Name: Christopher Walken Channels Elvis Presley | Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-04-03T22:00:09.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Christopher Walken Channels Elvis Presley | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-04-03. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Christopher Walken Channels Elvis Presley | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-04-03. Transcript available.

our next guest is an academy award-winning actor who stars in the number one
comedy film in the
country america's sweethearts here's the always engaging christopher walken
nice to see you again
you're working in central park now yes i'm sorry you were going to say
something i was going to
say thanks paul i i just saw paul he hosted uh the friar's roast for richard belson
and he was
terrific yeah thank you very much but that tune we were playing is that
wonderful video that he
dances to have you seen it david let's see it now you want to show the clip
what is it we're going to
see this is uh spike jones video uh a fat boy slim uh song and i i dance okay
here we go take a look
everybody pretty good how did that happen thank you i'll i used to be i used to
be in musicals
when i was young and uh i did a couple of musical movies and spike jones uh
heard saw something i
guess and he asked me to do that did you know fat boy slim does that you know i
with the with poppy
popular music i kind of got stuck in the 70s i didn't know i didn't know yeah
but people recognize
you from this video everywhere you go all that it's amazing i've been uh
traveling around and a lot of
people all different ages and it's amazing yeah well good for you it looks like
a lot of fun thanks yeah
now you're working in central park yeah what are you doing up there playing
trees
i'm doing uh the the seagull check off seagull there it's a wonderful cast
amazing cast directed
by mike nichols and uh we open uh uh well really we do a show tonight but it
opens tomorrow night it's
it's open air it's in the park people uh they bring picnic baskets and so very
much now can you
can you work uh like that with an actual dramatic presentation under those
conditions it's different
it's a kind of a circus atmosphere which is very nice and it's it's different
usually it's done
shakespeare is done done there that's joe papp's uh great theater that he built
it's unusual there are
uh families of raccoons living under the bleachers and uh some
and sometimes a dog walks on the stage during really a dog sure a dog squirrel
whatever
well that and of course everything stops yeah
how many people how many people a night come in to see this about 2 000 people
and it's free
yeah and uh one one year they somebody had let parrots loose in central park
there were
families of parrots living in the trees it was very tropical
now you you referred to the uh the circus-like atmosphere of this production in
the park there
was a time in your life when you in fact worked for a circus didn't you i did
my brothers and i were in
show business from the time we were kids and one summer when i was 16
instead of doing summer stock i i i saw an ad or something and i i went and
worked in a circus
it was a small circus that did the just the northeast here utica ithica places
like that and
and it was owned by a man named terrell jacobs who was a lion tamer he he didn't
have kids but the bit
was that i was his son i would dress like he did he would finish up with the
cats and then
he'd leave one old lioness in the cage and i would come in and shake a stick
and she'd kind of get
up and go why you know last time i did the show i i went away remembering that
there was something i
wanted to ask you can i yeah sure hello by the way how long ago was he a few
years
but when i was a kid i we had a tv set and i remember watching elvis that night
that he
caused the big scandal you know when they shot him only from the waist up right
and i think it was
right there wasn't it well he i know he appeared on television here in the ed
sullivan theater i think
that's this is probably right here where he where he shook his hips a lot of a
lot of great wonderful
show business history took place in this theater and we've all but ruined that
but i've always wanted to stand there do you mind if i stand please stand
anywhere you like
i've done that late at night i come in here and do that
homage uh so you're working in the park no uh so now was there any danger with
you and the lion or
no she was very nice didn't have too many teeth what was what was circus life
like was it was
it fun for a kid was it not fun it was just for a couple of months in the
summertime it was a lot
of fun yeah people nice to you they had elephants elephants have to be shaved
really they
i didn't they grow these very sharp like porcupine beards and they have to be
clipped
or they can be abrasive or yes i think in the jungle they just rub them against
trees and stuff but
they have to be sure do you mind if i ask you a question about your about your
hair it just seems
like you have like a forest of crazy hair it's very thick healthy looking head
of hair
yes now mine and i'm guessing we're roughly the same age but mine look at mine
mine's taken a hike
everywhere but but yours is is couldn't be more thriving and vigorous of course
part of it's the
family but when i was a kid uh anthony perkins the actor once told me that if i
if you grab your hair
and you pull it forward for five minutes every day just yank it they say that jfk
used to do that he
had good but uh yes
it keeps the scalp loose and uh you're you're probably going to so you every
morning you grab your hair grab it
and tug on it really and that just continues to simulate blood flow that's what
they say well it's
certainly i mean if that's true it certainly has worked for you i think it is
true yeah
what what time does the curtain go up in the park tonight eight o'clock eight o'clock
so you got a
race right up there i'm going over yeah well congratulations on on this uh on
your hair and
also america's sweetheart thank you america's sweetheart very funny and you're
very funny in it
thank you please go see it all right thank you nice to see you christopher walkman
ladies and gentlemen