Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 180. Rick Overton
Episode Date: November 6, 2017Comedian, actor and Emmy-winning writer Rick Overton ("Willow," Groundhog Day," "Seinfeld") joins Gilbert and Frank for a free form discussion of everything from incidental sitcom music to the Beatle...s' animated series to the underrated mimicry of Frank Gorshin. Also, Barney Fife screws up his courage, Ian McKellen prank calls Patrick Stewart, Rick hangs with Kurt Vonnegut and Captain Nemo meets the Prince of *$#@* Darkness! PLUS: Burns & Carlin! "Million Dollar Mystery"! Otis the Drunk cleans up! The return of the Lee Marvin story! And Rick remembers his friend Jonathan Winters! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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This is Bill Macy, and you're listening to Gilbert Godfrey's amazing podcast.
Amazing colossal podcast.
Amazing, I'll do it again.
This is Richard Lewis, and you're listening to the, wait, Gilbert Godfrey's amazing what?
Colossal Podcast.
Okay.
Hi, this is Bill Macy.
You're listening to Gilbert Godfrey's Amazing Podcast.
Colossal.
You keep leaving out Colossal.
Hi, I'm Dee Wallace, and you're listening to Gilbert Godfrey's amazingly colossal podcast.
Baby.
Isn't this Gilbert Godfrey's amazing colossal podcast with Bill Macy?
Yes.
That's what I just said.
Gilbert Godfrey's amazing colossal podcast.
Available on iTunes, Earwolf, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts can be heard.
New episodes every Monday with bonus episodes on Stitcher Premium every Thursday.
Go to GilbertPodcast.com for more info.
Go see my documentary, Gilbert.
It opens November 3rd at IFC Theaters in New York City.
And November 10th in Lth in LA and select cities. That's gilbertmovie.com
to buy tickets. hi this is gilbert gottfried and this is gilbert gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.
And we're again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Furtarosa.
Our guest this week is a talented actor, stand-up comedian, and Emmy-winning comedy writer
who's been working pretty much non-stop in show business since the 1970s.
Since meeting you.
You saw my early kinescopes.
It was a flip book.
I like the little Nemo.
Yeah, you saw my dramatic turn on Playhouse 90.
This is Zoetrope.
The review said you had wonderful hot spots.
Kinescopic hot spots.
You know him from hit movies like Willow, Groundhog Day, Young Doctors in Love, Airplane 2, Earth Girls Are Easy, Gung Ho, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Informant, and a a film we've discussed on this very podcast,
the Dino De Laurentiis comedy Million Dollar Mystery.
Just like Dune, they just couldn't get the whole book into the movie.
He can also be seen in popular TV shows like Seinfeld, The Office, Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Joan of Arcadia, The Middle, Bluntalk, and Veep.
He recently received very positive notices for his role as Tonight Show talent scout Mitch Bombardier.
In the Showtime series, I'm dying up here.
But there's more.
He's also...
No, is there's more?
Is there a steamer?
Is there also a rice steamer?
He's also a successful writer and comic and winning an Emmy for his writing on HBO's Dennis Miller Live and performing
stand-up on dozens of TV shows and in clubs and theaters all over the country. He's even done some
special effects and modeling work. It's true. In a lengthy and varied career, he's worked with Larry David, Ron Howard, Harold Ramis, Andy Kaufman,
Eddie Murphy, George Lucas, Matt Damon, and Bill Murray, as well as his old friends, the late,
great Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams. Please welcome a performer I've known for 75 years
We met when we were both in our late 50s
We met when we could chew food
We're doing the drip bag comedy tour
We're doing the drip bag comedy tour.
One of the world's funniest people and a man whose James Mason impression is almost as good as mine.
Our pal Rick Overton.
Hey, Gilly.
God damn it, man.
We know each other over 40 years in reality.
I was doing the math in my head.
That's how long we know each other in reality.
How long do we know each other in fiction?
In fantasy.
In real terms, 40 years is a lot of years, pal.
Oh, my God, yes. We used to constantly be hanging out the improv cat all those days.
You guys remember actually meeting?
Remember everybody sit back there and wait to hear Larry David's mic go
plung-tung-pa-doo-doo on the floor?
Oh, yes.
Oh, you're up early.
All right.
He's walking off.
He'd get angry, start screaming at someone in the audience.
Poo-pa-doo-doo.
Yeah.
Pulling his mic down.
Do you guys remember meeting for the first time?
Either one of you have a memory of that?
I don't recall the actual first meeting.
You knew me when I was working with Roger Sullivan.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
So we were hanging out a lot.
Oh, and S and Gilly a lot.
That's when you had the tray props.
Oh, yeah. Hey, I still do. That's when you had the tray props. Oh, yeah.
Still do.
What's that?
Still do.
Beautiful.
Hey, if it works.
Is there still leper Mickey Mouse with the one ear?
Oh, all of those.
Beautiful.
And the last time I spoke to you, I think you had a dog bite your lip off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mangled my face.
Yeah, that's right.
I got a mustache because of that.
Now, permanently, if I have to shave my beard, I still have the mustache, and everyone says,
Dr. Phil, what happened to you?
I used to believe in you.
Yeah.
So when you shave the beard and leave the mustache, you're like, people think you're Avery Schreiber.
There's a reference.
Huh?
Huh?
You know, Jack Burns is still around, Rick.
We're trying to get him.
Oh, it's Jack.
Yeah.
Burns and Carlin, right?
Oh, remember that big blow up on Fridays?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yeah.
Do you remember that, Dilly?
Kelly Carlin said he's a recluse.
Was it real or was it all staged?
I think it was all bullshit.
Yeah, that's what.
Yeah, probably.
He's still with us, though.
Kelly says he's a recluse, Kelly Carlin.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
He was a partner with George for a while.
That's right. That's right. Yeah, so remember a partner with George for a while. That's right.
That's right.
So remember the nights when we would be caught?
Oh, yeah.
And what did George have to say about it?
Yes.
Well, baseball players have very strange names.
They're the shoes on first, shorts on second, either heels on third.
I haven't seen you do that in ages.
Magnificent.
Oh, I miss your Harrison.
All your Beatles were splendid, man.
You had them all.
A to Z.
You had Pete Best.
Who does Pete Best?
Gilbert did Pete Best.
What's the fella's name on third base?
No, what's the fella's name on third base? No, what's the fella's name on second base?
I'm not asking you who's on second.
The Beatles, who's on first?
Yeah.
Remember that insulting dismissal of Ringo on the animated series?
Yeah.
That's all they had for him.
Because none of the guys could get his voice.
And the other Beatles didn't sound like them either.
No.
No.
It was like one of them sounded like Ronald Coleman.
It is a far, far shittier thing I do.
Ah, let's sing.
I want to hold your hand.
It sounds like Peter Sellers reading Beatles.
Remember that?
Oh, yes.
Sure.
It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog.
Produced by George Morton.
Yeah.
He worked with the goons.
Now, do you remember
there was also that Beatles
where they had different celebrities
sing their songs?
Like, I think Hard Day's Night
was sung by Goldie Hawn.
Oh, you mean like a primetime special?
Yeah.
Well, they did one with Tony Randall
and Kate Smith.
Yeah.
That's on YouTube.
That's rather memorable.
Yeah.
Oh, great.
Really atrocious.
Great.
That's up there with Lawrence Welk, one toke over the line.
Yes.
I've seen that.
I've seen that, too.
Thank you, boys.
And now they're going to do something over a line. Or the classic, everyone out there owes it to themselves to hear the Frank Sinatra Mrs. Robinson.
Oh, atrocious.
We throw the Jilly Rizzo.
Yes.
Yeah.
Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.
Yeah.
And you cuckoo bird, Mrs. Robinson.
Pow. Robinson. Pow!
Boom!
Heaven holds a place for you to pray.
Hey, hey, hey.
Rick, speaking of music, Gilbert knows everything about you,
and yet he did not know that your mom was in the Cordettes.
She was one of the road Cordettes.
One of the road cordettes. One of the road cordettes.
One of the gals in the recording group got pregnant and couldn't zip up the gown, so
mom jumped into the gown and took it on the road and filled in the role from that point
on for car shows and county fairs and all kinds of stuff and some TV appearances.
Pretty cool.
Wow.
Yeah.
So the way the ink spots would start to disperse and break up, you know.
And tell us a little bit about your pop, who was also a distinguished musician.
He was Thelonious Monk's big band arranger and co-partner on several arrangements and helped make Bebop Jazz.
If you ever listen to the Jazz Loft series or you see the movie Jazz Loft on Netflix, I believe it's on Netflix now, but I know it's on iTunes.
And you'll see a lot of photos of my dad working with Monk and those guys.
They recorded the earliest stages of jazz transferring into bebop.
So my dad helped with bebop.
Very cool.
I also remember sharing a hotel room with you in Toronto.
You're not going to fart and freak out, are you, Gil?
Yeah.
Those are two things I don't want when I'm sharing a room with a guy.
You don't fart, you don't freak out.
So during the night, Gilbert would go...
Yeah, I'd go...
And I started chasing you in the alleyway.
In the parking lot, I was chasing you.
Oh, my God.
The grown men were in our 60s and were just remembering this from 40 years ago.
See?
We still have our memories, right, Jack Daniels?
That totally happened.
We don't have...
That was in Ottawa.
We were Ottawa.
Oh, yes.
We don't have our eyesight or hearing
or the ability to walk,
but our memories are still intact.
Right.
But my memory is perfect.
It, of course, had to be loaded into this device as my body was disintegrating.
I am typing with my brain.
Rick, was your mom on the Bird Park show?
Yes.
That's pretty cool.
She was with the Heathertones, Ray Heatherton's Heathertones.
How about that?
Oh, my God.
And she would do kinescope.
I love this. Come out in the Chesterfield cigarette carton with the tap dance and tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, and go out again
or wait for the dog to try and eat live dog food for a commercial, you know.
How about that?
Yeah.
Yeah, black and white makeup didn't look like normal makeup.
It wouldn't be red lips.
They put dark brown, stark, weird-looking makeup because it would read right on kinescope.
That's also very cool.
I'm sure you guys did not discuss this while sharing the room in Toronto.
No.
But tell Gil, this is fascinating too, tell Gil about some of the comics like Jackie Leonard that your dad worked with on the road because that's also interesting.
Jackie Leonard came up and would joke with me when I was a little kid because he'd be at the fairs and the shows.
Wow.
James Garner in his cowboy garb rolled up a Western magazine and held it up like a gun.
And then went bop and hit me on the head with it and shot me that you're okay kid finger.
Yeah.
I was beaming with pride all from that.
But Jackie Leonard, yeah, I saw some comedians when I was a little kid.
I didn't know who all of them were, but my mom would tell me I was Jackie Leonard.
I said, I hope so, for your sake.
That's great.
And he was like, you know, because Jackie was kind of writing, you know, some comics, they get a sort of similarity thing going and they'll ride that out.
And Jackie had an interesting career being near Phil Silvers.
Having a sort of fast talking, you know, I'll do it like this.
Because Phil Silvers will do it like that.
Your dad, I was looking at my notes, your dad liked the comics.
Your dad responded very much to these people.
He kind of, though he was an accomplished musician, he longed to get a laugh, you said.
You know, it took me years to figure this formula out, but cool is the enemy of funny.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, interesting.
That's the lack of vulnerability, the lack of demonstrability of any kind.
And so no one really gets to see what you're thinking.
We don't know what's the cool or funny part about it.
Oh, I disagree because I'm really cool.
And hip is my middle name.
Great.
There has to be a vulnerability that doesn't exist when you're cool in the jazz world.
And so he was frustrated and wished he could have another self.
That's fascinating.
And so he would
meet a record.
He would play one after the next for me.
New Heart,
Winters.
He played a lot of stuff for me.
Peter Sellers.
Peter Sellers.
He would take me to the movies
to see Peter Sellers.
Yes, he was his favorite guy.
Winters and Sellers.
So that's kind of
how you got bitten by the comedy bug yeah so to speak
yeah three pop and pop they both loved him yeah but pop in particular yeah i find it fascinating
that such an accomplished musician and he did a lot of wonderful things and he worked with stan
getz and he wrote operas and and and composed i mean he really did a juilliard yeah taught at
juilliard a very accomplished man.
And I find it funny that he wanted to get a laugh.
Yeah.
That he had envy of these comedians.
Yeah.
There's always a barbecue in the next yard over, you know.
And the musicians, they wish they were comedians.
But I think for a while there at least, comedians were wishing a little more that they were rock stars. Oh, absolutely.
And then you'd see comedians do like a quote takeoff on a rock star just so they'd have an excuse to do a rock song on stage.
Right.
Yeah, right.
rock song on stage.
Right.
Yeah, right.
I'm doing a tribute to someone else so I can get my fantasy here and maybe get that extra get laid edge on this one show.
The jokes aren't working.
I better pull out the song.
Here's fun trivia to Dizzy.
Lady of the night.
Right, go ahead.
I didn't mean to cut your bit off.
No, I didn't have any more of the song.
I was just starting to hope the irony would kick in and we'd change the subject.
Did Dizzy Gillespie help you and your family buy a house?
Yeah.
That's really cool trivia.
And Monk did, too.
So between the two of them, they helped us pin down a neighborhood so we could be close to everybody.
I love that.
His dad was pals with all of them.
Dizzy Gillespie helped you buy your house, and I think Crazy Guggenheim helped you buy your house.
Crazy Guggenheim.
He was my teacher.
Hey, Gilly.
Yeah.
Try and do Crazy Guggenheim on a show in 2017.
Oh, we talk about him a lot on this show.
Good luck with that shit, man.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we talk about him a lot on this show. Good luck with that shit, man. Hi, Joe.
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, it was like.
It's why Jerry Lewis did telethons, is to make up for doing.
He had to show, no, I care about the kids, too, you know.
Yeah, back then, you could still laugh at alcoholics.
Right.
Oh, yeah.
Try to do Foster Brooks now.
Yeah.
What are you showing our children?
Yeah, they even cleaned up Barney's act on The Simpsons.
Oh, that's, oh my God.
He was a drunk.
Now they rehabbed him.
And when they did Back to Mayberry, with all the old Andy Graham.
Otis.
Otis had kicked the bottle.
Same thing.
That's right.
And I thought, so why the fuck is he here?
Why are you lounging around, man?
The whole joke was you're not supposed to be there.
Yeah.
Now you're just a vagrant.
So what's your point on this show?
You're a vagrant.
You took all the charm out of it.
And you realize that that actor had no personality.
Oh, no.
He was much better when he was drunk.
Hal Smith.
Oh, yeah.
He did a lot of work, that guy.
Oh, yeah.
He's in The Great Race.
He's in all kinds of stuff.
Oh, he's a terrific character actor.
You know, real life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was great.
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They're gale and frank, they're happy.
They're gale and frank, they're kooky, wacky.
Just run around and have fun.
And now back to more hilarity and trenchant insight, Gilbert Gottfried. I was talking in a previous episode that Frances Bavier, I heard a rumor, she was a recluse toward the end.
And she died, and it was like a few months before they found her body.
Oh, boy.
That she had a bunch of cats,
and the cats were all eating her corpse.
That was Andy's.
This is unsubstantiated.
Oh, man.
But it's too good not to be true.
Andy!
Andy!
Now, Andy, I don't want you running in there now
I want you to wait out here
on the driveway
that's a great Don Knotts
well thanks
I was going to ask you
I'm not sure I'm going to get an actual interview
in here
do you remember the music
let's see what an Andy Griffiths fan you are.
The music that would play when Don Knotts would get brave.
Oh, how does it go?
Dun-da-da-dun, da-da-da-dun, da-da-da-dun, dun-da-da-dun.
It was like Highway Patrol.
Yes.
They'd always play that.
It was a satire serious music.
Yeah.
It was like when Don Knotts would build his courage up.
Incidental music.
Yes.
Yes.
I believe that's called.
Well, for the Munsters, it was...
Are we going to do the ones from Gilligan's Island, too?
Okay, then.
All right, let's see.
And then we've got to do Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Got to do the wipe.
The in-between scene wipes. This is going to be one of those shows I can tell.
Well, two people who love the same esoterica.
It's going to be a problem.
You have a problem now.
Here's one from Gilligan's Island.
Yes.
Oh, wow.
With Gilligan riding on a bike and operating the washing machine. Oh, wow. Deet, deet, deet.
With Gilligan riding on a bike and operating the washing machine.
But first you zoom in, I'm going, I won't do it.
No, no, I won't.
Pan out.
Oh, yes.
He's in a dress.
He's in a dress with a wig.
Because the Howells packed a dress and wig.
Oh, God.
Lovey, wear the freaky dress.
We're on an island.
Who cares?
So, Rick, you grew up in Jersey, in the house that Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious helped you buy.
What did you watch?
I know what comedy albums you listened to.
I watched, you know.
Besides The Andy Griffith Show. Oh. Man From U.C.L.E. did you watch i know what comedy albums you listen to i watch you know besides the andy griffith show oh uh man from everything from perry mason man from uncle girl from uncle uh the avengers with
mrs peel the original mrs uh peel avengers and uh the prisoner and uh let's see a lot if they
had horror movies on you know tw, Twilight Zone, of course,
the one that scared the shit out of me was the Shatner opens the window
and is looking at you.
That's a great one.
That kind of spooked me for a while.
Flames.
Because they did a weird thing with the engine where there are flames
coming out of the engine of a piston plane.
And when I was little, they had piston planes for commutes.
And piston planes shoot flame the entire fucking time.
There's no muffler on it.
It's just a radial, like a fighter plane engine or a bomber engine from World War II put on
an airliner.
And it just jets these flames of exhaust with flames.
So the entire time you're watching it burn and you don't know whether to say something
or not.
And he goes, one stewardess came by and said, oh, no, no, no.
You complain when you stop seeing the flames.
Do you remember the other Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner?
I do.
Yeah, the little wishmaker.
Yes, yes.
Devil head wishmaker.
Where they put the penny in and the little devil head starts shaking.
That's a great one.
That was, yeah.
Should we stay here until 2.30?
Try again.
Should we stay in here until three o'clock?
There's no question about it.
Don, let's take a look around the town, hmm?
Every answer seems to fit.
You're joking, aren't you?
I mean, there are no more.
If we don't stay in here until three o'clock,
something bad will happen to us?
Oh, time for heaven's sakes.
Read it.
Do you dare risk finding out?
And I like the, I think it was an hour long, the Gig Young one.
I think it was called Walking Distance. Yeah, yeah that's the we've talked about that here that's the bomber crashes in the desert uh no no no he he's his car stole
that's bob i love that bob is it yeah he bob cummings gig young's car stalls and he realizes he's like a mile away from where he grew up and then he goes there and
everything is exactly the same and then he sees himself as a little boy there
we just had a guest on this show rick who was in a twilight zone joyce van patten Joyce Van Patten. Oh, that's right. Which one was that? Oh, wait.
Here's something.
What? The actor who plays Gig Young's father in that episode is this actor.
He was a very good actor named Frank Overton.
Yes.
12 o'clock high.
Yes.
Well, that's right.
Very good.
Eighth Air Force Series. Yes. Yes. Well, that's right. Very good. Eighth Air Force Series.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We'd watch 12 o'clock high and combat.
Cover me, Rizzo.
You know?
Oh, yeah.
And so all that 60s Batman.
I, at first, was furious with Batman.
How so?
For being so corny.
Yeah.
And then I started to laugh at it and i let it go i caught
a batman by accident on me tv yesterday yeah and of course it has an actor who i think i've
mentioned on the podcast oh you caught a j a Joker episode? Yes. Oh, that's perfect.
And to make matters worse. Cesar Romero put makeup over his mustache.
Correct.
Because he's not shaving that shit for one week's work.
Yes, he did.
Yes.
So Cesar Romero's in it, and we all know his past.
I'm not sure Rick knows, but maybe you can tell him.
Oh, okay.
Well, I don't know.
I just know he was the Joker.
All right.
Sure.
You're twisting my arm.
What Cesar Romero was into was he'd gather up these young boy toys,
and then he'd pull down his pants and underwear, bend over,
and some say he was standing ankle deep in warm water.
I don't know.
Some say.
But then he would instruct the boys to throw orange wedges at his ass.
And some say it was tangerine wedges, but it was some kind of a six-wedge.
Get your facts right.
It can't be both oranges and tangerines.
You can't have them both, Gil.
So did he switch his name to the Stroker?
Yeah.
Very good.
Oh, but on this episode of Batman, you know, he starts riding around the truck like it's some hidden thing, you know.
And the name of the company on the truck is Gay Fellows.
Oh.
I remember this one.
Does the truck disappear?
I think so.
In 65, this is happening.
In 1965.
Yeah, it does.
The truck disappears.
It disappears in that great special effects they have in the 60s.
Yeah, which is stop the camera, roll the truck out, lock the sticks down, and rolling.
We had the pleasure of having Adam West and Burt Ward on this show, Rick,
and Julie Newmar and Lee Merriweather.
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Julie Newmar, huh?
Fantastic.
Yeah.
Wow.
Lee Merriweather, great.
Julie Newmar told Gil what she was into short guys.
There you go.
And as I recall, Lee Merriweather offered to spank you.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Were you being bad?
Yeah.
And then some.
Did you make a duty on the floor?
Yeah.
Yeah. I wanted her to.
You know, you can't just hit Gilbert.
You have to make him associated with what he did.
You have to hold his face right next to the shit and go, no.
Or you're just confusing him.
Oh, Lord.
Oh, my God.
And that's what bothered you about this Batman episode.
Gay fellow.
Gay fellow.
Yeah, I thought they must have known when they put that on there.
Gay fellow.
So that's an in-joke by them.
It wasn't really a known phrase yet.
Yeah.
I never heard that expression.
Had you ever heard? As a little kid, I didn't know about most of it. Had you ever heard? Because I was a little kid,
I didn't know about most of it.
Had you ever heard
that citrus story
before Gilbert told it?
No.
That's up there
with all the glass table
Danny Thomas.
Oh, yes.
Make room for duty,
you know.
Or make poo for daddy
was another one like that.
That's right.
Yeah.
Geez, another 50s favorite icon.
Oh, boy.
Destroyed.
Yeah.
And we're still trying to get Marlo Thomas on the show.
I don't know.
Not going to happen.
Probably not.
Your show will be at a different studio by then.
Yeah.
Rick, you're also a fan of impressionists, and I heard you mention that you love Frank Gorshin.
Yes.
Speaking of Batman.
Underrated. One of the greatest impressionists of allhin. Yes. Speaking of Batman. Underrated.
One of the greatest impressionists of all time.
Gilly, do you agree?
Yes.
Absolutely.
As an impressionist, do you agree?
Frank, do you agree?
I absolutely do.
Lancaster and Kirk Douglas were peerless.
Yes.
All of them were.
He didn't do bad impressions.
Widmark, too.
Frank Gorshin invented the Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.
Everyone who does those are just imitating him.
Right, yeah.
And a great Richard Widmark.
It's code-breaking, I call it.
Someone code-breaks the impression.
Figures it out some way.
The way the words break up.
Oh, yes.
And then every guy's going, click, click, note, note, scribble, scribble, you know.
Yeah, it's just like David Fry invented the Nixon.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
And Rich Little had the Carson.
Carson.
Right.
Yeah, John Beiner had some great ones, too.
Oh, he did.
Yeah.
Well, absolutely.
And, you know, Vaughn Meter, of course.
Vaughn Meter.
Well, absolutely.
And, you know, Vaughn Meter, of course.
Vaughn Meter.
Was stuck with a one-impression scenario there and couldn't quite get it back with Nixon stuff because someone else had the territory.
Do you remember the copycats?
Yes.
Yeah.
There was some great stuff on there.
Yeah.
A lot of it resorted back to John Wayne and, you know, a lot of the recognizable things. No one was breaking into the esoteric good stuff.
I think the first time I saw great esoteric impressions was Gilbert.
He made me think about him.
Well, nobody else.
It was totally based on seeing the weird, you know, doing guys from Mayberry, Floyd and shit.
Like, oh, God.
Look at them laugh at that.
I didn't know they would get all that.
That's great.
Yeah.
I used to do it. But sometimes I just like them to stare at me, scratching their heads as they do some obscure character actor that only I was a fan of.
I think that's when I fell in love with you.
Gilbert Gottfried's shush tour.
You doing Bob Dylan and Floyd the Barber.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The mix and match was lovely.
Fantastic. Favor us with match was lovely. Fantastic.
Just with a little bit of that. Go ahead.
Oh, yeah, which I still do,
of course. Still in the act. Let's hear it.
Hello,
Floyd.
Hello, Bob.
Hello,
Floyd.
I'm Bob. Here's my impression of Patrick Stewart receiving a crank call from a very stoned Ian McKellen.
Okay.
Ring, ring, ring.
Hello?
Hello?
Who is this?
Who do you think this is?
Why won't you identify yourself?
I want you to guess.
Well, wait a minute.
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
Oh, my God, we've blended.
Terrific.
They're quite different. Enjoyed you on Blunt blunt talk with mr stewart by the way oh that was fun chasing around with the golf club oh and there was marilyn michaels yeah we had we
had her on yeah she did all the female impressions oh fantastic yes marilyn's great yeah and remember
dear pam madison and pam mad Madison is a great impressionist.
And, oh, here's one of those scary moments on TV,
wonderfully uncomfortable moments,
that there used to be Friday night videos
where they would get two different guest hosts
and they would come on between the videos
and joke around and introduce the next
and so one time it was louis anderson and i forget who the girl was but she was a
girl impressionist okay yeah and and they uh started started to plug Louis Anderson's book.
And she's there.
She comes on as different characters.
You know, she was one segment.
She was, you know, Barbara Streisand.
And another, she's Mae West.
And now she's Cher.
And she's doing all the typical moves.
And now she's Cher.
And she's doing all the typical moves.
And then the – Louis Anderson starts talking and he goes, my father was an alcoholic.
And he would come home and I'd hide under the bed and I'd cry and wish that God would strike my father dead.
And so while he's doing this, she has to stay in character.
This is completely off book.
She's there and Cher, you know, hitting her hair back, you know, all the moves.
And she has to be a little serious and sympathetic as a Cher impersonator.
And she goes, oh, yeah, that's really bad, Louie.
Vamp, cover.
In character, stay in character, but vamp and cover.
Stretch.
Oh, that's great.
I didn't plan on her talking.
I only say three things she actually says.
We said all of them.
On the subject of impressions, you do a very
specific Larry Fine impression.
I understand. Oh, well,
it's up here. Up here in the nose.
Oh, no.
No.
And of course, it's kind of like,
you know, stimpy.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because it's the, you know. Donimpy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's the, you know.
Don't you do Larry having his hair pulled out?
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,
ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,
ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, do something silly. Oh, yes. Because up until now... Yes, I'd like to slow things down and do
an acoustic joke for everyone. We've been
keeping our self-respect.
Rick, I think you have the page with you that was
sent along. I got it right in front of me.
Gilbert's going to start it off.
He's going to do...
This is a James Mason off.
James Mason duel. We're going to do Ed. If you will. And Gil's going to start, this is a James Mason off. James Mason duel.
We're going to do Ed. If you will. And Gil's
going to start by doing James Mason from the
verdict. Okay.
I'm going to
tell you something that I
learned when I
was your age.
I prepared a case
and old man Wright
said to me, how did you do?
And I said, did my best.
And he said, you're not paid to do your best.
You're paid to win.
And that's what pays for this office.
Pays for my whiskey. Pays for my whiskey.
Pays for your clothes.
Pays for the leisure we have to sit back and discuss philosophy.
And we're doing tonight.
We're paid to win the case.
You wanted to come back and practice the case. You wanted to come back
and practice the law.
You wanted to come back
to the world.
Welcome back.
Beautiful.
That smashing older Mason man
with the slower spread out
on the words, baby.
Yeah, starting to stretch.
Yeah, that's great.
The heaven can...
Really, you can see this is like one of the last things he's going to do, right?
Yeah, the heaven can wait, James Mason.
Yeah, right.
Beautiful.
And the boys from Brazil, James Mason.
Yeah, right.
Of course, the difference.
Yeah, sure.
And Rick's going to do the slightly younger version.
Oh, okay.
He's going to do Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Yes.
Think of it. On the
surface, there is hunger and fear.
Men still
exercise unjust laws.
They fight, tear one another
to pieces. A mere
few feet beneath the waves,
their reign ceases. Their evil
grounds. Here, on the oceanases, their evil drowns.
Here on the ocean floor is the only independence.
Here I am free.
Imagine what would happen if they controlled machines such as this submarine boat.
Far better that they think there's a monster and hunt me with harpoons.
Nice. Oh.
That was lovely.
Thanks.
Well, I got tough competition.
Getting that nuance.
You know, it's so interesting to do guys younger and older.
Remember young Jack Nicholson was way up here
before all the cocaine and pills and pot and pubic hairs
took it down, down, down.
That's great.
I swear, I've always thought when Jack Nicholson got older, there was a little bit of Don Knotts.
Wow.
You know, because he had that part in the voice.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Later, it all, you know, listen, we're all going to meet vocally in a few years.
And we won't be able to tell who's talking on the fucking phone, you know.
We better enjoy these impressions now, baby.
And I think unintentionally Al Pacino, he turned into Falcon Lycon.
That's hilarious.
Yeah.
I always thought, remember in the early days when he would talk with his teeth closed?
Yeah.
Even when his jaw wasn't broken, he was talking like this, like very tough.
Because it's like he knew.
He knew if he opened his teeth, out would come the monster.
That's hilarious.
Hoo-ha!
Not going back in the bottle.
Rick, didn't you do Captain Nemo in a commercial?
Yeah, for Capital One.
You thought to do a Mason and found out that you couldn't go in that direction?
They didn't want me to do it.
They said the estate could sue me for using his likeness.
Isn't that funny, Gil?
And, well, they sued me when I said James Mason lied under a glass coffee table.
Really?
20,000 leagues under my pee.
Oh, he's fast.
He's fast.
Oh, my gosh.
Thank you, Cindy. Thank you, Cindy.
Thank you, Coco.
You both performed wonderfully.
You can grab your things and go.
Where do we go here? I remember in Boys from Brazil, he goes,
Dr. Mengele, your plan is canceled.
And then Gregory Pecker's canceled.
I have not been canceled.
You have been canceled.
Oh, that's great.
Fantastic.
The visor angle.
Let's see, where do we go here, Rick?
There's so many places to go.
Movie roles and impressions and stand-up.
Let's just talk real quick,
because I heard you tell some interesting stories
about Million Dollar Mystery.
Oh, yeah.
Which we brought up.
Well, you know what it was supposed to be.
The movie, it was supposed to be the sort of wink-wink redo
of Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with the best kids.
All of our favorite comedians in the world were supposed to.
And I says, oh, this is our chance to do something
like our heroes did.
And there were a
bunch of attempts
to remake Mad...
There was Rat Race.
Cannonballs, all of those things.
Crazy Chase. Any crazy
Chase. There was Scavenger Hunt.
Oh, that's right.
Are you missing the other connection here hands speaking you know are you missing
the other connection here yeah go ahead you know who directed it who richard fleischer richard
fleischer 20 000 leagues under the sea yeah that's right i thought you had the connect yeah that's
i have it here this is richard fleischer tour tour tour you know uh fantastic voyage wasn't
he the replacement director didn't didn't he in late, Richard Fleischer, on that movie?
By the time I was in, he was in, so I didn't get the rest of the story.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I made a funny cast.
Yeah, I got cast, and that was all I heard.
And Million Dollar Mystery, that-
Directed by Richard Fleischer, yeah.
Yeah.
The poster was a big glad bag.
And it's like, gee, I wonder.
Filled with ones.
How convenient.
Yeah.
And I thought, gee, I wonder if there's any product placement going on here.
What was Fleischer like, Rick?
He also directed Fantastic Voices.
I admired him and adored him and fawned at him, and he was lovely.
That's nice.
So it was a very pleasant experience working with him.
Soylent Green he directed.
Oh, my gosh.
He directed a lot of things we love and wanted to take a crack at a wacky comedy.
Well, I mean, I watched it the other day, and there's a lot of funny stuff in it.
You're funny.
Rich Hall is funny.
Your buddy Pollock is funny.
Eddie Deason's in it.
Travis is great with Patofsky.
Yeah, Patofsky.
Patofsky.
Patofsky.
Mack and Jamie are great as the two feds.
Mack and Jamie are the two feds.
Oh, my God.
Jamie got a new heart.
Jamie got a new heart.
Jamie got a new heart installed.
Yay, we love you, Jamie.
Welcome back to both two feet and walking around, baby.
Oh, that's good to hear.
He got a new heart.
Put it right in.
Start it right up.
Funny cast.
And what happened?
A 14-year-old girl wound up winning the million dollars?
That's it.
And a lot of people guessed where the money was, that it was hidden in the statue.
Dennis Miller had a great line.
He said the movie made more money from the change that the people found in the back of the seats.
From the change that the people found in the back of the seats.
I said, you know, your movie's in trouble when it's playing on the airliner on the way to the premiere.
Okay. When you mentioned Soylent Green, somebody told me they went to Charlton Heston's house.
And it was obviously there was some, like, you know,
get-together going on there.
He heard a lot of people.
And, you know, he knocks on the door.
Charlton Heston is there.
He answers, and he's got, like, a milk mustache going.
And he says to him with a smile, he goes,
Milk and cookies
oh god i can see it i can so clearly see it with the showing off the teeth and everything right
oh man is that fantastic um you know the story about walking, Chris walking.
Someone saw him in the water in Central Park, and he's just submerged under one of those old walkway bridges.
And then someone looked down at him, and he's got his eyes closed, his shirt's off, and he's got his arms up like King Tut and his head's down.
And he looks up at the person and goes, today I'm an alligator.
And that's it.
That's what I said.
Supposed to be a crazy little true story also i i remember you remember when esquire used to do those one page celebrity things where like the celebrity would, you know, say everything in one sentence or two that would have to do with what I learned growing up, what my career means to me, what my father taught me, all those things.
And so they were doing one with Nicholson.
And, you know, he was talking about what, you know, acting means to him, what his childhood was.
And then out of nowhere, Nicholson goes, want to know what it would be like to fuck Britney Spears?
Life changing.
Phenomenal.
Oh, Lord.
Yeah, who's?
Oh, and there's... Here's another quick impression.
I just want to throw it in very quickly.
Here's Harrison Ford.
Close the trailer door.
You're letting all the smoke out.
Excellent. close the trailer door you're letting all the smoke out excellent yeah i i was in this restaurant all the time.
And her son said, he's here because he has the munchies.
He's a total pothead.
Yeah, you're going to finish those?
Okay.
Why, no, Mr. Ford.
Yeah, just hand them over.
Here's a story that Roger Ebert told that when he was a reporter, he was sent to interview Lee Marvin.
And Lee Marvin said.
Oh, I love this story.
Yeah, he's sitting by his pool in a bathrobe and he's smoking a cigarette and drinking a scotch oh lee marvin
old hollywood and his little dog is running around yapping and uh in the middle of the interview
lee marvin's wife comes home she was away for a couple of days and she goes, hi, everybody. And he introduces her to Ebert.
And she says hello.
And then she sees the dog is biting something and playing with something in its mouth.
And she goes, oh, what do you have in your mouth? And she takes it out of his mouth.
And it's a pair of women's underwear.
And she holds them up.
And she goes, these aren't mine and lee marvin looks down
and he goes bad dog I love two-word punchlines like that.
That's great.
Rick, you want to talk a little bit about Willow?
You and your buddy Kevin?
Well, you know, another brilliant impressionist, Kevin Pollack.
He is terrific.
Oh, yes.
Oh, my God.
So we kind of – some interesting notes about there.
We were designed by comic artist Mobius Jean Giraud.
Yeah.
And we modified the design a little bit.
You and Kevin were the brownies.
Yeah, we came up with some gags for the brownies.
He came up with the bald head and the rat thing on top,
and I had sort of a yuppie sweater made from a dead rat skin.
Back when yuppies were a thing.
And so I was the arrogant douche of the two,
and Kevin was the sidekick who would get drunk.
And we had a lot of fun.
So, you know, I mean, we held the record for the most amount of little dudes superimposed by process into a film scene since the record held by Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
I love that.
Oh, wow.
That's a fun thing.
We were the next to most amount of little spliced in people.
Did you meet Billy Barty?
They invented morphing for the film.
Oh, wow.
Oh, they did.
It went to it, and the second use of it was Michael Jackson's
You're Black, You're White, you know the song where the faces...
Oh, yes, yes.
Yeah, that's all from ILM.
I heard you tell two interesting things too about that movie one is
that lucas came into direct for a day yeah every now and then he'd come in there and he would say
faster funnier faster funnier i love it did you get to meet billy barney no we were shot in
san rafael he wasn't used for that process he was in new zealand on location and we were shot in San Rafael. He wasn't used for that process.
He was in New Zealand on location, and we were just up at where ILM used to be in San Rafael.
So five weeks straight of just us and blue screen, and, you know, be scared of the tennis ball with an X of tape on it,
and run from the light fixture, make sure not to.
And we had bare feet, so we had to feel for where our tape mark was with our feet.
Because you can't look down, otherwise you're doing a Spencer Tracy.
Oh, that's right.
You guys are a great duo in that.
Thanks.
Really fun.
You really have to hit marks with that shit, too.
Or you're walking right through a tree.
Good.
Then we go that way, to the lake.
That way.
You are drunk.
And when you are drunk, you forget that I am in charge.
Fine. Then which way do we go?
That way!
Oh, no!
That's the way I'm going.
All right, all right.
You can follow me as far as the lake, but that's it.
You're not going south, are you?
No, no.
Just as far as the lake.
Good.
Mumbo, Jumbo, I am hungry.
Go get me some eggs or something.
We are not afraid of you.
Now!
Now!
Here's something else.
Both you and Gilbert are in Beverly Hills Cop movies.
That's right.
Yeah.
You're in the second one and Rick's in the first.
Yep.
That's it.
Yeah.
Eddie was a pal to us both.
Yeah.
It was good to us both.
Going back to the triplets, the identical triplets.
Right.
Oh, God.
Of which there were four.
Right.
Right, right, right.
Rob Bartlett did have, and then, you know, Jim Myers.
And you had done improv with Eddie.
That's kind of how you wound up in that movie.
Yeah.
The scene was improvised.
A lot of it.
You know, I gave him the line about, and you better have that paperwork out for me in this office,
or I'm going to check up your ass with a microscope, the iron ones from school.
What about your scene?
What about Sidney's scene?
You know, we improvised through the rhythm.
We found the beat and the rhythm of it.
We improvised.
You gave him a minute.
Yeah, I remember they had written some scene that had nothing funny about it.
Right.
And then me and Eddie just started, like, whatever popped into our heads.
And we'd do it different each time and start laughing.
You were wonderful, man.
What about Groundhog Day?
And he railroads you, too.
It's great.
Yes.
What about Groundhog Day?
Rick, same thing? A lot of fun. You know, Rick Dukeman, who we just lost recently. Real funny man. Yes. What about Groundhog Day? Rick, same thing?
A lot of fun.
You know, Rick Dukeman, who we just lost recently.
Real funny man.
Yes.
He and I and Harold were getting along with Bill because everybody's an improviser then in that whole scene.
So we came up with a lot of the drunk shit that we come up with.
I'm flopping all over the place, and they let me come up with physical stuff to do.
So, you know, I'm anxious to see the musical,
to see the guy that does the part,
the amalgam part, me and Duke.
I mean, yeah.
It seemed like for a while you were cornering the market
as the dumb guy in the bar.
Right, dumb guy in bar.
Hey, people say, hey, you don't want to get typecast.
They go,
shut the fuck up
and let me work, motherfucker.
What are you doing to me?
You're killing me here.
That's what always drives me crazy.
Yes.
These people will say,
Let me get the gig.
Oh, they're always casting me
in the same roles.
Oh, poor baby.
Boo fucking hoo.
Or these actors,
like black actors, will say, oh, they're always making me a gang member.
Or the girls saying, oh, I'm always this sexy.
Well, take the fucking job.
Hey, there's not a lot of work.
You know, they're shipping it all the way to other cities right now.
Yeah, and it's like. It's lot enough work in your one town anymore if if you feel like you're
being typecast uh tell that to the actor who's serving you the burgers at mcdonald's yeah right
yeah tell that to henry winkler he's got he's got doing just fine yeah he started a production
company with fonzie money dummy pretty good he's just fine. Although Henry Winkler does talk about how they offered him the role in Grease,
and he wanted a break out of the Fonzie character,
so he turned it down, and he realizes that was a really stupid fucking move.
Yeah.
You know, I guess we all got a couple of those under our belt.
The Miraculous are still here swinging away like Papillon on a sack of coconuts, you know.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, what drove me crazy in Papillon.
Which Papillon?
New or old Papillon?
Oh, the Steve McQueen.
There's a new one?
Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
Yes.
Okay.
The Steve McQueen. There's a new one?
Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
Yes.
Okay.
Is that there's one part in his escape where he winds up on a tropical island where they make him like an honored guest, like a king.
And he's surrounded by these beautiful naked native girls.
But he's still not happy because he's not truly free.
And I thought, fuck you.
This is what every other man dreams about.
And you've got it.
Fuck you, you're not free.
You've got it.
Fuck you.
You're not free.
And remember Dustin having trouble leaving the prison once the gates were open?
Oh, that's right.
Yeah, I like that movie. He had a real – he had a snappy head motion that reminded me very much of –
A Midnight Cowboy?
Well, his head was popping around so much.
It reminded me of – God, who's the other young actor?
Ferris Bueller.
Oh, Matthew Broderick.
Yes.
Remember a young – he had a, hmm, what, huh, head?
It would snap, snap, snap back and forth.
It reminded me of that because at the end it goes, Yeah, I remember.
Real stiff robotic motion at the end there.
Turned him into a robot.
Yeah, I remember Dustin Hoffman in that movie saying to Steve McQueen,
Maybe you would like to think about starting your own garden.
That's a little David Brenner in that Dustin Hoffman impression.
With those big, thick, round glasses.
Here's a fun role for you, Rick.
Tell us about being in The Rocketeer, a movie that Gilbert and I like.
Joe Johnson's a buddy of mine since the connection to Willow as he worked on Willow and the effects at the time.
And we became buddies from that point on.
point on. And he, this is just about two years, one or two years later, he calls up and says,
hey, you want to be in The Rocketeer, which I loved the comic when I knew Dave.
Dale, the late Dave Stevens.
Poor Dave.
Yeah, talented man.
Brilliant. Nice guy. And so I said, heck yeah, I want to be in the movie. What do you got? And he goes, you want to come down to the clamshell scene? I said, yeah, yeah, I want to be in the movie. What do you got? He goes, you want to come down to the clamshell scene?
I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love it.
Great.
A big set.
Okay, cool.
He's going to fly around on the rocket pack in the ballroom.
Awesome.
He said, how would you like to be in the trailer?
I said, how do you do that?
You're going to say the name of the movie.
And so I went, oh, I'm on the dance floor.
Wyatt's the Rocketeer.
Very cool.
And Gilbert and I love that film
because there's an actor made up to look like Rondo Hatton.
Oh, that's right.
That big Rondo-looking dude.
Man, we got a great job.
Yeah.
So much to like about that movie.
And they make Errol Flynn a Nazi spy.
Right, there's an Errol Flynn character
and a Howard Hughes character.
Oh, that's right.
Right.
Yeah, Terry.
Yeah, Terry O'Quinn.
Terry O'Quinn, who I worked with on, again, before, earlier on
Blind Fury.
And.
Oh, yes.
And Jennifer Connelly, Jew.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Connelly.
She's the love interest.
Yeah.
Well, I guess her mother was probably a Jew.
But greatest hits ever.
Jennifer Connelly.
So says Gilbert Gottfried.
So declares.
Criswell speaks.
I'd like it to be a blurb on the poster.
Greatest hits ever, Gilbert Gottfried.
That's a good-looking movie, too.
There's a lot to like about that movie.
It deserved more press from the movie makers, don't you think?
Oh, and Alan Arkin.
I mean, it's got all kinds of things going for it.
Alan Arkin's doing that funny kind of southern accent.
He's great.
Big western guy, yeah.
Yeah.
My favorite take is when he's in the back of the truck and he launches the pack to get them out of there,
and he's pushing the truck forward, and you see him just holding onto the wheel zipping by that was fun yeah it was a really
fun movie i had a fun couple of days shooting it yep rick you work like crazy i mean i'm looking
at your imdb page and you're talking about you know let me work there's just yeah i'm very thank
you thank you very much very grateful to uh jim carrey for I'm Dying Up Here. Yeah, yeah. Tell us about that.
Oh, it's all about this.
You got to work with an Oscar winner?
Yeah.
Melissa Leo?
A lot of my scenes are with Melissa, so I'm very grateful to have that opportunity to do that.
And Mitch Bombadier, we should point out, is not a real person.
No, he's an amalgam.
He's sort of a de Cordova because I have a sort of deep voice because I remember when Freddy de Cordova brought me into his office.
And he was going to look over my comedy material.
And he would tell me, you know, Jack Benny could get a laugh with dead silence.
Helpful.
Yeah, but – so I'd sort of, so, okay, which part on here?
No, I'm just a general.
I'm just, oh, okay.
At least he knew who you were.
He didn't know who Gilbert was.
Yes.
Fred DeCordova.
Freddie didn't know you?
I was doing a sketch on the show with, you know,
and Jay Leno was.
Right, I remember.
I was doing a sketch, and Freddy DeCordova,
who was much older then, of course,
he turns to one of the writers, and he says,
who is that kid?
And he goes, that's Gilbert Gottfried.
And he goes, what does he do here? And he goes, that's Gilbert Gottfried. And he goes, what does he do here?
And he goes, he's a comedian.
He's been in movies and TV.
And he goes, oh, I thought he was just some kid who worked up here.
Oh, nice.
I'm trying to bring a lot of that to the part.
You're very good at it.
It's a good series.
Oh, well, listen, I mean, if you're going to be working
with Melissa Leo, you better. Yeah, it's very
smart. Thank you
so much. And it's a great
show for everybody. Everyone's doing a
great turn in it. I hope you're
on this season, Gilly.
Yeah, I
always like when the producer comes up to me after a series been off
the air and then he goes ah you should have been on my show i've heard that so many times
where were you where were you doing this oh i just appeared just appeared. I'm sorry. I'm just at 63. I just recently appeared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Where was I?
I was sitting in a chair by the phone.
I made soup.
I came back.
Hey, Rick, here's one from one of our listeners.
We have a thing that we do on Patreon called Grill the Guest.
And one of our listeners named John Mueller has a question for you.
Wants to know from Rick, what was it like to play a centuries-old villain on The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne?
It was flat-out awesome because I was also the creative consultant on the show.
I designed a lot of the ships and the machinery and the weaponry.
show designing a lot of, I designed a lot of the ships and the machinery and the weaponry
and I would hand it off to
Minert Hansen and Phil Stamp to
refine the artwork and then straight down to
construction and two weeks later my rough sketch
is a set on the set downstairs.
And I was the Count Gregory thanks to
Gavin Scott and Pierre Delapointe
and we shot up
in Montreal for a year.
Did you work with David Warner?
Yes! I did work with the David Warner, man.
How about that?
There's a guy we love.
Lovely, lovely fella.
Oh, man, we love him.
Time after time.
Yeah, Arago.
And I was his enemy.
Yeah, he was terrific.
He's still around.
We've got to get him for this show.
We love him.
We love us, yeah.
Yeah, Omen, time after time.
Oh, Straw Dogs?
Come on, Straw Dogs, yeah. Time after time. Yeah, him. We love us. Omen. Straw Dogs.
Time After Time.
The greatest one.
Greatest time machine ever made.
Tell Gilbert, and I don't think Gilbert knew this,
that you made miniatures.
No, I did know that.
Oh, you did? Yeah, because every now and then you'd show me something you were
working on. Yeah, and those little things
I was showing you landed me the job
of creative consulting on Secret Adventures of Jules Verne.
And then I was saying, since I'm already up here,
why don't you put me in the bad guy getup since I'm an actor?
And that's the order it went in.
I remember you would make these little like kind of Star Wars type ships.
Yeah, yeah, little steampunky, little weird things.
And so I put them on display at Puzzle Zoo on the promenade in Santa Monica,
and they noticed and called me in.
Have you been to Bob Burns' place in L.A.?
Yes.
Rick?
Yeah.
I thought that was a nice little connection for you.
I was at the Acker Mansion.
Oh, I was at the Acker Mansion.
Yeah, very cool.
I've never been to Bob Burns' place.
I'll have to make a trip out there.
Well, he's got the King Kong miniature, the armature that I thought that Rick would get a kick out of.
Oh, see, now what Foy Ackerman had were the dinosaurs from King Kong, like the metal part of them.
Yeah.
Dinosaurs from King Kong, like the metal part of them.
Yeah.
He also had the blown up aluminum hull to the albatross.
You know, Vincent Price's albatross.
Mr. Strzok, you have to join me.
We'll rule the world together.
He does Vincent Price too.
Yes.
Fantastic.
I'd like to point out that Drew Friedman says Fari Ackerman was a nudist.
Just for...
I just want to throw that in there.
For no reason.
Yeah, the Vincent...
My favorite Vincent Price moment is in the Tingler,
where it's like,
scream, scream for your lives.
The Tingler is loose in the theater.
And then after all the scream for your lives. The tingler is loose in the theater. And then
after all the scream for your lives,
he goes, we now resume
the movie.
When you're all tidied up.
I heard your
interview on Rick's podcast.
Rick had a wonderful podcast.
And you were on there, and you were plugging our show, which shocked me.
I hope I didn't mention your name.
You didn't.
Of course.
Your record is intact.
But you actually, Rick was excited that we had Bella Jr.
Bella Jr.
Yes.
And Sarah Karloff on the show.
Oh, boy.
We also had Vincent Price's daughter on the show.
And Lon Chaney Jr.'s grandson,loff on the show. We also had Vincent Price's daughter on the show. And Lon Chaney
Jr.'s grandson,
Ron Chaney. Yes, we had Ron
Chaney. And now see if
Rick knows who our special guest was.
The one, the
special booking that you were
clamoring for. This is the one I was
yelling to get.
Janet Ann Gallo.
Oh, I don't know. Okay get Janet Ann Gallo. I don't know.
Okay.
Janet Ann Gallo in Ghost of Frankenstein,
where Lon Chaney Jr. is the monster and Bela Lugosi is back as Igor,
the monster encounters a little girl being bullied by these boys,
and he shows up and scares the boys away.
But the little girl was Janet Ann Gallo, and she's still alive today.
We got her on.
She hadn't acted in about 40 years.
And she told a story that, well, Cheney loved her
and would bring her ice cream every day.
And that Chaney and Lugosi in full monster makeup in between filming, they play hide and go seek with her.
And I thought that to me would have been my ideal childhood.
Having Lugosi play hide and go seek.
Oh, man.
Only this show.
And what would it sound like when he finds her?
I found you, little girl.
That was his Igor voice.
Very good.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Very good.
I remember when he shows up at, I think it's Lionel Atwill is Dr. Frankenstein in that.
And, oh, no, no, no.
It was, oh, somebody else.
You know.
If anyone would know, it's you.
Fuck, I forget an English actor.
We'll have Paul look it up.
Yes.
Oh, okay.
And he'll come back in three years.
Paul, you with us?
Yeah.
Hey.
Are you still doing that other bit?
Yeah.
Hey.
Paul.
Hey, Paul, who played the Dr. Frankenstein in Ghost of Frankenstein?
Come back to it.
Not J. Carol Nash.
Oh, maybe Cedric Hardwick.
Sir Cedric Hardwick.
Yes.
Oh, Sir Cedric Hardwick.
That sounds good.
Yes.
So Lugosi, as Igor, shows up, and Hardwick goes, you know,
he doesn't want to operate and make the monster stronger.
So he goes, I've got a good life here.
I've got friends and the respect of the community and a good practice.
And Lugosi goes, and you wouldn't want to ruin that, would you?
It's so detailed.
It's so good.
Wonderful.
Splendid.
That's when Lugosi was actually, you could see he was able to do character work.
Yeah, right.
Well, he's a good Igor.
Oh, he was great as Igor.
Yeah, that was his part.
Yeah.
He's no Marty Landau, but he was great, yeah.
No.
Rick, we got to ask you about the great Jonathan Winters.
Yes.
And your friendship with him.
Yeah.
Well, I had done in the late 80s, I did a showtime quick sketch with him an improv with him he was
the uh marty and people were at his funeral oh maude oh yes which is that where maude was about
to die and they're all trying to get in the will and that was which johnny carson completely stole
from him oh completely didn't even deny it aunt bl Blabby? Yes. Aunt Blabby was
Maude Frickert. Absolutely.
He was faster with it.
Up here.
Whereas Jonathan
No.
He's so
hip. You know, he had hidden hip things.
He had little. Because he had to be
hidden hip then. You couldn't be overtly hip.
I mean, this cat was doing this and this cat was doing that.
He was using some hip terminology, but he was hiding all kinds of edgy shit in there.
He used to tell you, I remember seeing the Robin Hood movies and I'd be in the back of
the room and you have to wait in the way back of the room there because you'd be there.
Made Marian.
He's talking about jerking off.
In a theater, it's like, oh, my God, I didn't even, as a kid, I missed it completely.
Oh, you clever guy.
You had, of course, to hide all that, you know. He had to sneak all these little buzz things in there to be edgy.
Clever man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I met Jonathan Winters once.
Where?
And it was like we were both doing some show.
We weren't working together, but we were both on it.
And I shared a dressing room with him, I think, or I was invited into his dressing room.
And we were talking and there were other people there.
And every now and then I always start daydreaming and he would turn to me in the middle
of what he was saying oh yeah yeah you're zoning out a little huh yeah we lost you gilbert
and i remember jonathan winter saying to me that is his parents warned him don't start fooling around with women all over the place
and and be careful with your money and he goes so now i have no money and then he points to his
crotch and he goes and mr pencil doesn't work anymore anymore.
Wonderful.
What do you got, Paul?
Hang on a minute, Rick.
We got something here on Ghost of Frankenstein.
What do we need to know?
I got the cast up.
Dr. Frankenstein.
Okay, let's see.
So, not the monster?
No, the scientist.
Yes.
Ludwig Frankenstein, Cedric Harding. So, not the monster? No, the scientist. Yes. Scientist.
Ludwig Frankenstein, Cedric Hardwick.
He's got it.
I just said that.
Cedric Hardwick.
He nailed it, baby.
Yeah, he got it right after I said it, like a half hour ago.
I said, Sir Cedric Hardwick, but Paul comes in like an hour later and goes, hey, look what I found.
He's going to take the credit for it.
The thing with research is you get what you pay for.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Did we know that Ralph Bellamy was also in this?
Ralph Bellamy.
Yes.
And who played Igor?
Bela Gosi.
If you are listening to the show, we talked about all this for like a fucking hour.
We were talking about this.
We were like Robin Osborn on Turner Classic Movies.
We discussed it in full.
Get the fuck out of here, Paul.
You really make me sick. Get the fuck out of here. You really make me sick.
Get the fuck out.
And that is, of course, your Jack Grahame impression.
Oh, yes, yes.
Get the fuck out of the house.
Get the fuck out of the house.
Whatever happened to him?
I saw him in Hollywood about 10 years ago.
I was up on Freiman Canyon.
I was hiking up there and ran into him.
He was with Bruce Mahler.
Bruce Mahler from Fridays.
Oh, yes.
You know Bruce, of course.
Funny guy.
And, yeah, the two of them were just hiking the other way.
And we talked for a minute and then headed off.
But that's the last I saw of him.
And, you know, oh, I have a funny story about that.
You know, he used to go on as Bert Vonnegut because he looked like Kurt Vonnegut.
Oh, yes.
So back in the 70s, I was just like late 70s.
I'd just broken up with Roger.
And I was trying to sneak into the back of Studio 54 when someone came out for a smoke break to come outside.
I was going to catch the door and walk in the back.
Oh, yes.
Pretend to be one of their friends as they go back in.
Yes.
But as I was walking up there, I saw this dude with curly hair
and a big fluffy mustache sitting on the step looking all downtrodden
and out the back there.
And I went, hey, hey, Jack.
I thought it was Jack.
And he going, hey.
Because maybe he just thought I said, hey, Jack.
Yeah. It was just, hey, dude. And I walk up to him. It's not Jack. It's Kurt, hey. Because maybe he just thought I said, hey, Jack. Yeah.
It was just, hey, dude.
You know?
And I walk up to him.
It's not Jack.
It's Kurt Vonnegut.
Wow.
Oh, wow.
Freaky.
Yeah.
So we're sitting there talking on the step for like an hour just about the world and everything. And do you know, like, I've gotten a handful of, you know, celebrity phone numbers where it's like Jonathan Winters,
when we met that time, he gave me his home number and said,
oh, you know, give me a call and let's talk.
Norman Feld gave me his number.
We know where this goes.
And, oh, and, oh, George Carlin.
George Carlin.
George Carlin gave me his.
But I always.
Would he leave you messages?
No, no.
Hello, fuckface.
Hello, douchebag.
I never called any of them.
And I'm sorry I didn't.
But, you know, to me.
Didn't want to be nudgy, right?
Yeah.
And also, the few times I've called a celebrity after they've given me their number, it's kind of like when you meet a girl and she goes, oh, oh, you got to call me.
Here, here.
I'm writing down my number.
Here, read that.
Read that to me.
Make sure you can see it.
And, oh, and then here's my answering service.
And here's my work number.
And, oh, call me, call me, call me.
And then you call them and it's like, yeah.
What do you want?
Yeah.
And we met at Susan's party.
Uh-huh.
I remember.
It's kind of like your meeting with Bea Arthur.
Oh, yes.
Which was memorable.
Uh-oh.
What happened there?
I was at some event and or some show, and I run into Bea Arthur.
And she goes, hello, Gilbert.
And I'd never worked with her or met her.
And I said, oh, hello, Bea.
And she goes, so how are you feeling?
And I said, good, and you?
And then she goes, are you still living in the same place? And I go, she's never been to my place. All right. Yeah. Yeah, I am. And you? And she goes, yes. And then there's like about a five-minute pause of silence.
And she goes, do we know each other or do we just know each other from TV?
And I said, I think we know each other from TV.
And she turns around and walks away.
Still funny.
Thanks.
But Rick, you were starting to say George Carlin left you messages?
Yeah.
I know you guys were friends.
Hello, fuckface.
He had me teach him the Sean Connery impression, which now no one in the audience even knows who it is.
Well, our audience does.
They would appreciate it.
It's so old, even I won't do it.
Well, you guys want to do this?
It's so outdated, Gilbert Gottfried won't touch it.
Yeah.
So maybe instead I'll do someone else.
Rick's got a good impression.
He's going to try it out.
And we'll try this. And I'll do mine as David Rick's got a good impression. He's going to try it out. And we'll try this.
And I'll do mine as David Brenner.
Okay.
That's great.
This is a scene from the producers starring, if I have this correctly, David Brenner and Morgan Freeman.
So, Rick, you can start us off.
I assume you are making those cartoon noises to attract my attention.
Am I correct in the assumption you fish-faced enemy of the people?
I have hurt your feelings.
Thor, may I thank you for a minute?
Go. Thor, you have 58 seconds.
Well, sir, it seems... You have 48 seconds left. Hurry, hurry.
I'm working on your books. I discovered that...
28 seconds. Hurry, hurry.
Go, use enough time.
Mr. Beyond Dog, I can't
function under these
conditions. You're making
me extremely nervous.
What is
that? A handkerchief?
It's nothing. Nothing.
If it's nothing,
why can't I see it?
My blanket! Give me my blue blanket!
Here, don't panic.
I'm sorry, I don't like people touching my blue blanket.
It's not important, it's a minor compulsion.
I can deal with it if I want to.
But I've had it ever since I was a baby.
And I find it very comforting.
They come here.
They all come here.
How do they find me?
That was bizarro.
Truly bizarre.
Oh, reminds me of the old days.
Oh, my God, yeah.
Yeah.
What fun.
And I just remembered my favorite David Brenner line.
Which is?
He told a story.
And now he goes into a bit about how men are always bragging how many times they could fuck in one night.
Okay.
You know, and they're bragging like, oh, yeah, like 20 times and 30 times.
What?
And David Brenner goes, when are guys going to finally admit that after the first time, it's like trying to hammer a nail with a fish? fish.
Ah, that's such a good impression, too.
Wonderful.
Ah, Rick, so much to ask you about. So much we could cover.
Anyway,
we should wrap it up.
Yes.
This has
been Gilbert Gottfried's
Amazing Colossal Podcast
with my co-host Frank
Santopadre
and
the lipless.
Screwface Overton.
The frighteningly deformed.
The old children.
Don't look at him.
He's not human.
Rick trigger face.
He triggers people with his face.
The very funny and our old pal, Rick Overton.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you, Gary.
Funny and prolific.
What fun.
Rick, this has been great.
Thanks for coming.
Thank you for having me.
What a ball.
Oh, man.
I'm dying here.
You got anything you want to plug before you go, Rick?
You got some movies coming out?
I'm going to be coming out.
I would like to plug Scarlett Johansson.
We established that.
That's a whole other story.
So I'm going to be coming up on
the ABC series Speechless
around Thanksgiving. And they're picking a week
for it to go either before and after one or the other, they told me.
So it's going to be right around there.
Wonderful. This has been a blast, guys.
And then I'm dying up here and
look back on some of the recent episodes
of Veep. Oh, that's right.
Veep, too. You were in everything. I mean, you're
in Seinfeld. You're in Lost. We read Curb Your
Enthusiasm. We read a bunch at the top.
I mean, you just, you are a working actor,
my friend. Grateful to be so
and grateful to be on your show. It was a kick.
And it was nice finally meeting you.
It was lovely to finally
not meet you in person.
Well, thank you again, Rick.
Thank you.
Thanks, Rick.
Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast is produced by
Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre,
with audio production by Frank Verderosa.
Our researchers are Paul Rayburn and Andrea Simmons.
Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden,
Greg Pair, and John Bradley-Seals.
Special audio contributions by John Beach. Special thanks to
John Murray, John Fodiatis, and Nutmeg Creative.
Especially Sam Giovanko and Daniel Farrell for their assistance. Thank you.