0:01

TV Comics Movie Stars Hit

0:03

singles and some toys Trivia

0:06

and dirty jokes An

0:09

evening with the boys Once

0:12

is never good enough for Something

0:15

so fantastic Here's

0:18

another Gilbert and Frank Here's

0:21

another Gilbert and Frank Here's

0:24

another Gilbert and Frank Colossal

0:27

Classic Music

0:55

Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and

0:57

this is Gilbert Gottfried's

0:59

amazing Colossal Podcast I'm

1:01

here with my co-host Frank

1:04

Santopadre and we're once

1:06

again recording at Nutmeg with

1:09

our engineer Frank Ferdurosa Our

1:11

guest this week is a celebrated

1:14

and versatile actor, writer, producer with

1:16

a long list of credits You've

1:18

seen his work in films like

1:21

Die Hard 2, Ricochet, The

1:24

Beastmaster American Flyers,

1:26

Let's Do It Again Coming

1:28

to America Madea's

1:30

Witness Protection The

1:33

World's Greatest Athlete Memorable

1:36

TV appearances include Maude,

1:39

Sanford & Son, Love

1:41

American Style Future Cop,

1:43

The A-Team, Hunter Two

1:45

and a Half Men All About

1:48

The Anderson's Men

1:50

in Trees The West Wing

1:52

And of course as the TV

1:55

weatherman Gordie

1:57

Howard on Marytime

1:59

of Morro. From 1974

2:02

to 76 he

2:05

starred in a groundbreaking

2:07

situation comedy Good Times

2:10

as the strict but

2:12

lovable James Evans and

2:14

in the 1977 he was nominated for

2:18

an Emmy for his outstanding

2:21

work as the adult Kunta

2:23

Kinte in the

2:25

landmark ABC miniseries roots

2:28

in a career spanning

2:30

more than five decades. He

2:35

worked with Sidney Poitier,

2:37

Lena Horne, Red Fox,

2:40

Bruce Willis, Eddie

2:43

Murphy, Ken

2:45

Convin, James

2:48

Earl Jones as well

2:50

as former podcast guests Ken

2:52

Berry, Ed Asner and Dick

2:54

Van Dyke just to name

2:57

a few. Please welcome to

2:59

the show one of our

3:01

favorite actors and the pride

3:03

of East Orange New Jersey

3:05

the multi-talented John

3:07

Amos. Thank you, Governor.

3:10

Thank you. You started actually as

3:12

first TV the main thing was

3:14

the Mary Talamore show? No,

3:16

it was worked before that. He was

3:18

a writer first. On a local basis

3:21

it was the Loman and

3:24

Barkley show which was first

3:26

a radio show then NBC gave them an

3:28

hour and a half on Saturday nights and

3:31

they experimented they formed an ensemble

3:33

group that included myself Art

3:35

Matrano, Craig T. Nelson. Oh, Art

3:37

Matrano, that is a great name.

3:39

We talked about that. And I

3:42

mean just everybody was getting started

3:44

at that time it was a wonderful time

3:51

to be breaking into television. You

3:53

wrote in both radio and television.

3:55

Yes. And and who was

3:57

some of the who are some of the other people

4:00

you? you were working with. Oh, Joni Gerber, she

4:02

was an incredible voiceover artist. Michael Bell,

4:04

he was an incredible voiceover mimic. And

4:09

let's say, Rudy Taluka, Craig T. Nelson.

4:13

My goodness. McLean Stevenson. McLean Stevenson.

4:15

Paul McCauley was one of the

4:17

writer performers. And we had

4:19

a lot of fun. We had to have fun. We

4:21

weren't making any money. Ha ha ha ha ha ha

4:23

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

4:25

ha ha ha. Loman and Barkley was a popular radio

4:27

show. It was a very popular radio show. They

4:31

were like the Clavin and French on the East Coast,

4:33

you know? Right, right, right. You

4:35

went from there to writing for the Leslie Ugham

4:37

Show? Not

4:40

directly, but it tracked

4:42

pretty much that way. Yeah, I got the

4:44

job writing for the Leslie Ugham Show. And

4:48

I had the audacity to ask the producers if

4:50

I could audition for one of the roles. And

4:52

they said, no, you're here as a writer. They

4:55

said, what role did you want to audition for? I said,

4:57

I'd like to audition for the role of her husband. Well,

4:59

ultimately, it was done by a fine actor

5:02

by the name of Lincoln Kilpatrick. And

5:05

that was my first time ever

5:07

meeting Leslie Ughams and

5:09

all the other wonderful actors that

5:11

I was later to work with

5:13

years later. Right. Everybody was on

5:15

that show. Everybody. Yeah. I just

5:17

got a flashback of the Leslie

5:19

Ugham Show. Now, did

5:22

she have a recurring bit

5:24

called the Sugar Hill gang?

5:27

Yes, you got a great memory. That's

5:30

right. That spawned the... Some

5:33

people say it really created the Good Times thing.

5:35

It spawned out of that. But

5:38

what it was, it was a little

5:40

15-minute segment on a family that

5:42

lived in Sugar Hill. And

5:44

it was Leslie and her TV

5:46

husband Lincoln Kilpatrick, Johnny Brown. Oh,

5:48

Johnny Brown, yes. The comedian from

5:50

Good Times was in there. Buffalo

5:52

butt, he was known to his...

5:54

Right. Bookman. And yeah,

5:57

that... scene.

12:00

They would sit in the bleachers, they would sit and

12:02

watch him and study him almost

12:04

with a sense of envy. His

12:06

timing was perfect. Perfect.

12:09

And he was game, you know, whatever the

12:11

situation was, he'd go along with it. You

12:14

guys were funny together. I watched the two

12:16

episodes that come to mind are Hail to

12:18

Conquering Gordy, which is the one where you

12:20

come back as a

12:22

big success. After making the big bucks. Right,

12:24

and he's terribly envious of you. He's

12:27

asking how many kids you have. It doesn't matter.

12:33

Is everything just as you remembered? Everything.

12:39

Say, Gardo, speaking of

12:41

remembering, do you remember when

12:43

we did the news together?

12:46

I mean, as a team? Yeah,

12:48

sure, Ted. Does it give you any ideas?

12:52

Ideas? Ted, aren't you supposed to meet Georgette for

12:55

lunch today? Well, that was over an hour

12:57

ago. She's probably finished by now. Georgette,

13:01

you got yourself a new

13:03

girlfriend, huh? Oh, hey, that's right. You don't

13:05

know. Ted got married last year. Ted

13:08

got married. Somebody finally chopped a

13:10

silver fox. I tell

13:12

you, the writing was there. Oh, great. Wasn't

13:14

the writing great? Just great. Didn't have to

13:16

pander to the lowest common denominator. I mean,

13:19

these guys wrote, you

13:21

had to reach for their material, you know? The

13:23

other great episode with you

13:26

and Ted is the good time news.

13:28

When you guys end up co-hosting, do

13:30

you remember this? Vaguely, yeah. Mary

13:32

has this idea to do good news only,

13:34

and you guys end up as co-anchors? I

13:36

think I remember. And

13:38

then Ted finds out that he's there to set you

13:40

up, that you're the funny guy, and he's the straight

13:43

man, and he resents it? He

13:46

would. It's

13:48

on YouTube. It's very, very funny. I got to

13:50

check that out. I still enjoy

13:52

watching some of this. Oh,

13:56

no, no. I was just going to say,

13:58

well, you go ahead. worked

18:00

with. Early on, oh you

18:02

name it man, I mean I got

18:05

to do a

18:07

Red Fox episode and Red had

18:09

Slappy White and I

18:13

think yeah I even got to do, no I never

18:15

got to work with Sammy. I was

18:17

thinking Sammy Davis Jr. He was on the Ugham

18:20

show when you were there but maybe

18:22

you guys. Yeah at that time we didn't

18:24

hook up. I've worked

18:26

with enough people to fill

18:29

any Hall of Fame you know.

18:31

Well tell us about Red Fox and I think

18:33

if I'm not mistaken Lena Horne was on that

18:35

episode. That's right, that's right. So

18:38

I got to meet two legends in one

18:40

show in Lena Horne and

18:42

Red Fox and Red

18:44

was a gentleman because

18:46

it was Lena Horne

18:48

but he referred to

18:50

as the horn. I said

18:55

yeah Red, you know who's

18:57

on the show this week?

19:00

The horn. I said the horn?

19:07

Lena Horne. Yeah Bob Einstein

19:09

has some great Red Fox stories. I imagine.

19:11

He told us a couple. Yeah

19:15

there's one that I've heard from other people.

19:17

The one where he's sitting on

19:20

the makeup girl. Yes, yes. I

19:22

mean I've heard it two different ways.

19:24

One he's sitting on the makeup girl

19:26

and yeah and his head is under

19:29

her skirt and someone

19:31

says runs in there and goes

19:34

uh Red, yeah we're filming now.

19:36

It was Bob. Yeah and Red

19:39

sticks his head out from under

19:41

this girl's skirt and

19:43

goes can a guy

19:45

relax? That

19:53

was Red. You worked with everybody. Tell us

19:55

a little bit about, we're going to jump

19:57

around a little bit but tell us a

19:59

little bit about working with Tim Conway on

20:01

that. the world's greatest athlete. I couldn't keep

20:03

a straight face because I'm a sucker for

20:05

a good comedian and Tim is just a

20:07

naturally funny guy. So he'd wait until they

20:09

were pushing in on a close up of

20:12

me and then he would ease his face

20:14

into the frame. You know,

20:16

I'd be looking out the corner of my eye

20:18

and here comes his face sliding into frame. I

20:20

guess you have to see it to understand it.

20:23

He is easily, organically, one of the

20:25

funniest people in the business for my

20:27

money. I mean, he kept me crying.

20:29

He almost got me fired because I

20:31

was laughing so hard at

20:33

the inappropriate places that the director said, come

20:35

on, you got to get a little serious

20:37

here. This is

20:40

a Disney comedy. Howard

20:42

Cosell turns up in the world's greatest

20:45

athlete. Of course, Jan Michael Vincent. Jan

20:47

Michael Vincent, poor baby. Yeah,

20:50

what? Was

20:52

he in shape back then? Oh, he

20:54

was a great guy. He

20:57

was what you saw on the screen, you know. And

21:03

well, things took a turn for

21:05

the worse. Yeah. Yeah, with drugs. Yeah.

21:08

It's a fun movie. A lot of fun actors in there,

21:10

Roscoe Lee Brown too. Yeah, Roscoe Lee. And

21:13

the ex-NFL star Joe Cap. Right,

21:16

Joe Cap was in it. Yeah. We

21:18

had a lot of fun in that movie. Tell

21:20

us a little bit about, and I'm not sure

21:22

how much Gilbert knows about your early career as

21:26

a football player, as a running back. Well,

21:30

let me put it to you this way, my

21:32

friend. I kept running back and running back and

21:34

running back. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

21:36

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

21:38

ha ha ha ha ha. That

21:40

was all I dreamed about doing that, because it seemed to me

21:43

to be the only way I was ever going to be able

21:45

to make a buck, you know, was playing football. And

21:48

the first team I signed with was

21:51

the Denver Broncos. And I signed with

21:53

them because I went to Colorado State

21:55

University, and they used our college campus

21:57

as their training camp. So.

21:59

I didn't have far to go to go to

22:02

training camp. In

22:04

fact, I think about four blocks from my

22:06

house to the dormitory where

22:08

they kept us during the

22:11

training camp. I was only there for 24 hours, so.

22:14

That's it, huh? Yeah, that was it. No,

22:16

I pulled my hamstring before

22:18

I got to training camp. I wanted it so

22:20

bad, I spent the whole summer working out and

22:22

working out, and I overdid it. And

22:25

opening day, I pulled my hamstring, running

22:28

at 40 for time, so the next day, I

22:31

was out of there. And over the

22:34

course of the next three years, I

22:36

would play for semi-pro

22:38

teams in the Continental Football League,

22:40

the Canadian League, the

22:43

Wheeling Ironmen, the Waterbury

22:46

Orbits. Joliet Explorers. Joliet

22:48

Explorers. And the Norfolk Neptunes. Yeah, we

22:50

explored all season long, never found one

22:52

victory. No! It was,

22:55

I tell you, I had it bad. I had the

22:57

football jolies. Really wanted it to be a football player.

22:59

Oh, I wanted it so bad, man. It

23:01

was like God was telling me, hey, John, I don't

23:03

want you to play football. Can you get that through

23:05

your head? You're not gonna make it,

23:07

no matter what league, what team you go out for,

23:09

you're gonna get cut, or the league's gonna fold, or

23:11

whatever. This is not what I got in school for

23:14

you, you know? So I finally got

23:16

the message. It

23:19

was funny, once I declared myself an

23:21

actor, I went out for a commercial audition,

23:24

and it was for Schmitz Beer of

23:26

Philadelphia. So I was totally naive as

23:28

to the process. I didn't know what

23:30

to do. And I asked my

23:32

agent, I said, well, what should I do? He

23:34

said, go to this address, and

23:36

when they call you into the room, if they ask

23:38

you to read, then read the sides. And

23:41

like he was saying, please, why do I, why do

23:43

all these guys that can't do it come to me?

23:46

Anyway, I went, and I

23:48

walked through the door. It was

23:50

in Burbank, and I walked

23:52

through the door, and the director looked at

23:54

me, and he says, that's it, that's

23:56

what I want. I said,

23:58

me? Come

28:00

on, come on, shake it off. Right. I

28:03

heard both athletes, especially

28:05

football players, and

28:08

also dancers. Like

28:11

some wind up crippled later on that

28:13

long. Dancers, because you know when I

28:15

worked on those variety shows, I would

28:17

meet all the dancers that were coming

28:19

through and doing their special

28:21

numbers and you could hear them warming

28:23

up. It sounded like somebody was shaking

28:25

dice. You know, their bones were

28:27

rattling and they had so much

28:29

ligament damage. It's

28:31

a tough profession with a short lifespan.

28:35

Football and professional dancing. It's

28:39

funny because I always used to

28:41

look at dancers saying, oh, they

28:43

must stay healthy their whole lives.

28:47

But then I started finding out, you know,

28:49

they suffered the same

28:51

injuries as athletes. That's it. Did

28:54

you find your song? OK, I still don't know

28:56

if this is the one, but this is put

28:59

a little love in your heart. That

29:01

is Jackie DeShannon. That

29:04

doesn't sound right. Doesn't sound right to me either.

29:07

Doesn't sound right to me either. So it's

29:09

unanimous. OK, so I say it's a waste

29:11

of time. Keep looking. There's

29:13

a song that might have

29:16

to do with sugar or

29:19

something. And it wasn't honey sugar

29:21

sugar. He's obsessed. He's obsessed. We'll

29:23

come up with it. We'll come up with it.

29:25

I think our listeners would be curious to know what your stand

29:27

up was like. My stand

29:29

up when I first started, it was like, who is

29:31

this guy and why is he up there? You

29:34

write your own material? That's my career. I

29:36

wrote my own stuff. And

29:40

it was interesting because I was really just

29:42

working out whatever came across my head. I

29:45

couldn't hire a writer. I

29:47

didn't know any writers. And so

29:49

I would just get up and wing it. And whatever

29:51

I thought was funny usually

29:53

wasn't when I first started. Should we club

29:55

here in the village? I started in the

29:58

village. OK. stand-up

30:00

gig I ever had was at

30:02

the cafe WOW! Wow, legendary club.

30:04

Wow, still standing. Still standing. I

30:06

didn't, you know,

30:08

get it torn down. So

30:11

at any rate, it, let me

30:13

see, Godford Cambridge was working up the street. Bill

30:16

Cosby was getting started on

30:19

his committed career. Touche. Okay.

30:21

All sorts of... Dick Gregory must have been around. Dick

30:23

Gregory must have been around. Dick Gregory must have been

30:25

around. Dick Gregory must have been around. Dick Gregory must

30:27

have been around. Dick Gregory must have been around. Dick

30:30

Gregory was around. I think Dick was already touring a

30:32

little bit. Or Saul maybe. Who

30:34

else? More Saul. Well

30:37

Woody would have been down there, right? Oh! The

30:40

Blue Angel and then some of those... Yeah, all

30:42

the comedians that were making the circuit, they

30:45

would start here in New York City.

30:48

And it was beautiful because you could

30:50

go and see some of the best

30:52

emerging young comedic talent in the world,

30:55

all right here in Manhattan. It's

30:58

terrific. So you got up and how many times

31:00

did you attempt this? After

31:03

the first night, it took me about a

31:05

month before I could get up to courage

31:07

to do it again because it was painful.

31:10

It was really painful but

31:12

I tried it again and then I would look

31:15

for encouragement from my

31:17

buddies that I'd grown up with. I'd ask them, I'd

31:19

say, I'm working in a club. What are you doing?

31:22

I'm working in a club. Are you serving drinks?

31:24

No. Well,

31:27

hell, can you get me a drink? I

31:30

might be able to get you a drink. Well, if you guarantee

31:32

me a drink, I'll come. And that's

31:34

the only way to get my friends to come. So

31:37

they're paying me all of, I think, $4

31:39

a night at the cafe while, in fact,

31:42

everything I made went into drinks. Okay.

31:45

So ginger ale costs a buck and a half. So I was broke

31:47

by the end of the night. Gilbert

31:50

was 15 when he got on stage at the stand-up

31:52

first time. Yeah. And he was on that

31:55

comedy stage. Well, you were

31:57

a deranged child. I

32:00

have to say that. What

32:02

was the club, Gil? What was the venue? Do

32:04

you know? Was it not in the city? I

32:07

had thought it was the bitter

32:10

end, but then my sister who went with me

32:12

to the club said it wasn't the bitter end.

32:14

She doesn't remember the name of the club. Was

32:17

it in town or on the outskirts? It was

32:19

in Manhattan. Interesting. In Manhattan, yeah. There

32:21

was a club called the bitter end. You know that.

32:23

Yeah, that's still there, of course. Yeah. But

32:25

she says it was a different place. Hmm. I

32:28

wonder what club that was. They'd have

32:31

all these places that would

32:33

pop up. Right. I remember.

32:35

It's like... So we're talking about the

32:37

late 60s in your case. Yeah. Yeah.

32:40

And I haven't written anything new since then. I

32:44

can attest to that. So

32:48

jumping around, you're on the Mary Tyler Moore

32:50

show and you find out that there's a

32:52

pilot, that there's a Norman Lear project. Right.

32:54

And that's pretty much the sequence of events.

32:57

You're working on the show and I was

32:59

going into my second year and they're slowly

33:01

but surely building up Gordy to where they're

33:03

at. And I'm liking that. Always enjoyed the

33:05

Gordy episodes. I know. I'm with a hit

33:07

show. Where am I going? So I got

33:10

the call. Said Norman Learwood

33:12

would like to see you. And Ms.

33:14

Roll had... Esther Roll had insisted on having

33:16

a husband on the show. So

33:20

I went in and I read for her

33:22

and for Norman and got the job. So

33:25

far so good. And

33:29

you said, as far as

33:31

knowing about Norman Lear,

33:34

is that you had seen the

33:37

original pilot episode of Only the

33:39

Family. Yeah. Yeah.

33:42

I saw that the original pilot

33:44

episode. That's important because the stars that

33:46

went on to be in the series

33:48

that we know, they weren't

33:51

in it. Rob

33:54

Reiner, he wasn't in it.

33:56

And Sally Struthers. Sally Struthers wasn't in it.

33:58

So the nucleus... family that we came to

34:01

know wasn't

34:03

in that episode. And the

34:05

material, I couldn't believe it. When

34:08

I heard the language coming out of his character's

34:10

mouth and his racial attitudes,

34:12

I said, you can't put this on

34:14

television. I mean, they showed it to

34:16

me and my manager was Wally Amos

34:19

of all people. Really? Of famous Amos

34:21

cookies. Wow. Wally was my personal manager,

34:23

so he called me and he said,

34:25

I want you to come up to

34:27

my office and take a look at

34:29

something. This is a pilot that they're

34:31

going to produce. I said, you

34:33

can't put this on the air. Look at, look at,

34:36

what's that guy's name? Archie Bunker. Oh no,

34:38

this'll never work. You can't.

34:40

The language is too strong. And was

34:43

I wrong or was I wrong? That's how

34:45

innovative it was. That's how groundbreaking it was.

34:48

I just could not believe that they were going to do this.

34:50

And of course they did. Norman Lear was

34:52

a genius. He's a bona fide

34:54

genius. I was so lucky, Governor, to

34:56

work for a guy that had his finger

34:58

right on the pulse of what people were

35:00

laughing about, what they were serious about,

35:03

the whole nine yards. He had his finger right on

35:05

the pulse. He knew just what was coming and what

35:07

was going to work. Very fortunate

35:09

to have worked for that man. So

35:11

you had luck in two series, one,

35:13

The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where it

35:16

was all totally professional, extreme

35:18

talent to Norman Lear. Yeah.

35:21

From Brooks and Burns to Norman

35:23

Lear. It's a nice, nice company. No

35:25

doubt. No doubt. Yeah. And

35:28

Esther Roll, you said she

35:30

was from real poverty. Oh,

35:33

Esther didn't get her first pair of

35:36

shoes that were her shoes

35:38

because she had a number of siblings.

35:41

I don't know how many children there were in the family

35:44

when she grew up in Florida. But

35:47

she didn't, she, her own

35:49

personal shoes, she didn't get till she was

35:51

13. The rest of the shoes

35:53

that she had, she had to share with her

35:55

brothers and sisters. And some of her brothers had

35:57

big feet, so. Anyway,

36:02

but she brought that humility to that

36:04

character and she brought an understanding of

36:06

what life would be like if

36:09

the Evans family had grown up in that

36:11

poverty. So she was a

36:13

wonderful, wonderful actress. She

36:16

was wonderful to work with and she

36:18

always gave me the feeling that we

36:20

had grown up, part of us had grown

36:22

up together. We knew each other because

36:24

she was from the South. My

36:26

relatives were from the South. My mom and dad

36:28

were from, both were from Alabama.

36:32

So we had that link,

36:34

that unspoken link. It worked.

36:37

The magic that we had between us as a couple

36:39

worked for her. Real chemistry. Yeah, it was

36:41

real chemistry. When we

36:44

would chastise the kids, we'd really be

36:46

chastising them because we knew how important

36:48

it was that these kids living

36:51

in the Cabrini Green Apartments have

36:53

something to emulate that was worth

36:56

emulating. Give them

36:58

something to shoot for. And it

37:01

was understood. We never

37:03

talked about it a great deal. We just went ahead and did it.

37:06

Unfortunately, more often than not, the

37:08

writers would hit the mark. Daddy?

37:11

Yeah? I want to apologize. For

37:13

what, Michael? For thinking Cletus was a hero.

37:16

I acted just like a kid. Oh,

37:18

that's all right, son. You didn't know no better. But

37:20

I do know one thing for sure. When it comes to

37:23

heroes, there's only one in this house. Well,

37:25

it's nice of you to say that, little brother. JJ,

37:32

I was talking about Daddy. Well,

37:35

now, Michael, as much as I appreciate that, I ain't no

37:37

hero. You have to be no hero to

37:39

catch a chump like that. No,

37:42

I think, son, if you're talking about heroes,

37:44

you're thinking about people like Martin Luther King,

37:46

Thurgood Marshall, Ahmed Gavras. And

37:48

James Evans Sr. By

37:51

the way, James Evans, you didn't say

37:53

no, Nick. You've

37:57

been outvoted. You've been outvoted. And

38:03

then, well,

38:05

we have to hit upon this one,

38:08

Jimmy Walker. Yes, we

38:10

have to hit upon this one. Hard

38:15

and often. Subtle. Very subtle.

38:21

I had never, I tell you, the first time I saw

38:24

him, I thought that

38:26

they were doing a benefit

38:29

for a bi-aphora or something. I didn't know. I'd

38:33

never seen anybody that thin. He was thin at

38:35

the time. Very, very,

38:37

I mean, he was emaciated. He was

38:40

almost transparent. And the

38:42

first time I saw him was in the studio at

38:44

NBC. I said, wow, is he here

38:46

to plug one of those starvation shows? They

38:50

said, no, no, he's a comedian. And

38:52

he said, you

38:54

might be working with him. I said, I don't think so. I

38:56

don't think he's going to be around long. No,

39:00

he was incredibly thin. I'd never seen

39:02

anybody that thin and alive in my

39:04

life. And we

39:06

didn't have too much to do. There was

39:09

some game show or something that they wanted us

39:11

both on. I think they just wanted to see

39:13

what we'd look like together on camera. One

39:16

way or the other, it worked out all right. And

39:18

Jimmy and I had our differences because he

39:21

will tell you, he's the first one to tell you,

39:24

he never considered himself an actor. He

39:27

said, I'm a comedian, I'm a comic, and

39:29

I'm not into acting. I said, yeah, but

39:31

it'd be nice if you'd learned the lines

39:33

and, you know, like, we got

39:36

to do this, you know, this part of

39:38

what I do is called acting, OK? And

39:42

he did have a great sense of comedy.

39:44

I give him that. And he was funny.

39:47

He was a funny, physically a funny

39:49

guy. There was no way he

39:51

was going to do one of his dynamite poems and

39:53

not have the audience break up. That's

39:56

nice when you create those moments,

39:59

those savers. You know, if this guy

40:01

says dynamite, none of us have to do

40:03

anything for another minute

40:05

and a half, two minutes, maybe

40:07

a page and a half. You know,

40:09

we can coast. So yeah,

40:11

let him have all the dynamites he wants. But

40:14

eventually you and Esther, I

40:16

think, felt like the

40:19

show was going from like really

40:21

making a statement to

40:23

like just being like, you know, him

40:25

doing... Yeah, I felt like we, after

40:27

a fashion, we started to pander to

40:30

the lowest common denominator. You

40:32

know, anything for a laugh. Put

40:35

chicken hats, you know, anything.

40:38

And you remember that show

40:41

had some very relevant subject matter at different

40:43

times. And that's what was

40:45

capturing that audience. We were doing episodes

40:47

on gang violence, JJ

40:50

getting shot, seniors being

40:52

forced to eat pet food because

40:54

of economic constraints, teenage

40:57

pregnancy. We were touching on

40:59

some very serious subject matter and

41:01

it was getting people's attention and

41:04

people were appreciating it because nobody else

41:06

was addressing these things on television. So

41:09

we had something going for us and

41:13

it had its time, it had its moment, you

41:15

know, and then it was over. And

41:18

you said around that time, you

41:20

weren't very diplomatic. No, I

41:22

was... I was... What you might call an

41:24

asshole. I

41:26

believe the term they used was

41:29

disruptive influence. Yeah, and they called

41:31

me a disruptive influence. I

41:35

was still having flashbacks to football, you

41:37

know, in of all places. So

41:40

if you have a difference with somebody in

41:42

a comedic situation, you just say, hey, let's

41:44

try it this way instead of, no, let's take

41:47

this shit outside. So

41:53

anyway, it took me quite a while to mature and

41:55

to get to the point where we could discuss

41:58

our creative differences without... me wanting

42:00

to go outside. And

42:02

yeah, I was a little bit off the

42:04

farm there for a while. And

42:08

tell us how you found out you

42:10

were no longer, your services were

42:13

no longer. Yeah, it happened not

42:15

unlike the way it does with

42:17

football. You get that magic phone

42:19

call. I was at home, we were

42:21

on hiatus from good times, and I think we

42:23

were into our second year, and

42:25

the show was doing phenomenally well, the numbers

42:27

were good. So I get

42:29

a phone call, and they say, John,

42:33

J.D. Joe, Norman's assistant is

42:35

on the phone, she'd like to talk to you. I

42:38

said, okay, so I'm thinking it's about a

42:40

rehearsal or something. Yeah, J.D., this

42:42

is John, and I can hear, she's very

42:44

cold. Yes, John, Norman's here,

42:46

he'd like to speak with you. I

42:49

said, okay, wow, this is serious with her. Hello,

42:51

John. Hey, Norman, how are you?

42:54

I'm fine, big John. John, I got some good

42:56

news and some bad news. What do you want

42:58

first? I said, it's your dime. Well,

43:01

John, the show's been picked up for, that's

43:03

the good news, been picked up for another

43:05

full season. Well, that was a

43:07

foregone conclusion. We were in the

43:09

top 20, top 10 maybe, in

43:11

some polls. So that

43:13

didn't surprise me. He said, now the bad news. Yeah,

43:17

Norman, you won't be with us. Nothing

43:21

from me. Well, don't you have anything

43:23

to say, John? No, it's

43:25

your show. Good luck, Norman,

43:27

we'll see you around. Click. That was

43:29

it. I was extended the phone call. That's

43:32

how they let me know that I was killed off of

43:34

good times. And I never

43:38

felt it. You know, I

43:41

really never felt the pain of

43:43

being cut from the show. Because there's

43:45

almost a seamless transition from

43:47

that show, six

43:50

months down, or six or seven months down the road

43:52

to Roots. And that changed

43:54

everything for me as an actor. So blessing

43:56

in disguise, really. It was absolutely because... Because

43:59

had I continued in good times, I

44:01

would have missed out. I wouldn't have been

44:03

available for Roots, and that established me

44:05

as a dramatic actor. So

44:08

far, so good. And when was the next

44:10

time you spoke to Norman Lear? God,

44:13

I bet you it was the better part of two,

44:17

good two years. And he

44:19

came to me with another project. Wow.

44:22

And we did. We did the pilot. I

44:25

was playing, I was taking, the

44:27

character was taking over the office

44:29

of a recently deceased incumbent congressman.

44:32

And I can't recall the name

44:34

of the show, but

44:38

it didn't fly. It was, I

44:40

thought it was a pretty damn good pilot. And

44:43

it had a lot of political, as you can

44:45

imagine, with a Norman Lear show, it had a

44:47

lot of political overtones. And

44:50

I thought it had a shot, but it didn't

44:52

make it. In fact, Norman and I did two

44:55

more pilots together. Wow. Neither

44:57

of which flew. Well, didn't you eventually you did 704? Yeah,

45:00

704 Houser Street, right. We move into

45:03

the Archie Bunker house, my

45:05

family. And my son

45:07

is a

45:10

conservative Republican. Right.

45:13

I mean, he was really mixing it up. He

45:16

was having a lot of fun with the chemistry in those

45:18

days. And then I think the

45:22

time that you saw Norman

45:24

after not speaking for

45:27

years, you

45:29

said to him, hey, I would have

45:31

fired me. Yeah, yeah, that's

45:33

true. I told him, I

45:36

went to a gathering in Vegas,

45:38

I think it was, and

45:40

we were honoring Norman for his work that he'd

45:43

done in television. And I

45:45

told him and the audience, looking

45:48

back at the John Amos I was then,

45:50

I would have fired me too. Who

45:53

needed to put up with that much aggravation? I

45:57

was bringing, I was giving him an agenda

45:59

every day. But

46:01

I thought that was the way that you got things

46:03

done. I didn't appreciate the professionalism

46:07

that goes into a long career.

46:10

I do now.

46:12

Long periods of unemployment

46:14

have a way of getting

46:16

the message of trust. I

46:19

watched some of 704 Howser on YouTube

46:21

and also kind of ahead of its time.

46:23

Yeah, it was. Isn't that young interracial couple?

46:26

Exactly. And it's treated rather casually. Yeah, exactly.

46:28

I mean, it was not the reason for

46:30

the show. Right. It was just one of

46:32

the key ingredients of the show. Right. And

46:37

was it Cindy Williams? It was, I

46:39

think, Maura Tierney from his radio.

46:41

Maura Tierney, right. Maura Tierney.

46:43

Yeah. Yeah. And now you're kind of

46:46

in the crusty Archie Bunker

46:48

role a little bit. How about that? It

46:51

must have felt weird. You're now on the

46:54

Archie Bunker set. You're thinking back to this

46:56

pilot that you saw a million years ago.

46:59

It felt weird, all right. It's strange. I said,

47:01

this is my punishment. Come

47:04

back as a bigot. Let's

47:07

talk a little bit about Roots and you got to

47:09

tell the wait before we get to Roots. Yeah, I

47:11

would be remiss to all my fans

47:15

if I didn't throw in keeping

47:17

your head above water. Making

47:20

a way when you can. Good

47:23

times. Temporary

47:25

layoffs. Good times. Yeah,

47:28

let's be remiss. Early

47:30

credit. Early credit

47:33

ratings. Riff offs,

47:35

I think. Riff offs, yes. Good times. All

47:37

right. Well, wait a minute. Now that we

47:39

got John. Ain't we sorry? We how

47:41

we happy? We got it. Good

47:44

times. We had two of the impractical jokers here.

47:46

Okay. Brian and Q, you got that out of

47:48

your system. Yes. Now. We were trying to figure

47:50

out what that one lyric was from the Good

47:52

Times theme. Do you remember? That he stumped

47:54

us on? Oh, that's right. Do you

47:56

know? Can can. Temporary layoffs. No,

47:58

no, no. Let's hear it. Frankie, can

48:01

you call it up? James Evans himself

48:03

is going to solve this mystery. From television city in

48:05

Hollywood. Good times. Anytime

48:08

you meet a baby, man. Good times. Anytime

48:12

you meet a friend. Good times.

48:16

Not getting hustled. Not

48:18

getting hustled. Keeping your

48:20

head above water. Making

48:23

a way when you can. Temporary

48:26

layoffs. Good

48:28

times. In reposts.

48:32

Good times. Okay, what's the

48:34

next line, John? Hangin'

48:36

in a jive. Good

48:38

times. If we lucky

48:40

we got. I know it. Hangin'

48:44

in a joinin'? Well,

48:46

there's three. Livin'. Livin'

48:48

in a jive-in. No, no, no. I

48:50

don't think that's it. I think it's livin' in a jive-in.

48:54

Well, there's two theories. Hangin'

48:56

in a jive-in. Hangin' in a jive-in.

49:00

Or hangin' in jive-in. And

49:02

another theory is, and Q's theory.

49:06

Not Q. We

49:08

deal with an important subject. Yeah, well I want

49:11

to know what did Donald Trump have to say

49:13

about it? What's his interpretation?

49:15

Well, we have Hillary. The

49:19

Joker's were claiming that it was hangin' in

49:21

a chow line. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I

49:23

keep hearing all the time. Hangin' in a

49:26

chow line. And that makes sense. That

49:29

one makes more sense. That's what

49:31

Sal claims that it was. Hangin' in a chow line. Okay. Okay.

49:35

The mystery will remain unsolved, but we'll go with

49:37

that one. Okay. Now let's

49:39

ask about Roots. Yeah. And

49:43

you originally auditioned for a different part than the one

49:45

you wound up with. Right. The one that they, the

49:47

character that they asked me to come in and read

49:49

for initially, I wanted to do. And

49:51

it wouldn't have been as pivotal

49:54

character as Kunti Kinte, obviously. But

49:57

I wanted to do it nevertheless. So

50:00

I they that got back to them

50:02

and then they they came back a second second time

50:04

and said we'd like you to read for

50:08

another character that was substantially more involved

50:10

in the development of the play and

50:14

I said, oh, yeah, I'd be glad to do it now.

50:16

I'm beginning to see little references

50:18

or or They're

50:21

alluding to The

50:24

Kunta Kinte character as I read

50:26

this other character today So

50:28

David got back to me says well, would you

50:30

do that? I said yeah, I'd be I'd be

50:32

glad to do it Now I'm really intrigued because

50:35

I've been offered a job pretty much But

50:38

that character Kunta Kinte is still out there and

50:40

I said boy whoever gets that Man,

50:43

that is some piece of meat That's

50:46

gonna be a fine fine role

50:49

and sure enough. They called me back in they said

50:51

David would like you to read The

50:54

role of Kunta Kinte and I just about had

50:56

a stroke I mean, I it was unbelievable. It's

50:58

like hitting a lottery, you know, sure and all

51:02

the Things that all

51:04

the research that I'd done not even knowing that

51:06

I'd be ever offered a role like that I'd

51:09

gone to Africa a number of times on my own I

51:12

studied the dialect and the indigenous food

51:14

and etc, etc, etc Not

51:17

just out of my own curiosity Sure

51:20

enough. I get a chance to use those memories When

51:24

David Walper offered me the

51:26

job of Kunta Kinte on roots Girl

51:32

your name is Kizzy From

51:35

special people baby kids is special

51:38

and you gonna be a special kind of woman, too Your

51:43

name means stay put but

51:46

it don't mean stay a slave it won't

51:48

never mean that You Is

51:53

the daughter of the African Kunta Kinte

51:56

of the village of Jufare on

51:58

the banks of the river called the The

52:01

father of Kunta Kinte is the

52:04

Mandinka warrior Homero. His mom is

52:06

Benton. The warrior Homero was

52:08

the son of the holy man, Rabbi

52:10

Kunta Kinte. Time

52:13

of the 17th grade. You

52:18

went for the... you were up for the wrestler part originally.

52:21

Yeah. And then did you read

52:23

for Lugasset's part too? For the fiddler? The truth

52:25

of it is, I would have

52:27

loved to have done the

52:29

role that Louis Kosset did. I would have

52:31

loved to have been part of Roots in

52:33

any capacity. And that was certainly a memorable

52:36

role and he justifiably won the Emmy for

52:38

it. He's a

52:40

marvelous actor, Louis is. Because he's out

52:42

of the old school. He knows what it is

52:45

to give in a scene. Not

52:48

to just, you know, to hog the scene

52:51

or try and steal the scene. But

52:53

he's a stage trained actor and

52:55

he's sharp. He's as good as it gets. Well,

52:58

tell Gilbert a great story. Go ahead, Gilbert. No,

53:01

I was just saying, he said

53:04

to you to be

53:07

in the moment and experience. Yes.

53:10

What you're doing. We were sitting

53:12

underneath the tree and

53:15

the scene was, the scene

53:17

ironically enough, where Fiddler, his

53:19

character, passes away. So

53:22

we were sitting underneath the tree and they

53:24

were reloading the cameras and whatever. And

53:27

I said, you know,

53:29

this is a real blessing, man. He

53:31

said, you better believe it. He said,

53:33

we've got to pretend that this is a real good

53:36

piece of meat because we're never going to get a

53:38

steak like this again in the industry. This

53:40

is incredible. And sure

53:42

enough, it worked out.

53:44

I've never seen any material like that

53:46

since then, including the

53:49

remake of Roots. Once

53:52

something like that is done, it's like the

53:54

great film classics like Treasure to Sierra Madre.

53:56

Why would you want to do that again?

53:58

Leave it alone. from here

54:00

to eternity. Leave it alone. It's

54:03

been done. They're masterpieces. And

54:06

yet they do try to remake them all

54:08

the time. Yeah, unfortunately. Unfortunately. We

54:10

will return to Gilbert

54:12

Gottfried's amazing Colossal Podcast,

54:15

but first a word

54:17

from our sponsor. Tell

54:20

Gil the wonderful story about you deciding

54:22

that you had the right accent. They

54:25

were questioning it. And then you wound

54:27

up... And

54:30

an incident happened that convinced you that you

54:32

had made the right choice. I've been traveling

54:34

to Liberia more frequently than any other part

54:37

of the continent. And I just...

54:39

what I call the

54:42

pigeon accent. You know, I'd

54:44

hear it and I'd emulate it. So

54:47

I was with a friend of

54:49

mine. His name is Charlie

54:52

Mitchell, one of the locals in Liberia. And

54:54

we were having a beer in what they

54:56

call the Chabine, which is just somebody's house.

54:58

He's got a couple of barrels of beer

55:00

and he's selling beer and maybe making

55:03

a buck or two. So we're having

55:05

a beer. And Charles,

55:09

my friend, he keeps it...

55:11

he was keeping an eye out for me because we were

55:14

in some pretty rough... pretty

55:16

rough territory. So

55:19

Charles said, John, I

55:21

see one guy, he's staring at you. Sometimes

55:24

he's staring at you. Yeah.

55:27

Do you know him, Charles? No, I

55:29

don't. Oh, what, John? He's coming this

55:31

way. You walk... John, he

55:34

having a machete. I know what a

55:36

machete is. You have to check it. That's

55:38

your translate. And John, the

55:41

two guys with him, they both be having

55:43

machete. Oh, you're coming for your head, John.

55:46

No, not today, brother. Not coming for

55:48

no head today. This guy

55:51

evidently thought I

55:54

was a security guard that had

55:56

been his security guard when he worked

55:58

in a diamond mine. and

56:00

was badly mistreated. And

56:02

the guy said to me, he said, hey, I

56:05

told you, when I reach outside,

56:07

I come in for you, you treat me real bad

56:09

and bum me a hill down my mind, now I

56:11

come in for your head. I

56:13

said, wait a minute buddy, hold it, time out. I

56:15

pulled out my wallet. Pulled out my wallet.

56:18

So you see this, John Amos, Los

56:20

Angeles, California. I'm a player,

56:22

an actor, okay. I don't know who

56:24

you thought I was, but I ain't him. Okay,

56:26

so you can put away the machete, he

56:29

ain't coming for the head today. When

56:32

I told the casting director

56:34

at the Wolper, when

56:38

I shared that story with David, I

56:42

think he was satisfied that I'd made the

56:44

right choice as far as picking an accent

56:47

that would be believable. That was

56:49

a great story. Great story.

56:51

And that was the truth, that actually happened. That

56:54

actually happened. I haven't used that accent since

56:57

then. For

56:59

the obvious reasons. You're still working. It'll

57:02

happen. Some great actors in

57:04

Roots 2, and when we talk about

57:06

Moses Gunn, we've talked about on this

57:08

show, and I mean, Richard Roundtree and

57:10

Scatman. Absolutely. And Chuck

57:13

Connors and Vic Morrow, and everybody's

57:15

in that. Everybody. Thomas Rosalala.

57:18

Right. Another guy we love. Names

57:20

you don't hear anymore. Don't hear

57:22

him. Guys who turn up in 70s movies,

57:24

they're just, we love Moses Gunn. Moses Gunn

57:27

from The Hot Rock. Yes. Yeah,

57:30

Moses had an

57:32

enviable career. He had some

57:34

important roles, and he was a fine actor.

57:39

Lots of good people in that. Yeah,

57:41

he was like, and I think he

57:43

was an African in The Hot Rock. I

57:47

think so. Yeah. And Thelma Rosalala

57:49

turns up in a great, one of the Dirty Harry

57:51

movies. I wanna say it's the third one, The

57:54

Enforcer. And he's just,

57:57

I love those guys. Yeah. Oh

57:59

yeah. old character. Calvin Lockhart too. He

58:01

turns up in Coming to America with

58:03

you. Yeah, right. We worked together. What

58:06

was that series he had? He was

58:08

a teacher. Oh gosh. Oh

58:11

God. I know. We'll look that one up too.

58:13

Yeah. I just love those actors and I love

58:15

to see them in 70s films. Yeah. Richard

58:19

Roundtree, another one. It's

58:23

funny when you look at like 70s movies.

58:25

Well, like when I look at Bullet

58:28

was on. Yeah. Recently. And

58:30

you just, you're in the police

58:32

station and going, oh, him,

58:34

him, him. Right. Right. Right. You knew

58:37

every actor. Right. Right. Norman

58:39

Fell was there. Robert

58:42

Vaughn. Oh yes. Yes. Yeah. And

58:44

Don Gordon maybe. Yes. Yeah. Don

58:46

Gordon. Yeah. Yeah. Love

58:48

seeing those guys. Absolutely. Love Yafit

58:51

Cotto in Across 110th Street.

58:53

Right. With Anthony Quinn. Yeah.

58:56

I mean, they don't, they don't make them like that.

58:58

Raymond St. Jacques. Okay. Raymond St. Jacques, another one. Yeah.

59:02

Now here's something I have to find out.

59:04

Go ahead. I don't think he was born

59:06

this way, but another favorite

59:08

topic was Yafit

59:10

Cotto. In fact, Jewish.

59:13

Well, that'd be a scoop. You

59:16

know, I don't know. I believe

59:18

he was. I believe he declared

59:20

Judaism as his faith. At

59:23

one point, I'm fairly confident. I

59:25

could be wrong, but I think he

59:27

did. That's

59:30

good stuff. That's good enough for me. We

59:34

should explain, John, he's obsessed with other performers

59:37

who are Jewish. Okay. Yeah. Wait a minute.

59:39

I want to tell you something. I

59:42

mean, I've been wanting to talk to you

59:44

about it for a long time. I told

59:47

you to do another accent. Let's talk about

59:49

coming to America. Yeah. And how it

59:52

came to be. Oh, I tell you. You're so funny in that.

59:55

I got the call from John Landis. He says, look, I'm

59:57

making a movie. I want to talk to you about it.

59:59

Come over to Paris. So

1:00:01

I go to Paramount and... Oh,

1:00:03

oh, I think, I think... Dara's

1:00:06

holding up a website, excuse us, John,

1:00:08

that says Jew or not a Jew, and

1:00:10

they have Yafit Cotto. Thumbs

1:00:12

up on Yafit Cotto? Jewish. Yeah,

1:00:14

Jew. We were right on that. Okay, call.

1:00:17

Good call. So at any rate... Sorry.

1:00:19

So I go over to Paramount

1:00:23

and I meet John Landis and a couple

1:00:25

of the other execs involved in the film,

1:00:27

and John begins to tell me this story.

1:00:30

And I'm laughing just as he describes the

1:00:32

different scenes. And he says, I've got an

1:00:34

elderly couple, they come over to the house

1:00:36

and they're sitting there and they leave a

1:00:39

big greasy, grease stain, Jerry

1:00:41

Curl stain on the couch and they get up. So

1:00:43

I fall on the floor laughing. I just think that one

1:00:45

of the funniest things, I said, you're gonna do that? He

1:00:47

said, oh yeah, we're gonna do that. And

1:00:50

I didn't get to read any of the script

1:00:52

at all. He just would describe the scenes to

1:00:54

me, and I said, I'm in, man. So he

1:00:56

said, okay, terrific. And as it

1:00:58

turned out, it was one of the best experiences

1:01:00

I've ever had. I

1:01:02

knew the movie was gonna be a hit. I

1:01:05

was working on the film, well

1:01:08

over a month, and I'm staying outside

1:01:10

in between takes on a break,

1:01:12

let's say a lunch break. And

1:01:14

this character comes up

1:01:16

to me, he says, hey, you working in

1:01:19

the movies? So I said, yeah. He

1:01:21

said, I don't know. What do you do? I

1:01:24

said, I'm working in this movie

1:01:26

called Coming to America. He said, what's

1:01:29

your name? I said, John Amos.

1:01:31

I never heard of you. He

1:01:33

said, you ain't good. I said, well, I'd like to think

1:01:36

so. Now the guy's starting to

1:01:38

get on my nerves. What

1:01:40

movies have you been in? So I

1:01:42

named the couple, Mary Tyler, and I

1:01:44

don't watch television. And the more

1:01:46

I tell this guy, the more he busts my chops.

1:01:48

Finally, I look at this guy and say, hey look,

1:01:51

you know, I only got a little time for lunch.

1:01:53

You're getting on my nerves. How about leave me alone?

1:01:56

Okay, and he says, He's

1:02:00

Eddie. He's in costume. He

1:02:05

got me. He got me, man. He really got

1:02:07

me so pissed off, I was getting ready to

1:02:09

punch him out, you know? Was he in prosthetic

1:02:11

makeup? Yeah, he was in prosthetic, different, no. I

1:02:13

think he was chocolate brown or one of those

1:02:15

characters. Sure. Well, that was a

1:02:18

joy though. You never knew what you were gonna

1:02:20

spend the day doing, but it's probably gonna be

1:02:22

laughing. How was it

1:02:24

to work with James Earl Jones? It

1:02:26

was intimidating, that voice, you know. Sure.

1:02:31

The first time I heard

1:02:34

him really speak, we were

1:02:36

in the rehearsal hall and we were just doing

1:02:38

a read through of the script. And

1:02:41

there was a question as to whether or not one

1:02:44

of the lines that I had was gonna

1:02:46

be appropriate. And I think the

1:02:48

line was something to the effect of something,

1:02:54

whatever it was, it wasn't working too well.

1:02:57

So I changed the line and

1:03:01

James says, yes, the

1:03:03

other line was rather obtuse. That's

1:03:06

great. I

1:03:09

said, what? And

1:03:12

all Eddie said was obtuse. I

1:03:20

mean, that's the way it went, man. So who

1:03:22

could call it work under those conditions, you know?

1:03:24

It was a joy, it was absolute joy. I

1:03:26

heard you say that about certain projects, certain dream

1:03:28

projects, that when you know you're right for the

1:03:30

part and the part loves you back,

1:03:34

That's it, the part loves you back. There's nothing better. You

1:03:36

can't do any wrong, you can't do any wrong. They could

1:03:38

tell you, you know, guess what, we're gonna pay you in

1:03:41

yen. Okay, I don't

1:03:43

care. I'm having

1:03:45

too much fun to argue. Did people still come

1:03:47

up to you and ask you to do certain

1:03:49

dialogue from coming to America? They

1:03:52

will do the line. They'll do it. And they look at

1:03:54

me like, how was that? Like, the

1:03:56

boy's got his own money, huh? How was

1:03:58

that, crazy? In

1:04:01

that movie, you

1:04:03

work right across the street

1:04:06

from McDonald's and you've

1:04:08

got a hamburger place called McDowell's

1:04:10

that also has a golden arch.

1:04:13

Oh, here's the golden arch. What are you trying

1:04:15

to enjoy? The

1:04:19

business of America is business. And

1:04:22

you work with those writers on SNL. Did you

1:04:24

not? Sheffield and Blustein? Oh, yes,

1:04:26

yes. Yeah. And equally

1:04:29

as funny, in real life,

1:04:31

I worked for McDonald's. The

1:04:33

McDonald's Corporation, when I was up in Canada, after

1:04:36

I got cut for my last Canadian football

1:04:38

team, I needed a job. My

1:04:41

daughter was an infant at the time. So

1:04:43

I applied for and got a job

1:04:45

as a McDonald's franchise trainee. And

1:04:47

I'm working at McDonald's during the

1:04:50

day. And we

1:04:52

weren't doing any business because they were just

1:04:54

introducing the chain to all of Canada. So

1:04:57

I had like 20 crewmen with

1:05:01

nothing to do. So I

1:05:04

started getting them songs and

1:05:06

dances. Oh, that's right. You

1:05:09

wrote song parodies about McDonald's. And people would

1:05:11

come up to say, what is this place?

1:05:14

I'd say, this is McDonald's. We sell hamburgers.

1:05:16

You never sell anything. What do you got

1:05:18

all these people dancing and singing and writing? Do

1:05:22

I have this right? You took like music from

1:05:24

West Side Story. And you? A

1:05:27

bun like that could cause trouble. A

1:05:29

bun like that could ruin a double.

1:05:31

Stick to your own bun. Specification.

1:05:39

I was damaged goods in those days. And

1:05:42

you also, and we have something here that

1:05:44

you've also talked about. This is scary. What's

1:05:46

this? Frankie, speaking of McDonald's. Oh, yes.

1:05:50

Oh, yes. Scrub

1:05:54

the bottom and top. There

1:05:57

is nothing so clean. Moreover

1:06:00

machine with

1:06:03

the broomfour the rise We

1:06:15

finish one done Your

1:06:20

You tell me why What the

1:06:23

Grand Happy afternoon Hacks

1:06:28

He served the

1:06:30

great today

1:06:33

So get off

1:06:36

and get away

1:06:39

to McDonald's

1:06:41

McDonald's McDonald's

1:06:49

Okay Fantastic You

1:06:51

still remember? Oh yeah, absolutely

1:06:55

Absolutely Here's

1:06:58

the killer I walk into Tom

1:07:00

Hanks his dressing room I go to see

1:07:02

him in Broadway I walk into his dressing

1:07:05

room and he breaks into that song Unbelievable

1:07:07

The things in the world What was that,

1:07:09

1971? What,

1:07:11

when we did the commercial? Yeah, 70-71 Oh,

1:07:14

it might have been earlier than that Yeah, it

1:07:16

could have been 70-71 And

1:07:18

talk about being an athlete You're like

1:07:20

leaping over the counter Oh yeah Some

1:07:25

familiar faces in there with you Anson

1:07:27

Williams Right, Anson Williams Robert

1:07:30

Ridgeley Okay Remember that actor?

1:07:33

Absolutely And Johnny Hamer

1:07:35

I think is his name The guy that played Zail on

1:07:37

M.A.S.H If

1:07:40

I have the actor's name right I think

1:07:43

he's the guy in Manny Hall that does

1:07:46

the bad comedian Oh yes, yes Yeah

1:07:49

Fascinating to see those faces I tell you

1:07:52

Little history there That was great And

1:07:55

you remember every word of it Yeah Gil,

1:07:57

what else do you have for this man? I have to have it retirement.

1:08:00

Yeah, I don't think

1:08:02

anyone could top that.

1:08:05

Tell us about Halley's

1:08:07

Comet. Halley's Comet

1:08:09

came about as a result of me

1:08:12

falling in love with the idea of something that happens

1:08:14

once every 76 years. And

1:08:18

the last time it came through

1:08:20

our solar system, it

1:08:23

inspired me to write a

1:08:25

fictitious piece about the

1:08:28

comet itself. And it's a very

1:08:30

simple premise. I portray an

1:08:32

old man. This is

1:08:35

a one-person show now. It's a one-man show. It

1:08:37

inspired me to write a one-man show

1:08:39

about a man who has lived long enough to see

1:08:41

Halley's Comet come twice. Once, as

1:08:44

a 10-year-old, sitting on his

1:08:46

father's shoulders in a

1:08:48

parted, deep rural south. And

1:08:50

the second time, as an

1:08:52

octogenarian, he's gotten up in age now

1:08:55

and he's sired of family. And

1:08:59

he's seen all the things

1:09:01

that mankind has seen, you know, two world

1:09:03

wars, etc. All

1:09:06

the things that have happened to us

1:09:08

politically and generationally over the

1:09:11

last 76 years of his life.

1:09:13

And he sets out on

1:09:16

an early morning to see

1:09:19

the comet as it makes its cycle

1:09:22

through our solar system again. He wants to

1:09:24

share with the comet everything that has transpired

1:09:26

in his life since they last saw each

1:09:28

other. So it's

1:09:30

been a wonderful ride for me because I

1:09:32

love the stage so much. I think if

1:09:36

you're a compulsive performer, most of us

1:09:38

comedians are. Every once in

1:09:40

a while, we just have to have the live

1:09:42

feedback from an audience. And when I

1:09:45

present my own words to that audience

1:09:47

and they appreciate it, and I'm storytelling,

1:09:50

that's nirvana. That's as good as it gets, you

1:09:52

know. You just, portraying

1:09:55

an old man who's reflecting back

1:09:57

on his life and the

1:09:59

audience enjoying it and moves them in different

1:10:02

places to tears, to laughter.

1:10:04

I've had people wet themselves

1:10:06

laughing so hard. I

1:10:08

peed man, I peed. It must have really been good. Okay

1:10:16

so I've been enjoying that and lately that

1:10:18

is lately in the last year or so

1:10:21

my manager and I have been working on

1:10:24

putting the elements together to make it

1:10:26

a film because after touring

1:10:28

with it for 20 some odd years in

1:10:31

every imaginable venue, I don't

1:10:34

know how many countries overseas, how many

1:10:37

states, a minimum

1:10:39

of at least 40 dates

1:10:43

various states throughout the United States and

1:10:46

I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it.

1:10:48

The old man's got a lot of

1:10:50

sense you know. He's got the sense

1:10:53

it comes from having lived as

1:10:55

long as he's lived and seeing everything

1:10:57

that he's seen so it works.

1:10:59

And there's a foundation, do you have a foundation? Yeah the

1:11:02

Hillys Comet Foundation exactly. What

1:11:04

I do through my foundation is I

1:11:07

love to sail and I love the ocean

1:11:09

so I try and teach, I

1:11:11

set up programs for young kids, the

1:11:14

younger the better, at a certain age,

1:11:16

cutoff age, to

1:11:19

learn not just how to sail but

1:11:21

to learn all the possible

1:11:23

job opportunities that exist in the maritime

1:11:25

industry. It's one area that

1:11:28

most inner-city kids don't even think about. They never

1:11:30

even get to see a boat much less how

1:11:33

am I gonna get a job on a boat if I've never

1:11:35

even seen a boat. So I'm

1:11:38

enjoying it. Good for you. And I'm

1:11:40

getting tremendous support from some well-established veterans

1:11:44

and Donald Trump

1:11:46

is not involved. So

1:11:48

it's a good thing.

1:11:51

Well? Well I think

1:11:53

that should be it. Oh

1:11:55

good. Well I want more. More more. You

1:11:59

sang those song parodies.