Name: George Wendt Majored In Drinking Beer | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-05-20T20:23:11.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'George Wendt Majored In Drinking Beer | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-05-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'George Wendt Majored In Drinking Beer | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-05-20. Transcript available.

Thank you for joining us.
Well, thank you.
Are you done for the year filming your show?
Yeah, yeah, we finished a few weeks ago.
How did it go?
It went well.
We just sit around and laugh all day.
This is the greatest job, I swear to you.
Are you surprised not only by the success of the show,
but by the longevity of the success?
Yeah, now it just seems like it could go on forever,
like some barroom conversation.
And does the cast want it to go on more and more?
I do.
I mean, I just, I'm so sentimental.
I mean, the thought of a last show.
Right.
You know, I mean, I just, yeah, I couldn't.
I'd have to, you know, I'd have to ditch.
I would.
You mean you wouldn't show up for the last show?
I mean, how could you get through a last show?
I'd just be sobbing the entire time.
You know, you have a great part on television.
That turned out to be one of the great roles in comedy on TV today, didn't it?
I know, it's amazing.
My next life, I'm sure I'll come back as a fungus on a piece of cow flop or
something like that.
It's just too great.
I mean, you sit around at the end of a bar and crack jokes, watch sports.
And you're beloved doing it, aren't you?
And you have these million-dollar Hollywood comedy writers just giving you all
these great jokes.
It's a great...
Well, I wouldn't know about that.
I'm sorry, boys.
Now, we were talking this afternoon, and somebody was saying that they read
that you jog, you run each day.
You know, I used to, but I blew out my knee.
Yeah.
Now, how much did you run?
Well, you know, I used to run like...
I'd warm up, I'd walk about a mile, I'd run about three miles, and then I'd
interval for like two miles.
This is all, you know, this is a man of leisure.
We're talking, you know, a couple of hours it takes me to do this.
But now...
Yeah, but, you know, if you're saying that you can cover essentially six miles
in a couple hours, that's pretty good, you know?
Yeah, I suppose, what's that, three miles an hour?
Yeah, I don't know.
So, you injured your knee, huh?
Yeah, yeah, I was in my manager's driveway, you know, and unfortunately, or
fortunately, he manages several other comic types.
So, you were expendable?
Well, I was expendable, but also they were all there in the driveway playing
basketball with me and, you know, heckled me.
Could you move off the driveway? I've got to get my car through, you know.
Now, when you were running, were you a little less, a little lighter than you
are now?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And did you play sports in college? Where did you go to school? Notre Dame?
I went to Notre Dame.
What kind of a student were you there?
I was captain of the football team.
Oh, you did play football?
No, no, no, no.
No, I was a very poor student.
Really?
Yeah, yeah.
What were you studying there?
I don't know.
But, you know, as you know, I'm probably the only person who actually, let's
say I majored in drinking beer and partying, right?
Yeah.
Okay, for example, and hanging around and talking about sports in a bar, right?
Yeah.
At Notre Dame, which is what I did.
Yes.
Making me probably the only person in the history of college education to
actually major in school with what they did with their living.
Yeah, yeah.
Very prude of you to collect that as a course of studies.
Now, did you complete your undergraduate studies?
No.
Well, yes, but not at Notre Dame.
I bounced around.
I got kicked out of Notre Dame with, I'm very proud to mention my grade point
average that got me booted out, 0.00.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Were you even enrolled?
Yeah, yeah, I was there.
That was the problem.
See, I was enrolled.
And I just hung out and didn't go to classes.
We actually had a road trip, you know, sitting around in a bar saying, you know,
we should go to Denver.
Let's go to Denver on semester break.
Yeah, but when you plan these things, they always screw up.
You know, the best trips are the kind that just come really spur of the moment,
you know?
Boom, just do it now.
Just spur of the moment, and then, like, the devil took over all three of us.
You know, so we got in this guy's, like, little MG, three of us, and I'm in the
back of an MG.
So you left, you were...
18 hours to Denver.
You were in Notre Dame, South Bend, somewhere on campus, in a bar, and you just
left and drove to Denver?
Yeah.
And that was it?
Yeah, that was it.
Yeah.
How long did you stay in Denver?
Just a few, a couple weeks, I guess.
Yeah.
You're kind of...
Just a couple weeks?
You remind me of my dad, though.
And you just went to Denver?
Well, you had a good time, though.
Yeah, I did.
We have to do a commercial, and then we'll come back and continue visiting here
with George.
And at some point in your youth, you traveled all over Northern Africa?
Well, yeah, it was mostly a European trip, but...
Was this an extension of the Denver deal?
It was in the same spirit, but it was mostly Europe, but we camped outside.
You know, camped inside.
You don't camp inside, I guess.
We were camping frequently, because we didn't have money for hotels, and it was
much warmer,
someone said, in North Africa.
So we went down to Morocco and Algeria, Tunisia.
You and, like, three friends?
Four friends?
Three, four friends.
It seems like a great trip.
Was it a real adventure for you?
Oh, yeah.
Did you get into any mischief, any trouble, any...
I did spend a few hours in a Spanish jail.
There you go.
Yeah, those were the days of...
That was the name of your first album, too, wasn't it?
My blues album.
Yeah.
It was a Spanish jail.
It was a Lombada album, actually.
No, those were the Franco days, and it was scary, you know, because we had long
hair and,
you know, blue jeans, and we had Morocco stamped all over our passport, you
know what I mean?
So this is just coming back from Northern Africa?
Yeah, yeah, and we got...
We needed a shower.
We'd been in Morocco for several weeks, and we needed a hot shower.
They arrested you for needing a shower.
No, no, no, no.
You see, the only reason we would go to a proper campground is in order to get
a shower,
otherwise we'd just hit it on the side of the road.
Right.
And so we, you know, said, do you have hot showers?
Do you have hot showers?
Yes, we have hot showers.
Do you positive you have hot showers?
Because we're not going to pay, like, you know, three cents to get in here.
Unless you have a hot shower.
So we paid our three cents or whatever, a billion pesetas or whatever it was.
And, of course, no hot shower.
And so I stormed into the campground office, and I'm arguing with this guy.
I want my billion pesetas back.
And you know those glass things that you put on desks to put your photos of
your family under?
Yeah.
He had one of those.
And I'm making a point, right?
Bam, bam, and it shatters.
So he calls the Guardia de Seville, and there I go off, you know, in the back
of a little
jeep with these guys with the, you know, Napoleon hats on.
And licensed to kill, by the way, I believe, under Franco, weren't they?
They were.
I don't know.
I think they were.
With their hats.
I think they had to use the hat, though.
And so there I am in jail, you know, and they're sweating me out.
You must have just been scared silly.
I was, yeah, I thought, well, obviously it's a minor charge, but they may just
not like
the look of me and, you know, not hear my case for like six months.
Yeah.
But, so they're sweating me out, and they search me, and I've got a Swiss Army
knife.
I'm camping, for crying out loud.
And they go, well, what's this?
I go, oh, give me a break.
It's like, Swiss Army knife.
It's totally harmless, and with that, the guy flips open the knife, gashes his
finger.
Blood all over the report.
He's like, ah!
People are running to him.
It sort of snapped down on him and gashed his finger.
So, like, anyway, I'm just, I'm looking at, you know, I'm just thinking Midnight
Express.
Oh, yeah, sure.
But, you know, when I wound up, actually, they were quite decent, and I got out
of there in
a few hours' time.
Okay, so after the guy wounded himself, everything was explained, and you were
released?
Yeah, we went before a magistrate, and he said, what happened?
And I told him, the guy, the guy agreed, and he said, well, just pay for the
thing.
It was like 20 bucks.
Well, that's seven billion zillion.
But that's a great memory to have as a kid, isn't it?
Yeah, well, yeah.
You almost triggered an international episode there.
Yeah, of course, you know, this means war.
And so, now you have some time off before you go back to work?
Yeah.
What kind of things are you doing?
I like to keep busy.
Yeah?
Jog six miles.
Things like that.
You're working in films?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm doing a feature film right now with a title to be determined.
It's currently Fear No Evil, but I guess they can't use it.
So, it's a drama about blacklisting you're in Hollywood in the 50s, and it
stars Robert
De Niro, which is...
Oh, man.
Yeah, it's kind of a hoot to work with De Niro.
Pretty good way to spend your summer, then.
Yeah.
And when you go back to Cheers, you think it will be another season, a season
at a time,
another three seasons?
What do you think?
Well, actually, we're set for one more season, and beyond that, it's just up to
Ted Danson,
I guess.
Oh, is that how that works out?
Now, anyway, congratulations on everything, and I'm so happy you could come by
here again,
George.
Well, thanks.
Nice to see you.
Look, it's George Wendt, Ted.
We have to do station identification, and we'll be right back.