Name: Will Smith's Awards Win Didn't Turn Out The Way He Imagined | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-03-05T04:10:53.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Will Smith's Awards Win Didn't Turn Out The Way He Imagined | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Will Smith's Awards Win Didn't Turn Out The Way He Imagined | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-05. Transcript available.

Well, well, one of our guests here tonight won a Grammy last evening, sure.
He won his second Grammy last night for Best Rap Performance, Duo or Group.
Well, what the hell was it? Duo or Group?
Dave, you're really, really annoying.
He is also the star of his own show here on NBC.
It's the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Ladies and gentlemen, here he is, Will Smith.
Will!
Nice to see you again.
Oh, you too, man.
Congratulations.
Oh, thank you.
You know, things have been going just great for you, haven't they?
Yeah, absolutely.
I was backstage, I was noticing you're really annoying tonight.
I'm not really annoying, I'm really, really annoying tonight.
You were here a couple of years ago and your TV show just started.
And at the time, you couldn't have been more than like 20, 21 years old.
Yeah, I was 20.
20 years old.
And now, winning Grammy Awards, your show is still on the air.
And it's a huge hit.
It's like in the top 20 week after week.
Yeah, it's like, you know, I just thank God for everything that I have.
This is one of those years where, you know, I'm starting to get nervous.
You know, things are going so well.
You know, I got the television show and won a Grammy last night.
I'm getting married May 9th.
No, you're getting married?
Well, congratulations.
Thank you.
It's like everything is going so great.
It's just like, is my foot just going to fall off or something?
No, no, no, no.
Don't even think like that because I think you can set up negative thought
waves.
And tonight's opening comedy piece is proof of that.
You know, I think I blacked out.
I think I blacked out backstage during the, you know.
And many of our audience members have blacked out as well.
You know, now last night you won the award, but I'm told that you weren't in
the auditorium.
But you're in town, right?
So how did you not go to the Grammys?
Were you not at, you had to have been invited as a nominee?
Yeah, see, what happened, I have a production company now started a new group.
There's a group called Too Too Many out of Philadelphia, a new rap group.
We just started them and I was doing promo things with them.
And I was out late with them yesterday and I didn't have enough time to get
back.
So I made my way over to the Grammys about the time that, you know, about 70,
75% of the audience was asleep.
So I got there, you know, 25% was still awake when I got there.
So, you know, I got there late.
And then I went to the parties and everything after it.
That's pretty exciting, I would think.
Absolutely.
You didn't have to sit through the whole show.
You received your award and went right to the parties.
Absolutely.
You know, see, that's...
It's thinking like that that's why you're so successful.
I was watching a couple of months ago.
I was watching the big Dick Clark American Music Awards.
Yeah.
I like the way you say the big Dick Clark.
You are really, really annoying.
And you and your buddy, Jeff, got up and you won that award also.
And you told a story and I thought it was a very, very nice story, a very sweet
story.
And could you tell that for us tonight?
It was about after winning the first American Music Awards.
The first American Music Awards.
Yeah, what happened?
I thought that this was very nice.
Yeah, it was 1988.
We won our first American Music Awards.
Actually, we won two.
This was four years ago.
This was four years ago.
So, at the time, you're then like 19 or 20.
Four years ago.
I was 19, right.
We were so excited.
You know, this was the biggest time in our life.
And, you know, people are snapping pictures.
And limousines taking us here and there, rushing us around.
And we get back to Philadelphia and they gave us the key to the city and the
mayor comes out and everything is great.
So, it had been a few weeks before since we had had a chance to just really sit
down.
So, we get back to Jeff's house and his mom is preparing us dinner.
We sit down in Jeff's living room.
And this is just like the first quiet moment.
You know, we looked at each other.
We said, you know, man, we did it.
We did it.
We hugged each other.
And then Jeff's mom comes downstairs.
She said, Jeff, could you and Will go to the store and get me a loaf of bread
and a gallon of milk and some of those yams that come in the can.
Here's five dollars.
We were like, but we just want a lot of stuff.
Mom, is it okay if we take the limo?
We have to do a commercial.
You'll hang around, right?
Absolutely.
All right.
We'll be back here in a minute with Will Smith.
Will Smith here.
Anthony Hopkins and Smokey Robinson.
We have an award-winning panel here tonight.
Yourself and Anthony Hopkins and Smokey Robinson.
Yeah, I saw Anthony Hopkins back there.
You know, it's like I shook his hand.
I just expected him to bite me or something.
I was kind of disappointed, actually.
Well, we have had guests like that, you know.
Let's see.
What was I going to ask you?
When you were a kid, it's hard to say that phrase because you just are a kid,
you know.
But when you were beginning, when you were like in high school and you had, did
you always know that music was going to be your career?
Is that where you were headed in high school?
Not really.
It was always a hobby from the time I was 11 or 12 years old.
You know, rap was the first music that I really got into.
It was always a hobby.
It was always fun.
And up until, you know, the first check, you know, it was still just fun.
But, you know, they gave us some money.
And we said, you know, I might be able to do this for a little while.
Now, if there had not been a first check, what would have become of you?
Well, I was into engineering.
I was scheduled to go off to college, which my mother, that was a terrible
point in my life.
I said, you know, Mom, I don't think I want to be an engineer.
I want to rap.
I would like to rap.
You know, and as the hair started falling out of her head and she went into a
conniption, you know, I said, look, she agreed.
Just she'll give me a year.
Let me give it a shot for a year.
That was very reasonable.
Yeah, extremely reasonable.
Of a parent to do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, it was.
Where were you going to go to school?
What were you, what did you have in mind for yourself?
Well, I definitely wanted to be an engineer.
I was always good at that.
What kind of engineering?
Well, my father was a refrigeration engineer and I liked computers.
I was always good with computers and stuff like that.
So I wanted to be a computer engineer.
Right.
But it's like, you know, you know how when you go to college, you really don't
have that type of direction.
I knew I wanted, I was great with numbers.
Yeah, just generally computers and engineering and something like that.
Yeah, so from engineering to rap, you know, so that's a pretty, that's a
stretch, I'd say.
On the other side, you look at it from a different, the other side of the
situation, not many engineers named Fresh Prince.
Yeah, that's true.
You know, not many of the boys down at NASA, you know, are working on getting
that shuttle off on time.
But now, now, you're Mr. Big Shot.
You're living in Hollywood.
You have a house.
You're getting married.
Where's your house?
I live in Toluca Lake.
A few doors from Bob Hope, actually.
See?
See?
Now, do you and Bob and Dolores get together?
You know, we sit down and listen to, you know, some of my rap tapes every once
in a while.
Bob's really into Public Enemy, you know.
He's a big Public Enemy fan.
Have you met Bob?
You know, I saw him one time and, like, I was trying to wave to him, but, like,
I was taking the trash out and he was going by in his car.
And, you know, it was a black guy in his underwear running at his car.
So, Bob gets heavy on the gas and blows rubber all the way out of the valley.
Geez, this is great.
You're, I don't know, for some reason, I'm very, very happy for you.
Oh, thank you.
And I would guess everybody is.
The show now continues here on NBC.
Monday nights at 8.
Monday nights at 8.
Monday nights at 8.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
We're in our second season.
Thank all the fans for supporting me.
Doing very, very well.
I think when that show first started, people thought, well, what is this going
to be?
And then when they started watching, they realized that it doesn't make any
difference what the show was.
If you were on it, that they would watch you.
And that's the way it ought to be.
It started off, see, because I was a rapper, everyone was expecting to see rap
and everything in the show.
I know I was.
I mean, I mean, you're not the big rap fan that you are.
Oh, yeah, sure, yeah.
I think I may just be too white for my own day.
Anyway, and you're getting married and things are great and nice going.
Good to have you here, Will.
Will Smith, ladies and gentlemen.
Will Smith.