Name: How Barbara Walters Gets Celebrities To Talk To Her | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-12-31T03:02:40.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Barbara Walters Gets Celebrities To Talk To Her | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-12-31. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Barbara Walters Gets Celebrities To Talk To Her | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-12-31. Transcript available.

My first guest this evening is clearly one of the most respected figures in the
television
industry today. Unfortunately, she works for another network. She will be
showing one of
her fine specials that will be airing on August 2nd. Ladies and gentlemen, it's
a pleasure now
to reintroduce to you Ms. Barbara Walters. Barbara.
Hi, Barbara. Pleasure to see you. Thank you very much for being back on the
show. You know,
the last time you did a show, it was Jimmy Stewart, Daniel Trevanti and Mariette
Hartley. Yeah, and I
thought it was a fine show. And not to slight the other elements, but I really
enjoyed the Jimmy
Stewart part of it. So did we. That was very nice. We're running out of legends,
and he's one of the
last of the greats. Sweet man, nice man. Yeah. That's when it all just sort of
comes together,
and you realize how fortunate you are to be able to do interviews like that.
Who do we have here on
the August 2nd? Is that the correct date? Well, the August 2nd is updated
interviews with three of the
what we say are the hottest, most exciting superstars in the country, and they
are Willie Nelson,
Goldie Hawn, and Eddie Murphy. So we have put them together, and that will run,
I guess it's a week from
tonight. Now we have a, I want to mention this to you. Our talent coordinators
have contacted Willie
Nelson and Goldie Hawn. On December 8th, we wrote Goldie Hawn a letter asking
her to be on the show,
and many, many phone calls subsequent to that. She's not going to be on this
show. On April 26th,
we contacted Willie Nelson, again on May 5th and May 6th. We then wrote to him
on March 16th and April 28th,
she's not going to be on the show either. Now, as you said, truly legendary big-time
showbiz superstars. How do you
secure these folks for your program?
Well, first of all, I should tell you that they turned us down, both of them.
My first advice to you son is keep trying.
Did they really keep, they turned you down? Yeah, Goldie turned us down for
about a year, and Willie Nelson, even when we wanted to do it, his agent said
to us, he won't do it. I said, ask him. He said, I tell you, he won't do it. I
said, ask him.
And, uh, I said, ask Willie directly, and then I have my tricks, and so that,
so that.
What would, this is what we need to know, Barbara. I don't think we need to
know.
That's really not something I want to talk about. No, but yeah, I mean, um,
what are the tricks? And I'm guessing you don't have to trick too many people.
Are we serious? Yeah. You know, there are a lot of people who turn this down.
It's funny. They either do the show because they feel this is a chance to have
people know them the way
it really is because we don't talk to the, to the person and then talk to his
ex-wife and the manager he fired 10 years ago and so on. We do the interview
and that's it.
You know, what you see is what you get. So they either want to come on, like a
Clint Eastwood, for example, who does very few. You might try him. You could
get some more.
Clint, all right. We'll add Clint to the list of, uh, of turned down, sure.
Because they feel that they really will have a chance to, to reveal themselves
or they don't want to come on because they're afraid that they'll have to
reveal themselves.
I mean, we have people who will turn us down and, and do programs where they'll
be doing a four or five minute interview where they feel they don't have to,
you know, nobody's going to get inside.
Willie Nelson we were worried about when we finally did it because we, he does
so few and he, we had heard that he was very monosyllabic and I didn't know
that much about country music, although I'm a big Willie Nelson fan now and I
was afraid that I just, that he just wouldn't open up.
He did and he was terrific. Part of it I think is that we went down to his
ranch in Texas where he has, uh, his own golf course just for him, you know,
his own country club, just for him.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. A golf course just for him?
Yeah. He bought, he bought this area. He, he's got two houses with about
nothing in them. It seemed to me as I remember, except about 20 beds, I guess,
just for him.
Just for him, sure.
But this, the area had its own country club and its own golf course and he uses
it just for himself and his band and his wife when she comes down with the kids.
Yeah.
Takes you around in the golf, the golf cart and it's, you know, a marvelous
place that's his, his haven.
You know, I saw this, the interview you're talking about and it's, as you
mentioned, the same one where a repeat of that one.
And there was a period where you guys discussed drugs and so, so on and so
forth that I thought was pretty interesting.
And, and I thought, well, that's strange that the guy would openly discuss that
kind of thing.
He was sort of announcing that he no longer use it.
That's right. He said that he had stopped. I mean, he never used cocaine. He
talks about the interview. He says, if you're wired, you're fired.
You never use coke. But we were surprised too, because I mean, this is, this is
a man who always openly talked about the other drugs and the drinking, you know,
the Texas outlaw as he's called.
And he pretty much said, I'm finished with it.
All right. But there was a couple of interesting moments there. We'll discuss
that when we come back, involving, he wanted, I don't know, he invited you to
do something, didn't he?
Oh, yes.
All right. We'll find out about that and much, much more.
Thank you, Paul. Barbara Walters is here. Can we even mention that I brought it
up thinking that it was on the show, but it was in an article.
I don't know. No, it was not. Yeah, it was not on the show.
Yeah. Willie Nelson, you explain that.
Well, I liked him a lot. We got along very well. So we had a nice relationship.
And at least there's a lot of singing in the program. And he sort of did his
own little private concert for us.
And then we were talking about the drugs and the fact that he talked about it
so openly. And he said, did you ever smoke pot? And I said, no, I never have in
my life.
You really never have? No, I really never have. I've lost everybody out there.
Anyhow, I used to work on morning shows. We don't do those things on morning
shows.
No, I don't think it's anything. It's not funny that a human being has not done
that.
Okay. And he said, he said, well, you know, if you ever feel you want to, you
know, you should, you should do it with a friend and we could together. But we
didn't.
No. Well, I think, I think you're probably wise. I think Willie looks like he
knows about everything there is to know.
If I were going to, I'd like to do it with you. Would you really?
Yeah, because he's a nice, mellow, sweet, good man, I think. I think it shows.
I think that's, I think you feel it in his singing. I think you feel it in his
presence.
There is that sort of look of what? Peace or tranquility. You know, somebody
else might say it's pot. I think it comes along.
Let's, let's take a look now, a little bit of the interview with Barbara Walters
and Willie Nelson on his ranch in Texas that we'll be seeing August 2nd.
You always talked openly of a smoking pot. We're doing it now. Weren't you ever
afraid of getting arrested? Weren't you ever afraid of, of, of anything
happening to you, talking about it, smoking openly?
Well, I was concerned really, uh, to say I was not concerned, I'd be, uh,
really, uh, not too smart. Uh, but I also felt that, uh, there was a bigger
issue being made of it than there really was.
But you were the big example. I mean, a lot of kids could say, you know, Willie
does it, Willie talks about it and Willie's fine.
Well, I think those kids, uh, they were going to try it whether Willie even
existed or not, you know, if they wanted to. I mean, they could always use me
as an excuse, but I think they would still rather, uh, me be honest with them
and rather than lie and say, no, I never did it before in my life.
Because you never did deny it. You always did talk about it openly.
Well, yeah, and I used to drink a lot, too. Uh, I used to take pills. I used to
do all those things. Uh, I don't recommend them to anybody, uh, young or old.
Uh, young or old, uh.
Billy Murphy. Uh, we have to applause for station identification. When we come
back, I want to talk about, uh, Eddie Murphy, who was also featured on, uh, the
show on August 2nd.
Now, tell me about, uh, Eddie Murphy.
Well, we had done Eddie Murphy just, uh, just a little while ago, as a matter
of fact. And we, you know, we all, part of our program is to go into people's
houses and to see how they live and these wonderful tours and so on.
We went into his house. He didn't have one stick of furniture. We did the
interview sitting on the floor. The only thing he had in the bookcases, he had
some books.
And our producer, Beth Polson said, oh, at least you've got books. He said,
what books? Those were left by the previous owner.
Uh, have you ever seen anything like the success that... No.
He's 22, right? Yeah. Even when we did it. It's just amazing.
Even when we did it, it was a very short time ago. He had done 48 hours. I mean,
I'm talking about the last few months.
And, and the reason that we're repeating the, and updating the interview is
that we got, you know, such an amount of mail on it. I mean, people, when, when,
when we did it, he, he was known by the late night crowd, but not that much.
Now, here it is, maybe two, three months later. Wow.
People wanting to send him furniture, I guess.
You know, the house, he, he was in that house. It was, it's in a nice little
neighborhood where the kids and the dogs and everybody comes up.
but he comes up now he says that he that he can't even open the door without
people coming up but
it's just phenomenal i don't uh not that i've been in show business all my life
but i've never heard
of anybody hitting once with a movie and then coming back six months later and
just doubling
the impact but he is so kind of nice and charming and nouveau in in the best
way i mean he was
wearing far more jewelry than i i mean he's got a big watch here and the ring
and the thing and
it's all sort of it's it's cute and it's fun and it's and it's it's likable you
you're with him you
want him to win do you get the feeling that that at 22 everything's okay for
him because in that
circumstance people at 22 may be looking yeah but he he talks about this i mean
he's worried about
keeping his balance and he says you know you've got too many people saying yes
all the time and
it's why he wants to live near his parents because he goes home and they say to
him you know big deal
empty the garbage i mean literally but then you know you do sit and you think
what 22 what happens at
32 42 where do you go when you're that big now except he's a sane young guy i
mean we were talking
about drugs and he says you know he doesn't you know he he doesn't you you all
know this and he
doesn't take drugs and he doesn't take alcohol and he says look i want this to
i feel it's important
that people know that you can be high and have fun without it and yet he does
it and not in a
moralistic way he's a good kid yeah uh you're a good kid too as the saying goes
uh listen barbara
who who are we leaving out of the show we covered the goldie hawn remember goldie
hawn you tried to
april 23rd 26th oh that's right sure goldie hawn all right uh it's a good show
it's a good show
and uh nice to see you again thanks very much for being here ladies and
gentlemen
barbara welter uh yeah i think you can leave too thanks barbara
very nice uh a very nice woman uh you know what i mean