Martin Short Full Interview - CONAN on TBS

my guest tonight is a tony and emmy award-winning actor comedian uh he is a legend he is the very best in this business we call show please welcome uh my very good friend mr martin short [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes my goodness conan i have not seen you since the capitol riots did you ever return nancy pelosi's statement i got worked up i was waiting out i didn't know what we were doing and i took it i'm so excited to be here yeah fantastic you know we are really truly great great friends we are and we we share so many things we're both irish yes catholic yep uh morning drinkers you know you look fantastic well thank you very much martin you look like someone freeze-dried prince harry because there's a lot of pressure i would take that i would take that right now you look because listen there's a lot of pressure to stay looking good as you know how does it feel to have buckled i just didn't no no you look you look great those freckles are benign right yes no you're pale you are pale you have to you look like the human embodiment of utah you know you work for me what are you doing no really unfair you always get the drums if you bleached bleach like something like something that would appear the the baseboard of ebenezer scrooge's bed [Laughter] no you look fantastic and i'm excited to be here at eight let more shows you know and who's your final guest i'm assuming it's jay leno what did i do nothing if i've done something wrong i'm going to be upset [Applause] i keep calling him and uh he won't come he doesn't answer someone is always like he's not here right now [Laughter] so no inspection yeah yeah no really congrats 28 years yeah yeah 28 years or as matt gates would call it 11 years too old i don't know what oh no i mean yes and i'm assuming you're going to go along grow a long beard like letterman be the tallest member of zz top you know i i was thinking about all the people that i would most want to have as we sort of wrap things up here in the nightly format your name came to mind and i kept thinking of others but uh they weren't available but i but uh but no uh mr martin short there's no one uh who uh i i can think of who means more to me uh in the world of comedy you are the consummate professional and i we've become good friends and i'm so grateful that you could be here we've had some good memories you've made some incredible appearances on my show this is my 26th appearance with you is that true yes starting back to the old nbc yeah 26 26 two of them i walked through but four i was gonna say four were pretty good uh [Laughter] what sticks out does anything stick out to you i mean you've done you do so many shows i remember oh i think okay all right this is hilarious so this was uh the old show in nbc yep not the second one the old one and uh why why why i'm just trying to get out the door with a little dignity and i bring this leprechaun on two no no to throw feces at me this was hilarious so i i had been the first guest out and you know kind of killed and then i moved i moved down the couch and then a young actress came out i remember this but she was like a model that would had a part not a big part in a tv movie yeah but you know that was the guest you were interviewing so you you know were and i but i could see you like this and you were here you were there and and you're the way it's angled you remember this andy that so the the first guest is i mean the the second guest comes out marty moves down she's right here she's talking to me so no one else can see what i see but i see this face and i'm looking at her and i'm doing the best i can to be professional and what what you said to her was so most of your career now have you been a model but now you have a smaller part in a tv movie was it was it challenging learning lines and i go like this he did that so she's she's really going to answer that question it's 1 20 in the morning this is my job and and then suddenly i see this head peer out and go and i start to laugh and i bite down on both sides of my face just to get through it was hysterical and then at commercial break conan gets up bands playing band's playing he just walks over to me and says i'm just trying to make a living [Laughter] you did something and i i swear to god you sent this to me the other day and what happens is if you do we've done thousands of hours of this show and you forget things and you sent me a video clip and i looked at it and i had no memory of it whatsoever but and i i it just blew my mind it's a time you came on the show and uh you showed a clip where you were made up to look like me with the great andrea martin it was a sketch from primetime glick and i was playing you yeah uh i can't remember the name you sent it to me and imagine you have no idea you're just living your life your phone dings i push the video this is what i see [Applause] give me [Applause] all right so now i'm like this big goofy hairy guy i had no memory of that and then yeah i texted you back and said i have this is scaring me i may have it because i you'd think i'd remember that forever i have no memory of this and then immediately you got another text i sent it to andrea too you sent it to andrea martin and she wrote back she said i don't have one memory of this one is this from sc tv i said when we were in sctv conan was in the ninth grade yeah it was an all-girls school uh you have i want to talk about this you have an up because i'm excited about it you've been talking about it for a while and you talk about yourself a lot it's an upcoming hulu series with uh the great steve martin and um it's and the great and the great selena gomez selena gomez is on the show yeah uh and and i know that you you work a lot with steve martin how's this project going it's it's it's called only murders in the building and it's crossed between the odd couple and dateline yeah um no we've been waiting for that one it's a murder mystery uh it it drops as the kids say um august 31 and uh very much like steve martin at the urinal it streams for 36 hours [Applause] all right very selena was so fat you know she she was very embarrassed the first day of shooting she made a horrible football she went up to steve and said i'm such a big fan judy dench you know but then they bonded you know because when steve gets talking about banjo playing techniques you know we're all just riveted here you're going uh i mean you do this incredible road show obviously everything had to shut down uh for the pandemic but you do this amazing show which you have guested on which i guessed it on a highlight for you guys and it was uh i have to just insert these things for the transcript later uh and um and anyway uh you and steve martin work together and just the way you go after steve you go after each other with insults but it's absolutely delightful it's one of the funniest shows i've ever seen oh thank you it's great you know steve is endlessly creative he's always writing he he never gets any writer's block as much as we pray for it he doesn't and he's one of the most sensitive you know people you know in the world that you would meet i mean you you can't you know it's what's amazing about stephen this is true and he'd be embarrassed if i said that said this but every time we go to a restaurant he knows the first name of the waitress it doesn't matter what restaurant we are what's amazing is that a he knows their name and b that they're all named doll face so i steve is one of the funniest guys you know when i'm before i met steve i just bring this up because this is how brilliantly funny and original he's been his whole life i remember it was like 1980 i never met him and i'm watching television the grammys and he presents the best comedy album of the year and he comes out in full tuxedo tales and no pants boxer underwear garters socks and he doesn't mention it and he just starts and the nominations are and he starts reading it and finally a little man with a pair of pants comes running out on a hanger and steve looks in and says well it's about time genius the man's a genius he's a genius uh i want to congratulate you on a human note you are a grandfather and uh this is very exciting news i mean oliver's out there oliver's here where are you wally there you are he does not want to be seen oliver wanted to sit as far away from you as possible no no i have a a 17 month old a grandson theodore and uh ollie and his beautiful wife alissa are expecting this july their second son that's exciting and my son henry is expecting his first son in september i'll have three boys under two and it's and it's great to hear the little pitter-patter of little feet you know it's like when david spade comes up you know we both did our time at starnot live you of course uh with much more distinction and fame than i did i don't know that's true listen i realized that going i mean you i i was a cast member you wrote for it and you watched it and uh i mean i used to no but it is amazing that those i had a one-year contract and i and i i kind of regret it i wish i'd because it made me nervous so nervous every every saturday was like a special and i felt i only i really i thought i mean you would put so much work and not just you a couple of your cohorts would put so much still it was christopher guest yes and you would craft these things these pieces you came up with a character that uh i remember when this character first appeared and it was seared into everybody's memory anyone who was interested in comedy you would create these things that were so memorable nathan therm one of the great for my money one of the great comedy characters of all time and i was i remember at the time thinking how do you come up with a character like that it was so incredibly original yeah well i i've told the story before and i'll tell it again um but it was amazing because i always think the characters the best characters come from life you know you you pick up your cleaning and the guy said i couldn't get the thing on mr short time now he's not trying to be a character from serenity live but he is he's in dress pants and um so there was a makeup artist that you're an snl marion siebert and she was the most defensive human being you had ever met in your life you'd sit in her chair and she'd always chain smoke you could do that inside and maybe she dab look at me features don't match this is tough for me you're very pale yeah so um i'd say uh okay well that's fine so then about a month later christopher gastner harry sure and um billy and i were writing uh a piece satirizing 60 minutes and i was going to play the defensive lawyer the lawyer who always represents the bad guy knows and we even had a name from nathan thurm but i didn't know how to do it i didn't know how to play it and billy crystal said why don't you do it as marion seibert he said you do her behind her back all the time anyway and i said no no i'll be caught i'll be kind of she won't no they never know so i'd go down to the set i got the same brand of cigarettes that she smoked but i put a wire down the middle of mine so as the burn down the ash would never fall off yes and i'd go down to the set but i forget that marion will be there because she's the head of makeup so we start the take i'm nathan thurm she's over there we both have our cigarettes harry's playing mike wallace he's mr now mr thurm do you feel that was an appropriate behavior for a lawyer and i say i know that you don't think i know that i'm a lawyer i would know that and the director goes cut he's sweating and marian says i know that you don't think i know that i'm a it was insane and then then every time i did nathan therma i was terrified i would get caught and i never got caught until the last show um her assistant got there was a big party afterwards their assistant got drunk and uh went into her office said marion do you know that you're nathan's therm everybody else does and she was devastated she was so upset she confronted me uh at the party and she said i thought you were my friend i said marion i am your friend but you know impersonation is the highest form of compliment she said i know that you don't think i know that true story this is all true it's jack farr cruel i threw a little nixon in there for no reason yeah and by the way courtney the kids were that well kids love my stuff [Music] thank you two people uh they're going right to their phones nixon what did he do don't clap along i think you're talking about cynthia nixon uh marty who now also goes most which is confusing marty i'm told i don't know my staff keeps these things secret from me but i'm told that you have something special that you wanted to do since this is your last appearance on a nightly show that i'm doing it's an emotional thing for me and well i got cordoned in two weeks but i know what you mean this is a moment for me this is a moment for me and i'm honestly all kidding aside you know because i love to raja as you i know that's your expression but um you are one of the great brilliant men of our era and i would say you have influenced more people in comedy that are superstars today than any human being you are adored and worshiped and i hope you understand that i don't i don't i don't but that's very nice i know you don't agree but i switched yes yes and and in all sincerity may i say that that you are a true original and i think an original deserves an original so i i penned a song just for you and i'd i'd love to sing it that is if you'd like me thank you so much [Applause] this is tough for me there's only you no one else can ever do just what you do if we could only have an hour more or two you're the best at what you do who else can we turn to it breaks my heart to have to say ado marty marty yes can you stop just stop the song for a minute what's wrong you don't like the song that i wrote for you it's a great song marty i i love the song it's just that well we happen to have this can you play a clip from david letterman's last show a couple of years ago can you you're the best at what you do who else can we turn there's only you [Music] oh thank you very much well i do it's the exact same side i hear certain similarities but letterman is a titan of late night you should be honored this song is is for only the very best the very best okay because you also sang that song on the last episode of the magic johnson talk show back in the late 90s throw the clip you're [Applause] [Music] there's only [Music] well he really had an incredible 11 weeks it wasn't just late night hosts it's ridiculous you also sang this song during the final episode of the jerry springer show there's only one day in the biz and now you're gone and i am miserably blue you sang a couple of months ago that song when mcdonald's announced they were discontinuing the shamrock shape [Music] it wasn't easy saying goodbye to that one i'll tell you i'm not gonna lie to you i love the song but you've sung it to many people and a milkshake okay well regardless you deserve this and of all the times i've sung this song this time i'm on pitch because there's only ones there only is there's only one name in this biz and now you're gone and i am miserably blue they're only ones there [Music] there's only you you thank you conan oh that's right you're still with i'm alive yes [Applause] there's only thank you baby we'll be right back

Channel: Team Coco

Views: 723,959

Keywords: Conan O'Brien, Conan, Conan (TV Series), TBS (TV Channel), Team Coco

Id: j9hgdLLGH1s

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021