's fine. I have no

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Speaker 1: problem with that. We're always fighting the Internet and they

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Speaker 1: seem to be winning in terms of the small guests,

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Speaker 1: the kid that swims out into the East River and

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Speaker 1: saves the cat, or but we're always so far down

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Speaker 1: the stream from that story. By the time it's all

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Speaker 1: over the internet that there's no point and put it

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Speaker 1: on you start. You started in radio. Yeah, my first

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Speaker 1: job was at a radio station. You went to college,

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Speaker 1: You went to All State University has studied radio on TV?

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Speaker 1: Why did you study radio and TV academically? Um? You know,

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Speaker 1: I went to Ball State in those days, graduated with

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Speaker 1: I think it's a bachelor of Bachelor of Arts or

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Speaker 1: Bachelor of Science. I don't think science probably back then.

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Speaker 1: But no language requirement and no math requirement. I mean

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Speaker 1: it really saved me because I was academically, I was

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Speaker 1: not very good early on. I was very lucky that

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Speaker 1: I knew how to save myself. Sophomore in high school

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Speaker 1: and I had signed up for a public speaking course

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Speaker 1: and the first day you were supposed to get up

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Speaker 1: and extemporaneously speak for five minutes. You know, everybody's twitchy

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Speaker 1: and sweaty and worried about this, as was I. And

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Speaker 1: then I got up there, the nervousness and the twitchiness

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Speaker 1: and everything dissipated. I loved it, and I thought, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, maybe this is a way I can distinguish myself.

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Speaker 1: And I did you know, but had you been the

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Speaker 1: entertainer as a child in your house, in the household, yeah,

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Speaker 1: sure to what except and then my parents wouldn't put

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Speaker 1: up with it much. There was a fine line between being, oh,

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Speaker 1: isn't the amusing and being just and being a wise ass,

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Speaker 1: and we don't like that. I can remember my father

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Speaker 1: was big and loud and noisy and always had stuff

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Speaker 1: going on, and my mother completely nondemonstrative. And I can

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Speaker 1: remember every Sunday night after dinner, my dad would make

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Speaker 1: popcorn and we would sit in front of the TV

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Speaker 1: and watch Ed Sullivan and Ed used to have this

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Speaker 1: habit of all, come on, now, let's really hear it

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Speaker 1: for him, and my mom used to say, I don't

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Speaker 1: like the way Ed begs the audience for applause us.

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Speaker 1: So she was just completely standoffish by the notion she

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Speaker 1: was a connoisseur of television house and then she was

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Speaker 1: not a connoisseur. She resented the fact that somebody had

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Speaker 1: to be encouraged to support what they had just said.

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Speaker 1: They Sellivan was whoring himself and that's exactly right, that's great.

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Speaker 1: So you go to ball Statum, you get this degree

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Speaker 1: Bachelor of whatever. We don't know and what do you

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Speaker 1: do after that? Well, through a friend of mine at

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Speaker 1: a the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis where I lived, which

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Speaker 1: was sixty miles away from where I went to school

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Speaker 1: and still is just about sixty miles, I heard that

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Speaker 1: they were auditioning for the one of the summer announcer.

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Speaker 1: So I went down there an audition, never having been

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Speaker 1: in a television studio in my life, and got the job.

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Speaker 1: I mean it was a fixed fight because I had

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Speaker 1: no business getting the job. I wasn't very good, I

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Speaker 1: didn't know what I was doing, I had no experience,

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Speaker 1: and they gave me the job. And suddenly the bulb

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Speaker 1: that was turned on my sophomore year in high school

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Speaker 1: now is burning? Why top, because it's are you kid me?

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Speaker 1: I'm nineteen and I'm gonna be on TV? I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's preposterous. That was the booth announcer. So I can't

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Speaker 1: believe you said that back when they had booth announcers

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Speaker 1: on something. That's right, That's what it is. These guys

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Speaker 1: defined my childhood by the way. These were the guys. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The principal responsibility was to keep the program log. There

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Speaker 1: used to be a lot of technical glitches in television

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Speaker 1: who had booth announcers who would pick up the slack

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Speaker 1: when something went wrong with tape to tape. That's exactly right.

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Speaker 1: Station break was a huge process because you had a

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Speaker 1: control room, you had a director, you had two or

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Speaker 1: three sixteen millimeter projectors, you had a slide chain, and

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Speaker 1: you had the big two and a half inch Ampex tape.

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Speaker 1: Let's say you had four commercials in a station break,

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Speaker 1: then you'd have to roll the tape. Then you'd have

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Speaker 1: to count down and roll the film. Then you'd have

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Speaker 1: to go live to the booth to read copy over

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Speaker 1: a slide and then back to the film, and it

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Speaker 1: was an enormous thing. Periodically, the FCC would come in

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Speaker 1: and check your your log. So it was a big deal.

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Speaker 1: At a summer job in in nineteen six, He's sixty

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Speaker 1: and I was making a hundred fifty bucks a week.

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Speaker 1: I got to be the weekend weather man. I've never

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Speaker 1: done that before. I got to read the news on

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Speaker 1: on the morning kiddie show. And none of this would

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Speaker 1: happen today. You know, people are qualified to do that

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Speaker 1: job now, much earlier than I certainly was. You know,

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Speaker 1: like this was Ryan Seacrest university put him in any

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Speaker 1: job when he was nine or ten, he could have

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Speaker 1: done a better job than I'm doing now. But for me,

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Speaker 1: it was like holy cow. So I go back to

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Speaker 1: school now, to my radio and TV studies, and all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden it's he there's duck Lips. We've seen

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Speaker 1: him on TV, and oh my god, what a progression

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Speaker 1: that was for me. Now that was what year I

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Speaker 1: think I started there in sixty eight and I stayed.

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Speaker 1: And you avoid drafts, and you avoid in those days,

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Speaker 1: you get the student deferment. And ball S was prinsipally

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Speaker 1: a teacher's college in those days, and so wanted teachers.

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Speaker 1: It was chock full of guys who wanted that student

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Speaker 1: deferment and also the teaching deferment. I was not studying teaching.

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Speaker 1: So the minute I graduated, I was reclassified. One A

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Speaker 1: went from my pre draft physical in April and they said, okay,

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Speaker 1: we'll call you. And then in the meantime before I

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Speaker 1: was called, Nixon announced the National Lottery. They were going

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Speaker 1: to end the draft. They were trying to step down

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Speaker 1: the Vietnamese War. My birthday was three forty two or

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Speaker 1: something like that. Out of three hundred fifty six. So

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Speaker 1: that meant even though I was one A and had

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Speaker 1: my pre induction physical and was ready to go, it

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Speaker 1: was over for me. At the time, I didn't know

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Speaker 1: how lucky I was. I felt guilty because I had

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Speaker 1: friends who had gone, and I had friends who had

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Speaker 1: been in the Marine Corps, and I just felt like, well,

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Speaker 1: why met these guys went, Why shouldn't I go? And

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Speaker 1: then it dawned on me pretty quickly. I had been

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Speaker 1: among the really really lucky. Yeah, what was the political

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Speaker 1: landscape like a Boston when you went there? Well, it

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Speaker 1: was just starting to uh. I I used to make

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Speaker 1: jokes that they would have student protests, but it was

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Speaker 1: to get the cafeteria cooks to wear hairnets. But it was.

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Speaker 1: It was creeping in. It was not a hot bed.

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Speaker 1: It was not Madison, Wisconsin. It was Muncie, Indiana. But

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Speaker 1: it was starting and there were sit ins and demonstrations,

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Speaker 1: and you know, Bobby Kennedy had spoken on campus, so

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Speaker 1: it was starting, but I wouldn't say it was. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't quite lit up the way it might have been

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Speaker 1: in other regions. You mentioned booth announcers, and I remember

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Speaker 1: I did a YouTube search. I wanted to find this

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Speaker 1: guy that was literally the voice of my childhood. W

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Speaker 1: r Andy come on and say, you know, uh, next

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Speaker 1: on Million Dollar Movie, Barbara stan mctells Gary Cooper where

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Speaker 1: he Can Go? And Ball of Fire and he just

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Speaker 1: said this voice, it was just it just haunted me. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's interesting. You mentioned that guy I had the little

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Speaker 1: kid voice from Indiana. I wasn't that guy, but I

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Speaker 1: still had to do the job. And I can't impress

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Speaker 1: upon you enough how tedious it is to sit there

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Speaker 1: for eight hours watching programming and logging everything that happens.

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Speaker 1: If you lose audio, you have to log that. If

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Speaker 1: you lose video, you have to log that. You have

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Speaker 1: to log sign on, sign off, every commercial, every station break.

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Speaker 1: And at first I was scared silly, but then, like

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Speaker 1: everything else, you get accustomed to it and you become blase.

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Speaker 1: And so I would just start wandering the building. You know,

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Speaker 1: it was so embarrassing. They would will the booth announcer

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Speaker 1: please report to the announced booth, and oh my god,

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Speaker 1: I've missed the so and so. The main announcer was

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Speaker 1: a guy named Rob Stone, tremendous voice and hopeless alcoholic,

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Speaker 1: I mean a real alcoholic. Go hand in hand, aren't yeah?

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Speaker 1: Kind of certainly in those days it was not uncommon.

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Speaker 1: He would come in and he would bring a point

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Speaker 1: with him. And so in the spirit of this, we

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Speaker 1: who were working the sign off shift, we would always

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Speaker 1: send somebody out for beer, and we would be at

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Speaker 1: the station late at night signing off, and myself and

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Speaker 1: the director and whomever else was there, we'd be drinking beer.

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Speaker 1: Oh my, with this fun. In those days, you would

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Speaker 1: do a five minute new summary before sign off nightcap news,

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Speaker 1: and then you would do the the broadcast statement. You'd

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Speaker 1: read that over the slide of the station, and then

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Speaker 1: they would go to the national anthem with the waving flag.

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Speaker 1: One night, a guy in the props department, so I

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Speaker 1: can reconstruct exactly the station has pictured on the slide.

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Speaker 1: We can make it blow up, so as you're as

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Speaker 1: you're reading the thank you and good night and why

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Speaker 1: not tune in w LW overnight and blah blah this

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Speaker 1: and so until tomorrow, good night and good luck, I

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Speaker 1: have the thing. And so we did. Oh god, we

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Speaker 1: were proud of ourselves. You know, we really thought we

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Speaker 1: had done something. Geez, nobody ever said anything. No, it

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Speaker 1: was bizarre nobody got fired. Nobody asked a question about it.

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Speaker 1: You know. It was this cult of four or five

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Speaker 1: guys who had pulled this off, and we just thought, well,

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Speaker 1: this is one. It was fun, but to you wanted

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Speaker 1: but no nobody nobody said anything. But but what's interesting

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Speaker 1: is from school and then doing the job and so

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Speaker 1: forth in the booth thing the comedy gland is secreting

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Speaker 1: through the entire time. What are you doing for that?

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Speaker 1: Meaning other than blowing up the studio and in the

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Speaker 1: sign off or yes, I was looking for any outlet

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Speaker 1: and it came for me doing the weather. I knew

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Speaker 1: nothing about whether you'd go downstairs night have the ap

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Speaker 1: machine and the map would come over, the national map,

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Speaker 1: and you would go to the big magnetic board in

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Speaker 1: the studio and you put the low system, and you

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Speaker 1: put the high system, and you put the occluded front,

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Speaker 1: and you put the rain showers, and so it told

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Speaker 1: you everything any time, but all that I could monkey

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Speaker 1: with that. I was very happy. I can remember two episodes.

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Speaker 1: One I was had forecast sunny and dryet and we

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Speaker 1: we go off the air and blah blah and I

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Speaker 1: go outside this this is horrible thundershower. The rain is

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Speaker 1: coming down in sheets, and I was just twenty ft away,

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Speaker 1: just oblivious of this. This uh dangerous yes coming through,

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Speaker 1: this one of these violent Midwestern summer thunderstorms coming through

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Speaker 1: attacking the station. I got to be well known because

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Speaker 1: this Sunday Night show was on after the ABC Sunday

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Speaker 1: Night Movie, and in those days that was big programming.

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Speaker 1: We got a bunch of complaints, and this was when

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Speaker 1: people were wearing a bell bottom pants. I don't think

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Speaker 1: he could buy regular pants. Got a lot of calls

300
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Speaker 1: about he's either not wearing underpants or he needs to

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Speaker 1: wear underpants. That's how I distinguished myself. Do you want

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Speaker 1: to clear that up now? Were you wearing underpants? Of

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00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,360
Speaker 1: course I was wearing inderpendent. It was Indianapolis, and we did.

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Speaker 1: We're not talked too without It's whatever problem was perceived

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Speaker 1: was not mine, I assure you. And then where do

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Speaker 1: you go from there in terms of underpants, and well,

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Speaker 1: if you wish. I got tired of sitting in the

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Speaker 1: booth and tired of working weekends. And also they didn't

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Speaker 1: they didn't want me there. They would keep bringing in

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Speaker 1: auditions for my job. That really hurt my feelings. But

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Speaker 1: I couldn't argue with them because I didn't know what

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Speaker 1: I was doing, but the cumulative effect of being on

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Speaker 1: TV a lot there, we get this memo once from

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Speaker 1: the search department, and of all of the people, the

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Speaker 1: the anchor team and whoever else, I had the highest

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Speaker 1: queue rating of anybody there, and it was only by accident. Really,

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Speaker 1: So I started looking for a job, couldn't get hired

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Speaker 1: out of the market. Some people I knew were coming

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Speaker 1: in to start up a talk radio station, so I

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Speaker 1: went to work at the new talk radio station. Format.

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Speaker 1: It was News Talks Force w NTS. When I resigned

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Speaker 1: to quit give my notice to the general manage, the

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Speaker 1: guy sad and it chilled me at the time. He said, really,

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Speaker 1: you're leaving this TV station to go work for a

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Speaker 1: brand new radio station. And I said yeah, and he

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00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:14,920
Speaker 1: said you will never be heard of again. So I

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Speaker 1: went to the station, worked there for a year, realized

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Speaker 1: that I had to make a move. Nobody would would listen.

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Speaker 1: It was a daytime station. This was tremendous. They had

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Speaker 1: a daytime license, which meant the radio station come on

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Speaker 1: when the sun came up and went off when the

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Speaker 1: sun went down. Literally Yeah. And then winter. We were

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Speaker 1: off at three in the afternoon and I had the

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Speaker 1: midday shift. I come in at noon and two hours

335
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Speaker 1: later I'd be going home. It was it was afternoon,

336
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Speaker 1: and then in the summer. Conversely, you were on the

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Speaker 1: like nine thirty or ten. It was awful. It was Watergate,

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Speaker 1: and and people assumed, well, the guy's got a talk

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Speaker 1: show on the radio, but he knows everything there is

340
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Speaker 1: to know about Watergate, and I knew nothing, and people

341
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Speaker 1: wouldn't call in, and I'd have to read endless pages

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Speaker 1: of wire copy. I remember eating a sorry about Gordon

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Speaker 1: Stratching str A c H A N. His name kept

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Speaker 1: coming up, a special counsel, so and so, Gordon Stratch

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00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:10,439
Speaker 1: and adviser of the White House, Gordon Stratch. And finally

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Speaker 1: the phones light up, and I, thank god, did I

347
00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:16,199
Speaker 1: say yes? He says, it's not Stratching, it's Strang. You're

348
00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:19,199
Speaker 1: mispronouncing the guy's name. I said, okay, thanks to everything.

349
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Speaker 1: No click buzz, So there you go. Were you ambitious

350
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:24,960
Speaker 1: during this time? Did you have an ambition? Yeah? I

351
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Speaker 1: wanted to. I really thought, um, I really thought I

352
00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,520
Speaker 1: could write half hours situation comedies. I thought I could.

353
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Speaker 1: What did you watch well? In my childhood it was

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Speaker 1: completely different. It would have been stuff like Saturday Morning Nonsense.

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Speaker 1: Then as I grew older, you'd get Mayberry, The Andy

356
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Speaker 1: Griffs Show, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, the Nelson's and that

357
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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And then later on and in those days,

358
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Speaker 1: it was all the Mary Tyler More things, the Bob

359
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:51,520
Speaker 1: Newhart Show, on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. And I

360
00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:53,800
Speaker 1: really thought, oh, I can write one of those Mary

361
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Speaker 1: Tyler Moore shows, and it turned out I couldn't. As

362
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Speaker 1: you know, there's a template for writing those things. They

363
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,040
Speaker 1: use the template because it's successful. And if you don't

364
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:05,119
Speaker 1: know the template and you think you can make a

365
00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:09,640
Speaker 1: better version of it, it's a very foreign object to them.

366
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Speaker 1: To you, you think, look, I've improved on the template,

367
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:15,200
Speaker 1: but they don't want them. They want something to Yes,

368
00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:17,480
Speaker 1: that's right. I mean we're talking about Mary Tyler Moore.

369
00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,280
Speaker 1: That's pretty good stuff. Smart And you're in l A

370
00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:22,040
Speaker 1: at that time. No, I'm still in Indianapolis, and I

371
00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:25,120
Speaker 1: would be sending scripts and looking for an agent. Finally

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Speaker 1: a guy said, yeah, if you come to Los Angeles,

373
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Speaker 1: he said, I'll be your agent. So with that encouragement,

374
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Speaker 1: I just left, and I don't know about you, but

375
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,440
Speaker 1: you know your friends say, okay, here you can meet

376
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:36,800
Speaker 1: with so and so, and and you can meet mel

377
00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,439
Speaker 1: Blank's son, you can meet with him and and I

378
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,119
Speaker 1: know this one, and I know that one, and so

379
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,320
Speaker 1: you go out there with high hopes. I guess it's

380
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:45,600
Speaker 1: like the Pioneers and the kind of stoga wagon and

381
00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,560
Speaker 1: they run out of beans. You know, they're in Salt

382
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,240
Speaker 1: Lake and they've got nothing neat. So within the first

383
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,280
Speaker 1: week you run through all of your appointments and then

384
00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,560
Speaker 1: you've got nothing. Then your Shanghai that's right on the

385
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,879
Speaker 1: shoulders there. I'm in Or when I went to l A.

386
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,840
Speaker 1: I did a soap opera at thirty Rock. The show

387
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:05,239
Speaker 1: was about to go off the air, and I'll never

388
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:08,159
Speaker 1: forget this guy that was the producer. Here we're in

389
00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,160
Speaker 1: the hallway and they asked me to extend my contract

390
00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:12,639
Speaker 1: for a few months. And he says that line to me.

391
00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:13,840
Speaker 1: He says, what do you think you're gonna do? Go

392
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,160
Speaker 1: out the Hollywood, become a star in the movies. I'm

393
00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:19,880
Speaker 1: walking down the homeies doing do listen to me? Come

394
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,159
Speaker 1: back here? You you don't walk away from me? And

395
00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:24,439
Speaker 1: I walk away from the guy and I go to

396
00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,040
Speaker 1: l A. Now, were you ever haunted by that? Did you? Honestly?

397
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:29,840
Speaker 1: Did you? Did you? Because of my case I thought

398
00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:33,000
Speaker 1: the guy was I said, oh yeah, I haven't considered that.

399
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,159
Speaker 1: Of course you do. Did you ever think you were

400
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:37,360
Speaker 1: going to be? I mean, I don't want to get

401
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,120
Speaker 1: you know, crass about it, but you live a very

402
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:44,400
Speaker 1: very good life. You've been an enormously successful man. Did

403
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:46,600
Speaker 1: you ever dream you would be as successful as you are? No?

404
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:49,280
Speaker 1: Never know? And I'll tell you the same for you,

405
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,439
Speaker 1: same for most people in this uh in show business.

406
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,560
Speaker 1: You're just lucky enough to get to do exactly what

407
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:58,240
Speaker 1: you want to do all your life. So that's the success,

408
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,399
Speaker 1: you know. I always thought there was some commission that

409
00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:03,120
Speaker 1: was going to come to my door of my apartment

410
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 1: was living in and West Hollywoin and there were knock

411
00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,160
Speaker 1: with h they're going anywhere, the Motion Picture Acting commission,

412
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:09,480
Speaker 1: and we've got the reports and Mr Bob, we're gonna

413
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:10,879
Speaker 1: take it to the airport by the way back to me.

414
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,040
Speaker 1: I think you're not gonna get into I know the

415
00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 1: origin of this is is your personal fear, But I

416
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,720
Speaker 1: think that commission is not a bad idea and long overdue.

417
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 1: Honest to God, can we get that up and on

418
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,000
Speaker 1: its feet? Can we get a bill? I remember there

419
00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,600
Speaker 1: was a guy, a writer for the Old Tonight Show,

420
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,040
Speaker 1: somebody calling his His listing in the white Pages was

421
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,400
Speaker 1: say it's Marty Cohen. It was Marty Cohon, Marty Cohen,

422
00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 1: President of show Business. Just oh, that's lovely. So were

423
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,439
Speaker 1: you Were you doing stand up every in Indiana? Uh? No,

424
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:44,439
Speaker 1: never did. In fact, one of the things that I

425
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 1: didn't like doing was when I was at the radio station.

426
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:49,880
Speaker 1: Part of the deal was we just sold a thing

427
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,119
Speaker 1: to Kroger grocery stores. But part of the deal is

428
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:53,640
Speaker 1: we want you to go out there and m see

429
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,760
Speaker 1: the song song so and I hated it, and I

430
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:57,720
Speaker 1: finally told the guy, said I can't do this. So

431
00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:00,240
Speaker 1: one of my big built in fears was up in

432
00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,399
Speaker 1: front of people that I didn't know on trying to,

433
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,199
Speaker 1: you know, hold their attention. Let alone be funny. But

434
00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:09,879
Speaker 1: for me, the road map to pursue was handed to

435
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:13,080
Speaker 1: you via Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show. They would

436
00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:16,159
Speaker 1: have comics on. It would be David Brenner and they

437
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 1: would say, and there will be appearing at the Comedy Store,

438
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,679
Speaker 1: and it seemed to be that the connection between the

439
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 1: Comedy Store and the Tonight Show was pretty close. So

440
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,439
Speaker 1: even though in mind that facility that particularly it was

441
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 1: the farm system for the Comedy Store, and great guys

442
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 1: were coming out and getting on and Steve Landisberg and

443
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 1: on and on. I say on and on because I

444
00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:39,400
Speaker 1: can't remember the name, so I just yeah, even though

445
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:40,920
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a writer, because I didn't have

446
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,040
Speaker 1: the courage to tell my family and friends that what

447
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,680
Speaker 1: I really want to do is, you know, somehow get

448
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,280
Speaker 1: famous and beyond TV. So when when I went out

449
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 1: there the first monday I was in California when I

450
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,960
Speaker 1: moved in, I wrote down some stuff and went to

451
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,520
Speaker 1: the Comedy Store and got on stage. It was it

452
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 1: was awful. I've never been in a dark and room

453
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:02,720
Speaker 1: with the spotlight and it was just like a train

454
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,720
Speaker 1: coming at me. So I did my little five minutes

455
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,520
Speaker 1: from route left and then uh, the owner of the place, yeah,

456
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:13,520
Speaker 1: you should come back and do some more. So I thought,

457
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,719
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? And she's no, you can m ce.

458
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 1: So I came back and I was the yeah Derek.

459
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: So that seventy eight three years later I was on

460
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:31,960
Speaker 1: the Tonight Show. That worked so much better than it

461
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,520
Speaker 1: should have. I think it must be harder now. It

462
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 1: wasn't three years of just work in that room and

463
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: work in the mic and working stand up, but it was.

464
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,959
Speaker 1: I mean, it was fun because every night you go

465
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 1: there and you were hanging around guys Jay Leno and

466
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 1: Robin Williams and George Miller and Tom Greeson and Jeff

467
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:52,440
Speaker 1: Aultman and anybody now who's you're aware of you would

468
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:54,480
Speaker 1: see every night. And it was great fun. I mean,

469
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:56,360
Speaker 1: my god, it was great fun and didn't make any

470
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 1: difference what you did during the day. You knew that

471
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,359
Speaker 1: when it got dark, you'd be on Sunset Boulevard. The

472
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 1: place would be packed. And in those days, the only

473
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:07,240
Speaker 1: room she had was this tiny, little original room and

474
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,919
Speaker 1: it was next door to Art Labelle's. He would have

475
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,920
Speaker 1: a fifties dance party in the next room on the weekends,

476
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,880
Speaker 1: and you would get a lot of gang guys going

477
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:26,320
Speaker 1: to Art Labelle's. Guys. No, what was then brio? Um?

478
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: Is that all right? Yeah? Low riders? Yeah? And uh.

479
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 1: One one night a friend of mine, Johnny Dark, is

480
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 1: on stage and a guy comes up and he's got

481
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,240
Speaker 1: a gun and he's standing next to Johnny while Johnny

482
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:42,679
Speaker 1: is doing his little singing impressions of whomever, and and

483
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 1: he had to quietly, you know, talk his way out

484
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,679
Speaker 1: of the guy using the gun. And it was exciting.

485
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 1: V And Richard Pryor would come in, and Freddie Prince

486
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,640
Speaker 1: would come in, so you say, yeah, night after night.

487
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: But still in all how could that not be fun?

488
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 1: So did Carson find you there? Well, they had a guy,

489
00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 1: you know, they had a team of guys when I

490
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: was there that would m in. Uh. And in the

491
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,440
Speaker 1: meantime I got on this Mary Tyler Moore show, UH

492
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,159
Speaker 1: to write and perform and that was it was me

493
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:12,400
Speaker 1: and Michael Keaton, Jim Hampton and Dick Shawn and Susie

494
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: Kurtz and uh, Julie con Judy con Judy con thank

495
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 1: you very much. So from that show, uh, they said, oh,

496
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 1: well we'll put you on because you're on that show.

497
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:25,880
Speaker 1: You can come out and do stand up and then

498
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 1: you go sit down and talk to Johnny. And without

499
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: that you never know what the formula is. You could

500
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 1: be on nine times and never get sit on with Johnny.

501
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:35,399
Speaker 1: You could be on for six years and every or

502
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: you could be bumped forty times never but because of this,

503
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 1: Oh and he's appearing on the so and so Show,

504
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,360
Speaker 1: the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I got to sit down

505
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,879
Speaker 1: with Johnny and and that was again, that was craziness.

506
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: That was That was another one of those you know what,

507
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: it's Oh yeah, it's such a jolt. The material is

508
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: so committed. You don't have to think about anything, You

509
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: just have to start talking and it all comes out.

510
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: The adrenaline take days to burn out of you. Holy God,

511
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: you're sitting next to Johnny Carson. I mean, you just

512
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 1: can't believe it. I mean to me, and I think

513
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 1: most guys my age who were out there doing that one.

514
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,439
Speaker 1: The fact that it worked. You know, really, I drove

515
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: in a pickup truck with my wife to l A

516
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: and three years later, I'm sitting next to Johnny Carson.

517
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: That's not supposed to happen, you know, It's just not

518
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 1: supposed to happen. But it did. Do you think that

519
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 1: Carson was someone who do you think he saw himself?

520
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: And you do you think he saw the Midwestern boy?

521
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:30,199
Speaker 1: I don't know, Jean, I don't know. I mean, it

522
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: was so easy for other people to make that comparison. Uh,

523
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: and that seemed to be the formula. But I don't.

524
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: I don't know if you felt that way or not. Um,

525
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 1: I don't. I can't answer that. And then what happened

526
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 1: after that, Well, your life changed immediately. Suddenly you weren't

527
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 1: just a guy who was at the comedy store. You

528
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,959
Speaker 1: were the guy that had been on with Carson. And

529
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 1: then I was on I think two or three more times,

530
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,879
Speaker 1: and then I started hosting the show, and again that

531
00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:59,639
Speaker 1: was another you know, you just feel like it's like

532
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: it's like winning the World Series or your rookie season.

533
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:03,880
Speaker 1: What's the gap of time between when you first sat

534
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 1: down with him when you started hosting. The first time

535
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: I was on was November of seventy eight, and I

536
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 1: think I hosted. Uh, it was Monday night opposite the

537
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:15,640
Speaker 1: Academy Awards, so it was the Good Spring, Yeah, in April.

538
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 1: I should have been April of March, April, yeah, and

539
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: it was I was just frozen. I was as fro

540
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:27,679
Speaker 1: as I can remember. Peter Losalle coming up to me

541
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: during the commercial break and he said, you've got to

542
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: loosen up. You've got to loosen up. They get that

543
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: thanks to that tip page. I remember the first night

544
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: I was saw on the Tonight Show and I'm I'm

545
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,439
Speaker 1: telling you, four guys at the comedy store, this was it.

546
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 1: This was like people lining up to squeeze through a funnel,

547
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: you know. This was it. The Tonight Show. Fighting in

548
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,439
Speaker 1: competition and backstabbing and bad mouthing to get to the

549
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: Tonight Show is going to make or break you if

550
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: if you don't do well, you'll never be heard of again.

551
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: There's there's no such thing as a guy bombings first

552
00:26:58,320 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: time on the Tonight Show and then having a delight

553
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,400
Speaker 1: full career that just doesn't happen. You're gone. So there's

554
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure. So I I am getting ready

555
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 1: to go out there just behind the curtain. And my

556
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,359
Speaker 1: manager at the time, Buddy Mora, who was with Jack

557
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: Rollins and uh Charles Joffey. They handled Robin Williams and

558
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,719
Speaker 1: Woody Allen and Dick Cabint and some other guys. So

559
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:21,399
Speaker 1: that was a big deal for me to be with

560
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,239
Speaker 1: these people and Buddy and I nice enough guy, but

561
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,639
Speaker 1: we never I never saw I'd eye on much, and

562
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it was my immaturity about

563
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: show business or just ignorance, not immaturity. I you know,

564
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,640
Speaker 1: I had no time to be immature. I was ignorant.

565
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 1: So we're standing there and Johnny saying, our next guest

566
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: as a young blah blah blah blah, and Buddy says

567
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,959
Speaker 1: to me, and Buddy always whispered. Everything was a whisper.

568
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: But he says, Robin got popeye, And I said, what

569
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,159
Speaker 1: are you talking about? His final words to me, as

570
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 1: I'm going on the tonight show from the first time,

571
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 1: telling me about a booking for one of his other clients,

572
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 1: you know, And I just never got over that. This

573
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing

574
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: more in a minute. This is Alec Baldwin and I'm

575
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: talking with David Letterman. You know, you're a lot mellower

576
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: an al than you were, absolutely, and you'd say that

577
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: when you did the show, no matter how crazy or

578
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 1: how wired you and the whole experience was of the

579
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: early show, and you said running around and doing all

580
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: the taking and all the other bits and stuff forth

581
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: in contests and everything, but I mean, just your own

582
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 1: nature seems like there was a kind of an edge

583
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 1: to it that that you've lost but you seem like

584
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 1: you really just become like so much more. What's the

585
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: word charming? Well, I don't know that's rule, but I

586
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: know exactly what you're talking about. And the fact that

587
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: it's noticeable by others is an indication that maybe I'm

588
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: on the right track. Because to to the exclusion of

589
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 1: every other thing in my life, it was the success

590
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: of this show. As a result, I waited to have

591
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: a child twenty years too long. I just didn't do

592
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: anything else. It was the show and it had to

593
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: be the show. And if it wasn't the show, then

594
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 1: find out a way to make it the show. And

595
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 1: did you come from that world? Like Lauren, for example,

596
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: says to me, he's he lives the life where his

597
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: creative was. Work is playing. Like we have s interesting jobs.

598
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: You know, you don't stop working, That's part of it.

599
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: And uh, that is one of the great residuals of

600
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: of you know, you're around all these funny people and

601
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: you have silly ideas and you have silly conversations a

602
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 1: life yourself sick. But for me it was like, oh

603
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: my god. Uh, you know, if if I fail at this,

604
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,160
Speaker 1: it's all going away. You know, if you fail at

605
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: this you get to get at the end of the line,

606
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: and the line keeps getting longer, so to the exclusion

607
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: of other important things, other aspects of life. I pursued

608
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: the show and then that changed. It only changed. Did

609
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,920
Speaker 1: you want it to change? No? At the time, I didn't.

610
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 1: I didn't know there was another way to live your life.

611
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: I thought you had to keep banging your head and

612
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 1: banging your head and banging your head. And I kept

613
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: saying to myself, this is what they say. It's like

614
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,239
Speaker 1: pushing a rock up hill. It's like pushing a rock

615
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: up hill, and one day everything will change, everything will

616
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: be great, you'll succeed, and everything will well. It never

617
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 1: it never quite worked that way for me. I think, well,

618
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 1: not too difficult to assume that. This is one of

619
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 1: the reasons I had the quintuple bypass surgery. Uh. And

620
00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 1: then my doctor he said, you know, he says, you

621
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 1: don't have to be this way yourself. Yeah, he said,

622
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: you can, yeah, or you you can. He says, there

623
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: are they made pharmaceutical advancements here, you can help yourself.

624
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 1: And I said, no, no, no, no, I can't because

625
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:48,719
Speaker 1: that would ruin this, and that would ruin that, and uh.

626
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: And then Regina got we were able to get pregnant.

627
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 1: I went into this stark, raving anxious depression which you

628
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 1: got pregnant. Why, well, I was fine with it. I thought,

629
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 1: if not now when you know, and she had wanted

630
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: to have kids, like I said, fifteen twenty years earlier,

631
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:10,959
Speaker 1: and so I, uh, this is a very complicated, uninteresting story,

632
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 1: and it has it has to do with being on

633
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: the shingle, having shingles, and being on exotic pain medication

634
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: for the shingles and getting fed up with the exotic

635
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,760
Speaker 1: pain medication and saying to the pain doctor I'm done.

636
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 1: I'm not taking it anymore. And he said, well, you

637
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: know a lot of those things you can't just I said,

638
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 1: forget it. Click and I stopped taking these things, and

639
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,240
Speaker 1: within a couple of days I just turned into this

640
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 1: twitching unit cell altered states. Yeah. It was very odd. Uh.

641
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 1: And the guy said, well, you're in an anxious depression

642
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:43,760
Speaker 1: and lucid, you know there are things we can do

643
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: here to help you out. And I said, I'll try

644
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: anything because I can't go on like this. And so

645
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,200
Speaker 1: as a small dose of an s s R, I

646
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 1: suddenly I realized I can have myself. My personality of

647
00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: the person that I've known and then lose, was detracting

648
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:05,840
Speaker 1: what was hurting, what was actually an impediment, groom out

649
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 1: the things that you wanted to groom out. And when

650
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: I came to this show business, and I was in

651
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 1: Los Angeles sleeping, and I was like Gomer Pyle, I mean,

652
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 1: I swear to God. I came to work and they really,

653
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: I have trouble that you were really but I don't

654
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: mean in terms of of lacking any sophistication, but they

655
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: would give me. I'll never forget the first job I got.

656
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 1: I go to an audition. I've done that the soap

657
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: in New York and they paid you, you know, a

658
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: very small amount of money. And I thought I was

659
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: Rockefell and they paid you four and fifty bucks a day.

660
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: I was. I was the richest member of my family.

661
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:35,760
Speaker 1: My dad was a school teacher with six kids. He

662
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 1: didn't make any money. And I go out to l

663
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: a and I'll never forget. But I go to the

664
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: old Laura Mar which is now Sony and I go

665
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,479
Speaker 1: to the gate at Laura Mar. I say, Alec Baldwin.

666
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, uh, here's your map you're parking

667
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: and building sixty seven ninth floor slot read twelve and

668
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: they and they sent me to like, you know, the Ukraine.

669
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 1: I gotta go all the way and and I go, now,

670
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 1: where's the office? I'm going going too for the me

671
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: and he goes right over there, right next to me.

672
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 1: So I go, I parked the car, trot all the

673
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 1: way down, do an audition for the show, nots landing.

674
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: I get done, you know, I leave the thing and

675
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 1: no cell phones. Then this is three and so I

676
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: pull up to a phone booth. I called my agent.

677
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,200
Speaker 1: It's late in the afternoon. They're still in the office.

678
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 1: He goes, how did it go? I go, how did

679
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 1: it go? I think it went pretty well, pretty well,

680
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 1: you moron. They want to hire you. And I go,

681
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: you're kidding me, he goes. He goes, yeah, of course

682
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: he was. We're making a deal right now, or closing

683
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:29,840
Speaker 1: the deal way now. You're gonna get twenty five for

684
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 1: the pilot and twelve five an episode. And I swear

685
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: to God coming from my background, and went go, wait,

686
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: y'all won't pay me for the pilot and twelve hundred

687
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars per episode every week and he's like, no,

688
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 1: you morow. They're gonna pay you twenty five thousand for

689
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: the pilot and twelve thousand, five hundred an episode. And

690
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:51,239
Speaker 1: I literally urinated on my trousers. And I'm standing at

691
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 1: a phone booth on the corner of like you know,

692
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 1: Walker and Washington and Culver City, and the guy tells

693
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: me this, and that's when my life changed for me.

694
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: It was always you were competing against yourself. We didn't

695
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 1: go out and do a lot of reading. You know.

696
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 1: Some sometimes I remember there was a the Jackson five

697
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 1: had a summer show, so they would say, we need comics,

698
00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: and so they'd call the comedy store, and you know,

699
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 1: if Mitzi liked you'd get to go beyond the Jackson

700
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 1: five show. So it was never so much of one

701
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 1: guy over another or there there would be shows like

702
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: the Midnight special er Don Kirshner's Rock Concert that they

703
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: would routinely use comics. So there was plenty of work.

704
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 1: And it wasn't I think as in acting as you

705
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: describe guys elbowing each other out and and higher ups

706
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:34,760
Speaker 1: wanting to step on their hands and hurt their feelings.

707
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 1: But when you when you've done the show back from

708
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: the NBC days and now through the many years at CBS.

709
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,880
Speaker 1: It's a very hermetic situation for you and nobody bothers you,

710
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: and there's different questions about your budget and there's differ questions,

711
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: but nobody calls. You don't have to deal with them,

712
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:50,280
Speaker 1: or do you have to fight with the network about

713
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,560
Speaker 1: things like other shows us and never a fight. It's

714
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 1: a negotiation. But we don't have the fight. You know.

715
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:56,640
Speaker 1: If if we want to do something, we can pretty

716
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: much do it. And again, what we want to do

717
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:00,320
Speaker 1: now is for a different level and go opened we

718
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,000
Speaker 1: wanted to do when we were because when we came

719
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:06,840
Speaker 1: into this show, myself and Maryland, the writers, we just thought, oh,

720
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: Americas has been waiting for us. We're going to change

721
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,959
Speaker 1: the face of television for America. And boy, didn't happen

722
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 1: that way, you know, it just didn't happen that way

723
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 1: at all. We did a sketch on the old Late

724
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: Night Show and it was with one of the writer's

725
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: Tom Gamble, and it was Dale the Psychotic Page. We

726
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:28,240
Speaker 1: had to set up nine holes of a miniature golf course.

727
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 1: He would come in with an NBC page blazer and

728
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 1: he would play miniature golf, and with each failing attempt

729
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: on the whole he would become more and more psychotic.

730
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,880
Speaker 1: There's your comedy, America. This is what you've been waiting for,

731
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,399
Speaker 1: aren't you glad we're here? Breath? I love on your show.

732
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:46,799
Speaker 1: I haven't done this in a while. I miss it

733
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 1: when because because everything, I guess they can't do this

734
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: stuff all the time, and maybe this bit is a

735
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 1: victim of global warming. But I get there one time

736
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:54,319
Speaker 1: and they want me to ride the snowmobile on the

737
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 1: roof of the building. Years ago. They're all very droll,

738
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,000
Speaker 1: you know, and Iff always calls me Alex that you're

739
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: on the roof and snowing and we're on the roof

740
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 1: of your building. A like, okay, now, Alex, you're gonna

741
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: ride the snowmobile around the roof a few times. And

742
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 1: I mean, man, I never coining it to catch you,

743
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: to keep you from going over the side. Is that

744
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 1: all right? All right? Alex? Yeah, I'm like, great, let

745
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:22,759
Speaker 1: me go danger you know elements Well, I was thinking

746
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: about a year ago. I was looking around the Selloman Theater.

747
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 1: What a tremendous stroke of luck that was. I used

748
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 1: to love working in the studio. And I remember one

749
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 1: day running into Lorne Michaels. He said to me, how

750
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 1: long did it take you to get used to doing

751
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:39,840
Speaker 1: a TV show in the theater? And I knew exactly

752
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:42,040
Speaker 1: what he was saying, because to him, TV comes out

753
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: of a studio and I always felt that way myself.

754
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 1: And but I've really grown fond of the theater. It's

755
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 1: CBS the ed Sullomon Theater for reasons like that and

756
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 1: many more. It's comfortable, it's fun, it's smells of decades

757
00:36:56,239 --> 00:36:59,760
Speaker 1: and decades and decades of show business there. There's tunnels

758
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: and and alleys and rats. But it's fantastic. I mean,

759
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 1: it's just so versatile and so great. And also the

760
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,720
Speaker 1: way House set it up in the beginning, it's fairly intimate.

761
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,359
Speaker 1: I mean you can have a pretty reasonable conversation there

762
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 1: in this five seat room, and so I think it

763
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:17,799
Speaker 1: works fine as a as a TV studio. Now, what's

764
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,880
Speaker 1: a good show for you? Now? Uh? Well, it defines

765
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 1: a good show for like, you know, the I think

766
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 1: the last time you were on I say this, of course,

767
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:29,280
Speaker 1: you know, suck up good idea. It was a very pleasant,

768
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 1: easy give and take an exchange. I love it when

769
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 1: a good, smart, funny guy just comes right back at me,

770
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: you know, in the beginning, when he's so mean, why

771
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: does he mean to everybody? And I never thought I

772
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:43,239
Speaker 1: was being mean. I just thought I was, you know,

773
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: goofing around. Yeah, so when you were coming on and

774
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 1: you were going after me, that was delightful. I love

775
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 1: that for those segment producers who you work with him.

776
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 1: And it took me a while to be able to.

777
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: I mean I would do the show with you a

778
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,759
Speaker 1: number of times and the segment producers would they would

779
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:58,040
Speaker 1: say that to you. They'd say to you know, no,

780
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,919
Speaker 1: give it back to you. He loved that. So many people,

781
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,759
Speaker 1: I think that runs against their nature. Other people are

782
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: ill equipped to do that, but there are a few

783
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,279
Speaker 1: like yourself, And to me, that's you know that. We

784
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: had to go on a couple of weeks ago Shawn Hayes,

785
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 1: and I hadn't seen him in years. He had been

786
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 1: across the street during uh um, here we go high

787
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: who Promises or whatever that show was Promises and the

788
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:24,399
Speaker 1: kid comes out and god, he was funny. I mean

789
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 1: just from the jump he was funny, and I just thought,

790
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: this is fantastic. This is just great. You know, if

791
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:32,759
Speaker 1: you can't be entertained by your own show, you got

792
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: the wrong you know, you get the wrong part of

793
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:38,280
Speaker 1: the channel. So that was good. You live a pretty

794
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:43,359
Speaker 1: under the radar lifestyle. Do you do that by choice? Well,

795
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,719
Speaker 1: very quiet private life. First of all, I don't get

796
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,880
Speaker 1: invited many places. Secondly, I just would you know, you

797
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 1: do the show and all of that comes to you

798
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 1: during the day. You know, you have the same people

799
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:56,959
Speaker 1: at the gala of the same people at the opening,

800
00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:59,720
Speaker 1: the same people benefit will be there with that expression

801
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: of all for it. So I don't feel the need

802
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:03,960
Speaker 1: to go seek that. And secondly, like so many people,

803
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: I'm uncomfortable with large groups of strangers. I mean I

804
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:10,799
Speaker 1: think people are And what is your downtime? Like, now,

805
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 1: what do you like to do? Well, sleep is as

806
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 1: a precious commodity. There's virtually no sleep between my eight

807
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:19,759
Speaker 1: year old son and my two year old dog and

808
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,240
Speaker 1: my wife. My wife, honest to god, has not slept

809
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 1: eight hours in eight years. I mean she she'll go

810
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 1: to bed at midnight, get up at six, so that's

811
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:28,480
Speaker 1: six hours. You can do that once or twice, you know,

812
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: like when you're eighteen and you're in the Marines. I

813
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:35,319
Speaker 1: have I have a terminal and that's now explained to me.

814
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:37,880
Speaker 1: When you were in the audience back at six A

815
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,640
Speaker 1: and you raise your hand and had a question what

816
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,319
Speaker 1: what was that and how did that happen? When you

817
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:47,040
Speaker 1: do the NBC show. Yeah, there was a woman and

818
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 1: she was a writer and she was an associate producer

819
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: on our show. She was friends with Ackroyd and Blush

820
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 1: and all that original Saturday Night Live crowd. And this

821
00:39:56,640 --> 00:40:00,319
Speaker 1: woman's name was surely something and she was so she's

822
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 1: she's going to reach out to us now when she

823
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,279
Speaker 1: hears this podcast. We have to broadcast this section of

824
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 1: it so we can get a hold of her. And

825
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: she was the one that gut came to me and

826
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:10,440
Speaker 1: through some connections that they want you to come on

827
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:12,360
Speaker 1: let him and do that thing. And do you remember

828
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,520
Speaker 1: what the bit was? I have no idea, but you

829
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:17,719
Speaker 1: were objecting to something. Uh, something had rubbed you the

830
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:22,000
Speaker 1: wrong way, and the register complaints was to complain about

831
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: you and your your taste. That's exactly right. Yeah, that

832
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 1: was tremendous. That was just great. So when you're not

833
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 1: fighting insomnia, what is do you like to travel? Travel? Well,

834
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:32,719
Speaker 1: you do things when you have an eight year old.

835
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: As you know, when you have a child, you do

836
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,320
Speaker 1: things you never thought you would do, and it's fun.

837
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 1: We went to Alaska a few weeks ago because it

838
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 1: was my birthday, and I was talking to my son

839
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,799
Speaker 1: and and I said, well, you know what we're thinking

840
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 1: about maybe going up to Alaska. This guy tells me

841
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,280
Speaker 1: there's a place to ski up there. Let's go to Alaska.

842
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 1: And so I said, well, you know, we're still thinking

843
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:55,279
Speaker 1: about it and still thinking about it. And then I

844
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 1: hear from Regina that now Harry is going to school

845
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 1: and told everybody that you and me and mom we're

846
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 1: going to Alaska. And I thought, holy kids were going

847
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 1: to Alaska. So a lot of that stuff is kid driven.

848
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm all for no tennis, no golf,

849
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:14,879
Speaker 1: No no tennis, no golf. Movies. I see plenty of movies,

850
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: see all the oh no, not at home so much.

851
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:19,439
Speaker 1: It's all it's all with the kid. Do you find

852
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:21,360
Speaker 1: that your son, because this is a very common He

853
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 1: pulls you into the world, into his world, and you

854
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:25,800
Speaker 1: have to show up at things and show up in places.

855
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:30,320
Speaker 1: Everybody treats you very respectfully. People are there as a dad. Yeah,

856
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:34,280
Speaker 1: the last time anything untoward happened was a Christmas party.

857
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:37,720
Speaker 1: My wife has his friends with a very famous couple,

858
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:41,080
Speaker 1: and I have great admiration for the couple their family.

859
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,640
Speaker 1: Just I think more people should be like these people.

860
00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 1: I just and and and as a result, I'm afraid

861
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 1: to be around them because you know, I'm I'm duck lips. Yeah, oh,

862
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 1: I make myself. Look back, I went to a Christmas

863
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:57,719
Speaker 1: party and it was so packed that you couldn't move.

864
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: It was all vertical. Nothing happened to her sonally, and

865
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 1: as people kind of from their positions about the apartment

866
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: spotted me, it was it was as though there was

867
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:14,560
Speaker 1: methane gas leaking in the apartment. It was, oh no,

868
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 1: and it's the holidays, and why is he? No? Yeah,

869
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,319
Speaker 1: come on, true story. People love you. People don't love

870
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:26,920
Speaker 1: people love people love you? No, no, no, no no people people.

871
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: But the thing is that that that you you get

872
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: a lot of that qution on the job, and then

873
00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:33,919
Speaker 1: when the job's over, you want to go home. Yeah

874
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,720
Speaker 1: that's right, that's exactly right. And and especially now with

875
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:39,360
Speaker 1: with the eight year old, because you know, and I

876
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 1: feel stupid talking about it because I'm like the person

877
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:45,840
Speaker 1: who have a child, So I have I have no

878
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:53,640
Speaker 1: I have no insights. He might claim he has no insights.

879
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: But if David Letterman ever writes a book on parenting,

880
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,879
Speaker 1: it's guaranteed to be a bestseller. I want to thank

881
00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: you for doing this. Are we done? I don't want

882
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,520
Speaker 1: to be done? Now? Where would a person hear this?

883
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:06,440
Speaker 1: If a person wanted to hear this, this might be

884
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 1: a good time to tell you that you can hear

885
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: other conversations at Here's the Thing dot org. This is

886
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing