Name: The Best Of Jack Black | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-04-01T15:00:32.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Best Of Jack Black | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-04-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Best Of Jack Black | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-04-01. Transcript available.

The Best Of Jack Black | David Letterman

-The truth is, I'm kind of under the weather.
-That's what I hear. What's the problem?
-Well, I just got a little scratchy
and dry throat and sinus
and a lot of dizziness and kind of, like, a thing.
And I almost took the antibiotics,
and then I said, "Hold on. I'm not that sick."
-Right.
-I'm right on the precipice, and I can't decide, "Should I?
I got a crucial gig with Letterman!
Should I? I should take him. No.
And then maybe I'll be even more freaked out."
You got to be careful. I appreciate you considering me
in your health treatment.
-Absolutely.
-Let's talk -- You want to talk about your band a little bit?
Tell me how the band came about
and what kind of stuff you guys do.
-Well, Tenacious D, it's, uh, you know,
one of the top bands.
But, uh, we --
-It's one of the top bands.
-Thank you.
-It is!
-We started out --
-Actually, we're playing, uh, can I plug a thing?
-Sure. You got a gig?
-Yeah, we're playing in Minneapolis on --
on Saturday night.
-There you go.
-At First Avenue.
And, um, we, uh --
-How long you been together?
-We -- we've been together about, um,
well, we've known each other ten years,
but we've been playing for about six or seven.
-Uh-huh.
-I'm not good with years and time.
-That's all right. That's all right.
And -- and how did you get together?
What was the moment that it all coalesced?
-The d -- the moment of -- of the thing was --
well, we, uh --
I had a -- a girlfriend who dumped me
for a poetry teacher.
-Who?
-It seemed like a bad move, doesn't it?
-Yeah. No, that was painful.
And, uh, I went over to Kyle's house.
He's my partner, and --
and, uh, I was bummed out, and I said,
"Man, we got to write a song about this."
And -- and we did, and it wasn't funny,
and it wasn't good.
-Uh-huh.
-But then we realized later,
"Wait, if we just -- I don't know what happened."
-Yeah.
-And then we started playing live,
opening for friends' bands and stuff.
-Mm-hmm. Now, that must have been terribly exciting,
because you've worked with some great bands.
-Yeah. -You know, other top bands.
-True. -Yeah.
Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, like, those kind of guys?
-That -- -Amazing.
-Yeah. Now, what is that like?
-Well, when you first find out
that you've got the opening slot,
-Yeah. -there's the initial excitement,
and, like, "Oh, my God, we're gonna open for --
-Right. -Who? When?
-Ah!
-And then you get there, and it's an enormous letdown,
because, you know, you're actually opening for the opener,
and the lights, they don't turn up the volume all the way.
-Oh, that's -- -And the lights are only like,
-halfway down, and no one's even there yet. -Yeah.
-And the people that are there are like,
"This is like soundcheck.
So, anyway, Larry, what were we saying?"
- -But...
-That's too bad.
Now, when, when something like that happens,
does, does that fire in you some sort of early instinct
to really, really do your best and win, win the crowd over?
-There is that. -You try to make connection
with the, with the crowd that's out there, if you can?
-Yes. And, you know, that's, uh, satisfying.
If you can win 'em over. -Right. Sure.
-But I'd just rather have 'em freaking out from the get-go
-about how awesome I am. -Yeah.
-Instead of, like, yeah.
-You don't want to have to work that hard, really.
-Exactly. -Yeah.
And do you ever, like, make eye contact?
That people, you see, "Oh, there's a guy,"
-and you kind of work on that guy? -Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Actually, we had this one gig.
You ever heard of this MGD blind date?
-I don't know. Paul, have I ever heard of that?
-Is that a band or a television show? -It's a contest.
It's a beer contest where if you call in a radio station
and you win the contest, they fly you
and a thousand other contest winners to a concert,
and you don't know who's gonna be the, the band.
It's probably gonna be Zeppelin with the new drummer.
It's probably gonna be the Stones.
- -And then the curtain's open and it was Tenacious D.
-Yeah.
-And immediately, people were booing and...
-Oh, no.
-Yeah, no, from the get-go, there was just hatred
and beer thrown, 'cause they all had their MGD.
-Yeah. -And then ice!
Horrible ice pelting!
And I look over to Cage and I say,
"Dude, we got to go on, because they're not gonna pay us
if we don't finish the allotted..."
-That's part of the contest.
-And, uh, and I was just searching in the crowd,
"Who, is there any allies here?"
-Ah. -And then one dude in the back was like,
he was pulling up a finger, going,
"Yeah, I'm the guy!"
And I was like, "I'm getting back to him, yeah!"
And I noticed it wasn't, it was a different finger,
and I had no allies.
Yeah.
-So, it's not all been tinsel and glitter.
-No. No, it's been a hard road to, to hoe.
But that's rock.
-Do you, do you remember early gigs?
Or that, uh, you know, like your first television job,
your first, uh, theater, did you ever do live theater?
-I did, yeah, I did some theater
with the Actors' Gang Theater Company.
Uh, a very talented troupe of people.
-I think you'd be great on stage live.
I think that'd be compelling.
-Oh, well, I don't know.
I, yeah, that's not for me to say how, how,
how awesome I am on stage.
But, I enjoy doing it.
-Yeah, all right.
I think, I think we have, uh, some, uh, videotape
or film or something of, of an appearance,
early television kind of thing.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
-Okay. -Do you have any idea?
-Yeah, uh, well, someone asked me
what my most shameful moment was.
There's a thing I did on "Touched by an Angel," I think.
-Oh! So, not so, it was not so long ago.
-It was a while ago. -Uh-huh.
-I don't know if that's really me, though.
-So, you were on "Touched by an Angel."
Do you remember the part?
Do you remember the character, what you were doing?
-I was kind of a mean, I was kind of a heavy.
I was kind of a, I was playing the, the mean dude
that was doing something, I can't remember.
-And are you "Touched by an Angel" on the show?
-Uh, no. I'm "Touched by the Devil."
-Well, we have that, we have that moment.
I don't want to embarrass you, would you like to take--
-I don't mind. I'll check it out.
-All right, here we go.
-We have a black on "Touched by an Angel." Roll it.
-Really, never mind.
-Hey, hold on.
-That's one of my best words.
-I know you live in California.
-True.
-I love New York, you love the energy.
You are the energy of New York and vice versa.
-Well, thank you for saying so.
-Yeah.
-I do love New York.
-What kind of stuff do you do when you come--
-And it's energy, it's powerful energies.
-Yeah.
-What do you do when you come to this?
What do you do when you come to the city?
-Well, I just got here yesterday and last night,
I was kind of restless, a little nervous about the show
and I just went out walking around kind of like 1:30 in the morning
and just wandering around the streets and then I walked up
and there was this van and this guy inside was like,
"Jack Black."
I was like, "What?"
And then he said, "Oh, my God, it's Jack Black!"
And he opened the door and I started running.
And he was like, "No, no, no, dude, I'm a cop.
I'm a cop. It's all right."
I was like, "Oh."
-Wow.
He scared me and then, yeah, they were like fans
and we were talking a little bit
and then all of a sudden, these two dudes came running
around the corner, top speed, booking it.
And they were like, "25-2-0, we got to get 'em."
And they all jumped in the van and I jumped in the van.
We were like chasing him.
And I'm not sure.
I think I was pretty instrumental in the...
I was like, pointing.
"I think that way!"
And then we collared 'em.
And they, yeah.
And we took some pictures.
I got a picture of me with the dudes.
We didn't...
They didn't...
I wasn't officially deputized,
but they put a thing on me at school.
-So you were actually out there with some undercover cops?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
That's, that's Big, Big Rick.
And that's Kevin.
And that's Scotty.
I don't know.
That guy's the Big Cheese, but I forgot his name.
Have you just blown their cover?
Oh.
So something was going down.
Yeah.
Did you watch any of the Survivor stuff?
Uh, no, not this season.
I boycotted completely.
Really? You're boycotting the Survivor?
Well, I was kind of stinging and I'm still kind of stinging.
-What's the problem? -Because I was rejected.
-From the, uh... -You were gonna be a Survivor?
I sent in an audition tape.
Wait, you have the, uh...
I remember you had one of the Losers on
and she had her audition tape where she's, like, riding naked.
Oh, that woman, yes.
-Do you have that? -That's right.
Let me see.
Do we have the, do we have the, uh, naked...
Okay, do we know the woman's name, by the way?
-Lindsey. -Lindsey.
That's right. It was Lindsay.
Yeah. Can we watch Lindsay?
And, and, and she...
She got to be a contestant by sending in this very provocative, uh, videotape.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
All right, well, take a look now.
Here, here she is.
This is her, uh, audition tape to be a contestant on Survivor.
Lindsay, watch.
I think I can. I think I can.
I know I can.
Woo-hoo!
Okay, now here's the thing.
I sent in my tape. -Right.
And, uh, will you be the judge?
'Cause it's almost exactly the same thing.
You tell me if I got jipped.
Can we, can we check it out?
All right, here we go. Jack Black.
Now, this is your audition tape for the Survivor.
For Survivor.
For Africa? Survivor 3.
Yeah, that's right.
All right, let's take a look.
How did I not get in?
What is wrong with you?
You know what?
What is wrong with you?
She had flowers, though.
She had flowers on her bosom.
Talk about a self-induced neurologic episode.
She got the edge.
Oh, my God almighty.
What kind of a child were you?
Well, back in those days, I needed a lot of attention.
And, uh, I used to come up with crazy ways, you know,
to be special and separate from the crowd.
And I used to try to convince people I was bionic.
Like, some people would have to come up with me.
I was a $6 million man.
Oh, sure.
I'd put, like, wires and circuitry up my sleeve.
Mm-hmm.
And then just let them peek out.
Just at the edge.
Just a little.
And then if someone said, "What's those wires?"
Nothing.
It's nothing.
And then there's this girl that moved into town.
Her name was Carrie, and she lived, like, a few blocks away.
And she was, like, claimed to be a witch.
Mm-hmm.
So she was my new competition.
And I said, "Oh, yeah?
What's your powers?"
And she's like, "I can shrink you or make you taller with my potion
that you put on your head and eat at the same time."
Uh-huh.
I was like, "Well, I've got a time machine.
It's my-- it's a top, and you make it go fast at the speed of light."
Whatever.
So-- but neither of us could, like, prove that the things worked.
Right.
And I was like, "My time machine is malfunctioning now.
I've got to make some adjustments, but--"
It'll only get you back to Tuesday right now.
Yeah.
We've got to fine-tune it.
How did you get this movie?
Because to me, in my mind, it doesn't seem like an automatic kind of Jack Black
vehicle,
King Kong.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I think, um, you know, I talked with Peter early on.
There was an interview, and he told me that he wanted this character to be
really obsessed,
and kind of a manic energy, and someone who was a little reckless, young, cocky
filmmaker.
Right.
And then I thought I saw, "Yeah, I've got a lot of those qualities.
I could do that."
Now, when you're-- a lot of times, it's like, "Oh, my God, we've got to get out
of here.
Here comes the monkey."
Yeah.
It's a lot of this.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Can you do some of that?
You want to-- well, I did do a lot-- in fact, I-- when I wasn't doing the elliptical,
I went to a park that was near where I live, and I would run around at
nighttime,
'cause I didn't want anyone to see me doing my thing.
Right.
And, um, and I would run, and I would imagine, you know, monsters and stuff
chasing me,
and, uh, and I can show you there's a specific kind of run when you're running
away from a beast.
Okay.
Should I just do it?
Yeah, do you mind?
It'll be good.
Like, if I'm running from a beast, and I've got a bunch of dudes with me--
Right.
--and 