Name: Dave's Audition For "Saturday Night Fever" | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-11-26T16:00:06.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Dave's Audition For "Saturday Night Fever" | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-11-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Dave's Audition For "Saturday Night Fever" | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-11-26. Transcript available.

We had a television show, Mork and Mindy, of course, and the producers, for
some unknown reason, invited me for like a little thing on the show.
That's right. You played a...
I know. I've never seen it.
Have you guys seen the Mork and Mindy?
Oh, God. Oh, my God. I'm surprised what they should have done at Mork and Mindy.
Well, see, the problem was with Mork and Mindy, the table read, everybody wants
to be very encouraging.
So when I'm reading through with the rest of the cast, everybody was, oh, that's,
oh, that's perfect. That's great.
So the first day you go home thinking, oh, you know, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I,
maybe I can't.
Yeah, maybe I'm pretty good.
I was supposed to be like Werner Earhart of Est. Anybody old enough to know Werner
Earhart?
Yes.
No.
He had some kind of camp up Pacific Coast Highway up in Santa Barbara or so,
where people would go up and they would behave naked.
Yeah.
And then that would help straighten you out.
That's what it was.
And everybody was going up there.
Was it Scientology?
No, this predated the big rush of Scientology.
It was like three days of him yelling at you.
Yeah, and it was, it was Est and it would take you in a different place.
It was trends, trends send you.
Yeah.
And so the table read where everybody's reading the script, I was a big hit.
And then we started blocking the show.
And then I would get notes from the director, Howard Storm, I think was the
director,
who was well-respected in the world of half-hour situation comedies.
Anyway, by the end of the show, and then the night before we were supposed to
tape it, there was a Morgan, oh, what was her name?
Morgan Fairchild.
Oh, Morgan Fairchild was a guest star on the show, a lovely woman and a very
nice woman.
The day of the taping, she came in and she said, here, I wrote you this poem.
Oh, wow.
And it was all about how you can do better and try to do better.
And it was supposed to be uplifting to encourage me because by that time the
word was out and people from all over that part of Hollywood were coming in to
watch because it was ghastly.
Anyway, between the rehearsal and the dress show, Howard Storm, who had been
kind of polite about encouraging me to do better,
and I'm sitting in there waiting for my makeup and just miserable, and Howard
Storm comes in and he says, all right, this is it.
This is your last try.
Try to get this right.
Please, I'm begging you, do this properly.
So that was just the last bit of encouragement I needed.
And as predicted, the show just blew.
But they should have fired me straight off.
But they didn't.
Oh, God.
Walter, roll the clip.
Don't, no.
Please don't.
I don't want to see this.
Somebody has stolen my Rolls-Royce.
The Rolls-Royce is using your Rolls-Royce as a concept.
Getting it back is a reality.
About everything else I did, like the Mary Tyler Moore, I don't want to see
that again, and I've never seen it again.
This Morecam anything, I don't want to see that again, and I never did.
You'll have to see it.
Roll it.
But it's interesting that these things that I did, presumably because I was in
show business, are just so ghastly, I can't stand to look at them.
You were pretty terrible on that.
Yeah.
I don't know that.
The, the, the, the, the Mary Tyler Moore clip.
Oh, stop it.
I don't want to hear.
Ridiculous.
Of course it is.
But why didn't somebody say, finally, every week on that show, on Wednesday,
Tony Stevens would come in.
He was the choreographer.
And that was the worst day of my life because then it just was like, okay, we
got a, the big dance number.
And after one or two weeks, they just said, you know what, Dave, take Wednesday
off.
But that wasn't ridiculous because of you.
The whole thing just, it looked like you and Michael Keaton.
Michael Keaton was all in.
You look at Michael Keaton and he's like, whoa, he, this kid's looking for a
Tony.
Yeah, that's a lesson though in selling it because he's just acting like, like,
acting like he's into it.
You, I know, your face is like, somebody kill me.
You couldn't be more miserable.
Roll that clip off.
Oh, God.
That was fantastic.
With a little love, we can clear it up.
We can bring it in for a landing.
Little love.
All right, everybody.
Get out of here every Sunday.
Are you with me?
They were going to make a Saturday Night Fever.
Was that what it was called?
The John Travolta?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Was it Saturday Night Fever?
Good story.
Was it Saturday Night Fever?
Yeah, Saturday Night Fever.
The John Travolta, the disco movie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they were going to turn it into a TV show.
And my management people of the day sent me out on this.
And I had no real understanding of what I was getting into.
So we're sitting there waiting to be called.
And I read the thing.
And what it is, is I'm going to be, I'm reading for the part of John Travolta.
Right.
The Sonny Parkins, or whatever his character's name was.
And the deal is I'm getting ready to go out Saturday night and dance.
And I'm in the shower.
I'm sorry, I'm looking in the bathroom mirror, standing over the thing, and I
got a hair dryer.
And I'm blowing my hair dryer, and there's some kind of music.
And while I'm drying my hair, I'm dancing.
Right.
So I get to this part, and I go up to the desk, the person sitting there, and I
said,
Oh, Jesus, I left my car running.
I'll be right back.
I just got the, God, I don't know.
So that was more acting than you did.
Oh, I did right now.
You know, we had to get yourself out of there.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
You're doing a better job acting.
I'm going to dance while I'm blowing my hair.
One second.
I got to go.
Yeah.
That's pretty great.
The heyday.
These were great stories.
You've got to get some of these on your show.
These are great.
This was an episode I can't wait to watch.
I'm very excited.
Be sure to plug the deal and open the door.
Yeah, yeah.
This is great.
Love it.
You all better watch this one.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks for coming.
She said, you've got to put together a resume,
like you worked in a little theater and you sang this.
And I said, I never did any of that.
It doesn't make any difference.