Name: Marshall Brickman Played Banjo In The USSR | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-12-01T23:13:30.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Marshall Brickman Played Banjo In The USSR | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-12-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Marshall Brickman Played Banjo In The USSR | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-12-01. Transcript available.

My next guest has been a folk singer, a comedy writer, an Oscar winner for the
motion picture which he co-wrote with Woody Allen, Annie Hall.
He has also become a director and his second film, Lovesick, has recently been
released. Please welcome Marshall Brickman.
Thank you very much for being here. Let me ask you about the folk singer. Tell
me about being a folk singer.
Oh, do I have to? Remember the 50s and early 60s when, by act of Congress,
everyone about 18 years old had to have a guitar?
And I did that instead of real work. I was in a group called the Terriers.
Nothing.
No, no. Well, I guess some people at home probably know.
Yeah, the Banana Boat Song. Do you remember the Banana Boat Song?
How does the Banana Boat... Paul, do you remember the Banana Boat Song?
I'm not going to sing it.
No, it's not necessary.
And we appeared at old folk clubs around the Bitter End and so on and did some
college tours.
And then I realized that my father had not escaped Russia to have me do this,
and I gave it up.
But you also played banjo in the Soviet Union, didn't you?
Yes. Wow, I'm very impressed. You've done your research.
Well, no, it's impressive to play the banjo.
Or you're in the CIA, one of the two.
Well, how does a young fellow get to play the banjo in, was it Moscow?
At gunpoint.
There was something in 1957 in Moscow called, if I remember correctly, the Sixth
World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship.
And for 30 bucks you got to fly to Russia, stay in a hotel for two weeks, eat a
lot of caviar, and if you had a little talent or a skill other than scam, they
let you do it.
And I was to the Russians like a Martian.
I played Earl's Breakdown, which is a tune by Earl Scruggs, who's a bluegrass
banjo player, on the stage of the, of the, I get sort of pockets of response.
I haven't really, we're not on a roll yet.
May I say, by the way, that I was very moved by Thelma's tribute to the great
American theater audience.
It was very nice.
And I, no, no, no, no, no.
And I would like to say that only in a country like America, and so was your
staff, by the way.
They were, there was a lot of sounds that I had never heard from the people in
control.
A hush, maybe?
Something, yeah, perhaps.
And many of them left the room, probably overcome with emotion at that tribute.
What was the question?
The question was, as a young, as a young fellow, you performed the banjo in the
Soviet Union and won a prize.
I won a prize.
I won a gold medal because they had never seen or heard anything like this.
And the Russians, I suppose, being a guilty people, give awards when they don't
understand what's going on.
And I mean, I mean nothing by that, obviously.
And I got a little gold medal that has something written on it in Russian.
And it's on my father's television set in Miami Beach next to the Oscar.
Now, to me, that is as impressive as the Academy Award.
I mean, to go to the dreaded Soviet Union and win an award for banjo music is
very impressive.
I never heard it put that way.
No, very impressive.
But thank you on behalf of a great nation.
Would you like to stand and maybe tell me about the new movie, Lovesick?
Now, is it true that there is some protest about the film coming from the wife
of a prominent television producer?
Oh, gosh.
Yes.
Yes, Mrs. Lear, Norman's wife.
Norman Lear's wife is...
Norman Lear's wife took exception to what she felt was a cavalier handling of a
relationship in the film in which Dudley Moore plays a New York psychoanalyst
who flips for a patient, Elizabeth McGovern, Elizabeth Ragtime McGovern, and
follows her around and winds up in her bed giving her a different type of
treatment.
Can I say that?
Yeah.
Different.
And Mrs. Lear felt that I wasn't treating the problem of countertransference
and irresponsibility.
She called it a nasty little film.
Yeah.
And that's...
That was not your intent, I'm guessing, to make a nasty little film?
No.
But based on that review, she has been asked to join the staff of Sneak Previews.
That's sort of an inside joke.
Inside joke.
Which we won't go back for.
The film.
Shall I tell you about the film?
We have a bit of the film here, and it's our understanding that that is not the
purpose of the film, so let's take a look at what we have.
Can I tell you what it is?
Please do.
Is this the long clip, the hour and a half clip?
Yeah.
This is the one with the intermission.
Fine, because then there's no need to actually go into the theaters and pay the
fin.
Dudley Moore plays a psychoanalyst who's in love with a patient.
He outrages the analytic community.
I've got to lead you up.
This is in the last reel, so it'll take a few minutes.
All right.
He has outraged the analytic community.
I think I just said that.
And they have a dinner to kind of examine him, and they're questioning him.
And Dudley throughout the film has many fantasies about what might become of
him and what would have become of him.
I think I've just put everybody to sleep.
From the most recent motion picture release, Love Sick, by Marshall Brickman,
here is now a snippet of the same.
That's very impressive.
Now, you mentioned also that that was not the portion that you had described to
us.
It never is, no.
This is from a completely different film.
But that's a very...
That's nonetheless...
It's 30 seconds over Tokyo.
It's a very impressive piece of work.
Now, tell me about...
Did he actually execute that?
It's not exactly a trick.
It's a...
Well, I'm not in the magician's club, so I can tell.
It simply requires a very highly glossed table, unlike what you have here.
Yes.
And a silk tablecloth without a hem, and a lot of dishes, and a lot of
rehearsal.
And here's the...
You want to show a business story?
Yes, sir.
Here's a heck of a story about this film.
The guy, he's a heck of a guy, Dudley.
He did it on the first take, the first take what you saw.
And as you saw, I masterfully did it in a large take so that you can see that
there's no trickery involved.
It's simply a documentary representation of the trick.
Are you with me?
And there was a little dish that just went like that, and I said, well, we'll
do it again.
Just actually fell off the edge or just sort of teetered?
It teetered, and I thought, well, you know, I'm a perfectionist.
And I said, well, we'll do it again, and an old gaffer came over to me and said,
kid, he said, if you ever get a special effect and you do it on the first take,
he said, never, ever try and go back and get it again.
You'll be here all day.
So I said, no, it's fine, it's fine.
And we did it, and we were there for the rest of that day and the rest of the
following day, and finally did it on the 32nd take.
Wow.
Not a wonderful story, right?
No, it's a great story.
Well, I'm going to work on it and come back.
Maybe if I stood up.
No, no, it's a fine story.
Can I stand up?
You're punishing yourself needlessly.
That was a fine story.
I feel terrible about the story.
No, no, that's a great story.
That was a world-class talk show story.
See?
What did I tell you?
And I would like to, you have other stories that we don't have time to get to
tonight.
I'd like you to come back and see why.
Well, can you come back and we can do some of the others another night?
Well, we'll see if you ask.
All right.
Well, we'll ask, of course.
Marshall Brickman.
We'll be right back.
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Thank you very much.
We're nearly out of time here.
I want to thank everybody who helped us out tonight.
Mr. Marshall Brickman.
The motion picture is lovesick.
Congratulations on another success, sir.
Thank you.
Also, my thanks to Thelma Moore, who will probably be back.
No, she'll be back.
She'll be back.
Don't worry.
And Ron Luciano will also be back.
My thanks to him.
And we didn't get to Dave's record collection tonight.
I know.
Settle down.
We'll do it tomorrow night.
Leslie Nielsen will be here and Larry Miller.
Good night.
Good night.