Name: Burt Reynolds Got Lucky With A Hollywood Star | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-09-28T14:21:03.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Burt Reynolds Got Lucky With A Hollywood Star | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-28. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Burt Reynolds Got Lucky With A Hollywood Star | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-28. Transcript available.

it's truly a pleasure to welcome my first guest to this program he is
currently co-starring with clint eastwood in a film called city heat please
welcome
burt reynolds
hi burt nice to meet you how are you sir
nice to see you thank you very much for being here thank you what do you think
the audience loves
you that makes you feel great doesn't it it makes me feel wanted yeah how long
ago did you actually
live in new york city i lived here uh i came here in 1957 56 and uh i was here
about two years but i
didn't live here i just i just kind of existed on pigeons whenever i could grab
one ripped the head
off one yeah uh i i lived with ripped torn which is a strange existence in its
own right yeah
was was this uh was this fun at all or was it just overwhelmingly peculiar it
was it was both
which has been the story of my life yeah overwhelmingly peculiar and fun uh we
had i was going to acting
schools uh which i got uh kicked out of most of i went to why would they kick
you out of an acting
school because i couldn't act oh and uh
hey that's a dumb question like that you're going to get an answer like that
and then i went to uh stella adler she was terrific i liked her a lot you just
kind of sit on the floor and
stare at her knees and she praises you a lot yeah but i never acted yeah uh
then i finally ended up
with uh win handman who was wonderful he was very kind and i was i was real
real shy in those days and uh
i was i was real shy and uh um in my class which is kind of uh astounding
really was um carol lawrence
who nobody knew uh red buttons jan murray who was doing a uh uh treasure hunt
show oh yeah yeah
wanted to be an actor yeah and uh uh
treasure girl please and say that's not in the scene jim and uh and frank frank
gifford who was
playing for the giants at the time and was gorgeous yeah i really resented that
uh and i was real i was just so shy and and uh we get these improvisational
scenes going and and uh
slowly i sort of came along i guess and that was the days of live television
and um a friend of mine
was doing a show called the frontiers of faith you ever heard of that no i have
heard of that treasure
hunt thing though well that was that was because of the treasure girl
the frontiers of faith was a live show on sunday morning and uh this guy was
the uh assistant uh
producer on the show and he said that they needed some guy to throw through a
window
and uh because it was live uh and they never throw anybody through a window
because you wouldn't do that on
frontiers of faith but it was a story about a gangster who had you know
suddenly found uh found god right
after he threw the guy out about 12 stories and and uh they said uh where are
we going to find a guy and
i said how much do you get for that and they said 150 bucks and i said hey i'm
your man yeah and uh so i came
down and but because it was live you had to play the part of the guy you know
say a few lines you know a few lines and then
out the window and so uh i came in and i was too dumb to be scared and i i did
the part and they
threw me out the window and got to 150 had my card my after card and as those
things happened this
guy went right from there to craft theater and i went to the craft theater and
a lot of other shows
but i was uh they always asked for uh whenever they wanted to set someone on
fire you know or uh
i said we got a stair fall here about a 70 foot stair fall i said get that reynolds
kid
this kid's got a brain about the size of a pea
and uh but i was in there i was really trying to act you know and my mom i used
to call her god
bless her i'd say uh i'm on a show next week and you gotta be sure and watch
and she said uh how are
you gonna die and i said no no i'm telling you i got a really great part and i
had a terrific part
it was one of those scenes i in fact i was going right for the emmy look it
looked big for me yeah
and uh i had they set me on fire and they threw me out of a window i land in an
alley and they throw
water on me and i'm dying and the chief of uh the fire department comes up to
this uh detective and the
detective says did anybody live and he says he did now we rehearsed and a page
and a half you know
good stuff you know when you when you know at the very end when you go
really good stuff so i i i saw it there's no question about it emmy for sure so
i called mom she had
the whole i mean the whole neighborhood came over and uh paul ford who started
acting very late in
life uh was rather nervous because it was live you remember paul ford ford from
he was uh among other
things he was on sergeant bilko that's right sweet man and then looked a little
bit like a frog you know
he had a real funny little face very likable nice love yeah lovely man well he's
standing there and they
set me on fire put the glue on my back and lit me up threw me out the window
crashed down on the alley
douse the water on me the detective walks up to paul ford and says anybody live
and he looks over
at me and says nope nope nobody made it so how much more of this did you take
before you headed west
uh i headed west right soon after that did you have a deal to go out did
somebody say you'd be great for
the film come on out or did you just pack up and go out on your own i tested
for a film called but
not for me with clark gable and this is a huge break for you then at that time
if you get this part
you're in a huge test a huge test not a break uh i flew out to california with
um george maharish
and we were he and i and another guy tested and we walked in and i saw clark gable
wow i mean he was
gorgeous dogs women men everybody looked at this guy and said woof and so we
were standing in this
big room and in those days you watched the other people test you know you didn't
go out i guess
you could walk outside but we all watched and uh george did his test with clark
and uh gable said uh
you duck aren't you and uh george said what you duck and uh and george said i'm
a new yorker you know
i'm a duck huh yeah so i thought to myself if he asked me that i'm gonna come
up with a clever answer
and you know i'll be in that's the way my mind worked at the age of 22. so uh i
went up to test next
meanwhile the guy that was sitting next to me was so good looking i mean it was
real scary and uh
i wanted to you know hit him in the face with a monkey wrench or something but
i got up and i'm
standing next to mr gable who was really something and uh he said about four
minutes of conversation
he said right on cue you ducker and i said i can't shoot anything since i saw bambi
and mr gable went so we did that scene i came back and the other guy went up
and he said to this
other guy mr gorgeous you duck out and this guy says i got it over and under i
uh it's i don't know
what it's mr wesley i think i like to shoot uh duck and geese mostly but i
usually get doubles
and i told him to turn to george and i said george we are on our way back to
new york
and that guy got the part yeah and that guy today is mr goodranch
which is all right because he's still gorgeous yeah and still and the work but
do you suppose he
ever actually went duck hunting with this guy oh sure yeah i wouldn't you yeah
i would have
listen man i would have dug for whatever he said he dug for uh-huh and then and
then about that time i
decided that i would make my move out to california so you stayed out there
what year was this do you
remember offhand yeah i went out in in 57 or 58 and i sort of bounced around
and i didn't do too well
but i met a uh a little starlet yeah now that's what i was going to ask you
about do you do you remember
your first uh i don't know how to put this exactly but but you're you're out
there and you're you're
dating my first actual physical encounter with a starlet is that what you're
trying to say yeah
now is this is this a starlet or a movie star there's a difference there was a
well yeah there
is now give us the breakdown movie star starlet what how does that work i'll
give you the breakdown
all right
the movie star is elizabeth taylor yeah elizabeth taylor is a movie star yeah a
starlet
is if one bad performance she's on her way to pomona that's a starlet yeah but
she's real pretty
and you know very visible and uh built like you know the trump tower and and on
her way hopefully
if everything goes everything goes right okay but everybody knew this girl
because she had a uh a t-bird
uh decorated with chicken feathers oh that's nice she had kind of a low low low
key profile anyway
i went out with her and everybody knew her and everybody in and who i knew in
college knew her
and i went out with her and i uh uh i got lucky you know that's the saying goes
yeah and i remember
driving home and i've often wondered if if people do this today when they you
know i mean if some young
lady and i were to you know have a lingering kiss you know i stopped at a red
light
i'm just going to say one bad word but it's not a real bad word i said
we'll uh we'll be right back after station identification i thought that was
thoughtful of you
later in this program herbie hancock will be here also uh tomorrow actress mary
lou henner you know
mary lou henner you were in a film with her two films three films two films yes
she's a very nice
woman she's a sensational woman and i might add the best smelling guest we've
ever had i noticed that
too she smells unbelievable uh also tomorrow uh we have this man on because mary
lou asked for him
uh k-mar the magician that'll be tomorrow oh k-mar the magician that's tomorrow
i wonder what the
connection is there well they i think they're working together now oh uh now
tell me about what
we're speaking of working tell me about working with uh clint eastwood now what
is this like is this
fun is he tough is he is he nasty a nice guy is can you joke around with this
guy he's a barrel of laughs
i tell you no i've known clint for 25 years and uh we were fired the very same
day from universal 25
years ago fired from from what and how how do they from the studio they called
us both in this office
and this guy said to clint your adam's apple sticks out way too far and you've
got a chip tooth you've
got little squinty eyes and you talk too slow and i said what's the matter with
me and he said
you can't act so uh yeah they've been telling me and telling me and i'm still
here yeah yeah
anyway we uh we got up and we walked down the street which was a long street
universal and clint who only says about 25 words a year anyway didn't didn't
say anything and i said clint
you're in big trouble he said why is that i said because i can learn how to act
but you're never
going to get rid of that damn adamson anyway he went on to to make uh mini mill
and come back
uh at universal and that guy who fired us is now spinning in a grave somewhere
yeah uh he he was just
terrific to me he was i i adored him before i did the film but now after
working with him i like him
even more before we started to do the film i said let's do a film where we don't
say
one you know bad word no four-letter words and and and he said great and so we
did yeah the whole
picture now i got to clarify something because i saw the film and there are a
couple in there but never
the s-word or the f-word or the word you said earlier tonight on yes on the
show yes but you and
i didn't have an agreement before the show that's right we did
and the picture the picture would have a g rating except for the fact that clint
kills and maims and
strangles 147 people and it really was fun to make it was the most fun i've had
ever making a picture
and and he's such a sweet guy i mean i just i just love the guy it's you know
it has a good look to
the film it's a very nice it's a it's a period they call these period pieces
don't they period pieces
yeah but it has you you successfully captured the flavor of of the period yes
the 1920s and the jazz
period which i i love anyway that's why i love the fact you got herbie hancock
and i mean i'm a jazz
freak also i like uh cars with feathers on them uh now this woman by just for a
second this woman now
you want to get started the starlet she did she go on to be a star a movie star
yeah now what was her
name what would give us a give us a picture that she was in that we you know
maybe two or three women
in that we you know because i hate guys that do that nothing more slimy i hate
i hate those kind
of books that come out and say i went to bed with the warren beatty and he gets
a 10 and you know i i
hate that kind of stuff i mean if if a woman or a man give themselves to each
other in a loving way
in a nice way i think that that's something very well it sounds like it was a
loving uh a loving
relationship based on based on you and kawengav screaming well i uh when it
when at the time i thought
i was in ecstasy yeah so it was and it was a loving way give us a little hint i
know it stinks i know
it's ugly give us a little hint i'll give i'll give you a little hint all right
she was in a movie
that had a lot of underwater sequences i know who this is i know i have it i
have it
okay that's good that's helpful information thank you very much
thank you thank you mr reynolds you can go back to your home now and no further
questioning we have
not john hall uh this is exciting though huh i'm excited about that you'll be
calling me from time
to time just to check updates yeah updates sure city heat well i'm sure that'll
do very well for for both
you and uh mr eastwood thank you you guys own part of that don't you i saw the
credits it was you and you
and him have something you own in addition to we produced it yeah yeah that
means huge show business
dollars for you and no it means that uh a restaurant you also have a restaurant
i have a restaurant
that's true but the deal was structured in such a way that i don't i don't get
quite as much as clint
yeah let me ask you we're running out of time let me just ask you one thing
about this restaurant
because a lot of time guys will sell their name to a restaurant and they open
it up and they don't
know anything about it really we have a menu where is your restaurant my
restaurant is in fort lauderdale
it's it's in the most beautiful spot burton jacks burton jacks here's a menu
current menu i'm
going to ask you a couple of questions about the menu what appetizers appetizers
appetizers what does
you know you're going to have some stuff out of the sea all right let me know
let me ask you let me ask
let me ask you let me ask you the price of the stuffed jumbo clam
sometimes we like to lower that price right down to the bottom and then
sometimes we like to jack that
baby right up on the weekend but i would guess depends on somewhere between six
dollars and two dollars
that's right it's just dead center
3.95 for the stuffed jumbo clam let's try just one more oh
what desserts i don't see desserts on here no
now let me uh one more one more here fresh vegetables the category is fresh
vegetables bert for 50.
uh-huh sauteed mushrooms uh you've never eaten this in your life sauteed
mushrooms and pea pods
i would say somewhere between the price of four dollars
and something else i would say four dollars or over oh bert this is a bargain
ladies and gentlemen
when you go down and a half no no
here's what you load up on these sauteed mushrooms and pea pods
son of a gun put them in your pocket 275.
bert thank you very much for your time nice to meet you come back anytime we'll
be right back with herbie
Thank you.

Burt Reynolds Got Lucky With A Hollywood Star | Letterman

it's truly a pleasure to welcome my first guest to this program he is
currently co-starring with clint eastwood in a film called city heat please
welcome
burt reynolds
hi burt nice to meet you how are you sir
nice to see you thank you very much for being here thank you what do you think
the audience loves
you that makes you feel great doesn't it it makes me feel wanted yeah how long
ago did you actually
live in new york city i lived here uh i came here in 1957 56 and uh i was here
about two years but i
didn't live here i just i just kind of existed on pigeons whenever i could grab
one ripped the head
off one yeah uh i i lived with ripped torn which is a strange existence in its
own right yeah
was was this uh was this fun at all or was it just overwhelmingly peculiar it
was it was both
which has been the story of my life yeah overwhelmingly peculiar and fun uh we
had i was going to acting
schools uh which i got uh kicked out of most of i went to why would they kick
you out of an acting
school because i couldn't act oh and uh
hey that's a dumb question like that you're going to get an answer like that
and then i went to uh stella adler she was terrific i liked her a lot you just
kind of sit on the floor and
stare at her knees and she praises you a lot yeah but i never acted yeah uh
then i finally ended up
with uh win handman who was wonderful he was very kind and i was i was real
real shy in those days and uh
i was i was real shy and uh um in my class which is kind of uh astounding
really was um carol lawrence
who nobody knew uh red buttons jan murray who was doing a uh uh treasure hunt
show oh yeah yeah
wanted to be an actor yeah and uh uh
treasure girl please and say that's not in the scene jim and uh and frank frank
gifford who was
playing for the giants at the time and was gorgeous yeah i really resented that
uh and i was real i was just so shy and and uh we get these improvisational
scenes going and and uh
slowly i sort of came along i guess and that was the days of live television
and um a friend of mine
was doing a show called the frontiers of faith you ever heard of that no i have
heard of that treasure
hunt thing though well that was that was because of the treasure girl
the frontiers of faith was a live show on sunday morning and uh this guy was
the uh assistant uh
producer on the show and he said that they needed some guy to throw through a
window
and uh because it was live uh and they never throw anybody through a window
because you wouldn't do that on
frontiers of faith but it was a story about a gangster who had you know
suddenly found uh found god right
after he threw the guy out about 12 stories and and uh they said uh where are
we going to find a guy and
i said how much do you get for that and they said 150 bucks and i said hey i'm
your man yeah and uh so i came
down and but because it was live you had to play the part of the guy you know
say a few lines you know a few lines and then
out the window and so uh i came in and i was too dumb to be scared and i i did
the part and they
threw me out the window and got to 150 had my card my after card and as those
things happened this
guy went right from there to craft theater and i went to the craft theater and
a lot of other shows
but i was uh they always asked for uh whenever they wanted to set someone on
fire you know or uh
i said we got a stair fall here about a 70 foot stair fall i said get that reynolds
kid
this kid's got a brain about the size of a pea
and uh but i was in there i was really trying to act you know and my mom i used
to call her god
bless her i'd say uh i'm on a show next week and you gotta be sure and watch
and she said uh how are
you gonna die and i said no no i'm telling you i got a really great part and i
had a terrific part
it was one of those scenes i in fact i was going right for the emmy look it
looked big for me yeah
and uh i had they set me on fire and they threw me out of a window i land in an
alley and they throw
water on me and i'm dying and the chief of uh the fire department comes up to
this uh detective and the
detective says did anybody live and he says he did now we rehearsed and a page
and a half you know
good stuff you know when you when you know at the very end when you go
really good stuff so i i i saw it there's no question about it emmy for sure so
i called mom she had
the whole i mean the whole neighborhood came over and uh paul ford who started
acting very late in
life uh was rather nervous because it was live you remember paul ford ford from
he was uh among other
things he was on sergeant bilko that's right sweet man and then looked a little
bit like a frog you know
he had a real funny little face very likable nice love yeah lovely man well he's
standing there and they
set me on fire put the glue on my back and lit me up threw me out the window
crashed down on the alley
douse the water on me the detective walks up to paul ford and says anybody live
and he looks over
at me and says nope nope nobody made it so how much more of this did you take
before you headed west
uh i headed west right soon after that did you have a deal to go out did
somebody say you'd be great for
the film come on out or did you just pack up and go out on your own i tested
for a film called but
not for me with clark gable and this is a huge break for you then at that time
if you get this part
you're in a huge test a huge test not a break uh i flew out to california with
um george maharish
and we were he and i and another guy tested and we walked in and i saw clark gable
wow i mean he was
gorgeous dogs women men everybody looked at this guy and said woof and so we
were standing in this
big room and in those days you watched the other people test you know you didn't
go out i guess
you could walk outside but we all watched and uh george did his test with clark
and uh gable said uh
you duck aren't you and uh george said what you duck and uh and george said i'm
a new yorker you know
i'm a duck huh yeah so i thought to myself if he asked me that i'm gonna come
up with a clever answer
and you know i'll be in that's the way my mind worked at the age of 22. so uh i
went up to test next
meanwhile the guy that was sitting next to me was so good looking i mean it was
real scary and uh
i wanted to you know hit him in the face with a monkey wrench or something but
i got up and i'm
standing next to mr gable who was really something and uh he said about four
minutes of conversation
he said right on cue you ducker and i said i can't shoot anything since i saw bambi
and mr gable went so we did that scene i came back and the other guy went up
and he said to this
other guy mr gorgeous you duck out and this guy says i got it over and under i
uh it's i don't know
what it's mr wesley i think i like to shoot uh duck and geese mostly but i
usually get doubles
and i told him to turn to george and i said george we are on our way back to
new york
and that guy got the part yeah and that guy today is mr goodranch
which is all right because he's still gorgeous yeah and still and the work but
do you suppose he
ever actually went duck hunting with this guy oh sure yeah i wouldn't you yeah
i would have
listen man i would have dug for whatever he said he dug for uh-huh and then and
then about that time i
decided that i would make my move out to california so you stayed out there
what year was this do you
remember offhand yeah i went out in in 57 or 58 and i sort of bounced around
and i didn't do too well
but i met a uh a little starlet yeah now that's what i was going to ask you
about do you do you remember
your first uh i don't know how to put this exactly but but you're you're out
there and you're you're
dating my first actual physical encounter with a starlet is that what you're
trying to say yeah
now is this is this a starlet or a movie star there's a difference there was a
well yeah there
is now give us the breakdown movie star starlet what how does that work i'll
give you the breakdown
all right
the movie star is elizabeth taylor yeah elizabeth taylor is a movie star yeah a
starlet
is if one bad performance she's on her way to pomona that's a starlet yeah but
she's real pretty
and you know very visible and uh built like you know the trump tower and and on
her way hopefully
if everything goes everything goes right okay but everybody knew this girl
because she had a uh a t-bird
uh decorated with chicken feathers oh that's nice she had kind of a low low low
key profile anyway
i went out with her and everybody knew her and everybody in and who i knew in
college knew her
and i went out with her and i uh uh i got lucky you know that's the saying goes
yeah and i remember
driving home and i've often wondered if if people do this today when they you
know i mean if some young
lady and i were to you know have a lingering kiss you know i stopped at a red
light
i'm just going to say one bad word but it's not a real bad word i said
we'll uh we'll be right back after station identification i thought that was
thoughtful of you
later in this program herbie hancock will be here also uh tomorrow actress mary
lou henner you know
mary lou henner you were in a film with her two films three films two films yes
she's a very nice
woman she's a sensational woman and i might add the best smelling guest we've
ever had i noticed that
too she smells unbelievable uh also tomorrow uh we have this man on because mary
lou asked for him
uh k-mar the magician that'll be tomorrow oh k-mar the magician that's tomorrow
i wonder what the
connection is there well they i think they're working together now oh uh now
tell me about what
we're speaking of working tell me about working with uh clint eastwood now what
is this like is this
fun is he tough is he is he nasty a nice guy is can you joke around with this
guy he's a barrel of laughs
i tell you no i've known clint for 25 years and uh we were fired the very same
day from universal 25
years ago fired from from what and how how do they from the studio they called
us both in this office
and this guy said to clint your adam's apple sticks out way too far and you've
got a chip tooth you've
got little squinty eyes and you talk too slow and i said what's the matter with
me and he said
you can't act so uh yeah they've been telling me and telling me and i'm still
here yeah yeah
anyway we uh we got up and we walked down the street which was a long street
universal and clint who only says about 25 words a year anyway didn't didn't
say anything and i said clint
you're in big trouble he said why is that i said because i can learn how to act
but you're never
going to get rid of that damn adamson anyway he went on to to make uh mini mill
and come back
uh at universal and that guy who fired us is now spinning in a grave somewhere
yeah uh he he was just
terrific to me he was i i adored him before i did the film but now after
working with him i like him
even more before we started to do the film i said let's do a film where we don't
say
one you know bad word no four-letter words and and and he said great and so we
did yeah the whole
picture now i got to clarify something because i saw the film and there are a
couple in there but never
the s-word or the f-word or the word you said earlier tonight on yes on the
show yes but you and
i didn't have an agreement before the show that's right we did
and the picture the picture would have a g rating except for the fact that clint
kills and maims and
strangles 147 people and it really was fun to make it was the most fun i've had
ever making a picture
and and he's such a sweet guy i mean i just i just love the guy it's you know
it has a good look to
the film it's a very nice it's a it's a period they call these period pieces
don't they period pieces
yeah but it has you you successfully captured the flavor of of the period yes
the 1920s and the jazz
period which i i love anyway that's why i love the fact you got herbie hancock
and i mean i'm a jazz
freak also i like uh cars with feathers on t