Name: Robin Williams Talks Fatherhood And Trying To Learn To Play Saxophone | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-01T16:05:47.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robin Williams Talks Fatherhood And Trying To Learn To Play Saxophone | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robin Williams Talks Fatherhood And Trying To Learn To Play Saxophone | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

My first guest, ladies and gentlemen, of course, you know, was Mork.
He was also Garp in the film.
He was Popeye in that film.
And he is now co-starring with Walter Matthau in a new film called The Survivors.
Please welcome a tremendously talented person, Mr. Robin Williams.
Robin.
Nice to see you.
And for late summer, real men do this.
Real men aren't afraid to say, I have nipples, too.
Whoa, let me button this up real quick.
Some of them are saying, let's see them, don't be afraid.
You know, the last time I saw you, first of all, congratulations on your son.
Oh, that's wonderful.
You have a brand new baby boy.
So, it's incredible when you think of how it happened.
You think there must be, all these sperms start off,
and there must be one sperm that gets a diaphragm and goes, boom!
Everybody else, over me, keep swimming, go on!
Two sperms back there going, good luck, we'll be here!
Carry on, did you get a standing ovulation?
Go on!
Do you, and also, you have, you look different from the last time I saw you.
Yes, sir, this beard I put on here, it's going back, ooh!
And what is the reason for the beard?
It's for a film about a Russian saxophone player
who defects in Bloomingdale's.
Mm-hmm.
Some lady's going, that'll never happen unless it's a sale.
But it's with Paul Mazursky.
Yeah.
And, now, you, the first time I saw you perform,
you were pretending to be, and a lot of people thought you were,
a comic.
Oh, Nicky Lennon.
Yeah, a comic from Russia.
Used to do suppressions and do Soviet ventriloquism
with a little puppet going, would you like to say hello?
Yeah, no, no!
Yeah.
That was funny.
Used to do that, we had, did an impression of Karl Marx,
which is imperialism, that's the worst thing I've ever heard.
That was fun, that was the first thing I ever did,
the first character I ever had.
Yeah.
Mitzi says hello to you, David.
Now, tell the folks, tell the folks who Mitzi is.
Oh.
Who are, oh, Mitzi's a lady who, this one?
Mitzi owns, Mitzi owns the comedy store in Los Angeles.
People are going, okay, so what now?
She says, hello, tell David, hi, from everybody,
George and Jay Leno and everybody.
And also, the other thing about Mitzi,
anytime, day or night, you can pretty much bet
that this is what she's doing.
Counting that dough, just big stacks.
Boom, just bigger and bigger.
I don't know, maybe we'll open joke in the box.
Yeah.
You'll have an order of shtick for the kids.
Uh, let's, let's, uh.
Slow down now, you're right.
I didn't mean to talk about, uh, not talk about your son,
but his name is...
Zachary, his wife.
I was going to name him Matilla, but I thought, no.
No, no.
He's wonderful, it's an incredible process.
I mean, when my wife got pregnant, it was great,
because after the first month, the titty fairy came.
Oh!
It's like, whoa!
Let me touch, no, they're for the baby.
Oh.
I see the man from, there's a man from standards and practice
going, well, we can bleep that.
It was, and also we went through this, the process
of the birth coaching, which is you go through
the Lamaze technique.
This was the way you, uh, show this?
Yeah, you do that, you do the deep breathing exercises.
I did the Joe Garagiola school of childbirth.
You have a little catcher's mask going,
yo, out of there, baby, yo, come on.
Slide, yo, you got five, come on now, take a chance.
When he showed up, the day he was born was incredible.
See, they say you're going to have a little baby,
I say, no, that's a little old man.
Yeah.
They showed him and said, Mr. Williams, here's your boy,
that's Gandhi.
I don't want to touch the breast now,
let me wait a minute.
It was, but truly, I felt like this incredible,
warm feeling.
It's outrageous.
And now, uh, how did you select the name?
Uh, in a book, uh, uh,
but they had this book of the book of names,
and they have, uh, the son.
That sounds good.
Came toward the end of it and got Zachary.
Sears sounds like a good name, doesn't it, hon?
Your name will be Chainsaw.
Daddy, why does everyone go,
yeah, yeah.
Uh, now, uh.
His middle name, I shouldn't tell.
You know, you're going to be, uh,
a pretty strange father.
I know.
That'd be great, especially saying,
Daddy doesn't know what he does for a living.
Uh, but.
I can't work out when he starts to speak, too.
What are you trying to say?
Trust fund.
Okay.
That's all for today.
Mommy taught you that, didn't she?
Uh, have you, have you given any thought to, uh,
I mean, has this altered your behavior
around the child at all?
It has.
I have, I've started to.
There's that time when you,
about three or four o'clock in the morning
where you wake up and realize,
that's a lovely noise.
Where he makes that cry, that.
And you see your dog over in the corner going,
I'll be back.
God, if I did that, I'd be gone.
I'd be dead by now.
The dog hits the road, huh?
Yeah, the dog's going,
I don't know, I'm out of here, pal.
He does, you let him,
he don't mind if he has all sorts of stuff.
I'd get crazy.
Now, are you,
do you find yourself slowing down a lot?
Because you always,
you used to work night after night
and you're doing films.
Oh yeah, you can't come back.
If you come back late at night,
now, I come back sometimes,
I'm playing at club,
you come back at 2.30
and my wife's standing in the door going,
the child's in there.
And you feel like Max von Sydow going,
I will deal with the baby.
Because you open the door
and the baby's inside going,
Father!
Look what I made for you!
Ah, some of the joys of parenthood.
You're here on a very special night.
We also have Stupid Pet Tricks
and Peter Tosh will be joining us.
Oh, that's a great man.
Later in the program.
There's great vapors back there, man.
I saw a photograph of you
in a magazine fishing.
Ah.
Now, was that just a dummy photo?
Oh, yeah, they actually
dubbed in another fish?
No.
I mean, you don't look like,
you've got a farm though,
don't you?
A ranch?
Oh, this ranch is wonderful.
It's great.
We have one old horse that says,
I'll take you to the top of the hill
then you've got to get off.
We have old, we have,
I guess we call it a home
for factory second animals.
We have animals
that couldn't survive
anyplace else.
Right.
Three-legged rabbits
from the good luck farm,
you know, like.
That's not good luck to me,
Mr. Williams.
We have my parrot,
the one that says the nasty words
we can't say here.
We have the horses, the sheep.
The sheep are great too.
They all look at you.
They're incredible.
The sheep, you come up
and you come up with one
and they go,
they all at once go,
Who's there?
And then there's always
a coyote or two
out in the woods going,
Well, wait till night.
Then they send the cat out.
You know, there's owls.
There's an owl is a great bird.
The owl is a great,
I saw this owl one night,
turn his head,
360 birds and other birds go,
Damn, Jack,
I ain't sitting near you.
Now, who takes,
who looks after the horses?
We have a man, Roger,
there who takes care
of the animals,
you know,
and they're all taken care of,
you know,
they all move north.
We have kind of a gestalt ranch.
If the energy's right,
they move,
it's okay.
Yeah.
Is this a working farm?
I mean,
we eventually shear the sheep.
It's a playing farm.
And little animals out there
going,
service!
It's like a petting zoo
at your place
more than a farm.
The petting zoo
and they always have
the one old pony
that,
I'm a miniature horse,
get away.
That's great.
It's really peaceful though.
I love that.
It's a little scary sometimes
when like,
the turkey vultures fly over
going,
I haven't seen you
in the Enquirer.
Time to run some more.
It's beautiful.
I really like it.
It's very peaceful.
But you're still
very, very busy
because you're not,
this motion picture
is just barely out
and you're already
preparing for the one
you mentioned
with the Paul Mazursky film.
I was playing
the saxophone
in the park today.
Now you're actually
learning to play
the saxophone.
I'm trying,
but this one lady
came up to me
in the park
and said,
don't give up
your other job.
Don't,
you're nice practice.
Get away from that.
But will you eventually
be,
how's it coming?
You're pretty good
you think?
No,
it kind of sounds
like a whale
farting underwater
right now.
But it's,
I think I'm trying,
I'm making the effort.
Yeah.
Oh baby,
gassy.
I've got the moves down.
I'll do a lot of this
and then go,
oh,
wipe me off.
The good moves
is all you need.
And eventually
it's like,
send for Michael Jackson.
I'm ready.
But,
and even doing that,
you're probably still
doing a lot of stand-up
every night.
Yeah,
I still perform that.
Now what's the point of that?
I mean,
you,
Just therapy Dave,
you know,
it's so much cheaper
than having a man say,
what about your mother?
Yeah.
I like playing the clubs.
It's a great release.
Yeah.
I played the other night.
It was at the
Catch a Rising Star
and I played the comic strip
with Eddie Murphy.
That was fun.
Big night,
that was.
Yeah,
it was.
It was a double header.
You had a good time.
But you,
I mean,
it's surprising
because most people,
they get to the point
where they've had
your kind of success.
They kind of ease back
a little bit.
I can't.
I can't.
It's too much fun.
It's also,
eventually I have to leave
the house
because the child goes,
You've tried it too much
on me.
Come on,
Daddy wants to try
another bit.
Come on.
Let's see.
Come on now.
No,
no,
it doesn't work.
There's no segue.
Stop talking about
mother's breasts,
too,
and I'll be right back.
I have a feeling
how much of this
will actually be on the air?
It's a major question.
Now,
if you were going
to take a vacation,
have you taken a vacation lately?
Oh,
well,
the last time
I was living at the ranch
for three months in a row
getting ready for this.
I'm studying Russian.
I'm also speaking Russian
in the film,
so I have these Russian teachers
working in shifts.
That's enough.
Next.
That's great.
I mean,
I don't think
after this film is over,
after the Mazursky film,
I'll take a vacation.
Yeah,
but you'll have
a couple of useful skills.
You'll be able
to speak Russian
and the saxophone.
So I'll be down
at McDonald's going,
is this to go?
I don't know.
Now,
you want to talk
about the film,
The Survivors?
Sure, that's why I'm here.
What was it like
working with Walter Matthau?
Oh, it was great.
We played a lot.
He was one of them.
I used to crack him up
by doing George Jessel
talking about
the early days of film.
There was no cameras,
just a man going,
that's a rat.
We played a lot.
He's fun to work with.
He's great.
He taught me,
I would do like
five minutes of madness
and he would just
raise an eyebrow
and just get laughs.
Oh, that's easier,
isn't it?
Listen,
thanks to you
for your time.
God bless you
and thank you
for letting me be on here
and help the child.
My baby's backstage.
Anything we can do.
Well, that's fine.
We need money for Pampers.
Because then you're up to here.
All right,
we'll stay on the air
all night taking phone calls
and we'll let you know
how we do.
Help the pamper fund,
please.
Robin, nice to see you again.
Thank you very much.
We'll be right back
with Stupid Patrick.
Yeah.