Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 137. Rich Little

Episode Date: January 9, 2017

The "Man of a Thousand Voices," comedian and impressionist Rich Little joins Gilbert and Frank for an hour of memories and anecdotes about his legendary showbiz pals and co-stars, including Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, Don Rickles, Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny (to name but a few). Also, Rich dubs Ernest Borgnine, George Burns takes a phone call, Johnny Carson takes his revenge and David Frye lays down the law. PLUS: The Velvet Fog! "The Caine Mutiny"! Carnac the Magnificent! Ed Sullivan introduces Little Richard! And Gilbert "dances for Fred Astaire"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's the sound of unaged whiskey transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for a smoother taste, one drop at a time. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star.

With Golden Globe and Emmy wins, the show starring Jeremy Allen White, Io Debrey, and Maddie Matheson is ready to heat up screens once again. All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney+. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried. Our guest this week is an actor, comedian, and one of the most popular and celebrated mimics and impressionists in the history of show business. and celebrated mimics and impressionists in the history of show business.

He's appeared in hundreds of television shows and specials in his 50-year career, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Judy Garland Show, Rowan and Martin's Laughin', The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Julie Andrew Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and his own The Rich Little Show, to just name a few. He was also a fixture on the legendary Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, as well as the copycats where he co-starred with our previous guests, Marilyn Michaels and Will Jordan. Acting roles include Love American Style, That Girl, The Love Boat, Manix, Hawaii Five-0, Chico and the Man, Another Nice Mess, The Late Shift.

Easy for you to say. Yeah, and a film we love to talk about on this podcast, The Finks. In his long and illustrious career, he's worked with a who's who of Hollywood royalty, including Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, Don Rickles, Jack Fenney, Jackie Gleason, Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Orson Welles. And he's still going strong, performing in nightclubs and Las Vegas showrooms, and even authoring a book about his six decades in the entertainment business. Little by little, people I've known and been. Please welcome to the show, the man of a

thousand voices, the great Rich Little. Hello, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and tonight we've got Rich Little. Perfect. Because I swear to you, I didn't even tell anybody I was going to start this interview by saying, can you do an imitation of me? And I can't tell you what an honor it is to hear an imitation of me from Rich Little. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. That's disturbing. I'm caught in the middle. Rich, we were talking about how many presidents you've known and impersonated.

Yeah. And it goes back. Tell us. I do about seven presidents, with kennedy and going right through i'm working on donald trump but uh oh you are yeah i'm i'm working on it all the time it's uh it's uh you can look like him you know you just have to put a beaver on your head and paint your face orange you know but um the voice is is a little tricky but it's it's coming it's coming can can you do a quick imitation of every one of the presidents that you've worked for

all at once are you making the guy work or one after the other or your favorite two or three well the first one i ever did was kennedy and you remember his famous saying ask not what your country can do for you but what maryland can do for me i love it and who's the next president you worked for? Well, I don't know about worked for, but... Well, entertained in front of him. No, I know. Impersonated. Yes. Well, after Kennedy, you had who?

I can't remember. Well, LBJ. Did you do LBJ? LBJ. That's right. You had to kind of look down like this and, you know, pick a dog up by its ears. My fellow Americans.

That was the word, Americans. My fellow Americans, I come to you today with a heavy heart. Great. And then Tricky Dick. Well, Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon, you know, I mean, my philosophy is this. Never be mean. Never be cruel.

Never be Vandictive. Because remember, the toes you step on today may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. I had a lot of mileage out of Nixon, I'll tell you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I did him a lot back in the 70s, yeah. I once actually did Nixon in front of him. You did?

True story. I once actually did Nixon in front of him. True story. I was invited to a party he had down in San Clemente, and all of Hollywood was there. I mean, at this time, everybody was Republican back then, you know. And when I arrived at this party that Nixon threw in San Clemente, my act was there. And I'd never met my act before. And they were all there. John Wayne,

Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, Glenn Campbell, Glenn Ford. I mean, all of Hollywood was there. And Debbie Reynolds threw me at the back of president Nixon and said, Mr.

President, rich is going to do you. And Nixon turned around, Nixon turned around, said like, gonna do me. What's going on here? He thought maybe I was going to shoot him.

I don't know. But anyway, I started to do my Nixon for Richard Nixon, and I realized as I'm doing it, he doesn't know who I'm doing. He had no clue who I was doing and I'm doing my Nixon and he turned to Pat his wife Pat and said why is this young man speaking in a strange voice

of course the trouble with Nixon was he had no sense of humor you know and he wore that black suit which he wore his whole life I think he slept in it and he never took the hanger out of it you know, and he wore that black suit, which he wore his whole life. I think he slept in it and he never took the hanger out of it. You know, I mean, he was kind of square, you know, you, I, I heard that Reagan, Ronald Reagan told you that you do a better Ronald Reagan than he does. Yes. He said to me, you know, Rich, you do me better than I do. And it's so good.

I was just thinking that when I pass away, I think they should bury you. You know, Rich, I was going to say there's a great clip on YouTube from 1973, a Carson appearance. I know you know the one I'm talking about, and you're talking about Watergate. It's a Watergate routine. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fantastic. You do every voice.

You do every character from Watergate. You do Baker, and you do Sam Irvin, and John Dean. It's elaborate. It's really a wonderful piece of comedy. I watched it last night. Well, thank you. But it doesn't mean too much to young people. You know, they don't know who these people are.

But I appreciate that. And I remember doing that routine. Yeah. Yeah. And the other one that I was working on was Senator Montoya. Montoya. Isn't he the one from New Mexico? That's right.

And Montoya always reminds me that he didn't hear anybody else when it comes to his turn. That's right. He's pretty serious. Yeah. Uh, did you... Did you take these tapes to your home? Yes, yes, I did, Senator. Uh, did you play these tapes on the tape recorder?

Uh, no, Senator. I play them on a washing machine At what speed At what speed did you play these recordings? Well, I believe it was... It might have been faster, Senator. I really can't recall. I think it was something like this. Did anyone else hear these recordings when you listened to them? To the best of my recollection, Senator

There was just the recording technician and myself listening The recording technician heard these tapes with you? Why is that? Well, because I don't know how to play them on a washing machine We'll take a quick break, we're coming right back And Johnny was eating it up. Well, Johnny, you know, Johnny was, you know, sometimes, sometimes I get so into doing Carson, I actually think that I'm Johnny Carson. And I would go to the dressing room and find myself

writing out an alimony check. How long did it take you to develop the Johnny Carson imitation? It's a perfect impression. Well, there's an interesting story around that. Uh, when I came down from Canada in 64 to do the Judy Garland show, which Mel Torme got me on bless his heart. I was a big friend. It's a great story. Great friend of, of Mel Torme's anyway, he got me on the Garland show and, um, uh, you know, that, that started my career and uh uh what was the question you asked me though about what can't remember how long did it take how long did it oh yes oh yes yes johnny carson well all right you're right um you see it i'm sorry guys at my age your your, your memories, the, the second thing to go. Um, no, don't, don't ask me what the first is. I, I can't remember. But anyway, anyway, Johnny Carson, um, anyway, right after

the Garland show, uh, which, you know, was my, my start in the U S cause I'm a Canadian. you know, was my, my start in the U S cause I'm a Canadian. And that was the first show I did. And, uh, I was asked to go almost right after I did the Garland show on the tonight show with Johnny Carson. Well, I didn't want to do it because I didn't imitate Johnny. And I thought, if I go on the show, I want to be able to imitate Johnny Carson. So I remember I, I taped the tonight show and I, I put his voice on a tape recorder and I worked on it and worked on it and I could not get Carson down. And I ended up, I remember one weekend going to the San Diego Zoo. True story. And I was, you know, looking at all the different animals.

And I suddenly looked over and saw a bunch of ostriches. animals and i suddenly looked over and saw a bunch of ostriches and i thought gosh this is the way you do johnny carson think of an ostrich and when you think about it he you know carson ah it's kind of you know like a like an ostrich ah You know, the way he kind of looked around. Actually, Johnny's, a lot of Johnny's mannerisms were like Jack Benny when you think of it. You know, that sort of, I don't know why he always,

but he was always looking around, you know, like somebody was coming after him. Maybe a lawyer. But anyway, that's the way I got to do johnny carson i think of an ostrich with the straight back and you know all that looking around and um that's the way i i started doing johnny carson and how you counted out how many mannerisms 22 carson 22 yeah there's a there's a roast where you demonstrate each one of them for him.

That's right. That's right. Yeah, it's great. And I used to love it. You'd throw in the Karnak bit at the end, too. You'd do the. Oh, yeah. I still do Karnak in my act.

You do? Oh, yeah. Yeah, Karnak is still remembered to this day. I wish I bought that Karnak hat, which they auctioned off a few years ago. I had one made, but I wish I had the original one, you know, used to do the sewers of Rangoon line. May the sewers of Rangoon back up into your breakfast. It's perfect.

May a weird holy man put easy off in your breakfast. That's perfect. I'll be like, may a weird holy man put easy off in your shorts. And you knew someone who we talk about a lot on this show and that's Jack Benny. Oh, I love Jack Benny. Jack was the sweetest man in the world. He was just so nice to me and he loved my

impression of him, you know? Um, and I remember the first time I ever did Jack Benny was on the Steve Allen show and I was doing my Jack Benny on the Steve Allen show. I did not know that Jack was in the audience. And when I finished doing my Jack Benny bit on the Steve Allen show, Jack got up from the back of the theater and came up on stage and said, you're doing it all wrong. That's not the way I talk. And the, and your gestures are not right. I said, what do you mean he said rich when i talk i have

four fingers up to my face instead of was showing me how to do him. And it was a funny bet. And that's the first time I met Jack Benny. And then later on, we became very good friends. He was one of the greats. I can still see him in Vegas at four o'clock in the morning when we'd come back from, you know, watching a lot of the lounge shows, we'd come back to the Sands Hotel and I can still see Jack playing the nickel machine at the Sands Hotel. At four o'clock in the morning, there was Jack playing the nickel machine. I say, Jack, it's four in the morning. Well, what are you doing? Playing the nickel machine at this time of the morning? He said, Rich, I'm going to keep playing until the string breaks. And what about Benny's partner in crime, George Burns?

Oh, George. You're also friendly with George. Yeah, that's right. That George Burns. Yeah were also friendly with George. Yeah, that's right. That George Burns. Yeah, Nathan Birnbaum. You know, it's interesting about George. When I did the Judy Garland show, you know, my first television show in the States, and Mel, of course, got me on that show.

I remember we were at CBS, the old CBS on Fairfax. And, um, I was in Mel's office and we were going over all the voices I was going to do on the Garland show. Okay. And he was picking out various ones that I should impersonate. And he said to me, Rich, I think you're, you're George Burns is probably the best impression you do. You know, Mel had that kind of voice. I've never seen anybody do Mel Torme. That's great. That mellow voice, you know.

Anyway, he said to me, I love your George Burns. Has George heard this? And I said, no, no, of course not. I've never been to the States before. This is my first trip to California. He said, George has got to hear this. He will flip. He said, let's phone him up right now and you can do it for him. I said, wait a second. You're going to call up George Burns. What am I supposed to say? He said, you're clever. You'll think of something. I thought, well, give me a second here. God, I can't believe you're phoning George Burns. Well, he did.

He dialed George's number and George picked up right away and said, hello. And then he handed me the phone. So I picked up the phone, nervous as hell. And I said, hello, George. This is Rich Little. I've just come down from Canada to do the Judy Garland show. And I do an impression of you. And George said, gee, that's great, kid.

I'd love to hear it sometime. I hung up. And then years later, I said, do you remember when I came down to do the Garland show and I phoned you up? And I said, I did an impression of you. And you said, I'd love to hear it sometime and hung up. He said, do you remember when I came down to do the Garland show and I phoned you up and I said I did an impression of you and you said I'd love to hear it sometime and hung up? He said, oh, yeah. Well, I knew it wasn't me because I was on the other end of the phone. He was great. George was very clever right up to the end,ived to be 100 and never lost his mind.

Markable man. Yeah. And I heard between Benny and George Burns, it was like practically a love affair. Oh, yeah. The two of them. They were always pulling pranks on each other all the time, you know. I remember one time Jack Tobey said, I was at a party with George and I just got up from my chair. I went over to the mantle above the fireplace and took out a cigarette and took out a match.

And suddenly George said, hold it, everybody. Hold it. Jack's going to do the famous match trick. And Jack went, what? Jack's going to do the famous match trick. And Jack went, what? Jack's going to do the match trick. And Jack said, gee, I just lit the cigarette. And George said, oh, new finish. Phenomenal.

And what was it like working with Judy Garland? Well, it was great for me. I mean, she, you know, is at the top of her form. And, but, you know, she had a lot of problems. I say top of the form singing wise, but emotionally she wasn't in very good shape. But I didn't know any of this, you see. And, um, they had trouble getting her out of the dressing room and getting her to the set. And,

uh, there were a lot of delays. So we didn't finish taping that show till three in the morning because of all the delays and, and, and getting Judy know made up and ready and then she'd go back to her dressing room and they'd have to wait another half hour and and um i didn't know what was going on they kept saying to me oh it's technical it's technical problems but it was just getting judy to get out get her out there you know and they finally did and they finally did and what made that spot of mine work on that show was that she had never come to rehearsal, so she didn't know what I was going to do. So when she was watching me do all my impressions, it was for the first time.

And she was hearing all these impressions, and she'd never heard anybody do them before. And so her reaction was just incredible. And so if you look at that that piece today you look at her you don't really look at me for her reaction because every time i did an impression she just sort of just oh my god she was just amazed and that's what made the spot well tell you what judy i'd like to read the lyrics to a song and if you will name out the various people you'd like me to do we'll give it a try and see what happens all right what song do you want to sing are you familiar with the man that got away i think i've i've heard it somewhere before

well we could give that a try what uh voice would you like me to use? Well, how about Judy Garland? She's easy. Easy for you, but difficult for me. She's difficult for me, too. But I'd love to hear Jack Benny sing The Man That Got Away. We ought to start with Jack Benny. You know, you know, the night, you see, the night is bitter, and the stores, you see see the stores have lost their glitter and the winds grow colder and then suddenly you're 40. do george burns please george now because of the the of the man that got away. No more is eager call, the writings on

the wall, the dreams you dreamed of all gone astray. Is it true, Rich, that she had to be sold a little bit? It was James Mason that sealed the deal for her? That she wasn't a fan of Impressionists. When Mel Torme played a tape for her of all my impressions, I put down about 30, she wasn't that impressed.

She said, I don't like impersonators. It's not my favorite kind of entertainment. And Mel said, well, Judy, you've got to listen to this guy. He's great. You know? And so, so she, she was kind of bored when he was playing this tape of all my impressions. And then when I did James Mason, she suddenly stopped. She said, play that again. And he did. And that's when she lit up she said wow what an impression of James I love James Mason and book him book him on the show oh my gosh that's great and so I got on the show because of my James Mason impression right well a couple of years after that I ran into James Mason at an AFI tribute in Hollywood.

You know, I think it was to John Houston. And there was James Mason. So I go up to James Mason and I said, Mr. Mason, I know you don't know me. My name is Rich Little. I'm an impersonator and I do an impression of you. And he said, what on earth for? And walked away and so i ran after him and i said no no sir i just want to thank you for getting me on the judy garland show and he said what on earth are

you talking about i don't know what you're talking get get please excuse us and he walked away that was it. Wow. Wow. Now we're going to put you on the spot, Rich, because Gilbert does a pretty damn good James Mason. Oh, this is the worst spot to be in. This is like. I know. This is like. To me, it's like dancing in front of Fred Astaire.

We're going to do dueling James Masons. That's all right, Gilbert. I want to hear your impression of James Mason. Do it for the master. Let's hear your James Mason, okay? Yes. Congratulations, my dear. I seem to have just time, haven't I?

Well, it's no need to be so formal. I know most of you on a first-name basis. Gilbert, that's pretty good, but don't give up your day job. So much for dancing in front of Fred Astaire. While we wait for Gilbert to find the men's room, we promise we'll come back to the show after a word from our sponsor. Don't go away. And now back to the show.

And you worked a lot with Dean Martin. Yeah. Yeah, I did 24 Dean dean martin rose i was very privileged it was a great time of my life to do that and to work in front of all my idols i mean oh they had huge names on the on the dean martin rose and to get up in front of jack benny and george burns and and orson wells and luc Burns and Orson Welles and Lucille Ball and John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, I'm telling you, that was a thrill for me. What do you remember about Dean Martin? I remember about Dean that he didn't take anything seriously. He sort of sailed through life, you know, doing what he wanted to and nothing impressed him. And he was very nonchalant about everything.

And I can remember one time we were doing a roast at the MGM, where we did most of them, and we'd all met in the green room. All the celebrities were in the green room. And then Greg Garrison, the director, said, all right, everybody, places, please. We're going to start shooting the roast in about three minutes. So everybody get to their seats. And so we're walking to the stage.

And as we were walking, Dean was beside me. And Dean says to me, Rich, who are we honoring tonight? Who, who, who, who's the guests of honor? And I went, what? Are you kidding me? You don't know who the guest of honor is? Yeah. Who, who, who are we, who are we paying tribute to? I said, Michael Landon. Oh, Michael Landon. Oh, that's good choice. Yeah choice. Yeah, we're going to have some fun. In other words, Dean did not know three minutes before taping the show who they were honoring and could care less. And I guess when he read the cue cards, he would find out who the guest was.

But that was Dean. He didn't take anything serious. You must have worked, of course course with Dean's old partner, Jerry Lewis. Yeah. I did the Jerry Lewis show. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. His variety show. One time. You remember anything about Jerry Lewis? Well, Jerry was the total opposite to Dean. Uh, Jerry,

uh, liked to do everything, you know, direct, produce, write. And, you know, he was in your face all the time and very professional. But whereas Dean, Dean just, you know, just didn't really particularly care about anything. Didn't read particularly care about anything. And that's what made him popular was that when things screwed up, that's when Dean was good. Yeah, that was part of the charm.

Because he could live, you know, and that's what made Dean so popular. But Jerry was a lot more tense and not as fun, really, as Dean was. For me, anyway. When you watch those Martin shows, the screw-ups are really half the fun of them. Oh, really, as Dean was. For me, anyway. When you watch those Martin shows, the screw-ups are really half the fun of them. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And him not knowing his line and him flubbing a line. I mean, that became the joke of the show.

Well, you know what they used to do was, you know, he would intro all the people on the show, right? And sometimes he'd screw up and sometimes it was funny when he screwed up because he could recover and make it funnier than you know the way it was but at the end of the show at the end of the the taping when everybody had left the whole audience everybody had left uh greg garrison got dean back on the stage to go through all the introductions and do them all over cleanly so that in case it didn't make sense, they could use that.

So he was protected. Yep. And you said, well, you did a lot of work on the Ed Sullivan show. Yeah. And tell us about Ed Sullivan. Ed was a strange man. The only man, the only man I think I ever met in my life who could count up to three and get

two of the numbers wrong. He was, he was one sandwich short of a picnic. Let me tell you, you know, the wheel was spinning, but the rodent was dead. I can tell you that right now.

This guy would freeze to death in front of a brothel waiting for the red light to change. I'm not kidding. Did he introduce you by the wrong name, Rich? And you know what? Everybody, well,

not everybody, but a lot of people impersonated Ed Sullivan. Jackie Mason did it. John Biner did it. I Ed Sullivan. Jackie Mason did it. John Biner did it. I did it. Will Jordan did it. He was the best because he looked like Ed. And so there were four or five people that always did their impression of Ed on the show. But to tell you the truth, Ed never liked the impression from anybody. He didn't think it was funny at all. He put on a fake smile for the audience, but he really hated it.

He did not like it at all because people are making fun of him, you know. Right. And Ed, you know, Ed just screwed everything up. The first time I was on the show, he introduced me as Little Richard. And, you know, this was typical of Ed, you know. He just couldn't read the cue cards. He was worse than Dean. I mean, Ed was on another planet.

He really was. He was not too friendly. And I was terrified of him, to tell you the truth. Most people were because, you know know a lot of people thought he was uh mr show business you know that he he was uh very uh you know that he knew everything and he really didn't he uh he couldn't read he couldn't he couldn't tell a joke he couldn't dance he couldn't sing right but he was a star well we had we had Will Jordan here, Rich. Did you?

Yeah, he was on with us a couple of weeks ago, and he told us something funny. When someone said, you've got to do more, you've got to expand that Sullivan impression, he said, but Ed Sullivan doesn't do anything. You know, Will Jordan could do Ed Sullivan better than Ed. Will Jordan's impression of Ed was uncanny because he could look like him, you know,

and he was the best. I'm pleased to hear that he's still with us. So that's great. He must be getting on. Yeah. Yeah. He lives a few blocks from here. Will was very helpful to me in my early part of my career.

He was very, very helpful. I'll always be grateful to him. I think he taught me how to do James Mason, as a matter of fact. He did. Wow. Oh, he did a great one.

He did a great James Mason. He used to do this from the seventh veil. And he did Sabu. Sabu, the Olyphant Boy. Oh, yes. He did it for us. The best Sabu in the business.

Yeah, well, there's no money in Sabu, but he did it. us. The best Sabu in the business. Yeah, well, there's no money in Sabu, but he did it. He was talking, and Gilbert had asked him and said, you know, in those days, impressionists were also very visual. Because Will Zack was also, it was about the walk. It was about the mannerisms. It was. Right. And he could look like Clark Gable, too.

Yeah. Yeah. Boy, when you can look like somebody, it really helps the impression a lot, you know. Yeah. And something I've noticed in the past few years, there are a lot of people who have an ear for voices, and they'll be on Saturday Night Live and shows like that, and they'll be on Saturday Night Live and shows like that, and they'll do impressions.

But the idea of the out-and-out impressionist who goes on stage, and, you know, if Humphrey Bogart was here, it might go something like this. That you don't see. Well, that's true. Those guys. Well, you know, we haven't got voices like we used to that's for sure you know i mean how can you imitate a lot of the actors of today how do you do george clooney

how do you do matt damon how do you do brad pitt i mean i don't know how you do those people to tell you the truth i'd rather do angie lee joelay to tell you the truth, I'd rather do Angelique Jolet to tell you the truth. Yeah, Gilbert too. I'd never be lonely if I could do her or would I? I'd end up jumping myself. But anyway, a lot of the actors of today are tough to do. I think because a lot of the actors from the 40s and 50s were larger than life. And they were always the same in every movie. But actors today play different parts. So it's hard to pin down a voice.

So it's a little more difficult today. Yeah, you don't have a Cary Grant, a Jimmy Stewart, a John Wayne. You don't have those distinctive voices. That's true. Absolutely. Or the mannerisms, for that matter. Speaking of Cary Grant, you once called up Don Rickles as Cary Grant. Oh, I love that one.

Oh, yeah. That's a true story. Frank Sinatra was going up to play Harris in Lake Tahoe, and he was bringing some of the family with him, and he wanted to get into the suite, the master suite up there, before he started his engagement. And Don Rickles was in the suite by himself. So Frank wanted to get in the suite and thought they could put Don in a single room for one night. Well, Don wouldn't get out of the room for Frank Sinatra.

He refused. for Frank Sinatra. He refused. He said, he said, Frank, why don't you sleep in the lobby? Anyway,

he had all kinds of people. Frank phoned a lot of people to phone Don to see if they can get him out of the suite. And he phoned Tommy Lasorda and he phoned, I don't know, a whole bunch of people. And so I guess Don got word of this and knew that people were phoning him to get him out of the suite. And Frank phoned me and he said, see if you can get Don out of the suite. I said, well, as who? He said, I don't know. Phone him up as Cary Grant. And because Cary's a big star, maybe he'll listen to Cary

Grant and get out of the suite. So I phoned up Harris, got Don's number and they phoned his room and I said, hello Don, this is Cary Grant. And Don said,

oh hi Rich, how are you doing? Working? Got the hair from you. Why don't you put your teeth in backwards and bite yourself to death? Anyway, so Don was prepared for that, and everybody that phoned, he just totally put them down and never got out of the suite.

Frank had to stay in the single with two other people. Do you believe that? I don't believe that, but that's what I'm told. And what was Don Rickles like? Don was, and still is, one of the greats. There's nobody I don't think funnier that I've ever met in my life than Don Rickles. On some of those roasts, we would laugh until we cried

because he just had no mercy. He didn't care who you were, royalty, presidents. He just went for the jugular, you know? And all in fun, of course. But his mind was just incredible. And I used to think that don was probably two thoughts ahead of everybody else when he was saying something he was not only thinking of the next line but the line after that and so that's why he was so quick because his mind was so sharp you know you couldn't

you couldn't phase don rickles i think the only time i ever saw don rickles really at a loss was the night do you ever see this where um don hosted the tonight show the and johnny was off and he broke when he broke his cigarette lighter yeah yeah sure the cigarette that's a great one held the cigarettes oh the box's right. It was the box. And Johnny said to Ed McMahon, my cigarette case is broken. What happened? And Ed said, well, Don Rickles broke it. And so he picked it up, walked across the set, across the hallway to where Don was filming some show,

and walked right on the set while they were shooting and said, did you break my cigarette case? What the hell happened here? And Don was at a loss. Never saw that. That's a great clip. Yeah, that's a great clip. CPO Sharky.

That's right. He was doing CPO Sharky. CPO Sharky down the hall. It's great. Johnny takes the camera and the long cord. You remember this? They go down the hall and it's wonderful. Come with me. Come with me. Yeah and it's wonderful. Come with me.

Come with me. Yeah, it's wonderful. That was typical Johnny. That was so typical Johnny to do that. You know, outrageous, but funny. And among your legendary friends was Jimmy Stewart. Oh, yeah. I just adore Jimmy Stewart.

There was nobody nicer than Jimmy. You know, one time I used to go over to Jimmy's house. He lived on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. And I would go over occasionally and we'd have tea or a sandwich or something. And I remember one time I was over at Jimmy's and I was there for about an hour and a half. And he said, Red Shod, I'll walk you out to your car. And I said, oh, thanks, Jim. So we walked out, you know, the front and up the driveway. And as I was just getting to my car, a tour bus pulled around the corner full of people.

just getting to my car, a tour bus pulled around the corner full of people. And the, and the driver said, Oh my God, this is Jimmy Stewart's house. But there is Jimmy Stewart right there. Good Lord. Jimmy Stewart and rich little is with them. Oh my God. Rich little. And Jimmy's Jimmy, what is rich doing at your house? And Jimmy said, he comes by about once a month to get his batteries recharged. That's true. And then another time, I got to tell you, I got to tell you another quick story about Jimmy. I love this story. I said to Jimmy, I said, gosh, you know, you live here in Beverly Hills and no gated community or anything. Anybody could get to your front door or walk up your driveway. And he said, yeah, they could. And I said, it must be a little disturbing sometimes with all these tour bus and these people driving by. And he said, yeah, yeah, it can be. He said, one afternoon,

a truck pulled up in front of my place and a bunch of Mexicans got out of the truck and they put a blanket on my lawn. And then they brought salad out and wine out and chicken out and they proceeded to have a picnic on my lawn. And I said, well, Jim, did you call the police? No, no, I, I, well, I, I couldn't do that. Same, same like a nice family. No, no. I said, did you tell them to get the hell out of here? Well, no, right. So I couldn't do that. I know. No. I said, well, what did you do? He said, well,

I just, um, walked around to the back of the house and, and, and turned the sprinklers on. Fantastic. Not a great story. I love that.

Can you imagine how fast, how fast they must've left? And, and you, Can you imagine how fast they must have left? And you've worked with Groucho Marx. No, I never worked with Groucho Marx. You never did. No, I never did. Never met him in my life. No.

No. Imitated him, but never worked with him. I worked with Jimmy Durante. I worked with, well, I didn't work with, but I met, in my life, I met James Cagney and Ebergy Robinson. Yeah, tell us about Ebergy. That's a funny story, Ebergy Robinson. Got to tell you, it's in my book.

If you buy my book, this is in my book. Let's buy the book again real quick, Rich. I was invited to a party at Jim Bacchus' house, right? Who lived in Beverly Hills or somewhere. And I was invited to this party, right? And it was full of people. I mean, there were hundreds of people there and Edward G. Robinson was there, right? Well, the noise was unbelievable because there were about a hundred people in this room right and um somebody said uh to edward g robinson rich little is here and he does an impression of you and and and so everybody gathered around and said rich you got to do your impression of edward g robinson for him and i realized i couldn't possibly it was It was too noisy to do Edward G. Robinson.

And besides, Edward G. Robinson was pretty well deaf. You know, he couldn't hear. So here I was, standing in front of little Edward G. Robinson, who looked up at me and went, all right, let's hear it, let's hear it. And I realized, nobody's going to hear anything. It's too noisy noisy and he can't hear anyway so what i did was i just did the motions i didn't i nothing came out of my my

mouth and when my lips stopped moving ever g robinson went like this i gave you the okay perfect. Couldn't hear a damn thing. Couldn't hear anything. You've done at least three jobs that were for sad reasons. Like David Niven. Yes. It was called back to do the last. Oh, yeah.

So what happened there with David Niven and Pink Panther? I dubbed for David Niven for the trail of the pink panther and the curse of the pink panther and by this time poor David Niven had lost his voice he had Lou Gehrig's disease and uh you really couldn't understand anything he said in the movie and um I dubbed for him I I learned how to do his voice. And Blake Edwards had me come into a studio, and I lip-synced all his dialogue for the two movies. You wanted to know if Clouseau questioned me about the theft of the Pink Panther. Yes.

Yes. Yes? Yes. He questioned me. He did? Oh, yes. He questioned me. He did? Oh, yes. He questioned me three days after the robbery, on the 3rd of August, to be precise, at 1.15.

He stayed for lunch. And fed in the pool. But why in the world would he think that you would know anything about the theft of the Pink Panther? Oh, come on, George. I mean, I'm sure the sergeant is totally up to date on my somewhat checkered career. Right, Sergeant? Ah.

I mean, after all, a man who for almost 30 years has been thought to be the notorious phantom, the cleverest jewel thief in all of Europe. But, Uncle Charles, it was never proven that you were the phantom. No. No, that you took over or I left off. But, George, you could understand why he was suspicious and why he wanted to question me. Oh, sure. And then when he was satisfied that I was completely innocent and couldn't possibly have had anything to do with it. Because we were in Barbados with George at the time of the robbery. Then Inspector Clouseau took off for Valencia.

Then Inspector Clouseau took off for Valencia. Valencia. Well, that leaves me with just one question. You said Valencia. It's in Spain. Ah, that Valencia. What he was hoping, Blake Edwards, was that when he got David Niven back in the, in the studio, in the recording studio, after the movie was completed,

they would go over his lines a hundred times until they got it right. But by this time it was worse. So I dubbed his voice for those two movies. And also I did Peter Sellers. So a couple of lines of, of Clouseau too, but doing David Niven was a great thrill for me because I admired the man greatly. And I remember I said to Blake, I said,

if you ever run into David Niven, tell him it was a privilege to do his voice. And I would be happy to come over to spain where he's living and follow him around for day-to-day conversation and you dubbed cagney to uh rich for um was it terrible joe moran no no i didn't i didn't um dub cagney i dubbed um I dubbed Tony Curtis for a movie. Oh, Tony Curtis. Tony Curtis. Tony had made some Italian epic, some movie, and they didn't pay him, and he walked off the set.

And the producer phoned me and said, do you do Tony Curtis? I said, doesn't everybody? And he said, can you do these Curtis? I said, doesn't everybody? And he said, can you do these lines and we can release this movie? And I said, well, I guess I can. And so I did it. And I remember Tony phoned me and he said, Rich, did you dub me for this picture? I said, yes, I did, Tony. Did they pay you? I said, yeah. Up front? I said, yeah. Oh, well, good. You got paid for it. I said, yeah. Oh, good. Send half the money to me.

You know what I said to him? I love you, Spartacus. him i i love you with spartacus yeah because they they have it listed that you did cagney yeah there's bad information on the internet i did a hawaii 5-0 where i played a murderer as james cagney that i did okay but i didn't be i i i didn't do james cagney per se i just did i also saw borg 9 did you did you did you loop ernest borg yes just did. I also saw Borg 9. Did you, did you, did you loop Ernest Borg 9? Yes, I did. I did Ernest Borg 9 for a cartoon he was doing that he never finished. Okay. And I went in the studio and finished that for him. I loved Ernie Borg 9. Oh, what a wonderful man. Can, can, can we hear some of your Ernie Borg 9? Well, the first time I ever met Ernie Borg 9in, I think I met him on Hollywood Squares

for the first time. And I said to him, oh my gosh, it's a pleasure to meet you. I mean, I was an usher at the Elgin Theater on Ottawa, Canada when I was 18. And I watched Marty 23 times. And I just loved the movie. And I know a lot of the dialogue and he said to me you do? and I said yeah he said well let me hear it and I did a speech from Marty for him

and he listened and I could tell that he didn't remember the lines but I did hello is this Mary Feeney? well this this is Marty Pelletti. I wonder if you recall me. I'm sort of a stocky guy. The last time we met was in the Archeo Chester in West Palm Square. You were with a friend of yours, and I was with a friend of mine called Angie. Yeah, well, this was about a month ago, and I was just wondering if you were busy on Saturday night. Yeah, this Saturday.

Well, how about the Saturday after that? And the Saturday after that? Well, that's okay. I understand. Yeah, well, I'm sort of a heavy set guy, sort of a fat guy. You remember me? You know, and I was doing all these lines from Marty and Ernie said to me, well, I don't remember one of these lines. I don't remember that speech at all. I said, Ernie,

you won an Academy Award for this picture. You don't remember the lines from Marty? Well, I make so many movies. How can I remember all the lines? I said, but boy, Paddy Chiafsky wrote it. It's brilliant, you know, but that was my first Chiafsky wrote it. It's brilliant, you know. But that was my first encounter with Ernest Borgnine. Wow. I never heard anybody do Ernest Borgnine before. That's great. That's a great imitation.

And I never heard anybody do Mel Torme. Also fantastic. The snots roasting on an open fire. The Velvet Fog. The Velvet Fog. You know, going back to that. He hated that. He hated it?

Oh, yeah, I didn't like that label at all. What? I heard, and this is probably wrong, too. I know you imitate him, but they say you were called in to do a voiceover as uh gene kelly that's right for a christmas special oh yeah yeah he did a christmas special late in his life and he was the host and they showed a lot of film clips from christmas movies and uh he had laryngitis and the producer said i don't think we can release this. You can't understand him. So I dubbed his voice for that. And the only condition was that I didn't tell anybody, which I didn't. But now that he's passed away and it's years later.

But I remember doing Gene Kelly for this Christmas special. And Gene had kind of a high voice like this, you know, we're going to show you a lot of Christmas specials that have been made down through the years. And I think you're going to enjoy them. I mean, that's the way, that's the way I think Gene Kelly sounded that little high voice, you know, I'm singing in the rain was a beautiful voice, wasn't it? Yes. Tell us a little bit about Durante, Rich. Well, Jimmy Durante, I worked with Jimmy Durante on some special. I'm trying to think what it was for.

And all I can remember is, I think, I was at the end of the special, the whole cast was lined up, and everybody had to sing one line of a song, and we were all lined up. I don't know what the song was, and Jimmy was, of course, on the show, and I think the Lennon sisters, that was the show.

Anyway, we're all lined up, and we all had to sing one line well jimmy was at the end and he didn't know his line so he kept wandering around behind all of us going does anybody know my line what what am i what am i supposed to say but does anybody know what my line is and everybody went uh no not really we're trying to remember our own line somebody's got to know what i say i can't believe it and then he kept walking back and forth saying anybody know my line what i'm supposed to say nobody paid any attention to him so finally they got to the end of the line and Jimmy Durante was supposed to sing and the music was still going. And he went, I don't remember my line.

That's great. Tell, tell, tell Richard Jimmy Durante story. Cause it's worth telling. I, I remember hearing the story that in Jimmy Durante's last years, he became a total hermit. Yeah.

And he wouldn't come out of the house and no one knew if he was alive or dead. And a friend of mine found out where he lived, knocked on the door, and he hears, who is it? And he goes, oh, I want to meet Jimmy Durante. And from behind the door he hears, he ain't here. Do you know, that reminds me of something that happened with Jack Benny. Jack Benny phoned me up one time and said, Rich, do you do an impression of Liberace? And I said, yeah.

Why? He said, I've got a line in my television show and it's supposed to be Liberace on the phone. I said, yeah. And I need the line. Could you do it for us? And I said, well, Jack, why don't you get Liberace to do it? He'll do it for you.

You know, he loves you. He said, I did. I did have Liberace recorded, but he doesn't sound like him. And I said, what? I played it back and it doesn't sound like him. And I said, what? I played it back and it doesn't sound like him. So would you do it? And I said, well, what does it sound like? And I guess Liberace was talking in his normal voice. So it probably sounded like this. Hi, Jack, this is Liberace. And listen, it's great to be on your television show. Well, when I did it, I went, hello, Jack, this is Liberace. Listen, I'm really excited, you know, to be on your television show.

And Jack said, that's it. That's the voice I want. That other one stinks. things now i've i've heard a lot of stories like that where you get so used to the imitations that like the real people are a disappointment that's true that can be very true yeah people well it was like when Vaughn Meter, do you remember, did the Kennedy album, the first family, way back in the 60s? Boy, that was a terrific album on Kennedy, right?

And then people started to say that, well, that, what's his name? I was talking about Von Meter. Von Meter sounds more like Kennedy than Kennedy does. So when I did my impression of Kennedy, I had to do

Von Meter doing Kennedy before people recognized it. Isn't that interesting? I had to do the impression. I heard they once hired Peter Lorre, and they were teaching Peter Lorre to do a Peter Lorre imitation. That's funny. Yeah.

And now you do a great bit, if I could put you on the spot, of Humphrey Bogart in the Kane Mutiny. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I did that. I did that with the ball bearings. I did that on copy. Yeah.

That whole speech. And on Carson, it's, it's in that Carson clip. I did it on, on the tonight show too. Yeah. And Johnny loved to do Humphrey Bogart.

Actually, Johnny liked to do impressions, you know, especially Reagan. Johnny Carson did a lot of, of Ronald Reagan and wasn't bad either. It was pretty good. But he did a bogey. And then I did the speech, the famous speech, you know, from the K-Mutiny, Captain Quig. I tried to run the ship properly, but they fought me at every turn. Take the broken tow line.

Defective equipment, no more, no less. But they encouraged the crew to scoff at me and circulate wild stories. I was to blame for Mr. Merrick's poor seamanship. Ah, but the strawberries. They laughed at me, but I proved beyond geometric logic and deduction that a duplicate of the wardrobe and box did exist, and I would have found that key if the crew hadn't been so disloyal and interrupt things and call me insane and things like that.

I mean, it's a great speech because he sort of loses his cool. Wonderful. And Bogey was always great, wasn't he, when he was a little paranoid? I mean, as he was in K-Mutiny and Treasure of the Aramond. Oh, I was thinking of Fred Dobbs, yeah. Fred Dobbs, same character, really. Yeah, he was good at that. Yeah.

Tell us about the copycat since you brought it up. Oh, we talk about it a lot on this show. It's come up on this show a ton of times. We also had Marilyn here. Oh, I love Marilyn. She's great. Yeah, Marilyn and Will both live not too far from where we're recording this, and we were reminiscing about the copycats.

I've heard you say you guys brought out the best in each other to the point that there were friendly rivalries. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, some people would be cast to do certain voices and people would you know privately say to themselves hey wait a minute i do i'm better than he does but nobody really complained you know um we knew will jordan was going to do ed sullivan because nobody could do that better. But once in a while, there was a little rivalry. I remember once we did a takeoff in Dean Martin

where three people played Dean Martin. And of course, we were all in our dark tuxes with the red hanky doing our Dean. And Frank Gorshin showed up in a gray tux, a light gray tux. So he would be noticed. And Greg, and I forget the director of the show said, wait a minute, Dean doesn't wear a gray tux.

He wears a dark black tux. And I remember Frank said, no, that's not right. I was at a party once in beverly hills and dean was wearing a gray suit i've never seen dean in a gray suit i've never seen dean i've never seen dean in anything but but a tux on tv i don't think he ever wore anything but a tux on TV. I don't think he ever wore anything but a tux, did he? Like when you think about it, I don't think he did. And Dean wasn't really a drinker, they say. Well, he did. He drank, but he didn't drink as much as Frank and Sammy. No way. Yeah. No, no.

But he did drink. Yeah. The only time I ever saw, the only time I ever saw Dean really under the weather and that's putting in mildly was at the, um, first Reagan inauguration that Frank produced. And, uh, Dean was backstage and he was totally bombed. I mean, he couldn't even talk and he wanted to go on. And Frank told him, you're not going on. You know, go back to the hotel. And he got very upset and he didn't go on. But Frank saved him because if he'd gone on, he would have embarrassed himself terribly. But that's the only time I ever saw Dean under the weather.

We have this as a wild card, Rich. We put it in the intro because it's a movie that's come up on this show because it's a strange movie. Oh, my God. Every Hollywood legend from Xavier Cougat to Fritz Feld and Edgar Bergen and... Pat O'Brien. And Johnny Weissmuller has a movie called The Finks. Do you remember this? Hunts Hall.

P-H-Y-N-X. Do you remember being in this movie? No. No, no, you are on, on, on IMDb. You're credited as voice in a box voice in a box.

Yeah. The finks. How do you describe it? Gilbert? The only voice I ever, the only voice I ever did in a box was senior Wences. Remember the man in the box? Sure. Sure. I, I, I don't, I don't think that's true. I mean, it may be, but I don't recall my head. Wait a minute.

Um, Oh yeah. Yeah. I did do something not too long ago where I did do somebody in a box. Yeah. I do Nick Nixon, Nixon in a box. It's just his head. What's that on Futurama? Futurama. Now it's coming to me. But anyway, I do remember my head in a box. Yeah, it was Nixon. Futurama. Yeah, yeah.

And I did Nixon. I never saw it. Did it come out? Oh, yeah. I did see that. That was very funny. The Futurama? fun the futurama yeah oh yeah yeah yeah now uh on on the copycats i've heard strange stories about david fry right i mean great mimic yeah but i heard like as a person there wasn't a person there. If he wasn't a voice. David Fry was a very talented man. He did some voices that were incredible.

One of them was Nixon, which I did at the same time. But I didn't do it like him. He did it more of a cartoon. But I can remember David stopping me one day on the street, got out of his car and walked over. And I rolled down my window and he said, stop doing my Nixon. And then he got back in his car and drove away. Wow.

But David, David Fry, David Fry. I said he was talented, which he was, but he was strange. You're absolutely right. As a matter of fact, I can remember was talented, which he was, but he was strange. You're absolutely right. As a matter of fact, I can remember we did a copycast with him,

the first one we ever did, which was done in New York before we went to England to do them. And the first one, David Frye was on. I can remember David Frye, before he went on stage to do whoever he was impersonating, he had to throw up in a bucket backstage before he went on stage to do whoever he was impersonating, he had to throw up in a bucket backstage before he went on. Can you imagine that? Wow. Wow. Yeah, I can remember that.

You get ready. David was going to make his entrance, you know, to a scene, and you'd hear coming from backstage. And you go, holy cripes. And speaking of eccentric you you paul lin was somebody that didn't that i've heard you say wasn't uh wasn't in love with your uh no your impersonation did not like my impression at all i i don't know whether it was a sort of a joke or what but every time i would do pa Lynn on a Dean Martin roast or on Hollywood

squares, they would always cut to a shot of him for his reaction as they do. You know, when you imitate somebody, if they're there, they cut for a reaction. So every time I would do Paul Lynn, they cut for his reaction and he'd go, who's that? Who's he doing oh that's disgusting get a day job oh god i mean he just didn't like it he just didn't i don't know why maybe i exaggerated him too much i don't know you know but he was funny on hollywood squares oh my god funny man people used to fall out of the square. They were laughing so hard. We lost a lot of good people on that show.

You know? He was funny, Paul. Paul, can you get an elephant drunk? Oh, sure. But you'll never get it up to your apartment. Oh, God. Rich, i'll tell you one thing uh i've never been sorrier that we didn't have video for this podcast for our for our listeners because so much of what you've done has been wonderfully visual oh nobody's seeing me well it's audio only we've we're seeing you but we've been recording it with cell phones.

Oh, I see. And we'll put some of it up on social media, but the podcast itself, sad to say, is only audio. Well, maybe I got a break there. I wish our listeners could have seen your expressions and your faces. Well, you know, when you reach my age you want the lights be very dark and no camera no camera at all no camera at all is good too you know i'd also just love to say to our listeners if they can find because we talked a lot about the clip with judy garland it's on youtube if our listeners can find it not only do you do that great jimmy stewart bit from Anatomy of a Murder,

but on there is just impressions of people like Jack Hawkins and Lloyd Bridges. Right. Fred McMurray. Fred McMurray. People that nobody does. Yeah, well, that's why I got on the show. You know, there's an interesting story. Quickly, I'll tell you about the Judy Garland show.

Sure. That was my first show as i did you know as i said earlier on on on uh judy garland and uh i can remember that my uh manager got my suit pressed before the show right and this was um a couple of blocks from uh from uh cbs and he was bringing my suit back so i could get into it and tape the Judy Garland show. He lost the pants. They came off the hanger. So when he showed up in the dressing room 20 minutes before show, there were no trousers. And I went, I'm going on the Judy Garland show and I have no trousers? He said they were on there when I left the dry cleaners. I don't know

what happened to them. They must've slipped off. I went, oh my God. So we went to Gary Smith, you know, the producer and said, um, I don't know whether I can do the show. Rich has no pants. And he said, he started laughing. I said, no, this is true. He didn't know trousers. So we had to get a page and, and we had him take his trousers off and give them to me just in time to do the show. And they didn't fit very well. And they had to shoot me from the knees up because the trousers only came up to my middle of my ankles. So in that clip, you're wearing somebody else's pants. Yes.

Yes. And you don't see it. Can I hear your Lloyd Bridges? In that clip, you're wearing somebody else's pants. Yes. Yes. And you don't see it. Can I hear your Lloyd Bridges? Ah, Lloyd Bridges. Ah. Ah. Lloyd Bridges.

You know, skin diving can be fun. But it's also dangerous. So, uh, wear a swimsuit, huh? We'll see you next week on See Ya. And I remember, I remember way back when I was doing Lloyd Bridges, right? I was in the theater one night sitting next to Lloyd Bridges. And he leans over and he says, are you Rich Little? I said, yeah.

I hear you do an impression of me. Huh? Is that right? Huh? I said, yeah, I do. Huh? He said, uh, like to hear it. And I said, well, I'm doing it right now. And he said, uh, well, that doesn't sound like me. I said, well, it doesn't. No, I, there's nothing characteristic about my voice. Huh? So I just wanted you to know that, huh? Okay, huh? I said, huh? He said, yeah, that's right. Let's plug the website, Rich, richlittle.com, where people can see your show dates. They can buy the book on amazon.com.

The name of the book is Little by Little, People I Have Known and Been. And there's a lot of sketches, a lot of sketches in it. Cause I do a lot of artwork, you know, I, yes, I was going to say,

and if they go to the, go to the website, they can buy your artwork, your prints. There are 30 pictures that I did in the, in the book, 30 portraits of all the people I talk about. Yeah.

Yeah. They're great. They're on your website. It's not a bio, but it's just funny stories that have happened, you know, with me and a lot of celebrities down through the years. It's not a bio, but it's just funny stories that have happened, you know, with me and a lot of celebrities down through the years. And I've been very,

very blessed to have worked with some of the greatest stars of all time. What an era that was the seventies. When you think of all the variety shows there were on the air, I just went from one to another every week. I did another variety show and today they are none. There are none really. Yeah. And say the name of the book again. It's called Little by Little People I Have Known and Been is the name of the book. Have I Rich Little and your website again? Rich Little, richlittle.com and you can pick it up the book at uh amazon.com yeah what a journey you've had

rich from a from a movie usher in uh in ottawa seeing those people on the big screen and then getting to work with almost all of them that's right i've been very blessed and came down did the garland show with short pants so this has been gilbert's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And now, Rich, can you say, this is Gilbert Gottfried saying thank you, Rich Little. This is Gilbert Gottfried saying thank you, Rich Little. And if my voice ever clears up, I'll be out of work. Thanks for watching, everybody. We'll see you soon.

This was a joy for us. Thank you, buddy. Boy, you and Phyllis Diller together would be a riot, wouldn't it? Boy, to be impersonated by Rich Little. It won't get better in your career. Yeah. Well, thanks, guys. I really, really enjoyed talking to myself.

It was a thrill, man. This was like witnessing a Rich Little special. Thanks, guys. Thank you. We'll see you. Bye. Thank you.