Larry King talks about his best (and worst) interviews of all time

i've been interviewed by larry king i can't believe i actually get the chance to turn the tables and interview him i want to thank you very much for doing this i've known you for a long time it's something you may not know and i always begin these conversations with these kinds of stories in 1980 when you were on uh uh radio and i think you were on cnn at that point so it was i called in really early as to fix your backdrop this is what happens in all these calls that things stuff goes wrong it's okay i called into your show and this was after reagan carter debated and you took my call it was the second phone call and it was the first time ever that i'd been on national news national television and i was so grateful to you and you showed respect to the question you showed respect to me so it's been 40 years since then and i want to thank you for your willingness to do that thank you i've been through a lot of conventions since then uh and quite a few before oh this is the least exciting convention ever and it's kind of sad not to have crowds and that's what conventions are for convention is to get drunk and walk down the aisles and scream and carry play cards and other than that although conventions really have no use you always know who the nominee is yet the the the best convention i ever saw was uh kennedy in 1960 when he had linda johnson run with it they had been bitter foes in the lead up to the election and john kennedy had robert who didn't couldn't stand linda johnson he had linda john robert got down to lyndon johnson's suite their same hotel and asked him to run with the prez with kennedy and johnson saw it as a duty and he did and that they would that's the first and only vice president that changed that election they would have lost texas if k if he didn't run with them but they won texas and kennedy won the presidency and then johnson became the president and i believe i'm straying here now if not for vietnam the greatest president a top five we ever had wow and where does our current president stand way down i think he i'm barely ahead of franklin pierce uh i can't imagine again it's so classless the last night of the democratic convention he goes on hannity's show at the same time like biden is speaking that is there's no way to explain it other than a lack of class you don't do that you don't go on when the other convention's on it's an unspoken i've never heard it done no i don't think much of i know them very well but i don't think much of them of all the political interviews you've done of all of them which one is your favorite which one do you want to be remembered for political yes uh probably mario cuomo the night after he spoke right at the convention center at the 1984 convention when he said there is another side of the hill when you're going up mr president to look at the tuck reagan had made that great top of the hill speech and cuomo said when you're going up to the top of the hill look left and right there's a lot of poverty there's a lot of people in need look at both sides when you're going up it was brilliantly done i was standing next to a a doctor from tennessee who didn't know mario cuomo and he said i never met him but he taught me tonight why i'm a democrat mario was mary was one of my favorite people became a close friend so i he didn't win he didn't run i'd put them up there and of all the interviews that you've done politically and we'll do the general stuff in a moment because i got to ask you about frank sinatra but before that of all the political people you've talked to what was not not who you disliked the most but the most difficult interview the worst interview you did with a politician the worst interview with the poet i've done very well with politicians because if you're a good interview interviewer and politicians have come to talk so they haven't come to be shy and they haven't come to i was i can't think of a bad you know i guess you could say jimmy carter but i like jimmy carter and i talked to him about things people didn't talk to him about like commanding a nuclear submarine you know they made fun of carter as some sort of poor american he commanded a nuclear submarine we talked a lot about that i don't think i've had a bad political interview had to go with reagan i don't i can't go on frank um before we get into the specific interviews i've listened to you for 40 years and you've been doing this for longer than that what what what are the secrets behind getting answers out of people that others have not given and can you give because we've got some people who do interviews on this call right now what are the no-no's that you'd absolutely positively avoid i don't ask a five-sentence questions try to make the questions as simple as possible i think of all my questions there was never that i asked one that took more than two sentences uh listen to the person you're interviewing that can always lead to the next answer um and have empathy and at the same time you don't show who your favorite is you don't tell them i love you but they know that you care about what they're going to say and if you don't care about what they're going to say you're in the wrong business so i've been doing this for 63 years and i've always cared about what the interviewee is going to say may not agree with them may dislike what they say but i always cared you know an interviewer is a wonderful job they're in a better job in the world you meet fascinating people from all walks of life get to talk to them about things you're interested in what a way to make a living and i've enjoyed it for 63 years but some rules listen short questions like i see a lot of i don't see a lot of interviewers today i watch men's msnbc never ask a question they make long statements and wait for someone to answer that's pontificating it's showing off doesn't accomplish anything the the interviewers on fox are so blatantly partial that it's a joke to watch them cnn used to be better uh they have some outstanding characteristics but i don't i have trouble finding a great interviewer could you be on cnn knowing how cnn has changed would you feel comfortable if your show was still on that network sure i'm comfortable in my uncomfortable my own skin i may not like the cnn has become rather partial and they have i wouldn't that would never affect me i would do the same show i always do but that you know i think frank sadly that's passe now the idea of a one-on-one interview for an hour to really get into a subject that doesn't go in these 10-minute intellects quick slide in and out toss the question and get out as quick as you can i find i don't learn anything you know i watch tell i watch broadcasts if it's a political broadcast to learn something i don't learn anything i learn what the host thinks but i'm not there to know what the host things i want to know what the the head of the ap bureau in washington thinks but when you ask questions that aren't questions notice this pay attention to like msnbc is guilty the most they make a full statement and then nod and wait for the person being interviewed to agree with them it is really it's almost funny uh they got one lady on there nicole wallace why does she have a guest she it's all speech and then the guest confirms what she says that's not interviewing well now i have to be really careful to get to the point i'm curious you've been watching the conventions what network are you watching them on i watch them on cbs and cnn cbs cuts away but there have been some very interesting speakers i i thought i thought uh joe biden hit it out of the box but the best was was obama oh you know i i've never had my experience of experiencing a speaker like barack obama he is unbelievable his delivery his pauses the way he uses his hands his confidence his tenderness and his strength i there's never been another person in his league in my opinion i go back to roosevelt i used to listen to roosevelt's fireside chats and we didn't get a chance to see him we just heard him but i i don't put anyone in obama's league he's he's alone if he ran again he'd win why is obama better than clinton and reagan uh it's it's uh clinton and reagan are two outstanding speakers but they both tend to go a little too long just to smite too long obama knows when the cadence is knows when the sentence is well i think he's been better trained in public speaking regular strength as an actor and i don't know how much training clinton had in public speaking but obama is a classic speaker he's he's back to the days of the roman senate just watch him when he speaks watch the way he moves what's your way watch the way he purses his lips watch his pauses he has incredible pauses they're part of the speech so this is where they agree or disagree that's that's immaterial in my opinion he's the best public speaker of our time with cuomo a very close second are you taught that or is it something that's inside you that you were just born with it i was born i was born with uh i don't know what i'd have done in my life if i didn't do what i did i am i was born with curiosity frank and that's what kept me going for 63 years i i had no idea what i was going to do i thought about i always wanted to be on the radio but didn't know how to get into radio i i never went to college i knocked around a bunch of odd jobs i was a delivery man for the united postal service i did a lot of things but uh when i was 22 22 years six months older i met a guy in new york who worked for was with cbs news and i asked him how do i get in the radio i just wanted to be on the radio and he said why don't you try miami it's a big market with no union and you got a good chance to get in and i went down got in i was may 1st 1957 frank my first day on the air may 1st 19 you never forget it never forget that was your first interview who was your first interview first the first shows i did were disc jockey the first major interview was two years later it was uh bobby darren uh mack the knife was the number one song and i i was doing a show at a restaurant called pumpernicks after the show i walked with him down collins avenue i remember something prophetic he said i said bobby what's the rush he wanted everything now and he said because i'm gonna not i'm not gonna live past 40. uh he had a rickett he had ricketts and he said to me you know take a good look i guess he was 36 at the time i'm not gonna live past 40 and he was born with this heart ailment and he knew and he died backstage in las vegas what a wonderful performer you see performers perform but darren was one of a kind but he was my first my first i did this shocking show for a couple years i did sports i did news i did everything you're supposed to do when you break into radio but i was so in love with radio still am i was in love with the sound of voices in the night i i i always remember when i was doing my all night show which i did for many years first the first was the first national coast-to-coast radio show i can imagine about two o'clock in the morning all the lights on the phones lit up and you're sitting there in this beautiful studio overlooking arlington virginia and you hear these voices coming in and you can go anywhere you want with them you take these calls go there go god what a high that was that was a that was a major high are you a romantic oh yeah oh sure um therefore i'm definitely a romantic i know all the songs i sing all the lyrics i hear the tunes i send the flowers i do what you're supposed to do when you're romantic and yeah i'm a i'm a born romantic my brother who passed away recently was not a romantic he was a business-like lawyer for the pharmaceutical industry opposite of me in many regards opposite of me my father died when i was very young so i fortunately never got to have a father i was nine and uh when he passed it was never the same to me but i'm a romantic does that help your interviews are you seeking to get something of their heart and the soul not just the intellectual response but the emotional response i guess so the way you put it i've never heard it put that way that's probably true uh my my romantic side helps my broadcast style but you know i've never described my style frank i don't even know what i do i know that i ask short questions i listen to answers i know that i'm comfortable in my own seat i know that i make the guests comfortable i can't say i've ever had a guest that was uncomfortable but i don't know what i do but you would know what i do better than i do what i do i don't know what i do to be me i just know i know this i do whatever comes to me i trust my instincts my first day on the air frank i was given my new name larry king my name was larry zeiger i legally changed it and i was put in a position of sitting behind the studio in the studio with the microphone the record plan and i couldn't think of anything to say nothing came out of my mouth and this was my lifetime wish to be on the radio and the music's playing and i'm not saying anything and the general manager of the radio station kicked open the door to control kicked it and said god damn it this is a communications business communicate swear to god frank i shut down the their record i said good morning my name is larry king that's the first time i've ever said that i've been sitting here very nervous and this general manager just kicked open the door and he told me to communicate now what i learned that day i learned for 63 years i was never nervous again because i found out the secret frank the secret to good broadcasting is there's no secret be yourself they're either going to like you or not like you you can't strangle a listener or a viewer to like you just be yourself this is what i am this is what i do i'm not trying to be anything more than i am i certainly don't want to be less than i am this is me take it or leave it this is me or to quote donald trump it is what it is is there ever an interview that you did when you made the guests so angry that they left all right uh what was the name prajeen carrie yes carrie president she was miss usa in the miss universe pageant and she had said the previous day some of the effect that homosexuality you can change it it's chosen people choose to be homosexual then i had her on she was in new york i was in l.a and i said do you really say that and she says i choose i will not talk about that and i said why won't you talk about it she took the microphone off and stormed off then she put the microphone back and then she stormed off and that's one of only two times the other time there's a psychic i had on my radio show in miami and the psychic i don't believe any of that uh and she said that what she does is i said how can you talk about jacqueline kennedy when she's a thousand miles away she says well i tune her in i said you mean you go through all those women in between to tune her in that always fascinated me and she stormed off but hey that was exciting too you know that's when the control room says keep it going keep it going they love stuff like that probably the most talked about and i went into my research for this the most talked about and gabe aaron asked this question who you may know tell us the story behind marlon brando why did he kiss you and what did you think as he's doing it well i have to lead up to it they told me and said marlon brenda's going to be on your show and he doesn't do shows but he wants to talk to you first he's going to call you i was living at the beverly wiltshire hotel two days later i picked up the phone hello and the voice said this is marlon and i swear to god i said marlon who could have been fitzwater so he said i want to talk before we do the interview i said i don't like to do that he said okay we won't talk about the interview let's just talk and he said i'll send a car and we'll come up and have lunch so i go outside the beverly will show i'm waiting the car pulls up and it's marlon brando driving the car it's an old chevy and i get in the car and we're driving up through the hills of beverly hills singing songs he would do the first line i would do the second line i would do the first line he would do we never talked about the show i had a wonderful lunch at his house i left came back now it's the night of the show we do the show he says the first rule is i don't want to talk about acting which is really great here's what i'm talking about acting but he wound up he did talk about acting and he did it oh he became a member during the caucasian interview i said there's a scene in a movie where you were drunk how'd you do that and he collapsed he became drunk right there on the a became started slobbering his words it was amazing to watch the technique work for him and at the end of the interview we sang a song he put his arms around me and i sang a song i sang one line he sang another line and he said my darling and he kissed me on the lips i couldn't believe it i couldn't belie i tell jokes about it when i speak i say he's the only man to kiss me on the lips in my life and i can't stop thinking about him but he was he was a marvelous guy and then later i got out there dinners with him he came on my show again which time he said and he apologized for the jews control the media mr frasier him said because he was the most non-jewish jew i ever knew marlon brando knew all the yiddish he knew all the expressions he was taught by jewish teachers i was shocked that he said that but he was very sincere and he met with lou wasserman and apologized to lou and then so i've had i have wonderful ties with brando he was very bright he was uh he was a major practitioner of his sort of his art when you talk to others that i know only al pacinos and the robert duvalls always liked to work with marlon brando and they said he was so good that you believed the character he was in robert duvall told me they were doing a scene in the godfather where brando was angry and he turned around and duvaller was his lawyer and he's angry and duvall said i honestly got scared it wasn't brando it was the godfather and i was afraid that's the ultimate man that's when you've got it made i have great respect for him but you haven't told us the key answer is marlon brando a good kisser he was pretty good he did open his mouth yeah he was i guess he had good training he slept with enough women uh i don't i don't think i was his first man i think marlon went anyway anyway the cycle went okay um and on that note you also did uh the last substantial interview with frank sinatra again that comes from a question anything there that was significant to you did you realize that um he wasn't long for this world that was he different and you're talking to him everything about frank sinatra was honesty he just if he liked you and he liked me thank god then he'd answer any question you ask for example my first interview with him was on radio years before and his pr guy came and said i don't know how you got him but don't ask him about the kidnapping of his son if you ask him about the kidnapping of his son he'll walk off he doesn't like to talk about it i said okay fair rule we're halfway through the interview and i asked him have you been bum-rapped by the press do you think the press has it in for you or did you make some mistakes he said well they probably bum-rap me but take the kidnapping he brought it up i didn't mention it and i thought the pr guy would faint and then he described to me the whole thing that happened with his son and how to get the money to the kidnappers and i always found him to be honest if he as i said if he liked you you couldn't go wrong and if he didn't like you you couldn't go right he was he was totally great black and black was totally black he was never gray he was either black or white whatever road you went he went he was i loved the way he talked you know he talked a lot like he sang he talked in wonderful syllables he his voice was a wonderful nice paced voice the frank sinatra voice was unmistakable to me i was a big fan of his still am i don't think we'll ever see i know we'll never see in my lifetime anyone approaching that stature to have the respect of all the other people in the field to be what you are what he became no one bigger than frank and he always made you feel good like i said to him what is it like when you walk on an airplane or walk down the street you know that everybody's looking at you you walk into a restaurant frank everybody's looking at you what's that like and he says the same thing for you larry you get the same thing you walk into a restaurant everyone it made me feel oh my god was that a nice thing to say that was frank i his funeral i'm not a funeral person but his funeral was in this big catholic church here a couple of blocks from where i'm speaking there were it was the paparazzi across the street on the roof of the building and they laid the casket in the middle of the aisle not up front in the middle so that everyone had to go around it and they played put your dreams away for another day and i will take their place in your heart and it was both sad and in a strange way wonderful you felt his presence in that church and they handled it so you know what it was done with what frank always had class he lived with class and he died with class i adored him is there anyone who you've interviewed that was the opposite when you knew they were lying to you you knew that that they were simply dishonest and what they were telling you wasn't true dishonest no i don't i don't judge a person's honesty there have been politicians firmly disagreed with i go back a lot frank i go back before you i go back to taft-hartley that taft-hartley bill but i discovered things i i know i i leave it up to the audience to make that judgment i don't judge i ask questions but when you ask good questions you learn a lot like i asked richard nixon what was it like when he debated john kennedy that historic debate in in 1960 and he said well that wasn't the first time i debated him i debated him in lancaster pennsylvania we were both freshman congressmen and our party sent us to lancaster to debate the taft-hartley law i was in favor of the law kennedy was against it we got on an overnight train we flipped the coin who do you think got the lower birth and he said he was beaten and he beat me ever since mix that i found had a sense of humor you know you can draw people out nixon i could go places with nixon it's hard to say i didn't like him personally because he had a steel trap mind i mean he was an extraordinarily bright man and our foreign policy if you get him in foreign policy he was wonderful domestic violence he became a great domestic policy president because frankly i don't think he cared so that's where he had all these bills passed when nixon was president you know the economic bill the endowment cities but on foreign policy he was a juggernaut he where he was his mind was so sharp i asked him what do you think when you go by the watergate good question and he said i've never been to the watergate unfortunately some of my friends have visited there showed a sense of humor and a side to nixon yet you didn't see so fox rich asks what was your most challenging interview i'm now thinking to myself how can i be as short as i can so i apologize the most drinking water would have to be challenging because one he didn't do interviews and people who don't do interviews tend to speak in short sentences the most challenging is someone who speaks in short sentences yes no yep no you got one then you got to work hard but you got to hey you got to do what you got to do i have an interesting story about working out and making it work an organization called the aces aces are fighter pilots who shoot to shot down six enemy planes you have to shut down six enemy fights it started as an american organization now it's worldwide there are german aces vietnamese aces all kinds of aces they're a social organization they meet once a year in a different city and one year they met miami we found out that we had an ace living in miami he was a stockbroker this guy shot down seven german planes in world war ii and they brought him to my show to be on my radio show i had an hour to do with him he was nervous as hell his his hands were sweating you know i would ask him questions like why did you want to be a pilot i don't know i liked it just leave it at that so i had to do something i had like 45 minutes left and he's given me nothing so i said um if there were enemy planes above us now above this station and you had a jet here were you up he's oh absolutely you would go up here are you would you be afraid no why because i'd be in control and i changed the whole conversation to fear we talked about fear how to overcome fears how people deal with fears how they teach you about fears in the air force by the end of the show frank i had created a monster he was doing we dove through the clouds i could see the whites in their eyes downward became was it was but it was a privilege to me to see that happen with a guest who was not being mean just not being responsive you know what it is frank you got to work at it um they don't hand it to you you got to work at it i talk about you a lot oh yeah i'm reminded phyllis gates you know who phyllis gates was no no no no she was rock hudson's wife rock hudson had been married when he was very young and subsequently divorced and of course gay and dying and phillisgates had never gone public and we reached her cnn and she said she would come on well did we go to town frank with promos and ads in the papers fillers gates tonight rock hudson had a wife she came in she was in her 70s then i guess very nice lady sat down i said my guest is phyllis gates when when did you meet brock hudson she said well i was i was the secretary for his agent and he came in one day and he asked me how we went out how long's your date a couple months and then you got mad what was the marriage like it was wonderful all one word answers wonderful yeah he you know he was away doing acting jobs in our homes and we didn't have any children so and we parted amicably that was it frank she had nothing else to add well i said when you find out he was gay i was surprised and leave it at that i was surprised you had no idea none how do you feel i feel sorry for him did you contact him at all when you found out he had aids and he was dying no i swear to god frank i was three minutes into that interview and it was over phyllis gates but what's embarrassing was how much we promoted it you gotta watch tonight rock hudson had a wife but you know that's that's the vagaries of this business that's why another thing i love love love working live i like live betting tape my shows now politicking on on e.t on rt and uh i do a podcast like you do they're they're they're taped i loved la i loved the moment i loved it happening then you know i've written 14 books or 15 books and the one thing difficult about me was doing a book was it came out a year later i i wanted it to be immediate here's what i want to tell you listen to me so i'm i'm a creature of live of live broadcasting i love live broadcasting you don't see much of it except on the cable channels but the cable channels i don't know how you feel for i haven't asked you what do you think of the msnbc's and the fox news i have a problem with it and what i used to do is and i pattern myself after you i moderate these focus groups and they're all live and it's not one in each of you it's 25 interviews at the same time and i'm curious because i know that if i get one sentence answers or one word answers and the worst session i ever did was maine because the people from maine only know yes and no and then asked them do you answer every question with a one word answer you just did it yep yeah and i'm dying so when you're dying what is it to help me here you know what you do you die you do the best you can and you die you take the person from maine and you struggle as long as you can and then maybe you do a little soliloquy maybe if you can you take phone calls all you can do frank is all you can do you know you oh i've been meaning to ask you this because i had al sharpton on the other day and i brought up an answer you gave i asked you uh how's the the male black voting gonna go in america you said 15 for uh trump and al sharpton we may wanted me to tell you you couldn't be more wrong he will nowhere near they will nowhere near approach 15 maybe eight percent what do you think you changed your mind now or you haven't well i know him i knew him when he was big and i know him now when he's small and i've gone through the same metamorphosis myself and what people don't realize is that al sharpton is a great guy oh yeah you'll just agree with him politically but as a human being he's a lot of fun he really does answer your questions he's provocative and he's fun to be around and he's fair um yeah so well we'll get a chance maybe put the two of us on together i'd love to do a show with him with you as the moderator and we'll do it just before the election just after we had a chance to see how it works out dundee i got you jim and friend greg are commenting they're watching me now and they wanted to thank you for being such an awesome friend to them i want to ask you about the most significant the best sports interview that you ever did jim is one of the greatest interviewers of all time you have done political interviews business interviews ceos wealthy people people who are stars for a moment what's the best sports interview you ever did that's it's impossible to pick because i love sports so much and i'm a sports addict i mean i'm an addict so i've had some wonderful interviews in the world i would say had to pick one out jackie robinson uh he was the best baseball player next to stan musial that i ever saw he of course broke the color line he's an american figure of amazing proportions and he was a fantastic guest you know what he had passion he had passion i never this is years ago he supported nixon against kennedy because he didn't trust kennedy he didn't trust kennedy because kennedy didn't know black people never associated with black people never mixed with that crowd and nixon had he had black republicans there were a lot of black republicans kennedy didn't know black so he was but the key to that was when i said to him well what do you want them what do you want them to say about you and he said i want him to say when they put me in the ground don't tell me you now have equal rights give it to me before you put me in the ground don't make promises i don't live off promises so that was a sports interview that was bullet beyond sports but bill heart the great jockey outspoken people you like outspoken people and i like baseball players i like tennis players i've had all the great tennis pros at golfers you know what it is frank i'm so damn curious about so many damn things that when you say pick one out of a hat it's virtually impossible i can't i can't pick i had so many wonderful sports interviews i did great interviews with spoil with stan musial oh rocky oh okay i'll get a great one rocky marciano undefeated heavyweight champion of the world a sweet guy smooth voice from brockton massachusetts who wanted to be a baseball player undefeated knocked out a lot of people i said rocky were you ever bullied were you ever afraid and he said when i went to high school there was a kid that lived named guy named frank something he used to beat up kids every day so i would get out of high school and go a mile out of my way to avoid seeing him because i was afraid of him i was afraid on the night i was crowned heavyweight champion the dressing room was mauled with people and a guy came over and said rocky it's an old friend of yours here and it was that guy and when he walked in he said i swear to god i was nervous just made heavyweight champion he was nervous when that guy came into the room that's the effect of bullying you're 86 correct yep i'll be 87 november and you're still curious after interviewing literally thousands of people yeah in every walk of life and you're still curious i've got a few my students on this call from verbum day a great high school and from nyu abu dhabi the great university and i'm trying to teach them about curiosity how to explain it to them so that their whole life will be enriched inspired frank i don't know if you can teach curiosity i think you either have it or you don't uh curious people you know curious people curious people wonder about things they think about things a lot of politicians lose their curiosity if they ever had it they become set in their ways so all i always tell your students is don't be set in your ways think about things think about and on others put yourself in that guy's shoes if you can do that you get way ahead in an interview walk into his shoes but i can't make you curious you know ohio state called me one day and they wanted me to do a course in interviewing and i said well what do you want me to do they said will you give us give us your thesis and how you do each each session what the hell you talking about how do we teach it how do i teach you to be curious how do i teach you to be interested in what that person is interested in it is unteachable frank i can't teach it but i love you frank you know why i love you because you epitomize the great guest you're curious you have opinions you state the opinions when you back them up with facts you have the facts right at your hand i still don't believe 15 of black males will vote for trump but you you've got the rest of it on top do you still stand by that by the way for now let's see what happens in the debates if you remember our interview that's going to be key does joe biden come with his a game and is donald trump even the most remotely humble trump has no empathy and that's what he needs to win over those few undecided voters inviting has to prove that he has what it takes to serve for the four years can you find empathy can you define it or find it no find it find it um i don't know i'm not sure and i know that that's what americans want and that's why joe biden's convention was actually pretty good even though it was issueless there were no specifics when we did our interview we talked about this that biden had to give some details what he did was give his life story and what he did is create an image of someone who you want to get to know someone who you want to help someone who you want to help you and i actually think that that is enough but uh i would the last 70 days of this campaign are going to be absolutely awful we're heading towards the final stretch i got a couple more for you robert was on this call he loves you he wanted to know what it's like for the dodgers to be having a great season not being able to go to a game but what i want to know is what i want to know is what interview made you laugh the most did you ever lose your lose control many times mel brooks don rickles put me on the floor i was uh i hold it let me get rid of this call by the way this is live television right here i know it's live television that's what i like about i answered the phone i hung up but um what was the question who made you laugh the most who put you on the i love comedians i love to laugh i love to tell funny stories i did a comedy tour a couple years ago where i tell stories when i speak at conventions or anywhere i never speak seriously always try to tell funny stories i love people with a great sense of humor and i've had them all i've had the the rickles and the priors and the other giants and rickles would put me on the floor you say hello i'm on the floor mel brooks mel brooks the 2000 year old man is in my humble opinion as he the funniest album ever made did you ever hear it yes i did i heard all of them there were several them that's right 2001 2002 i'm not 2000 yet i'll beat 2000 october 3rd i never i know i remember when i first played that i couldn't believe it and when he was on my show you know what he did i asked him what happens when jews die and he said all jews die singing dancing in the dark they go dancing in the dark till the tune ends we're dancing in the dark and it soon ends well we will go on living forever and he died and then he was he stepped on this the count between us and stood there and almost took down his pants mel was was was met he was i remember one night i had him on the radio oh the night we landed on the moon mel brooks was my guest on the radio just turned out that way and i said well you're 2 000 years old what do you think what do you think of the moon and he goes the moon the moon is my favorite thing in the whole world for my whole 2000 years i love the moon the most the most and i said why and he said well for 200 years i thought i had a cataract and a friend said isn't the moon beautiful tonight and i said what you know i to me the telling of a joke the delivery of the joke i'm open to it uh i think if i didn't be lucky enough to wind up in broadcasting i'd have been a stand-up i i like it i like that feeling knowing when you do stand-up comedy there's that moment when you're about to hit that punch line and you know the audience is waiting with you and you know what's coming and then you deliver it and then they laugh orgasmic frank nothing tops it nothing tops it you sound like a pretty happy guy is do you have any career regrets anyone that you wanted to interview that you weren't able to yeah i wonder i wanted an interview i wanted to interview uh i see who i wanted here i would like i still would like to interview queen elizabeth um although i don't like royalty what's it like to be around that long um who did i miss oh i know castro i i went down to havana i met with people in his party we thought we had it ted turner helped a lot because he was a friend of questions but it didn't come through and he got sick but he would he fascinated me you know why we didn't like him in this country very much but somebody had to like him frank he led his country longer than any leader led a country in the 20th century he had to do something right and i you know when you look at the other side of thing when i when i went to havana the people were fantastic the music in the streets the wonderful food have i ever been having yes i have i loved it i don't like cats but i loved him great city uh any questions you got me worn out okay i'm almost done two more i promise you two more okay any questions that you regret asking that did did not turn out right that's easy that caused a problem not a problem was called little stupidity i had just started doing interviews you know i was a kid i was in proper knicks and uh i had the priest on from the local seminary and i asked him is he married and how many children does he have and there was there was a studio audience there was a pause and i didn't know what the hell i said wrong that was in my stupid days but that i remember from 63 years ago frank i remember that and the last question for you is the serenity prayer and i ask this almost every interview because i think it's so important knowing what you can change what you can't having the courage of your convictions and the humility to know when to back off does the serenity prayer what can we learn from that and how we relate to each other knowing when to be tough when to be somber and humble when to push it and when to pull back frank my whole life i always go to the moment i trust the moment so when i'm asking questions and i ask a question i trust that what i've asked makes sense and that i will listen to the answer noise i think it's a question of trust frank it's a big word i trust my instincts i don't trust everything i've ever done i've made mistakes but i trust my instincts my endings have never let me down in all my years i've never been called into the head of a broadcasting studio that i worked for and been reprimanded not for anything i said my my on the air instincts are are true to the cause i know that when i'm talking or asking questions you'll listen how do i know you'll listen i don't know but i know you'll listen frank i must say he got me worn out here but i must say i enjoy your friendship so much because i must say to your vast audience and all these people or students they don't come any better than frank luntz when he was a republican poster he was a little partial but he uh he has become one of the major contributing journalism figures of our time i wish him nothing but the best and i'll have you on with al sharpton before the election and we could settle the duel in the dust and larry you are a national treasure thank you this this is such a thrill for me oh you know i wanted to do this for several years please stay healthy stay on the tv continue to ask questions because you're right we do listen and we're grateful larry if you see the comments i don't know if you've noticed them but the comments are beautiful god bless you very much thank you thank you bye

Channel: Frank Luntz

Views: 7,421

Keywords: Larry King, Frank Luntz, PoliticKING, #FridaysWithFrank

Id: x0lNOdefe_I

Length: 51min 50sec (3110 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020