Name: The Best Of Denzel Washington | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-08-20T15:01:31.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Best Of Denzel Washington | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-08-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Best Of Denzel Washington | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-08-20. Transcript available.

The Best Of Denzel Washington | David Letterman

uh i want to tell you a little something about a man named denzel washington
thoughts paul
i love denzel and he was a guest many times wasn't he i think 15 16 times yeah
uh but forget
beyond being a great guest and he was a great guest when you see this man's
work when you see
him acting it's like oh everybody else take a number maybe we'll call you he is
so good uh so
believable and just one of these guys it's a gift and and boy does he make
every as much as you can
out of that wonderful gift fantastic actor once when he would come on the show
yeah he would be
he would have incredibly interesting stories i liked him very well and i got
the feeling he liked me
many guests didn't but i think that he did and we we did a show one night
without an audience
was there a reason for that uh just poor ticket sales i see uh but and so we
did a show anyway
it was the result of hurricane sandy yeah oh i do remember yeah the audience
couldn't make it in
that's correct yes and uh so we were apprehensive because we have always worked
with the audience
and depended on the audience for their interaction and their response and denzel
no bigger star in the
world than denzel said i got no problem i'll come out and just talk and he did
uh and it was it was a great
night and uh you know of all the guests that we we had we were really lucky to
have this guy on and it the
longer we are out of that business the more you realize these people were just
tremendous in their craft
indeed it was so and he and he had a great sense of humor yeah very funny love
to laugh yeah so here
take a look at this denzel washington on the old show you look great
occasionally let's do it together
you want to do it together for a little a lot of fun isn't it uh you know i was
watching uh this movie
the inside man and i uh turned to uh well actually there was nobody there uh i
was by myself and i was
thinking as i was watching you in the movie i said to myself i my life would be
so much better if i was
denzel washington you just you know you're that kind of guy where people i
think just want to be you
is that right well yeah because you you're undeniably good-looking
cool very very cool and and worldly and what better combination can you have
wow yeah
what do i say not much i think i'm in love dave well when you when you take an
acting class uh because
when i when i watch you act it's it's like one of a handful of people it seems
just effortless it seems
very easy you know other people you can kind of see them oh yeah you're an
actor but you know so when
when a guy like you goes to an acting class what really can a person like you
learn from an acting
what what did they teach you i learned a lot i mean i studied for about eight
years you know off and
on at different times i mean i think it's important i think a lot of the people
that you can see acting
one of the reasons is because they haven't had any classes right or they have
you know it's an easy
thing to say i'm an actor everybody can say that and everybody's right for one
part right but uh your
foundation and your training is what's going to take you over the long long
haul is there something that you
learned in in one day in one of those classes that uh like on on this movie
that was about to open up
that you can reach back and yeah or is that stuff just all now but one of the
first lessons i learned
and it relates anybody can relate to this an acting teacher was saying okay a
guy's gonna walk into
the room to kill you right and the first guy comes in says oh man i'm gonna
break your neck
i'm gonna you know right he says that's one version yeah the other guy walks in
how you know you want
somebody thirsty yeah kind of sure
well now you gotta die now you gotta die oh is that was poison it was poison i
have the worst luck holy
crap didn't you used to like sing bermuda oh man and so thank you for
remembering thank you for
remembering my hit that's so nice of you paul and his wife went to vacation in
bermuda and when he came
back he had written a song about the experience paul you want to share the
folks oh i'd be thrilled that
crazy vacation kind of place that's it i remember that it's a nutty cuckoo kind
of place denzel yes
it is bermuda bermuda okay there you go name that tune can you show us denzel
how to lay down the
perfect bunt sure oh this would be great here we go uh-oh it's coming out now
now we're good mind you
i i haven't done this in that's all right that's all right i mean once you know
how to do it it
stays with it it's like riding a bicycle land down the perfect bunt when you
have it it's in your
jeans never forget no here we go you see where the hand first of all you see
how the hand this is
the hand that really controls that's right listen to what he's saying paul he
knows what you're here
that's right you're looking down you're you know yeah there you go and then is
there going to
actually be a ball geez we didn't think about that you can't hit this i don't
know we're not
hitting nothing let me use my souvenir yankee ball no no who's i who's i can't
no i can't but that
some of these are rubbing off what's happening give me you got a ball over
there can we get a ball i
can't but my we have to stop tape anybody in the audience have a ball all right
now this is pressure
the audience has balls why
crazy the audience has a ball thank you very much commissioner what why does
the audience have
sporting goods what is that where do you want it now this is pressure now i
mean i haven't bunted in
20 20. so i turn right with the button beautiful there it is beautiful
beautiful so now when we go
to this premiere tonight and you've been to dozens and dozens in your lifetime
uh i'm guessing you're
still a little nervous right even though it's something you've done so many
times are you nervous
i'm i'm nervous now yeah no i'm serious i never get never get comfortable what
here or about the
premiere now here oh no yeah no that now that makes me feel sad i want to make
you comfortable
well um what can i do
that's a nice jacket paul well that jacket is making mr washington
uncomfortable very nervous
this isn't one of dave's
so at the premiere tonight what will will you do will you get up and say a few
words
i hope not well you know you go you walk down the the red carpet and and you
you talk to the
entertainment tonight's and all of that and you tell them how happy you ought
to be there you know
you lie and smile
and and uh because this is now the season of the blockbusters does that put
more pressure on the
opening of a movie for you uh i guess so but this is what they call counter
programming you
you you you it also it actually requires a small amount of intelligence to to
to watch this movie
right right so nobody is gonna nobody's gonna go
uh well it's a it's a fantastic story uh not directly specifically line for
line a remake of the
original no not not at all in the story i i hope so yeah i've seen the original
actually you know why
wouldn't you see the original well um i'm afraid of frank sinatra still no i
just felt that uh i'd never
seen it uh saw it how's it what's the right you've never seen it never saw it
seen it saw it did you
ever go to the movie
yeah i saw you earlier oh that was a cigarette that was a cigarette oh oh
well why what did you i never that was a cigarette it was smaller yes it was i
understand you're doing
julius caesar's shakespeare down the street yeah what i missed that what
happened i just i reversed
the yeah i'm actually playing brutus you're playing brutus and uh and and uh
and it's 150 shows more or
less of what you're doing 112 only 85 to go oh 85 to go 85 left is that just uh
exhausting to be doing
that night after night it's the most fun i've had in a long time is that right
yeah i mean it just to
have the the the live order you know when you make films you really don't see a
lot of people you see
the same crew that you're working with you know you you come and you do shows
like this and you do the
press but you're not you're not really engaging with the people so this every
night i find out whether
they like the show or not and does the uh do you find that the play dictates
the mood and energy of
the audience or does the mood and energy of the audience dictate the play i
found that certain
nights are somewhat predictable friday people are drunk is that right yeah it's
a good time friday
saturday the kids come on the matinees and the kids are really excited and you
know we've been
getting a lot of colleges and high schools i guess the spring break and all of
that right they get the
play you know uh there are a lot of uh famous lines you know we're friends romans
countrymen
it was greek to me all those kind of lines so people are waiting for those and
and we do it in a
different way it's not like a toga play when we're in we're in suits i believe
i have a you got a shot
still shot of that here am i in a suit what am i well first of all what's this
oh no that is
that's not it you know what that is
i know what this is what is that this is you relaxing at home
that is the first play i ever did that's right eugene o'neill's the emperor jones
that's it that
was uh about 30 years ago and were you still in college i was at fordham
university at lincoln
center and that was me looking trying to look mean and and like important well
mission accomplished
oh my god ladies and gentlemen here he is denzel washington come on out
oh my god you're the one yeah right there you go
oh nice to see you you all right oh fighting for your life out there my friend
here's some acting
right here ladies and gentlemen only for you dave thank you now i'm serious
about this when i heard
about the the storm approaching i said to myself i wonder if anybody will be
traveling to come and be
on the show and yeah you knew about the storm yes and you came all the way to
new york i swam you swam
god bless you denzel thank you very much i'll tell you what that is that's at
the inauguration i'm
standing out there sitting out there by myself because my wife said that it
started at like 11 30.
my wife said we had to be there at 7 a.m as you can see
wow no go go pull pull zoom back out come back out nobody's there nobody is
nobody my wife's not even
there she's not there so what i'm looking at is because what this is i'll tell
you the truth
this is i might get in trouble this is what really happened they had different
sections orange section green
section this that and and they and they asked me to be involved and i spoke at
the lincoln memorial which
was great and and introduced obama which was great and i'm figuring i'm going
to get a good seat you
know i'm working i should get it you would figure you would think that's what
you would think so
i'm in the orange section but the orange section is like way like obama's like
right here and the
orange section is like back behind the way back there like 50 rows back i'm
like oh no i'm from new
york i'm from new york and it's seven in the morning and nobody's out there so
i start climbing over
chairs over fences going around i told my family stay right here i'm gonna go
do a little reconnaissance
i'm gonna go we're we're moving up so we move up and there's an orange section
actually six seven
rows from the front and i asked the guy i said are these seats numbered he's
like no i said oh we're
in the orange section yeah and there you are yeah that that's me looking for my
family wow did he
say or somebody else said that you would uh if there was a movie made that you
would be a great uh barack
obama did he mention that or did somebody else you know i don't know where it
started from i i think
someone asked him and and and he mentioned will smith i think as well and uh
you know you know
the book of eli man is this fun wow it's uh it's a creepy in all the right ways
you know what i mean
it's just no it's haunting just even the music is yeah yeah it's very nice i
get to beat up a bunch of
guys yeah chop up now now when in in early