KPCS: Christopher Guest #113

[Music] hello welcome back to Kevin Pollak's chat show I am of course chat show and you are so very very happy to be here with us I can't thank you enough today episode 113 episode odd name to attach Sammy just back from the other coast joining us you were out last week you missed the Michael Chiklis what are you talking about well I had that you stream at uh-huh so I knew the old iPhone yo yo yo old iPhone and I open it up and put the show on the the iPhone and then plugged it into the car stereo so I listen to that bad boy life live as I was driving driving from Atlantic City back to a North Jersey so well fortunately for you we did a two-hour show very fortunately for me right I I listened to almost the entire thing listen to the show live on the car stereo oh I hope I didn't say dad okay say anything about Sam's absence today like no I don't wanna mention anything about my absence we had a little troubling a little troubling well we've know you're listening fans maybe the fans are going hey where's Sam and it's not brought up maybe I died you guys are trying to cover it up oh well that would make sense yeah why you're in the Atlantic so you played in some sort of poker tournament is that true and it is true and it says here on the trades that you won the title I did win the tournament Ollie wood reporter said you won I can't believe they printed them it is weird so congratulations thank you what was the occasion I was there for my friend's bachelor party uh-huh yeah that's where you want to have it is it no just in Paris for the wedding from one of your best friend this is the other one so they're forcing you to travel the world mm-hmm while they insist on getting married yes and so there's three of you there are you're the last remaining of Ambreen I'm the last holdout who is not in fact married that is correct all right just checking sure I got oh and how about you are you are you married no okay well then let's wait for the house that's not throw stones in these Glass Houses how about that we opted for a house and we got yeah we do that's right that's exactly right Jamie speaking of which Jamie back on the men left the show shoot oh my gosh I was a mess I think I spoke twice better says I I'll miss ya it was thought I was dying it was terrible his reaction to that was really off-putting he didn't seem to care no but I'm good oh and the rapture apparently it suffered a rain delay I know you can put off till October here's a habit it happened huh-uh not enough people got took but yeah the number was off 200 million might be a little off but it is still signaling the end of the world which is supposed to be five months post rapture ah so that's what October 21st is it's five months after and that's the actual end of the world this past Saturday was just supposed to be the 200 million lucky ones straight to heaven and then the rest of us forget her words in October before the jurors take over the planet I know this is absurd how are we going to well Chiklis did sum it up nice the rapture what a all right so that's off till October big news update the Sirius radio is gonna devote a channel to this show there I said it and the hulu.com by summer which is I think tomorrow what is on it next week of June 21st typically so you'll be looking for us on the hula calm and then we'll be on our own channel to tell you more about it as that allegedly happening in the summer as well in case you're wondering what the hell is on my top of my head is a chef PO that is Spanish for a foot that is brought to you by the Gordon brothers fine makers of the handmade hats for over a hundred and four years Gorham Brothers and that damn thing so thanks to them I also want to welcome back and thank Kate shorter one of our favorite bobblehead Kenny Canadians that have never come down the pike she the original makeup artist for the show lasted almost a year before she said I gotta get out of here before she got real work alright that's what it was she's been she's been so busy she worked she did bright she was the key makeup person bridesmaids it's just a huge kit I'm so happy for her I know she's gonna travel the world he was bringing being winged across the planet to promote this film I was telling her how if any of you've seen bridesmaids out there have you seen it twice spoiler alert well there's a part where they get the food poisoning the makeup on it was amazing yeah great job yay cake and that's one of your favorite thing the gaffe squad finding the non non continuity issue I do I do I'm a stickler for detail that's why I'm such a big fan of a Disney theme parks Wow the theming oh yes attention to detail in case you're wondering it at home or at work or at play while listening to the show after me after the live stream we have a portion of the show called ask Kevin where you can write to us at contact at Kevin Pollak's chat show calm and we'll be happy to answer whatever questions you may have of the show in fact we may have a graphic devoted to the ask Kevin portion you know I'm saying Steve writes asks how excited has Jamie been to ride the updated version of Star Tours coming out this June are you going together for the first time it may debut in June June 3rd I think yes but Jamie can report to us that the new and improved Star Tours Lucas got something right he got something that's really good yes I went to a preview on Wednesday and it desperately needed updated it's the attraction was from 1988 it was only ever one shot like there was just one story you could get now there's 54 different story combinations I rode the they tracked in three times right I visited ha Khorasan Kashuk Naboo now tell everyone what those are Tatooine and we also boba fett chases around the Deathstar it was awesome dr. Chen can't wait it's really good it's really well done big thumbs up apparently I got it so there you go it debuts June and I'm not and I don't maybe I might be crazy but I swear when we let it on Hoth the starship got a little colder I think it could be the myelination cold air and they think that in the road I think so well they're not they're not above doing that so it's really it's really well done Disney World and Disneyland so I'm gonna check it on each coast there you go Steve this question comes to us from Mad in Mitch I 89 but I have to ask what it was like but I have to ask how do you why was that the stutter sentence what it was like working with George Lucas on willow your character was my favorite ever since I was a little girl was um what was that we returned to the well he produced the film Ron Howard directed it although there was one day that Ron Howard had some family issue and he had to leave the shoot for the day and George Lucas directed so Rick Overton and I were the two brownies this way a little 7 inch huh 7 inch and he would be 9 inch tall because considerably taller and mature and we were post-production they shot the whole film in Wales in the Zealand we got to sound a Biggest Loser green-screen back then soundstage in in the world at the Lucas ranch and Ron how we're basically yell at us as we land the Giants type sets that we were having to careen around and he would yell okay that's a big hand coming down look out it's coming your right shoulder is just yelling every tank I thought this is my strange way to make movies it being my first film and then after days and days of weeks of yelling bye-bye Opie he had to leave and then George Lucas came in and said okay yeah action and then he work and I just kind of stood there waiting for someone to yell and no one yelled and then he said okay cut I guess we got it that was George Lucas directing first film yes its first film okay now look look I are you forcing me to acknowledge million dollar mission I'm afraid we're going to have to tongue alright million dollar mystery yes Netflix's he killed Dino DiLaurentis and please don't bother yeah we did willow as a second film on the bridge Oh Kevin it's just so good Lake Havasu oh yeah there we shot that it is where we shot that a son of a so George Lucas was great to work with then I introduced my father to him and my dad we shot in Northern California I was raised in the southern part of the Northern California in San Jose and my dad drove up an hour to San Francisco to Moran and met George Lucas and said upon first meeting him I really really liked ET so that was a slightly embarrassing moment for me he's my dad could have been worse ya know they do could have killed him Nicky could have told me he like what's that mean streets main streets nice totally different genre completely different I would like to now it is that time for the Larry King game this is very important opportunity for you at home to win yourself a Kevin Pollak's chat show t-shirt if you have a Larry King game that I read on the show we'll send you a shirt today's entry and winner is in the form of an audio he recorded an audio usually they write it in and then I do the horrible Larry King impression this viewer listener said no no I got it sent this in roll please [Music] so thank you for that boring Oregon was sure that that was not burden Piven back from the dead nah yes but that sounded an awful lot and there was a people do a bad Larry King and that says that Bern Piven is as bad Larry King and there's a reference that only are over fifty five crowd control yeah you lost me really yeah Jeremy's dad Bergman had this voice scrambler voice then what world didn't to Jeremy's father had this voice didn't show the acting very much really yeah what part did he play in anything good yes ah-ah I got one that you have to know he's in Being John Malkovich as the as in the short film explaining why the seven and a half floor is the seven and a half floor he's the old man who explains to the little person that he's can builder this floor there you go just for you never have those fifteen seconds back no they're gone forever as if the opening credits and the last 12 minutes of amazing entertainment wasn't enough the wookie planet of you know I'd like the opposite back to it my guest today thankfully is a classically trained musician who plays 71 instruments he co-founded and is the lead guitarist of the only fictitious rock rock band that somehow morphed on out of satirical film and into touring rock-and-roll sensation who now consistently sell out five to six thousand seat arena z-- here in the states as well as the Albert Hall in London and even to 100,000 screaming fans at Wembley my guest today also harbors a slew of other silly original characters many of which were born during the creation of National Lampoon Radio and later in such films as This Is Spinal Tap waiting for Guffman a Princess Bride Best in Show a mighty win for your consideration and others he's a man who would become the 5th Baron of sailing in Essex and a hero to Ricky Gervais yet above it all he's the proud father to Annie and Tom please welcome one of my heroes mr. Christopher guest that was the laugh I wanted right there a little chuckle to start things off so what are you in first 14 minutes you've just got to think what if Heights what am I done actually took three before wondering what was what's going on 71 instruments not accurate none of the numbers are actually accurate none of them know five to six now to the cedar Wembley is 78,000 okay Glastonbury was 140,000 that's the crazy one Glastonbury tell you about that because that's when I hide it on any map that's an outdoor festival in England and the countryside where it usually rains but we did it two years ago and it was a beautiful day and it's surreal to play in front of that many people it's just at some point they're so spread out far in front of you that that what it's just an ocean of hot people yeah and do you an ocean of people when you're when you have that many in front of you do you actually make eye contact with everyone anyone yeah the people are in the front people in the back it looks like a movie effect yeah that's like a CG thing right yeah and so but but the fictitious band that became a touring real band that's true this is you ever happened before my wrong I mean seriously selling tickets well with legitimate completely original the stones no well they were started on a dare I think uh no it's true we but Michael McKean and I started playing music together in college and writing songs so we were playing as musicians way before we did the movie so it wasn't as if actors had done the movie right and then that wouldn't have been possible yeah you were the only other fictitious bad I could find the toured was the Monkees but they didn't play they had some help right on the records and live in person yeah I had some help yeah we were we were actually playing which is a yeah do you the dossier says that you and me dossier yeah yeah says that you and McKean actually met up ridiculously early like this early is 20 21 years old we were 1919-20 in New York in New York yet at NYU yeah tell you he's happy to go to school the same does just happen to be right yeah and sort of one of those instant chemistry things you'd like the same kind of music instant everything he was funny yeah I played the guitar I was playing the guitar you may think actually what things I was surprised by Arlo Guthrie someone you also just happened to go to school just happened to the hell what the hell and so he was reading something where he said yeah what do you play a guitar no no I got the guitar here you try the mandolin oh yeah well I went to school with him a boarding school in Massachusetts and knew he was going there which is why I actually wanted to go there this before he is famous but his dad was famous so I thought this would be good the kid of Woody Guthrie lecture how bad could it be yeah he was so something he might so we I said he said do you play an instrument R and he said I play guitar so you know he said how about the mandolin I said I'll try that he gave me this mandolin and he said this was Woody's mandolin holy just happen to be carrying around my father's mandolin would you mind playing now yeah so that was a moment yeah well that suggests at that early age boarding school we talking teens you um you were not only aware of who would he go through where you would have a fan well yeah was that a style of music that I like to all kinds of music at that point and that was one of them because a lot of your training it seemed to be in classical originally well I'd gone to his school called the High School of Music and Art which is a serious music school in New York City for people who many times end up in symphony orchestras that was not gonna happen with me anymore no I was a clarinet player and that was no Lord that wasn't no that was not gonna happen so were you did I mean when you're out of school like that and it has the history that it has that you just met out which is this is where you go to the school and then you go yeah a lot of people funneled into orchestras I I knew that that wasn't going to happen and you you played an instrument then they said okay you need to play another instrument as well so I said pull drums any kind of drums great so timpani drums are the drums you hear in orchestras the big round like this table sure and I thought this is good because you basically just sit back there right right and you read and it says measure 90 measures rest and then you go and then another hour goes by so one day the conductor the old guy the old bitter teacher all right said all right pointed to me said I want you to conduct well I'm going down the hall I gotta grab I did the same thing well you'd grab something uh-huh I thought here's my moment here's the here's the here's the moment so these are this is the baton right these are my teas in fact so 90 piece Orchestra what'd you do ground and that's so now that baton goes flying back and I do that what happens yeah and you hear and then the guy comes back in as I'm looking for the thing right yeah you're doing it I wasn't gonna remind me to get those I yeah that wasn't gonna be good you've seized the moment to perform for your class I you've got a couple of laughs but I also got more just what I don't get it right why did you throw the thing behind you now had you seen you later did room service on the Broadway stage but had you seen the Marx Brothers it was a crate Wow I like to throw them out yeah give me a neck brace no but the way that they would treat was it Margaret Dumont the sure over the way that they would treat her being surrounded by the overly serious people this see might be a very specific form of comedy or for the funny people to so when you mention your classmates saying yeah I don't get it what are you doing sure was there something about the overly serious setting do you think that maybe fueled the well I think yeah yeah I think it just asks for for that in my case right most those people were not heading where I was going right they were practicing eight hours a day and it's a it's a an amazing discipline to continue and I that was not you know I didn't have that in my DNA did you have any discipline and learning how to play the piano for example cuz that's no I practiced the clarinet I you have to be some some kind of musician to get into the school but I I just it wasn't I wasn't on the level of those other folks you didn't have to audition day oh yeah to get into school man oh it's a special school yeah it's not just any Hey Hey Joe come on in well no no I got it thrown the fatah 14 years old I go up there and you have I played the Mozart clarinet concerto and and you know absolutely yeah well so if you're there thinking if there's no way I'm gonna go on to a symphony or an orchestration yeah what am i doing there then yeah well that's why I left I left also they they probably thought it was a good idea you found the door so is it during this process that you decide you would rather be a professional baseball player what are you thinking no I think that had already died that idea when I was 10 I thought that was the possibility maybe 12 with a dose of possibility being in New York I thought mantle only has some so much time Willie man Willie Mays Ettore you know I was about to leave Duke Snider not interested and I'm God blessing or whatever I say when someone dies yeah but you were fascinated by the game it's very ass played the game I was I was a good athlete yeah shortstop centerfield sure mm shortstop and so who when you're playing centerfield there's thinking Willie Mays and who else mantle yeah mantle I have the mantle glove I have the original glove I was given when I was 11 years old still have it at home till habit still have it still just a giant thumb and the well their den they're tiny they were this big there are these little odd little things yeah they wear helmets back then no helmets no right no cups we didn't have cups you there we used to put a saltine cracker in your pants and you didn't question that you know was weird you just wore underwear and some say you know Joey or who is a that works it works just put the short thing in drag it's good and and you'd say wow I mean it's how about that how would that work how would the physics behind it well manses doing it is probably that what you saw it well it star it's hard for a kid to to love a game play the game and give up that dream was that indeed I think was there Kevin it's not that hard it's done by virtually everyone except for for people every year but minutes was there a coach that said kid don't there you just know yourself no no he's growing up in New York City there there's no grass first of all so we were playing on the street so the ball had electrical tape in it and it was you know after three hits it was gone right yeah it was it wasn't I I can't say I was so close I could touch it let's not say that right you didn't play organized in school not that I know of no no there was no too busy with the clarinet yeah uh at this point your father is a un diplomat now the vice love to know who did the research because this is I'm not saying it's a hundred percent yes your father was not a British you and he worked at the United Nations yes yes yeah okay yeah he wasn't an attache no he we had diplomatic immunity which meant that when we traveled you didn't have to stop he basically just that about handing that out to someone who just works in the office that didn't know he wasn't a janitor I don't know he was a guy yeah and your mom climbed the ranks at the at the CBS broadcasting company according to the dossier vice-president at one point yes Wow so fairly diverse that but I will tell you that is shifting for a second yeah yeah please Bard College in New York University yes sir which one of those is where you meet McCain NYU and white gold yeah and the two of you look to my rights here the two of you basically can't wait to get the hell out of there yes yeah I didn't finish because I got a play with your friend mr. Arkin yeah that is actually something if you could recall any part of the auditioning process of that Wow no because I was wondering what he might have seen you and what anyone would have seen you will not like more cuz I was a college student right it was just so an audition and may have been my first audition ever well that's I had no idea what I was doing that's truly remarkable well because you've transitioned to two music fairly seriously at that point in terms of being well I was doing everything at the same time from a pretty early age I was doing music and hoping to act and some kind of comedy I didn't know what it was really I had a radio show at NYU with Tom Leopold we're on the radio really sure we got fired from that show did you sure what I'm well we had to read the ticker then then the stuff used to come over and you had you had to read the news seriousness as it was happening which we couldn't do without laughing right so something seriously there wasn't sure really serious would come across and we that was the worse it was the funnier it was you couldn't wait to get this we would improvise this show for two hours you know and at the University sure until someone found out about it or you read the wrong news we just couldn't stop laughing right I remember this and the grown-up came in I said you don't have to be here anymore the auditioning though for theater in New York seems like not something to do casually it seems like there's a lot of people even if it is your first audition that are they're auditioning they're taking it unbelievably serious oh I was taking that seriously sure right I I didn't know what I was doing but I was taking it seriously sure would go on five auditions a day right yeah and I remember one of I got that part and Alan was the director of that show but then subsequently it was it was a very serious business and my name at the time was christopher haden-guest that's my name yeah but people were making their names they were changing their names then because they thought they sounded kind of theatrical changing the names to to well their name was whatever and then they would change it to something that was Brian wedgeworth Cummings sounded so I remember going to this audition for something and the guy had the paper uh-huh this is the paper right christopher haden-guest mm-hmm Goodwin said what do you mean nothing you know and he thought that I had changed it from you know whatever Barney Melman or whatever and I said that's actually my name yeah and I actually then I was so intimidated I actually took out the middle name because you didn't wanna get called on this again by some idiot no there's backbone yeah so I that was how you drop the hey absolutely from that juncture I you know I may be too sensitive a little bit yeah well still that's pretty that's pretty ridiculous that that would give anyway that little murders hmm was the name of the off-broadway that's true you were 21 yes sir you want me to read this stuff I might go fast what was that one often like when you're in rehearsals in terms of director how we're up were you of him work deep deep he was the guy yeah I believable he was the guy and it turned out that he lived a few blocks from me after we became great friends oh he was he was just a legend you know and he'd come from second city and he was very rounders really exactly the first group and very different than any other actor is where he came from to get where he had to go was in a very different way than convention laughter yeah and and how open was he about all that stuff during the process I mean he said to me once in his way yeah he said your said don't ever listen to what any director ever tells you except me now did he mean you have your own instincts or was he trying to think he meant that and he was trying to be funny anything yeah yeah I remember having one of the very first jobs I ever did somebody said you've either had a tremendous amount of training or none whatsoever and I thought well this guy's an idiot I mean if you literally can't tell between those two things but early on someone said yeah don't don't let whatever you have it's not from training so you're at school for music were you doing plays and school I mean the idea oh yeah II know you serious acting school this was called the School of the Arts at the right again a major audition to get in there they took 50 kids out of 2,000 kids it was some real serious deal they said that the audition are you willing to give your blood for the theater and I you know blood you know 119 what are you what are you talking very serious very there were some great teachers and then there's an aspect of it that was incredibly pretentious - there was a guy who was probably 21 walking around it with a cape and a walking stick that had a lion's head he didn't get his ass beat they all thought he was a genius Herron of course ultimately in the never worked ever for day you know but there there's that there's a discrepancy between academic theater and then theater where you go and you work you actually do it you do it and I did that for five or six years in New York before I got into whatever the other thing I do the Lampoon well yeah and also you're you're spending summers in the family's homeland of the of London England I am occasionally yes and you're discovering the goons I'm assuming I knew of the goons fairly early yeah through probably friends yeah yeah beyond fringe and well I met those guys when I was 12 and that was a big influence a huge influence cuz I thought these are the smartest people I've ever met and they're funny what a as a 12 year yeah what a concept and I ultimately worked as an assistant director for Jonathan Miller when he directed a film in London but that was a real departure in comedy I think that was a which set Python up and it said a bunch of things in motion I think oh yeah yeah Cooke and more yeah Alan Bennett became a great playwright and author how is it the twelve-year-old gets in and meets and work oh I made that action yeah I think I think they may have known someone in my family I can't remember really what how that worked but they came to do their show on Broadway and Jonathan Miller stayed with us during that time for a while and got to know him and it was amazing he's still doing he directs offers mostly now he's a smart man so a pretty formidable time in your life you got turned on to subversive comedy in a sense yeah I wouldn't even say that was subversive only in that they were so smart just in the sense that they were smart it wasn't subversive the way I can't forgive any real subversive people well one of the goons were subversive in a sense that that was that was anti-establishment and so it kind of anarchy in that in a sense this this wasn't this was just smart and funny which was a an interesting concept yeah your your comedic tastes seem to be forged at that time because I know even to this day the idea of the sort of silly goofball antics of something like The Hangover and these kind of pedestrian well I just I guess I tend to crude is not something that's III don't I'm not as as attracted to broad stuff as I am to other kinds of stuff I guess not even from Benny Hill well well how about it yeah I yeah yeah well what about some of the more classic early silent film comedians that were pretty broad well there's there's different kinds of broadness I guess right you could say that slapstick is broad except the context of it isn't so Laurel and Hardy Buster Keaton there's an intelligent Harold Lloyd there's something else going on there there's also a especially with Laurel and Hardy there's a empathy you know that they have this bizarre relationship where they're both stupid but they both think that or at least certainly Holly thinks that he knows what's going on yeah yeah the intelligence and ego that comes from a character who's actually an idiot can't be beat yeah it's a it's a yeah that seems like that might have been the thing that ricky gervais is connected to because that seems to be quite prevalent than important to his comedy idea I read when you saw the British original version of The Office that really spoke to you in a huge way yes I mean that character could the whole thing yeah it's astonishing work as his extras and everything he does it's remarkable we aware at that point of his one-hit-wonder 80's glam rock no I was not I saw the office and there there's the original office meaning the office right and Jamie my wife mm-hmm said you should call him I said I call I don't know him right he my wife is very effusive and actually likes meeting people we'll say hello to someone at a party well actually mingle you know and I said I I don't know him I I actually called him got his thing got the information and in five seconds it was as if we had known each other for our whole lives it was it was one of the great connections and we've been close for a long time yeah it doesn't happen often in one's life it does not no yeah yeah because I'd like to looked at the video that he did a couple of sit-downs one with you oh yeah I'm on with Larry David I haven't seen those but I take your word for it yeah in his office of two of you chatted in London okay yeah there are several cameras around the time okay sure he got up went to the bathroom for the opening and you said i i i don't remember i honestly don't remember yeah much yeah yeah yeah now have you seen him do stand-up when he's come to the states i had yeah pretty remarkable it's a great show yeah it's a great show yeah i uh yeah i was very very not surprised but amazed at how comfortable he was on stage you know not being a lifelong stand-up comedian per se yeah it's as you know it's not an easy thing to master I've never done stand-up I'd never have that would be I played a stand-up in the National Lampoon show and that was really freeing because I like the idea of playing a stand-up I think I could play a bad stand up really well did you do it for the album's or it'll actually like I did it alive and for the record of lemmings I play Jackie Christ Superstar sorry what Jackie Christ her then it was Christ as a stand-up comic so I had the white robe and I had to how do you say in America the halo thing and a cigar and sure and you created this character along I co-wrote the show with other Lampoon people yeah who was in that cast got John Belushi chase yo Gary no Gary good row and Palace platon I saw some footage when you came on and there's a YouTube video of John introducing Bob Dylan he's here Bob's here he's not here he's here he's not here and you came in Bob Dylan and James Taylor and John did Joe Cocker you know yeah long time ago how did you get involved with them national and proven radio was that another audition well it started I knew the guy I knew a guy who worked at the Lampoon and he called he said we're starting this magazine this night the long time ago 1970 before you were born sorry what is your not from Canada what's sorry yeah what's I hang out with a lot of Canadian base see sorry I guess Montreal so we'll pick that up later will do very well 1970 yeah so he said do you write and I said yes you know I do and I quickly called my friend Tom Leopold I said I think we can write something for this new magazine we wrote something they accepted it the first year of the Lampoon we didn't have we'd never written anything before you had done the radio show with Tom and then this was before the radio show really oh this was the this was the third issue of the magazine and I said when I that I was up in the offices and I said I don't really write but I do other stuff I play music and I can do some voices of people and maybe we should make a record they said great we'll make a record so we did an album or two and then we we had a radio show and then we made six albums and we did this show that lasted for a year in New York and right no I meant you and Tom had done the college radio show I didn't know what you mean yeah yeah but I mean you guys had that experience of improvising radio for two hours yes well we improvised as Michael McKean not knowing that we were improvising right on the bus because we shared an apartment in the village and we would take the bus and we would do stick just riff characters and by the time we got there we were cooking pretty well and yeah no one told me what that was called yeah so I was never in an improv group and yet all the movies I've done have been unscripted films other than the Princess Bride and things like that but they we just did them there's no rehearsal you just talk you know I read a lot about it's getting colder in here yeah I made that happen interesting the other nice I really a lot actually about other people when people insist to you that the films are all improvised when they insist to me yeah you you do make a point of saying how you and your gene actually worked really hard Eugene Levy yeah sorry who did get bonus show nope no apology necessary yes and he told the story yeah of how you called him out of the blue and said we did right I did the movie to get god it's cold yeah I have a coat in the car yeah thanks Sam yep say have give me a favor yes sir why you're up you know Urth Caffe I'm familiar with it cappuccino no problem she doing there it was curandera usually just pretending to do a knob thing no no I was shocked that you out of the blue you just thought I've never met Eugene well back to that okay yeah and I thought I'll just no no no he was in Kevin he was a Canadian did I'm sure like Sam and I had seen sctv which i think is the probably the best comedy show that has ever been because they actually had time to write the show right as opposed to other shows where they don't and I had seen him do many things and laughed and the thing that struck me was his Perry Como lying on the ground sure fantastic lie down Micra singing I love the nightlife and I said let's do this movie and he said okay let's get together we got together hit it off immediately and we are very different in some ways but we share I think a sensibility in comedy and we wrote waiting for Guffman wrote meaning we wrote the story laid out the characters I've been a lot of time on it though well typically we would spend five or six months yeah but that was actually shorter I think in a month we wrote the thing but it's it's writing everyone's backstory and everything but no dialogue and did you have actors in mind like Katherine and the people for that first one I had a couple of actors in mind but not Katherine because I had not worked with Katherine I yes I had worked with Katherine Katherine was one of the people yeah and then obviously Eugene I'm sitting there with Eugene writing and I said well obviously you're gonna do this guy and who do you think should do other things we figured it out I thought his perspective was was interesting and one that I didn't know warm enough it will never be perfect I promise you that he was sitting up in Canada the great white north I thought I was kidding but fresh from Earth cafe that was just a bit that Sam and I have worked on what is that what do you got there that's how we do pants can you shall receive you know I really was kidding you can talk all you want mister um maybe this will keep me warm yeah that's right say I'm putting the packets in here it's a it's a insulation yeah but he's sitting up there in the Great North now down from you out of the blue who's yourself Eugene Levy okay we're still and then he goes to the airport and the next thing he knows is in a car with a strange driving up to upstate New York to a cabin of yours no not upstate not at all research research no no he flew in Idaho ah Idaho I see and Eugene in Idaho oh boy Wow oh boy from Tehran oh yeah from anywhere I mean eugene getting off the plane and 6,000 foot elevation and you're in the big time mountains and he got off the plane in wildlife Wow and Eugene oh and what is that an elk that is what happens when a moose yeah gets hit don't eat that yeah it was an odd I mean on the surface it was kind of odd couple ish right and it's been a pretty great work relations he's a good guy to work with these really smart obviously he's funny pretty good about his golf he he goes out there he goes out there yeah how are you guys golf together and dirty don't golf together no no what happened it's in the contract I say this was great doing this by the way really but I want to think I throw out the room service all day I'm sorry I've throughout the room service your Broadway days yeah my day boo yeah yeah was a funny story can I tell that as the guy dad let me see he's dead look is that better to do it all the guy's dead please but we talked about this yet tonight at dinner I'm trying to bring up the great stories oh yeah there was an actor well no I don't know who this is honest even better no one will know who this is yeah during the day boo yeah I don't know well let's go nameless and see work haha well nameless it's really not funny it's marginally funny if you know this is yeah yeah no okay something else I'll respect that yeah there's not that much else to say room service was this play done in the 30s the Marx Brothers did it and then this was my first part yeah on Broadway yeah I want okay I'll mention the guy's name please so his name is dick Shawn oh my god are you one of the few who died oh you day oh we got it no he does he's a student he's a student so dick Shawn was a comedian mostly a comedian of ivali anodd ilk very odd I don't know how you would really describe what he did very original very weird he was not an actor in the sense that you didn't want to give him lines and put him in a play which someone did apparently there was he replaced someone in this and when the original star of the show mr. Ron Liebman mm-hmm left Norma Rae I took I took over the part from having a small part of the playwright part the young guy and mr. Shawn took over Ron liebman's part but mr. Shawn didn't really understand the concept that once other people were talking on stage that you actually didn't talk at the same time if you didn't have lines it was a curious thing because he didn't like being left out of the action Oh God sure so someone would be talking and he would be upstage of them upstage meaning behind them and would be making sounds he would do this or he would do or this sound it's because watch me I'm even though there was him right he originated upstaging so it was odd and one night there's a food fight scene and we're doing this and this and I do this and it hits him in the eye was pudding and he does that this is on Broadway so this wasn't a rehearsal he does this oh that's great cake that's great really good these aren't the lines in the show actual lines that are written that you say would you do a play you rehearse the lines and you say those lines that's great kid that's really good nice work and then he took the whole thing and through it the whole plate and threw it at me very much yeah he died on stage during a play he died all right the apparently the curtain came up and he was lying down and people thought it was funny because he didn't move and then they thought I was part of his act and they did they did Irish dick yeah he was an odd guy yeah I heard nothing but odd things yeah anyway that was um I think this is cold a problem got a key can you tell me the year when we were starting with dick Shawn which of these plays open that same season play it again Sam Jesus Christ Superstar or Norman is that you well ask the guy that knows all these things how the hell would I know superstar I I wouldn't have a clue nineteen seventy sure I wouldn't know that I don't know anything about show business no I really don't I'm sure you know more about well not literally but in the sense certainly not in a sense the dates I don't I don't know dates and I don't remember things that I've done I don't when you said the thing I did was Ricky or we I don't remember that Wow yeah so what were you going to plays and shows well I did plays but I didn't go to that much theater yeah it wasn't that much happening in theatre that interests you as a well it was mostly maybe that's the maybe that's the reason yeah yeah cuz at this point you're you're 22 you twenty I mean you're starting already with the National Lampoon right I'd started I'd been with the Lampoon since 1970 I started yeah right so so is there a time when there is a day job or just write it out never had a regular job right no the only job I had well I took money at the door at the Village Vanguard which is the famous jazz club he went working there you just took money I just took my it was a summer job and I knew the owner Randy said you just people come in and then you they give you the 350 and then you give them the change how hard could that be then how hard was it hard it was unbelievably hard here's the problem party of three party of one was hard no math I had a math deficit an issue with math in my head I probably could have done it with everything and lo and behold first party in five people you're and always out of towners and they're coming to see you hey Leslie this guy that'll be good you play a trumpet so the guy comes down he's got five people alright good good alright I'm living it and he gives me thing and I give him just something back and I hope that it's and then he leaves and then he's then there's this pause and I think oh God in my head I'm working this out oh now I go in the club musics playing loud yeah I gave you the wrong change oh that's weird that's honest of you and he gives me a tip for being honest and I am just sweating and I go out now party six now you think I might have learned from the no comes in thing his money okay and he goes in and I go oh Jesus okay I did it again they sit next to the other people yeah sure so now I have to turn my back to the other guy cuz he thinks this is a right sorry I can't hear you what I didn't do it right and fortunately heat this guy didn't hear me yeah so their Lord this job was going well yeah then a guy comes in just walks past me I go ho ho ho buddy whoa whoa whoa well it was Bill Evans and the owner said no you don't you don't stop Bill Evans been coming in the club he's a famous jazz piano yeah combination of those two things so I've got two weeks later mm-hmm yeah I you quit oh I didn't quit I think I went back to something else right yeah but I did have I never really had a really a regular job much of a job and the one that you just described went horribly yeah well I mean these things are still like yep may I ask a question who's speaking is this a caller comment if I'm not mistaken you while performing in a show on stage once actually fell asleep on stage is that is that accurate I'm curious how you know that you told me that story I told you that story yes sir Sam all due respect was this one we were driving cross-country this was in between Omaha and Dallas you're right it was and you told weight hits right there was a dairy group yes I was in in little murders I was going to call it from 8:00 9:00 in the morning till 6:00 at night running home making what some people would call a sandwich hmm running to the theater eight shows a week I was exhausted I'd been doing it for five months scene where I'm lying down the couch fell asleep yeah now fell asleep and you know we're stars of John Gielgud falling asleep I'm not comparing myself I say one thing during King Lear Oh John John Hey so I and then fortunately I didn't miss a line my eyes opened the people were going the other way because mm-hmm oh yeah most curious about the rejoining to play moment then and then Mike you came up just after my and I my heart was beating very quickly because I was lost for a second I didn't know where we were I don't recommend it but it was a legitimate thing I was really tired boy these are and then afterwards I said maybe the most connected to the piece you've ever been I don't know what you're talking know no one knew right that happened basically uh I would like to know if there's any recollections that all working with George see Scott in the hospital your your motion picture debut was that mm-hmm interesting here's a good story what am i sorry well okay I what was that what you're out cuz I'm cured 71 71 71 71 okay I got a call from someone an agent perhaps saying you have a part you can do I didn't audition you can go and do this part it's three lines in a movie called the hospital great I went uptown to this hospital New York City there were a couple of other actors around there shooting another scene I didn't know anything about movies I'm not even interested apparently the the director said okay here's what we're gonna do the DP say X to him director photography and the DPS doing this now and now you hear an ad saying we have to get back to the other scene okay now they come back 20 minutes later and he says and I say because I don't know anything what if what we just come in here like this and he I mean this is naive beyond belief and he doesn't react in a way which is basically you're fired thank you or anything he just looks very like something else is going on in his mind he's very perplexed and he he they just all leave they never got to the scene someone called and said we have to do it a few days later I got a call saying you have another part in a movie called the hot rock uh-huh never did the same not in the movie but I was really stunned by that idea of I thought they would just say this is what you do ya never said that no they didn't know he didn't know what did and if you had an actor in your directing experiences say how about if I what if I ha ha as I was I was scouting something once uh-huh it was at the Veterans Administration I was directing something and the woman that was showing us around I was looking at this hallway and the woman who worked at the Veterans Administration said what if you just come in like this I swear oh my god I said yeah that would not not having any idea of what we were doing I said that would be good I'll do that home I'll do this I'll come in like this that's what I'll do you have to laugh at that point hot rock with Robert Redford yes sir yeah sure someone big directed that Sammi mr. Yates Yates who passed last year yes got a really talented man and trick and they said you can do this thing three two lines three lines whatever it was that was the first lines I think I ever had in a movie another day another movie you would know this better than I yes sir I we met at outside there was another move I truly don't know the chronology of this this movie the horrible movie about the guy that kills people with Charles Bronson death what is that before or after don't remember just before I interesting anyway I had this penchant clearly for not understanding the boundary between no a person with two lines so on the hot rock I was standing around I think I may have actually been interested in the way they were shooting and I actually now I'm really near the camera mm-hmm I'm just a guy in a policeman's thing and Redford's talking with Peter Yates and he's he's saying I think what might work for us he said and then I'm there is if we go behind and then do some sort of reveal later and Redford says yes and then I'm still there when I say to him that's a really nice watch and he says thank you and Redford's wearing the same watch and I said that's the same watch Redford says yes I almost this moment yeah and I then I wander off sure and I went home and I thought that was a great watch I'm gonna get that watch and I saved up for two years and kept putting money down at this place and I bought this watch which I still have I bought it I bought that watch in 1972 uh-huh saved up bought it and it was because of those two guys and later when I knew Redford I told him the story and he wasn't even that interested but that's a really nice watch you said to the director of disguise did seem like a guy I really knew my place clearly understood that the dynamic of you know they have I'm just reversing it and picturing you directing on one of your movies and having someone in a day player saying well standing there well this did happen an extra came up to me and an extra came up to me I was doing a movie called no I need you for everything attack of the 50-foot woman Daryl Hannah Daryl Daryl Hannah and again now I was doing this for real not literally if it looks looks better when you're doing this right and I said to the DP Russell carpenter who won an Academy Award for Titanic actually I said if we and there's a guy standing there he was this he was a stand-in oh and he said how much is one of those I have a viewfinder I said I guess about $500 I don't know so if we what he said and what about and what about that thing I said well there's a light meter I don't it's not my light meter but how much would that be I guess it would be $1,000 I know and he's writing this down he's writing it down and then he leaves me alone for a while and then later in the day and okay now at the end of the day this is true he comes up he has his pad and he said so if I had $1,800 I could be a director honestly and what there was it was not meant to be funny and I said right so anyway now we're really he wasn't making understand it know the difference between me and you was 1800 that's it that was the that was the deal oh man see I think he was right now there was a time my eye I was told by you we're at some point during Jim Morrison's run with the doors has run with the door yeah his success where he was celebrated as this incredible poet and what have you that you and a few other serious Muse and friends actually thought of him as a bit of a hack hey is that fair to say well and if he had lived today he'd be doing jingles on the radio well this was I think this was McCain's Michael McKean I'm not trying to not push it on Michael but Michael does great impressions of many different singers and people real serious impressions that you would appreciate right and he and he does and he did David clayton-thomas from blood sweat and tears saying and he did Jim Morrison and the premise was that a year later basically he was going to be doing dishwasher commercials yeah right yeah or cheese spread and valued with the impression well enough to really to do that so you have to have Michael on have you how do I go on well we're going to we have to yeah because he can then fill in the rest of that story cuz he can actually really well then I might not be remembering remembering correctly because when we did get a chance to work together on a little television program called Morton and Hayes while we were on a giant soundstage or I did it I thought it was you like maybe it was him was across the sound stage and I was talking to somebody after the premise had been set up I would hear from 50 feet away Manny Moe and yeah it could have been me I just don't do it as well as him so I said Ernie's League yeah yeah that's the idea no better than that Peter Sellers early early early influence now this is the pre-interview this is this is very about him and the goons and whatnot cuz I had I didn't see the about Nichols in May and I thought they might have been around at a time lutely yeah that might have had an info and when I went to NYU Elaine's Elaine like I know her Elaine's daughter was in my class and we with Leopold mr. Leopold a funny person I know started what we thought was an improv group but we didn't actually do anything because what we accepted in my house we went up to see her Elaine May and did something in front of her that we thought was funny oh my sure and you would see so we did something which I and I don't remember what it was right and she looked at us like this mm-hmm and you thought we should probably go and I don't know if there was any comment at all I can't remember and then we left and then that was that was that at the end of the improv group well there wasn't really it was we probably met at someone's house and thought this is funny right had you seen Nichols in may know not live no no I heard the records write records but I never saw alive no and what did you think when you're in director it was one of the great also smart there was another example of smart and smart and funny right not a bad idea right yeah really smart I mean he is really smart ridiculous yeah yeah there there are yeah and because that when Rob was here we talked about you briefly just in the sense of one of the things that he commented on to me was that he would lose awareness of of you as the person he knows when you're working together in the case of a few good men when you're the doctor on the stand he would had these like he has with no other actor there's no Kris there it's he's all gone there's this transformation and I always felt that that was true about Peter Sellers hmm that the astonishing thing about his work was he was gone hello plays he was quite gone yeah yeah yeah I mean well I don't know if I'm gone or not I but I think that's the idea right you know to be to be gone you know that's what was interesting about it to me when I wanted to become an actor was to become someone else not to be me just doing some lines right but a lot of so-called movie stars but that's different yeah that's different they bring their own product now that's why people like to go and see them because because they know that's them and that's a they can have too there it's a comfort to know I'll be pleased now he's a CIA guy but that's so-and-so that's a different thing well someone that was around the same time as you and some same time as me but back in the 70s of doing the comedy in New York there was some footage for some reason I think it was 1976 that you and he went to the Super Bowl I'm speaking of Bill Murray and yeah did a couple of job a filmed pieces well we were on a show in the 70s called Saturday Night Live right it's not the satiric oh sure sure before the other thing yeah and we were called the prime time players right and we would write and perform in quotes a sketch every week on that live show you and Bill Murray and Brian and Brian rod or more doyle-murray sure and it was a three of us and at some point someone said can you guys come down to the Super Bowl and do this weird thing was TV TV it was called it was before cable it was before oh yeah and we posed as real fans and when they were cutting it because the people who were cutting it didn't know we we were just beginning actors they thought oh this is gold these look at these idiots yeah and it was us so it kind of succeeded from that standpoint I don't know if I ever saw the final thing but good well you're kind of at some point you're talking to like he was talking to Pat Summerall yeah I don't I really don't have much recall but we got to go to the Super Bowl yeah you came off the sort of jackass yeah well that was the idea right yeah but now here's a guy in the case of Bill Murray who at times will get lost but very rarely most of the time he's bringing sort of this charm and personality to his role right yeah and so I guess that was the astounding part that someone otherwise thought of as being ridiculously funny when taking on a dramatic role completely vanishes hmm and but I wondered if if Peter Sellers might not have inspired that at some point oh I think probably with that question yeah you know question yeah and I got to meet him when I was 16 or 17 no 18 17 or 18 and he was definitely one of my idols I mean it was just how what was the auspices of this this was the movie that Jonathan Miller was directing Alice in Wonderland in London for the BBC and I got to be Jonathan's assistant I said Peter Sellers is working today it was Michael Redgrave John Gielgud Peter Cook ridiculous cast I mean insane all the great English actors and I met Ravi Shankar who wrote the music and did you have a sense as a 16 year old absolutely I'm not Rushmore perhaps a little more dick I kept a journal which I found recently of that experience it was you kept a journal I did he's a real long Journal everyday detailed yeah and what was what was that like to read it was all these years it was amazingly coherent I was shocked I was shocked at how coherent it was cuz now I couldn't do that I don't think is that something you didn't after that afterwards keeping the journal no ridiculous happenstance that the thing with Howard Cosell first of all he's a bit of an enigma I mean he was just this ridiculous character sure yeah and in sports broadcasting right who was sort of legendary in terms of his moment in the Sun right in show business yeah he had a run there he had a tenure run or so what part of the production or pre-production process was he in that version of Saturday Night Live oh the other show yeah Roone Arledge was a sports guy at ABC and he executive produced this show right and someone thought this was a good idea it wasn't a good idea Howard was not comfortable doing this he didn't like it he liked us strangely he thought we were funny so that was a blessing because I would have been fired immediately sure we had these weird ideas and Howard said let them do it it's funny room you know any good thing we'd do it but it was it was a very uncomfortably bad show we did that I think we did 15 shows or something live you know who was the sort of main producer who actually did you know produced the show and sort of organized the Alan King slash and Rupert hit sick yeah sure Alan King Alan King the comedian Alan Alan King actually producing well organizing sketches and the son no no no I there was a head writer right an older guy who was a head writer and we would sit in on some of those things just because we thought it was kind of fun Bob Hope was on the show and he said you guys want to write a joke for Bob Hope so I wrote a joke for Bob Hope that actually Bob Hope you know any chance you remember that job I do i do remember it's not a particularly funny joke but was the property to the scene he was supposed to be the oldest football player in the world and I remember writing two jokes I think one of them got on in this terrible sketch really but one of them was well he should have Roman numerals on the back you know and the other one he should take him on the field in a stretcher so and that's worked with that kind of thing that he was doing sure so yeah but what a thrill George Burns what about him on the show and then hanging out with George Burns when you're young and he sitting there watching us rehearse in his dressing gown with a cigar in the in the theatre that they did the honeymooners in and then we finish and we're nervous because he's there yeah and he says you're very funny you make me laugh and then it was just okay we're golden and then he goes into this nine page monologue 1923 I'm doing a show with Gracie I remember we used to have go up up the stairs made a left theater manager was you know so-and-so thing I think he maybe he had this thing unbelievable I mean just told you stories yeah yeah that was well those are the moments that you find yourself wrapped in attention but also you're you're getting sort of a travelogue of a bygone era imagine yeah I mean that's that's connecting this link from he was born in 1896 so it's connecting this link from truly the earliest vaudeville 19 5 1910 to this surreal thing where you actually get to overlap right person really where do what a lot of people probably don't know is that the first song written for spinal tap was a part of the the TV show yes yeah Rob Reiner I was doing a show for ABC a pilot pajas Harry Shearer was one of the writers Billy Crystal was one of the writers I was brought in with Tom Leopold to be writers and performers and Albert Brooks Michael McCain Martin Mull that was this not the funniest show in the history of uh well it was a clever concept some of it was funny I think the idea was that Rob was just sitting there flipping you saw this hand come in and we would just do every show that he kept flipping the remote thing and so then we did the commercials we would do whatever he and then he'd land on something for a while then it would go to the next thing we did all those things and one show Wow yeah I didn't have the right support or what-have-you well I did maybe whatever those reasons are there's a hundred of them so a lot has been said about how how the ideas of spinal tap sort of came about but that that notion of uh you guys all have a musical background you all have the ability to play instruments or to write songs to perform them the incredible fun of having your way with these particular characters you talk about sort of playing the idiot nigel is for all intents and purposes well he's he's more of a simpleton well he's not the smartest person but I think you have to combine the idea that they have a they think they're more interesting than they are there's a there's another overlay because if you're just playing an idiot maybe it's not so interesting no sorry I never it's interesting if they have if they're deluded as well I think that helps you know and that band thinks that that's they're bigger than they conceptually what was funny was writing those songs was that the the Stonehenge song that I wrote with Michael McKean has this as if they're they know about history as if they're doing some mystical thing it's not just about a fad and then the trick is to write a song that's actually a good song and on some level where you actually people like the music and so that was the the challenge with that but playing a person that's not so smart is always fun because in comedy you don't what's funny about doing things right what's funny about the smart person there's you know you have to find a way to so playing that guy was really easy for me and thus in the sense of past history the the success the band may have had earlier when we meet them mmm that allows you all the confidence and false ego to write you as brief as that was right right as brief as that was that allowed these characters you don't think that they write yeah but but that's interesting that when you're writing the songs they do have to be great songs I mean they have to be good songs because who wants to hear just you know yeah you're you're writing what seems to be purposely bad and at the same time well it's bad in its in the concept the music isn't bad it's not played badly it's just more subtle and more interesting I guess then because it's it's easy to write a bad song but it's not so easy to write a song that in that context I guess there are certain little great deal that's improvised yes it is a scenes were set up and we'll just do this and we're gonna get to there and then you weren't and go so that when the moment like and I know that also much of this was quoted back here to a point of got to be obnoxious but when Rob's reading review it was one of the moments where I felt was so ridiculously real and instantly funny because of it and he says the review of just two words sandwich right there's one of the few times that you your character right sort of laugh well I don't know if I'd heard that right I don't believe that I'd heard what he was gonna that's certainly the way it seems read yeah so that way to chime in with that you can't even print that yeah write that yeah yeah you know I think I think that I probably hadn't heard that and that's why there's a scene when when Fred Willard shows up and there's nobody funnier in the world and he says some things and I'm actually hiding behind McCain or somebody because it was in insane cuz he drew when he goes off then that's yeah that's the end talking about the haircut I'd let mine go a little bit yeah the whole his thing and it was tough it's really it's he's that that's the tough guy to kind of get through he's the one that gets to you that's difficult Eugene when we were doing waiting for Guffman left the scene shooting a scene Eugene leaves the scene be literally leaves the scene just walks out of the shot and go somewhere else where he come back so it's not like he was off-camera witnessing know his NOC turns and then just leaves you know I don't know if we use that take but he just said I'm now gonna leave yeah yeah well by the time you get to waiting to govern you you are now directing so you experience something that Rob spoke of when he directed spinal tap which is for all intents and purposes again getting the numbers wrong sixty hours possibly of film that now needs to be a 90-minute movie right so and what out first of all how long do you member was the editing process the post-production a year and a half a year and a half a year and a half oh that's mr. freeze-frame thing buffering just the porter 27 days 26 days of shooting in a year and a half 18 months sure normal for a film might be three four months six months something I'm normal here's the difference yeah an a conventional movie that scripted they're cutting while you're shooting sure so virtually when you finish shooting there's a rough cut within a week or so right I don't look at anything until we're all done there's no point because I can't possibly every day there's ten hours of footage so I can't you know basically so I just love her so I just we shoot it and then I sit and look at every everything with the editor and then we start to work different so that is the final the way they did transformers by the way the inches the you know which which people say oh yeah like that's a that's that's improvised but it is and it's a weird thing because the actors in that just do whatever they want you know uh-huh whatever that big thing that changes thank you and whatever and then you know let's let's go let's just go with it see what happens Titanic a lot of these movies that are improvised that you wouldn't imagine yeah but because you think well they're huge they've got these effects but but in a way it works better because because of that I think white gladiator there are a lot of them but they don't they don't they don't like to promote it like that no no then it seems culty or or takes away from the word exactly undermines the talent yes so you'd be surprised Lawrence of Arabia was one of the first right where where he you know you think well this is this grand scale and it's that you know you don't see that much anymore or they might have the camel here and a camel over here but and and Peter O'Toole said [Music] make it up right just any words you want yes any words I want to say I'll say when I want them you hear David Lean that's what I said you idiot right all right what's a desert this is and it turned out yeah came out he couldn't improvise at all so you're a camel ah you didn't know I'm not cut you said to say whatever words I wanted how should I know anyway yeah well that's just it there this has been great but I'm just you know look there's abject freedom to do and say whatever you want and then there's the making something of it you when you have 60 hours of footage to cut for I have to understand this isn't just people yakking away that there's a really serious time line sure there seem to seem to seem to scene you know the stories so you and Eugene have worked it out ahead of time it's all been worked out during the beginning so one job takes its they're doing two takes right but it's up to me and there's a lot of funny stuff it immediately goes away there's not it's it's brutal because it doesn't serve the story the story is the important thing there are going to be funny things in it it's well alright well then let's speak to that because that just has to you have to you have to tell the story and you it's not going to go in a million different directions in in the case of rest and show you know you see you meet people there's the show it can't suddenly go to over you know it's so it's not crazy sort of just people yakking away yeah it's very it's a serious kind of it's more linear than it's very linear and yet there the dialogue is is open but those people are so good at that that they can work within that context right and perhaps that the most difficult part one would think is to kill those babies as they say to have these ridiculously funny see not at all no not tough it isn't because there's there's plenty of funny stuff and you just have to tell the story right it's not even it's not even oh I wish it's really isn't it's just this is what it has to be you know right Katherine O'Hare is there anyone know of a female well that you've worked with you know I'm really I've been very fortunate to have incredible actors in the films that I've done did great great talent great talents I mean I'm just hugely Jane Lynch you know Jennifer Coolidge I mean it parker posey and and Fred and it just I mean it goes on and on McCain and Harry whoever Katherine is is a special you know when we for your consideration was really her film yeah and it started out Eugene and I sat down and we said this is Katherine's movie okay now let's develop this right because there's no one else could have I think could have done that and she's on another you know level of something I would say the parker posey find is a bit of a revelation in that group I met Parker and I don't audition people there's no addition I've talked to people for a period of time she's not no matter being an improviser she's no she's not at all yeah no and but most these people hadn't improvised on camera and that's very different than doing it in a club or or a group before your groundling or your second city person that's a very different dynamic and there are people that can be good at that not it doesn't translate necessarily to doing it on film yeah there are stage performing it's a different thing it's just and so Parker I met Parker and I just had this sense I said this is and there's that moment the first day was the day where she's driven the Dairy Queen thing and she's being interviewed and I said you don't have to say anything and there are no questions asked in these movies there that seem like interviews they just start talking oh really there are no questions see now that's incredible I would always know they were there no questions nothing that's ridiculous nothing so they just action and now they're talking that's ridiculous so I said to Parker you don't have to be funny and you don't have to say anything and there's some great pauses in that scene she did where she says I worked at the Dairy Queen for and on film you never get to see people take real time for an organic time because they're always cutting fast and then you know it's manipulated time is manipulated what I find funniest is really long stuff yeah to me that is what makes me laugh is stuff that takes way too long right where you're watching behave fear you know and it was amazing to see her do that she was really fearless you know utterly fearless and so good yeah just instantly good Michael Hitchcock yeah the two of them together don lake i mean yeah yeah they're so many people that are just so gifted Chris Moynihan was a younger guy that I found who was in for your consideration playing opposite Parker and it just crazy that these people can do this you know it's just yeah right before we went on the air with Fred Willard here at this table he took off his shirt sure as I recall in the in the seconds before his intro the very seconds before and started the interview with the sheriff of course I know please a little bit when I about to leave your first trip to your seat at the House of Lords just a little bit why well because I am so fascinated because I did this awful movie version what did you do King Ralph oh we're American John Goodman royalty and I never I'd never got to see that so excuse me but tell me a little bit more about that like that's what this should be if it's awful oh well it's sort of blue-collar in its design right whereas a real-life version of this lemony of there just becomes a time where you're now a part of this thing back in in England and you and you need to I mean there must have been a part of you that was utterly fascinated by it no well this is this was not a surprise no this wasn't a letter I don't know how it works out in the script of what was a call King Ralph through who but this wasn't a letter that hey honey look at this you didn't get the gas bill and the other thing it's not believable yes no I think we should go no I in fact part of the fantasy or the delusion was that when I was at 10 or 12 I thought wait a minute I'm gonna be playing centerfield for the Yankees and the other thing yeah hmm I'll be cool right yeah well according to the documented information this title hadn't even passed to your father until 1987 right so it was so you know that it's it's making its way it's looming out there yeah right yeah and you do a little bit of math and you realize it's me next something that much math Kevin actually so that way even me even I can even meth yeah a mathematically challenged yes and like yourself well you know it honestly it's it's a thing that I think in America people find this interesting maybe yeah there are angle of file people you know it's a bizarre thing and people don't know much about it I I had risk have a title and which allowed me to serve in the House of Lords for a few years right before they abolish the hereditary peerage which is 1999 the Act yeah so so prior to that thing so the funny thing is okay you do the thing if a robe and the thing and a thing and I'm back in the states now and I on a Saturday and I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt and I go into the hardware store did it get a bolt or something Jamie says door thing hmm the door thing and I like I'm gonna fix it anyway I'll go get a bolt okay so I go to the hardware store and the guy for whatever reason recognizes me and says hey I heard you're a prince true I said yeah uh-huh I'm a prince now yeah cuz I've got Prince's getting a bulbs right well a baron shouldn't be getting a bolt technically not for nothing but I think there's a guy the Baron said forget the bolt the the one funny story about all this it's just it's so surreal to be in this chamber this is you know that's been around for 700 years and you get to wear these robes on the on the day of the opening of Parliament and it's this Vermin robe and and Jamie's there with this tiara thing and it's really like being in a film from 1951 one of these kind of early technical or movies but the funniest thing was on the first day when you're kind of going to get your stuff your packet their ID and your stuff first day the House of Lords is is it all looks the same there's a corridor that keeps going around if you're doing what I was doing so I didn't know where I was I kept going not finding where I need to go cuz it's a red carpet and then you turn now there's another red carpet and there's a lot of stained glass and his coat of arms and a thing and now you're turning now third time there's a footman little old britches you know thing in the thing and he says this is dead on true as I passed with the third time and he's not looking at me but as I pass he says perhaps my lord would like a compass yes he did and I did you know the look to him he just smiled Wow I thought this is Wow yeah good timing terrific just right Pat right there you're doing the hello Cleveland yes yeah and he give you well perhaps a compass yeah so that was a that was kind of the highlight but there is a packet there is a thing there is a not a swearing in of course there is there is a swear oh who in the chamber and she's immediately lady haden-guest sure right why not she's up in the balcony uh-huh you go in there a couple of people in wigs there's pens that dip into a pink there's a big book that let people have been writing in for 700 years 700 years you're it's not undersell what does actually and the guy says do you pain and you have to swear well you can swear like doing a god thing or a non God thing and I chose the non God thing for my own purposes and then they they do that what do and they do that right and then he does the thing and you then sign your thing just the thing and you leave all right you have to leave and then you have to come in the same way you came in and then your official thing and it's a governing board it's not a poet ordinal or it is the thing at Santa Monica with a smog thing you know this is actually enabling they have a house of the houses of parliament whereas the Commons this is the upper house of parliament to be like the Senate it's the deliberative body in the House of Lords you actually get to debate the laws that are being proposed and vote and vote if you and you participated in no absolutely and I sat there and listened I was a listener I didn't want to I it was amazing to listen Mike I didn't do that no and there was some interesting debates and yeah sure and it's just this bizarre thing just to think right Jamie calls it the Lord thing the Lord thing yeah well yeah I mean how could that not be fascinating utterly it has its moments you know any fun memories of Andre the Giant gotta be one good segue mm-hmm well we're over in the Europeans I talk about him a lot because my son likes that movie I have a 15 year old son and since he was a kid he watched a movie called The Princess Bride which Rob Reiner directed and William Goldman wrote wonderful script and Andre the Giant is in this movie and I have a photograph of Andre with my father oh boy and you know he was a big guy he was seven feet tall and he was 500 pounds and so everyone looks smaller and his every day I would make a point of shaking his hand because his hands were it just felt so cold to have this thing lovely guy sweet gentle guy right yeah bet his hand literally bigger than the glove you kept oh yeah feet were like this like yours uh-huh yeah and but he had a bad back from wrestling so he couldn't do much actually and and he was supposed to catch Robin right at one point she was falling from just a few feet and they had to build a brace cuz he could he would have collapsed he couldn't even hold her up she was a pretty light woman oh my he was in a lot of pain he was in huge pain right that's why he's half in the bag most of it sorry that's uncalled for Wow how did you say this same thing about bow garden interesting sir Madre wow just what right for the scalpel well yeah I think he had it coming he's from another country which is why he spoke that way first of all right Austria no no I think it's from Belgium and he spoke French and German a bunch of languages and it wasn't easy to understand him that's for sure yeah Mandy Patinkin also not easy to oh wow ok I can't tell that story nope ok good but after I will yeah that well after we talked to rob about the sword fighting you guys all did your own yes and there were tremendous weeks and months dedicated to that yes at six weeks months up with a with the guy sure yes I'm the funny the dropped out that story it's one of its to me it's two things speaking of mister Patinkin yeah practicing with this gold medal guy from the british saber thing tank i can't remember his name Anderson mmm-hmm something anything Mandy's very intense at one point I said this is a movie so you don't actually you know have to get so close no we were rehearsing and the sword went into my thigh he'd been it sure I said that's what I meant so you don't actually have to it's an illusion this is a film this didn't actually happen this is pretending and he was getting very close to my face you know he was because it was the stuff I said you could be further away and the camera it's gonna make it look like I was George st. Rob said yes that's true you don't have it's gonna look like you're closer thing so I was so just before we shot I you know was kind of now the one thing I was doing while we were shooting was making the actual effects sounds because I had done this my whole life as a kid I know why I'm looking at you I'm sorry I just like I don't know you mean yeah sure so action and I'm doing this cut hmm drop so you don't have to make the sounds we'll put that in later hmm that's worth I was you know excited oh you ten years old you have a stick and that's what you do sure I'm making this out yeah we're in a castle a 600 year old castle I'm dressed like that doing the thing and I'm making the sounds and Rob said none of the stunt guys footage is in the film that's all you get well if this stuff decided leaping in the circles oh yes yes yeah well well that's got to feel great to work that hard at it and have it actually be used good usually you'll train for something and then yeah let the guys come in and do it then right that's it maybe your son what Thomas haden-guest any concerns at all that terribly not bright people would think you're the father of Thomas Haden Church see I did that ever cross your mind when you up to Thomas Hayden by the time he's he's 15 mmm so let's say when he's 20 Thomas Haden Church it that's a family name that everyone everyone in my family has going back a long way so I can't say that I that really came up in the deliberations but thank you for that never came up no that dude I can't believe it though in fact the money I'm sure if I do but you know how to help you with that yeah let me clean up the papers yeah no this has been great yeah I think you're done probably think oh there was one other thing you have why don't you read a list of everyone you've had on because I think it was 112 or something hundred and then uh that'll take up the remaining time because I think we covered our this bit did the thing with the package cut to the young was there here it is Wow yeah great-great-grandfather this is fabulous great-great-grandfather sure yours Colonel Albert Goldschmidt yes mid sure as one of my grant one of mine yeah as a boy soldier and in 1895 renown did the Jewish lads and girls were born in oh yeah born in tell us please tell mus Thomas yes born in India what are you talking about born in Bombay well how is that possible you want to British head be controlling India see look at you come on look at you well college you don't need you don't need college you're better than that god bless you for yes the Raj even the Brits were had colonies all over the world that I sent the military my family he was in the military his fame with an oath I think he was their right way my lamp Bombay comes back from a family on that side of my family from Germany that moved to Holland in the 1600s that moved to England in seven mid-1700s he comes from that he came from that side of the family lineage yeah my father's mother's side yeah are you okay with him trying to help the Jewish kids the Latin the Jewish life wasn't helping the Jewish kids it was a group but there was a it was a it was I think it was like the Boy Scout cutter it still exists today yes today it still exists of immigrant children acclimate to life in the United Kingdom that's what the original foundation was set up for well now you tell me sure yeah it's still going on he was the founder yeah he had was proud of the the Jewish he was it one of the first scientists he was one of the very first scientists turn of the century right and said that I will absolutely not impede my military career and married a shiksa and it'll well so this shows how serious it was about all that it was intelligent man as well whoa do you see what I did Wow why not my people well this has been great next week oh you did levar burton right you'll come back will you people get second chances no no as painful as it was i can't thank you enough and thank you I can but yeah yeah no it was fun that's great and also for reintroducing me to golf I hope that it continued and I if I can make suggestion at some point in the show mm-hmm down the line I think you should show some footage of me definitely um uh what do you think golf course Jamie's not that interested in you he has to tuck his shirt it I know he's forgetting I think a little footage of that would be appropriate appropriately humorous no just showing where you are in your life you know yeah as the swing develops the way you have exactly locked frame yeah footage exact of a building going see look at you all right all right well thank you all and good night so last chance for the Larry King game oh don't please don't be silly no as alan arkin I'll do it as Kunta Kinte wow they're laughing through the wall yeah we what about this idea of soundproofing I would be a weird thing would you take one question from the audience please this is a tweet five what are you reading from the interweb okay we're live we're live viewing audience has offered up a tweet five which is a five rapid-fire questions Coke or Pepsi no correct answer but it's specifically designed for you this one is from gonna be funny at where's the graphic for the tweet five have you worked with Dave Koechner that's what he cares very funny don't know he is at tell a damn representative democracy or parliamentary government parliamentary column entry government that's a choice mmm-hmm means your two choices dem all right Nigel Tufnell or Alan barrows mmm-hmm Nigel six fingers are five six bloodhound or terrier six terrible or still a sword terrible loss awesome what's the difference thank you see oh thank you so very much you made it an hour and 44 minutes I'm pretty astounded now you can sit there uncomfortably while I wrap things up about that Hey are you asking me to sit here are you telling me that I have to pretty much right oh I didn't quite get that I'm asking if you wouldn't mind - do I have another chance at those questions this one from the topic a pcps okay what KP c d KP C D it says yeah of the obsolete man I loved you work with Michael O'Donoghue on the National Lampoon Radio Hour you seem to be an even-tempered man and all Donahue was legendary for his violent outbursts did you have any memorable run-ins with him did you to collaborate on any ideas you're asking me yes worth by the viewing there were no run-ins with me right do you observe any of his legendary vibe I there were a few sure but I didn't have a did you guys work together no no but you saw you didn't just hear it you know oh boy hmm all right thank you appreciate all the participation from those watching and listing I leave now no you stay there an artist I could buy into the camera but I'll just cross in front that's a good at it yeah Ross made also all right next week we have the delightful Stephen Tobolowsky oh boy yeah follow you tell me and then the nick offerman oh oh it's gonna be good Jim oh we got a good Jim yeah yeah yeah a swing in June I think you won it all I wonder at this time always what the crew has been doing for the last hour 46 minutes while we've been in here working and sharing and telling and laughing the crew is always outside these hallowed walls wondering what the hell's been going on for last hour 46 and I have to wonder if there was some sort of video of what's been happening yeah keep with the tradition of the drummer to explode and once again Jamaica's wily coyote well you can't be you can't feed any of that yeah it is the perfect cheesy effect it really is it is a serious beautiful slice of cheese all right thank you one at all and it bursts who stares on in disbelief next week hands off weights get out of my face [Music] [Music]

Channel: kevinpollakschatshow

Views: 99,519

Rating: 4.772059 out of 5

Keywords: christopher guest, kevin pollak, chat, movies, comedy, funny

Id: CncBFKdL70Q

Length: 107min 39sec (6459 seconds)

Published: Mon May 30 2011