Name: When John McEnroe Met David Bowie | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-09-01T18:00:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'When John McEnroe Met David Bowie | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'When John McEnroe Met David Bowie | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-01. Transcript available.

during his 16-year career our first guest won 77 tournaments and earned seven
grand slam titles
establishing himself as a true tennis legend he's joining us tonight for the
first time
and we could not be happier to have him with us ladies and gentlemen here he is
the one the only
john mackenrod good to have you here john thank you very very much and let me
just tell you and
this means nothing to you really but you are the reason i started playing
tennis and i would guess
you're the reason millions and millions of people around the world took uh to
the game of tennis
because i don't think so yeah i think so you don't think so no that may be the
reason that question
calls and got angry uh let's talk a little bit about the u.s open you're
working as a commentator for
for this network weren't you yeah and when when you talk about others playing
the game of tennis do you
have to be careful so you don't upset the players yeah i gotta be positive you
had pete on a couple
days yeah yeah kisses you know what during you know during the tournament andre
gets bent out of
shape yeah bars back you know all of them they're all the same has anybody ever
confronted you ever
questioned your assessment of their play uh javier sanchez can i say yes
point penalty i've said that a few times in my day cost me about 150 grand whoa
we're not even warmed up
here uh what did you say about mr sanchez that uh well i said he had a one
percent chance of beating
chang and he didn't he didn't take to it too well yeah and so what did you what
did you say when he said
actually i i said he had a two percent chance it made him feel a little bit
better oh man where
would you be if you were playing today actively with these guys where would you
be ranked now in this
field of that's hard to say i'd like i'd like to try but uh you know the older
i get the better i used
to be dave unlike you no unlike i don't even know i used to be good this guy's
getting better with
i want to tell you let me tell you i've been a big fan for a long time so as i
you thank you very
much even your show in the daytime the yeah the old morning show yeah so yeah
you watch that show you
were the one yes but i want to tell you something and forgive me if i just get
sloppy on this when i
you used to play uh bjorn borg man i'm telling you at wimbledon that was
something you that was
captivating tennis now if you can objectively evaluate that compared to like a
finals this year at
wimbledon or a finals this year a lot less boring yeah yeah we had a little bit
of energy and personality
connor's uh bjorn borg was the iceman jimmy and i made up the fire part uh all
these guys are great
guys sampras you know jim courier andre's got a bit of a personality he grew up
in vegas so you know
imagine that boris becker there's a couple guys out there but most of the guys
are just you know
pay their you know just go out there pick up the huge check pick up the
enormous the enormous check
and keep five times but but if you can if you can now take the personalities uh
oh you did all right
i did all right we're not having dinners for you you did okay uh but if you
take the personalities
out of the competition how how did the uh the level of play stack up with what
it is today uh i think
the tennis itself technically was better but i think the athletes are far
superior the equipment's better
but i mean i think we could stack up just fine but i think guys are getting
bigger i mean i didn't
think dr j there could be another guy then michael jordan came along so uh and
why did stuff the why
are the rackets enormous now i have no idea i think we should go back to what
any tennis players yeah
out there wood rackets all right and let's see how these guys play with wood
rackets you you know
and but you're a big fan of baseball right yeah they don't use graphite bats
out in the majors right
you know they do it in college the kids and they should have the pros play with
the wood and the
difference is control you have to have uh pinpoint control when you're using
the smaller racket
what happened what was that they're a lot smaller head i don't even want to get
can we quit while we're
behind they got bigger heads these days yeah i i'm completely lost here and i
feel a little silly
about it what about these uh jensen brothers what's the deal on what a bunch of
clowns yeah
but they're they're supposed to be like wacky tennis guys or something they're
sort of entertainment
tennis but if they could play they'd have more credibility but the problem is
they don't know how
to play but they're good guys luke and murphy if you watch them they're nice blokes
yeah and uh
i may have to call a match of theirs next year would you what would be ways
that you would want to
change the game if you could well i'd go back to wood rackets i'd make a season
i'd try to
eliminate let's try to get the game a little fast i think four hours is too
long to watch a tennis
match it gets a little boring after a while uh yeah we could go down the list
of things uh
i'd like to see the top players play more often a way to determine that if you
play the same events
so you can truly see who the best player is who do you think when you see play
now that you'd have
trouble with sampras and agassi yeah yeah uh after that i look at some of the
other guys michael cheng's
a great competitor but i like my chances against he's a little guy so you know
have you have you
ever barfed on court like sampras did no you gotta replay that again i think i
think we have it loaded
up i tell you what stay right there john we're gonna do a commercial and then
we'll be right back
here with mr mackinroe i uh uh uh years and years ago i read a profile of you
uh in i think sports
illustrated and it was uh i thought it was a great article because it gave me
insight and perspective
about you and into your life and activities that i don't think i would have had
access to
and the assessment that the man doing the article came away with was or the one
he proposed
you and and your temper on court and why you sometimes had difficulty
controlling it
was born of the fact that you were so good i'd like to hear this you were so
good
and you could hear a shot that was in you could hear a shot that was out you
could hear a let you
could hear a netball you could see this and when when the the call did not
agree with what you knew
to be the case it frustrated and angered you see the mac cam on the cbs us open
this year yeah yeah
now you can see who really sees the balls the players see the balls the umpires
don't see them
but take us take us through that what happens because i know that you show up
for a match you
think well i feel fine i'm not going to lose my temper and then two minutes
into it bang
my dad stole me a thousand times you know just go out there and play you're
better than those guys
right that's right just keep your cool but it doesn't work that way does it
well it doesn't work
that way i go out there within a couple games you know they make a couple bad
calls couple people
call me jerks in the stands the same thing every night right here john the same
damn thing
and then and then afterward afterward you feel badly about it you know it's
sort of chemical it sort
of burns through you and then you feel remorse somewhat jekyll and heidish you
know but i mean
at the same time it's a serious thing i mean that's my job people didn't seem
to take it very seriously
umpires sometimes sleeping on the job 65 year old guys calling the lines of the
finals of wimbledon
dozing off give me a break yeah paul just checking to see if you're awake all
right
you're a whipping boy all these years i mean that's cruel but you know when i
used to watch it it was
uh guys like uh elie nastasi yeah ponchos and gonzalez yes jimmy carol arantes
no he was a nice guy
oh yeah no i'm saying these are guys oh i thought you're talking about the guys
that i learned from oh
yeah but but elie was a nice guy as well but very very colorful wasn't he yeah
that's a nice way of
putting it yeah he he the difference was that i didn't go out there and
deliberately try to anger
my opponent i just waited a couple calls then they got angry with me for stalling
and claiming that i
was doing it on purpose but elie went out there with the express purpose he was
baiting them exactly
your opponent your opponent though as a as a competitor as an athlete when when
this would happen to you
would it make you a better player or make you a worse player uh initially made
me better i mean i really
was into what i was doing i was going to change the sport of tennis i wanted to
bring it to the masses
which i still like to do here but after a while you bang your head against the
wall enough starts
hurting a little bit so and then i got worse i had kids i realized how full
what a fool i was
i got four kids dave my fiancee wants to say hello patty smile she's great you
know she's been on the
show many times i know always just knocks the place apart absolutely and she's
ready if you're right
now to sing is you really ready oh now see now you're yeah i'm thinking hey how
are you patty smite
thank you
you guys have a band together right uh no no she doesn't have anything to do
with me no you play in
a little you have a band i have her old guitar player keith mac who plays with
me i'm trying
to get a band together i'll tell you it's a different story do you have the
same passion
for music that you do for tennis i'm more into music than i'm into tennis but i'm
unfortunately
pretty you know mediocre as matter of fact i had a guy by the name of david bowie
has anyone heard of
david bowie david bowie was staying at a hotel on top of where i was and i was
i didn't know this so
i was actually beginning guitar like 10 12 years ago trying to play rebel rebel
all right i get a knock
on the door it's david bowie says listen we'd like to come up for a beer but
promise not to bring
your guitar ah that hurts ouch so i'll give you an idea about my music i'm
getting better i'm getting
better but now and now you're spending time playing tennis with uh jimmy connors
what is that like
yeah at one time you hated this guy didn't you honestly you hated him didn't
you uh severely
disliked you hated him you hated this guy you thought this guy was a punk he is
a punk yeah
but i'm a punk yeah and now you guys we're on the dinosaur tour see the old
guys 35 and over we go
and we just uh i guess a few people still want to see us play but we're pretty
bad no no you got to
be pretty good no we're not we're pretty bad i think it's probably still a very
high level of skilled
tennis i would think so have you seen a match no i haven't seen one well come
out and see our match
next year no uh you know uh uh occasionally with this job you get to meet
people that really meant a
great deal to you in all aspects of your life and i feel that way about you
thank you for being there
you made a great deal to me thank you sir thank you very much john mackenroe
you