Bob Costas and Don Rickles - 1991!

best damn show we can do for those three people because it matters to them you got it meanwhile i'll sell the indian rug but okay where did where did the insult act start because obviously you're doing it somewhere before you got on car center well you know you say start my whole my whole life even since i was a kid i was always the guy as most actors and i think you will agree i'm basically shy and so i was a very inhibited guy and very shy and my mother esther was a very strong lady and aggressive my father was outgoing and so to cover up my insecurities i started ribbing people because i didn't know how to communicate and i you know my uncle would come in the living room and say close your robe you look ridiculous you know you know and i would make fun of my family and uh it sort of became part of me because that was my personality and yet when i'm away from the camera and i'm and i'm with my family or friends i still kid around a great deal like that but basically it started just being part of me and then i embellished on it and it became a show so to speak way back when you were working those old burlesque houses right with acts like we have researchers here acts like monique levine and zokina and her king cobra i remember the cobra but i i i didn't call them burlesque houses i worked what they call we call them strip joints i mean they were like uh the exotic dancers those girls worked very hard and they had a about 10 girls continuous entertainment about five comedians and we went round and round and round from about i used to go on say 11 o'clock at night until about five in the morning continuous you know and just with sailors and that time was the war days was right after the war and sailors and soldiers and they were all just looking for the girls so that kind of comedy was tough there was no improv you know what bud freeman was great for young comedians but it was it was tough you know guys used to just sit there with zip guns and want to pick you off you know waiting for the girls so that i'm guessing is really what put it in high gear this kind of insult the audience sort of thing because they're they're saying get off we want to see the the girl with the ball constrictor right and i and i could never tell a joke to this day i couldn't you know if you were you and i had a party i mean well you and i wouldn't be at a party but i mean if we were at a party i got a little ridiculous i started to think we're going to hang out together which is out of the question absolutely it is i'm a very busy man i know that running after joe garagio going joe do they like me but uh i i did jokes i was saying about jokes i did jokes badly and and i did impressions you know like a million other comedians and they were going right in the dumper so i started to talk to the audience and over a lot of years of talking to the audience when a guy would yell at me and say i'm getting fed up with you and i'm going to suck your neck or whatever i said in those days and they'd start to laugh and so it became a conversation with the audience and that's how that insult thing became little by little without writing one thing on a piece of paper it just became part of a performance and over many years it developed into what i what i consider a full job but it took a long time i don't know if i got the chronology right here but sometime in the mid 50s you're at a hollywood club called slate brothers yeah and is that where you met sinatra or first got close to sinatra actually i met him in a place called zaudy's jazz land he came in with peggy lee many many years ago in california which no longer exists and he brought in a party in those days he wore the straw hat and a coat over the shoulder you know he brought in an entourage and and it's the old story if frank laughs everybody with him goes you know i said good evening and franklin funny funny stuff and all the guys went it's a funny joke they all talk like that thing it's kind of an honest reaction that you can really gauge your material by what he thinks is funny i fall on the floor for uh but actually uh he he was great because he would bring in a lot of celebrities and people that enjoyed and and they they really uh he was a booster that way but how did you get the courage at that stage of your career you're not don rickles with tonight's show appearances and everything else how did you get the courage to early in your relationship safe from the stage to sinatra frank make yourself feel at home punch somebody i mean jilly rizzo could have come up with an uzi and that would have been the end of it i don't know julie rizzo don't drop names like that bob don't you have a family last time i checked someone called saint louis see if they're still breathing i can see you on your show tomorrow night just sitting in the chair going why does the left side seem numb but i i'm i i got to tell you that uh the these these people that so-called like jilly rizzo dear friend guys he would bring in all the guys what i call street people that and i'm i'm i relate great with street people and that was fun for me you know to bring in guys that i could really hit with the jokes and how i say to frank what i said you have more courage as you're a younger man than you do today i mean i still do what i do but in those days you you threw you threw it to the wind you know anybody that came and said frank i'm really getting fed up i don't care who you know i'm going to make you limp when the show's over you know what whatever i would say to him and he would laugh because you just you just knew by looking at him that he was for you you know what i'm saying yeah and and and it's been like that ever since dean martin uh was a key uh player in your career too because i guess shortly after you've been on the tonight show martin had his own uh his own show that was on thursday nights yeah at that time in the 60s and he used you a lot right yeah dean dean usually the big break with dean was once with roy rogers which was a fun show and and you know if you know roy he was a a guy you know that you know he would laugh at grass growing so uh but it was sweet man and uh we had a lot of stuff to bounce off with him but the big thing was uh they turned around and had had me go with all stars in the audience uh they brought about 15 25 stars and they said dawn just let the cameras roll and you make it up and pick on all these people pretty poor nights laughing big academy award winner remember you and marty he was so brilliant and mighty and today it's over like that go figure this business baby rosemary so many years i've known you remember the old days you mary small are all in there and now your career is slowly sinking into them at this bob newhart just said to the wife he's not going to mention me bob newhart went into shock his name wouldn't be mentioned one of the great stammering idiots of our day bob duval when did you first go on cars i started at the very beginning with him in new york and everybody was afraid to put me on i said oh this guy this guy and carson was in freddie the quarter to cover the dakota uh a good friend they they said hey let's peter the salary said let's give rickles a shot and they did and the chemistry worked i mean it's like a motorcycle going by i thought we were in iran but uh you know you got a great studio real sound proof guys in the hall going and the whole place hears it but chip in and close the doors but you're a dull guy how do you how do you stay on it even at 1 30 and still but i must say uh these kind of these kind of things work for me and and so i i just threw it all to the wind what about the time and there were so many appearances on the carson show and in the 60s and 70s when you would come on the carson show it was one of these deals like it later became with george carlin or steve martin you'd look in the tv guide or you'd hear the night before that that person was going to be on and you make a special effort to stay up and watch it because it had the feeling of an event what ones stick out in your mind well the interesting thing is he would we always make notes you know like you do any host always makes notes and he would always say they would tell him that don's going to discuss this we're going to discuss that we're going to talk about uh new heart and then we're going to talk about this this trip that trip and blah blah blah i mean he never looked at the card i mean never did knight come by and in johnny's way he would just look at me with that with that stare and just say well you know and i would go from there you have signed a three million dollar deal to appear once a week and uh with a clause in if you're moody maybe because ed told me that he said what a deal he's got huh i got to sit on a couch like a and i was a colonel attitude is very important milton borough once told me that many many years ago and and so right which i think young comedians some of them that don't make it to have an attitude mine was always you know the angry guy you know come on coming on bob costas like i saw you in the hall and said i don't need this i don't want it i mean and no dressing room you know standing in the hall asking the cop to stand in front of me while i take off my pants is ridiculous but i mean so it's all attitude that's that's what makes the performance i think attitude and and uh and how you say it there's other guys that can say certain things to people saying you're an idiot and boom it doesn't come off funny if you have a way of saying it to a person they'll laugh roll the film well do you want to explain what it's about no who cares you don't care no it's about us against the world is about a group of uh wonderful stars from the different networks all the big names susan katz al lipschitz jerry green yes little brock oh nikki i'm getting on my nerves lou you used to say at the end of your shows i'm not sure if you do it anymore but at the end of your night quebec he used to say uh you know it's all an act and uh i hope haven't offended anybody and some people who were fans of yours said you shouldn't say that you shouldn't get out of character uh you know it's all an act and uh i hope haven't offended anybody and some people who were fans of yours said he shouldn't say that he shouldn't get out of character yeah you really do your homework yeah i've had that by many reviewers saying oh rickles cops out at the end i do a little piece at the end which i've done for many years and i'm not copying out i'm just saying to the guy that's sitting there the average guy that i'm a guy just like anybody else and this was a was a party and i was having some fun at the party and now the party's over and i hope you got to know me as the guy at the party and as a human being and that's all i try to say and a lot of people say he doesn't need that i ought to go off with you know what some of these guys today are doing with you know let your mother get hit by a bus i'm cleaning it up but you know it's uh i feel that it deserves that and i think the audience i owe that to the audience jack parr in miami where some bit was set up but i wanted to be on i was working in a place called murray franklin's which again gave me something like the slate brothers gave me a little reputation in florida that time larry king by the way throwing that in larry king had a radio show on a houseboat and that's how larry and i became friends i used to run over there and do his show five in the morning you know anyway so uh we're in uh we're in florida and jack park came down there on location at the rhony plaza everybody said you got to get this hot kid in miami he'd be great on your show and you know jack parr who i got to know personally through hi ever back a friend of mine uh socially and lovely man he said gee don i i remember that i didn't know the kind of guy you were and so forth and i said put them on and they made me a cab driver and jack parr had no idea what i was going to do and jack parr was doing his uh folks i'm here at florida and i had to come out with the cab it's so ridiculous but the kid tried knowing him the man was in shock when he saw my face you know and i had on the cab driver i had bob and i walked i said hey jack sweetheart boom you want a cab i'm going to help you and you're a beauty uh uh honeysuckle rose baby boom and he went what are you doing and i went like i'm doing that hey jack it's great i'll give you a cam ride right up to right up to collins avenue you're with me baby here as we get some broads and booze why are you on here and i went right in the dumper and i stood there and i said my career is ending this man is ending my career and my mother god rest as i was up in the balcony and she said oh my god oh my god he's through and the audience was all senior citizens sitting there going what a wise guy what a wise guy this wise guy and that was a disaster didn't someone let paul in on the joke no i don't think at that time he knew they said there's a guy that's going to pick on you but he had no idea that it was going to be like that and i had no idea he was going to react like that and i looked into his eyes you know you look into a guy's eyes and his eyes said you're dead it's over it's all over for you and i just looked at him and flop sweat in those days i would be soaking wet when i said good evening no matter where i went if i sat in a restaurant with my mother i said good evening and the waiter said i'll give him a napkin the guy's he's on guam i was soaking wet all the time i don't know why i keep looking over there there's nobody there i'm looking at it i feel like i'm george shearing hello anybody someone go stand over there i keep looking over into darkness what about the ed sullivan show was sort of sort of the same thing right you were going to come out and surprise the beauty beauty bob pratt said listen uh ed sullivan you know i don't do impressions but knowing that he was a classic he really was and a good friend he said do you know what are we going to do with rickles we can't he doesn't do dukes we got to put him on the show we put him on the show and be fine what can we do so bob prep come up with an idea which i didn't think was bad at the time that every time they bring out an act i'd run out on stage and tell ed how wrong this act was for him and how he should never use this act again and we'd do that as a running gig and at that time it's always the biggest thing in the world i said oh what a break for me and that'd be great it was at circus circus at that time and i'll never forget it uh you know had the the the swinging acrobats and the clowns it was the tumul of all time and now the bonzini monkeys whatever the hell it was you know and the monkeys come out and they do the whole thing and they do tricks and boom boom boom and i'd run out and stay and go ed i got to tell you the monkeys don't make it you don't look good with the monkeys and get rid of the monkeys why don't you get off the stage what are you stupid or something those monkeys are marvelous you're not funny the monkeys are a riot and i walked in the wings and i went whoa what is he doing he's not supposed to say that and the guy says no no he'll catch on i walk out again i had some you know prancing horse or something i said you don't need the horse the horse is ruining he's prancing he's too loud your dynamite get rid of the horse the horse is marvelous and you're getting on my nerves i get off the stage and i went away why why is he doing this and it went like that until i was right in the dumper again i went back to the hotel with him and i said he said you were marvelous what a show we had i said ed you ruined me that was that what debt if any do you owe to jackie leonard who was a little bit before you and he used to do some insult stuff himself interesting you'd say that jack was a good friend and he always always said you're doing me kid you're doing me which was not the case because jack always felt that i was doing him but jack was a jokester he really did you know one-line puns you know your little cocker yeah your mother has a sucker bathtub you know whatever people go ah and i i didn't work like that i i did more or less just just talking in general without leading to a joke and the joke came out of the conversation if that makes sense but that's pretty much and he was a one-line machine gun kind of thing and i'm a machine gun kind of guy when i work but it doesn't come out as a joke as jax did jacks were primarily jokes that's the best way i can describe it early in your career didn't you open for louis prima yeah well the word is i really can't say eye open i was they in those days they called it sets for the lack of another word opening's fine but i mean i i went on it louis prima was the star in the lounge we worked over a bar no big short little bar with the maybe 10 15 people in front of you and you know they were missing their mouth you know they had had this we had you know belching on the socks and so and i would go on at midnight and then louis prima would be with keeley would go on he was marvelous at two in the morning and then i would go on again at like 3 30 and then again like five in the morning five in the morning i don't remember i used to go on five in the morning yeah but with a few vodkas you know i used to just stand out there and say how was the show what would the audience look like derelicts there was a lot of this rose isn't it great but uh it was uh it was a show and they'd have a steam table and they'd be serving breakfast while you were on i mean guys was having eggs going uh charlie passed the rolls and you were up there to telling us some dumb remark and a guy going uh more eggs and then the chef was hitting the steam table and these are really the degenerate gamblers who just kind of have been up around the clock and they just they're waiting for the casino to open again or the guy to come back to deal again at the blackjack table oh yeah oh fanatic gamblers yeah they'd stay up all night and all day bloodshot eyes and just and they were there but i got news it was it was an experience and at that time in the lounge shecky green was the first guy to really make it happen in the lounge in those days and then i came along and then little by little many other performers worked but it was really standing over a bar that's really concentration to get people and i used to jump over and run into the casino i'll never forget it and the guys at gambling and i'd say hold it hold it stop the gambling it's too noisy and it all go and everybody in the casino stopped similar to sinatra and i made him stop he was sitting with a well it's in the lounge of the sands we were sitting together and he was sitting at another table with all security around him and i was with this girl classy i've told this story many times classy girl you know lipstick over here you know and i was single and terrible he you know i was looking for an old monkey anything you know bad shape it's good that you reveal yourself this way though oh yeah well nobody watches this if i thought anybody was watching would i be telling you this anyway so i was there with this girl and she said do you know frank sinatra and i figured you know she says yeah it's a big chance for a score here you know i said yes i do she said well if i could beat him i said sweetheart it's done and i walked over to frank on my knees and went frank's if you could come over to the table and just say hi to me and the girl would help me he said you got it kid and he walked over to the table and make a look so short on the violins it's done and i walked over to frank on my knees and i went frank's if you could come over to the table and just say hi to me and the girl would help me he said you got it kid and he walked over to the table make a long story short and the violins are playing they're serving drinks and he leans over and says hi don i go frank not now can't you see i'm with people i'm talking to the girl how do i know if your album's going to sell get out of my life and the girl dropped a drink and just went oh my god and he had me thrown out there's only just beginning to dislike me intensely which means that the best is yet to come we give him a chance to get warmed up and then really pull a sword out tomorrow night in the meantime we want to remind you he's at the golden nugget in las vegas between june 6th and june 10th and until tomorrow we'll see you later [Music] thanks for staying up later we're back with don rickles we talked about some of the appearances on the carson show and his nightclub act the last time did you ever feel as if just by the law of averages doing hundreds of shows you went over the line accidentally and then you regret it i don't think i regret it one time i said gee i really dug into that person in my beginnings i think in as years went on and i found success that i never thought about it twice i mean i always said i'm right if they can't handle that they got a problem but in my beginnings i would say yes i i dug in a little deep but that's what gave that's what made people look up because if you come out like a monk and sing a choir song nobody's going to care you know what's your first name muhammad what's your first name habib how the hell did you get in the front look at the way they put him he could pick me off in five minutes right in the front i gotta forgot the arab over here boozed up gypsy brought over there three kids in heat over here a german painting ass over here two japs that passed away trick-or-treat harvey with the turtleneck sweater mar frickett sitting over there waiting for the pillsbury bake off the spanish guy planner would attack the mexican and two polocks on the end waiting for their truck to be fixed i always had a uh always had to uh uh pick on people and and make it work for me and that that that doesn't help all the time because when i did interesting enough bob when i did the television i had three television series they carson and all of them love to say what's your next bomb coming up had cpo shockey the don rickles show on abc cbs the don rickles show and and then i had follow-up swoops and blunders with steve lawrence which was a mistake from the beginning not steve it was great but but every show overnight chicago new york detroit biggest thing forget about it you had to run alongside of my limo knocking on the window you know don say hello and then when we got to des moines we started hit elko nevada and three guys went mary shut it off that loud guy's on you know so those those were tough places for me to get but overnights in the major cities i was always successful but i would also think with those tv shows even though they tried to open them up and let you be yourself it misses the electricity and the danger of a live television shot that's where you were at your best what's going to happen when he comes out on the tonight show is it going to work is he going to get on a roll what might he say for better or worse it's live you can't do anything about it yeah yeah it's very true that excitement but how do you create that see guys would say in shows that i was on when i had my own show they'd say hey let don do uh let him do a a rampage let him just say anything to fill in here and you if you can't really do that then then you become the guy i do on the on the nightclub stage and you wanted to make it a character so we were confused sometimes between the character and don rickles you know so it was hard to blend sometimes you know what you look like robinson a man on welfare he's just been told he has three ex-wives to support all ugly you gotta be kidding about this i mean you're gonna throw away 24 years give up a career just because your new co is a woman you got it i mean what is the matter with you there are women in the service all over the world well i just read the other day that in china they got a woman who's captain of a ship in china they can get away with it they all wear pajamas and they all look alike you really gonna send this into the co huh no i'm gonna send it to dear abby and sign it puzzled in san diego do you have any kind of regret at all i mean not that you trade it on balance but any kind of regret that your tremendous success and visibility as a comic pretty much eliminated any chance to be an actor in in most roles because people would say wait that's don rickles well that's the price you have to pay when you get party when you get that kind of identification you know i was always as you know the insult guy mr warmth you know the the sultan of the whatever and all these titles they gave me and it was tough to overcome producers would back off a little bit because you get this image but as i say you can't have it all i i still feel before the you know the big guy in the sky takes the hook for me i would love to do something uh you know which is uh a little bit away from character and hopefully that will happen uh but uh i've i've had my chances i've done a few films that i rat race was i played a heavy in that and that was a picture with debbie reynolds and tony curtis a lot of years ago but as i got more popular with this kind of image it was it was it was tough yet you take a young brilliant guy like a young man like a billy crystal you know who's become a big star in motion pictures that's great because he's always been funny but he's never had that that image of you know like i like you said the guy that was rapping on people and so when you have a a tough image it's hard for people to shake that you know that that thought of you and a lot of billy's uh success as a comic is in getting into characters yes yes rather than being in one specific billy crystal persona absolutely and he's wonderful he really is yeah another film you're in was run silent run deep with bert lancaster and uh gable yeah i carried them yeah i'll never forget the first time i was the first picture i i never was on a movie set it was a gold one right out here and and i had to read for this thing and i had a you know one of those work lights on the stage and i came to the studio and uh with this uh i was with henry slate and a few other people and we walked in and he said mr rickles you're going to read for this part and i said and it was pitch dark and i was just standing with a light and robert wise was the director and i said well will clark gable or bert lancaster no no no no no there'll be a voice off stage they'll just read the lines for you and you just read it and you'll hear them answer the lines and you do it and i stood out there and i said whatever the lines were i said uh i said well well the the ship is sinking sir will the men be all okay well should we fire the torpedo and a voice off camera went take it down 100 feet dive dive don't worry and i went [Applause] that's not a spit up on myself hey clark gable said you have a problem young man [Laughter] and uh i i went to pieces but uh fortunately i got the part were you entertaining on the set with guys like gable and lancaster or were you too intimidated no i wasn't i was at the beginning but there was a guy called jack warden who's a marvelous actor great sense of humor jack is haven't seen him in years but he's been he was a funny funny guy and we did a lot of crazy things and gable used to love it you know uh we once got completely undressed jack ward and i and we embraced each other and sneaked into gables i've never told us it sneaked into gable's trailer and clarke was a very humble guy he really very quiet like had a little scotch and went to any teddy buddy and bert lancaster used to sitting around going clark we're going to do we're going to do another scene a couple of minutes is it fine and bert was still doing those days doing circus tricks but uh whatever that means and so we both got undressed and we were in the thing and gable walked in and saw us both on the bed and went oh my god they're out of control like that i think they're i don't know what they are wow damn i don't know what's happening here wow dog and he went nuts and jack one went hey sweetheart we're just having a good time what are you worried about yeah we did crazy things like that kind of an enlightening tale behind the scenes of an epic motion picture yes speak speaking of epic motion pictures you will be surprised and perhaps flattered to know that long before i ever knew that i'd be sitting here with you i had seen man with the x-ray eyes the roger corman film with you as the carnival barker and ray milan as a guy who was people thought he was a circus act but he actually could see through stuff that's right and he had his eyes fixed they had they had to you know put things in his eyes and make it like giant eyes and he got an infection the guy almost died doing his part and in those days we did a movie in 15 days you know you just came in there was no rehearsal nothing they said roll them you went what's my first line good evening oh good evening you know you and you and you and you did it and you went like crazy but it was a a great a great experience and and that picture surprisingly enough in those days when you did those quickies those little thrillers they made money and and uh i played a real heavy in that and raymond was a great guy all those guys it's interesting gable bert lancaster who is he's watching his hasn't been too well but i wish him the best bertley and caster clark gable and you go back tony quinn all those guys they really wonderful actors gary burt lancaster clark gable and you go back tony quinn all those guys they really wonderful act is gary cooper who i never i just met once or twice all those kind of guys never did the method or anything they were pretty much themselves yeah but they portrayed if they were supposed to be sad they acted sad you know it's like the joke like you say a clock have you say all right roll him and he says you know steve i'm fed up with you and i'm gonna kill you and then you go cut and he goes how about going to lunch [Laughter] it's the same guy you know everybody says what a great actor that's what always knocked me out you know that you did beach blanket bingo right which was i think the last of the beach movies with that frankie avalon and that food in fact that was such a hit that barbara bush just recently barbara bush who i met when i was in the white house and i was invited to a state dinner which is another long story my wife and i have never been to have you been a state dinner no well no i was actually invited to the white house once where you really yeah you want to hear the story maybe you don't know hey i got time i was invited there's one thing in the morning where are we going i was invited to the white house because bush invited these baseball announcers he invited jack buck and tim mccarver and i think vin was invited scully but he he couldn't make it because the national league playoffs were opening in chicago it was in early october and i was going to do the american league playoffs in oakland toronto and and the a's and i felt that i couldn't give up the day before as preparation and then fly in overnight because it was the last series that nbc was going to do before we lost the baseball so with regret i had to pass up this chance to go to the white house and basically bush has been a broken man ever since that was a good one thank you george i never said it the 38 year old kid did it so anyway you were on the street yeah so i was at state dinner and it was for the president of tunisia and i being jewish that's one of my favorite countries there was a lot of sheets and a lot of guys one guy had a sword which i thought was out of line he wanted to make me jewish again [Laughter] oh funny stuff if only it was on a show that was on early [Laughter] blowing all his stuff with a 1 30 in the morning but i i went to the white house for president tunisia and barbara bush was great and the seating when they came for the seating which is another story by the fireplace was barbara bush and marine guard took me home and said this is your seat i said no there must be a mistake this is barbara bush and that seat is mine he said and all of a sudden the voice said sit down it was barbara bush and i sat down next to him we had the best time in the world because we had this uh arab gentleman sitting alongside her and he kept going and she kept saying don't worry about it [Laughter] i got nervous i figured maybe maybe he saw my mezuzah but uh no it was a wonderful time and we got to be friendly well she knew me for the inaugural ronald reagan previous to this i did the inaugural uh with frank sinatra boom and the cabinet went into shock when i heard i was going to be on it but it was great with ronald reagan anyway so that's how i got to meet them originally now they're up at camp david and for some crazy reason she saw a beach blanket bingo barbara bush and in her own handwriting wrote me a note said don i saw one of the classics of all time the beach blanket bingo thank you hi frankie hello stand up and get sick two 43-year-old yo-yo skipping around the house grow up you're a man already frank how long can you stay in the bathroom in front of the mirror you're 43 frank you're old and wrinkled do you ever hear yourself sing frank i'm that you're scared trains you sing frank you sir happy milo you're all let me hear you say one note say ah wrong you see what i mean that's what i mean this kid cannot sing and i want you to know one other thing dede i never liked your personality you know what i mean you're too short for this type of work so she saw one of these shows so i said i can get your beach blanket bingo and she and my wife and i found a copy of bieber and sent it to the white house and she wrote back what a great classic i am so moved george george and i just love it as a joke she was putting me on naturally you know so we have that kind of conversation together and she's been writing us ever since and now i'm starting to rip up the letters because it's a little too much you know how many times can i keep telling george is wonderful you know but it's an interesting image colin powell on the hot line and bush is in watching beach blanket bingo that is that is good can we go on if you sit at a state dinner with uh with ronald reagan or george bush do they want to be insulted do they want you to do you for them no i've never got except at the inaugural for ronald reagan and i think i think ronald reagan knew me when he was governor and i ripped him at many roasts at the friars and so he knew pretty much i think george bush has always been a wonderful man but i don't think he wanted don rico's to stand up and say i'm getting fed up george i mean he in fact i was at a bob hope thing when he was running for president and bob hope got up and said don you'll come along and at the end you'll do a few minutes well bob hope that night happened to go over so uh he said you know you don't have to get up and i was all set you know a little pus was coming out of her mouth i was you know i was ready for the poison to really give the president some shots to the future president and he said you don't have to get up and i said i'll just say a few words and george bush leaned over and said don't don't don't don't go and don't get up you don't know don't don't say nothing they were so nervous that i was going to get up and say something wrong anyway we became friends and then i uh i saw the president at the uh as i said at the dinner and he was great he walked by me went hello dan quayle was the one that hung with me he said can we have a drink together i said don't beg i hate that you know so dan quayle and i walked around a little bit but the president was very nice and barbara bush they're a wonderful couple forgetting politics they're both very down-to-earth people he really is a sincere man i don't know why i'm saying this i'm not going to run for governor you know i got my own troubles you know back after this oh why [Music] what does it feel like even after you've had some success when you hit that night where for whatever reason it isn't working and you think you're dying on stage is there any way to describe the loneliness and the desperation that you feel well for me i always kept going it's the concentration i always kept going like i was a hit i say they're wrong i'm great you know in your heart when you're not really making it there's no question about that but you'll never let an audience know that's that's the kiss of death and i think in my entire career i never let an audience even in my everything is relative even when i made 100 bucks a week and struggling in joints i never let an audience know that i was falling on my you know what and i think that's that's good advice for any of us in any in any business that if you if you show them hey when the show was over certainly i told my mother esther sola because she was a great influence on me and i told her all my stories and then later on my wife barbara we would discuss you know you know when you're not cutting all of us know but yeah i i always always had the dignity for myself to to never let the audience know that i was falling on my face you mentioned your mother several times and when she was living you often referred to her in your act you'd come out and say to carson i was talking to my mother after the last time i was on and this was her take on on my last appearance why do you think your relationship with your mother was so close well i called her the jewish patent that was my fun name with her and she she really wanted me to be a different kind of performer i i have no no excuse about that it's the truth she wanted me to be alan king knows it she said why can't you be like alan king or like you said why do you have to insult people why couldn't you just come out and tell jokes i said mom i don't do that but the great thing about her was that she was very supportive i was a very terrified guy when i was a young man i i was you know i was uptight about a lot of things and she she really worked on me and made me believe in what i did even though she didn't sometimes think that was so funny but she really believed in me and she was a strong woman she wasn't the most perfect woman in the world but for me she did a lot and i was i was almost like my father died young so i was almost like a second husband if that makes sense to her i was everything to her she lived her life through me because she wanted to be an entertainer and i think i performed and she saw herself as me and she wanted to be what i was and doing so she helped me to gain confidence would you hear from her that her contemporaries had said oh i saw your boy donny and i know he's successful and he's very funny but he is mean why did he say that oh sure they wouldn't get it you know oh sure she would she would get that sure and she would always defend me and then she would say quietly you know rose was right you didn't have to call that guy an old man you didn't have to do that you know and then i'd say well the check is here right mom and she'd say i don't like that kind of humor she did that secrets her gums would lock but uh she was something else it's the last of a breed you know and so and the joke was i i got lucky i married a woman that said now remember i'm not your mother that's my wife you know she said i'm not going to be your mother i'm me and she really has been herself in her own right because you got to realize when you when you're 38 years old and never married and tight and living in the same apartment with your mother all those years i mean and a girl comes along that's a tough you know that's a tough deal all of a sudden here he is and so even into your late 30s you were living at home with your mother yeah yeah and at that point you were reasonably successful out there yeah well i was doing okay yeah i i well you know when you travel on the road you know you met laverne laverne you know and you didn't want to marry her you know because she did card tricks so you didn't exactly meet you know i'll make the pot roast here you sit in the living room you know she was dancing in the hall nude so so it wasn't easy but i was fortunate to meet my barber and she's she's we've been together married happily 26 years pickles at the golden nugget in vegas and at valleys in atlantic city now before we go bruce kornblatt our producer who evidently is uh is a rickles expert a devoted human being absolutely but two shots he couldn't have people love me as much as this man bruce i'm telling you from my heart you should be in this chair you're better than this man you're dynamite bruce you're the best living thing and basically your personality is weak work on that bruce work on that and see your dentist the right tooth bad just just say goodnight i'm leaving the seat i'm leaving the seat for cornblat he's too shy but i'm leaving it okay for cornblatt maybe bob newhart wants to be the host he'll do anything to get work thanks a million good night folks wasn't that a dull half hour i can't stand this man this man's going nowhere look at him all he left is a toy mic 11 year old dummy got hot in this business go figure and i got to kill myself at 64. but i still got it the left side could be picked up a little bit ah i got to go to the bathroom so bad is it over i can't take it anymore costas what a stiff this man doesn't belong on the air [Music] oh god no i gotta go over and run after johnny carson's car

Channel: lovesvegas

Views: 11,869

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Id: LUhCSh6hQ4U

Length: 42min 6sec (2526 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021