Name: Bob And Ray Perform Their Classic Comedy Routines | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-01T16:04:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bob And Ray Perform Their Classic Comedy Routines | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bob And Ray Perform Their Classic Comedy Routines | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

My first guests are among the very few performers who are immediately
identified by their first
names alone, like Elvis, Sammy, or Larry.
Besides this, for the last 35 years, they have been two of the most imaginative
and
influential comedians in show business.
We're proud to welcome Bob and Ray.
I understand you gentlemen are being honored with a, you have a retrospective
at a major
museum.
Yeah, the Museum of Broadcasting here in New York is going to have what is
called a retrospective
from June 15th to July 10th.
How does that make you guys feel?
Old.
Yeah, old.
When you, uh, when you looked on in retrospective ways, it makes you feel like
it's, uh, time
has passed by a little bit.
We used to do a thing called the trophy train.
I don't know if you remember that.
We sent it all around the country.
It had Ray's first pair of ice skates on it.
And, uh.
My first communion suit.
Right.
And people could pay 75 cents to go in and look at all this stuff.
Oh, boy.
So there's going to be a lot of that at the, uh, that's the retrospective.
Yeah.
So if people are wondering now what to do with their summer, this sounds like
the perfect
thing to me.
Oh.
Real highlight.
Yeah.
It's a good reason to come to New York.
Yeah.
And that opens, uh, when?
June 15th.
June 15th.
Yeah.
Uh, you gentlemen started in local radio, huh?
Boston.
Mm-hmm.
And when, you know, these, the things that we see you do on various shows now
all look
so, uh, well-polished and rehearsed and so forth and tightly scripted, but they
started
out as improvs, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, for the most part.
Everything we, we did, uh, like our Broadway show was all, uh, improvisational.
But, uh, when we decided to do that show, we went through a lot of our old
material and
we had to, uh, transcribe it onto, onto paper from tape so that eventually we
had to memorize
what we had originally ad-libbed, which was a funny turnabout, actually.
When you, uh, when you, when you, uh, go through all of that, do you, uh, do
you look at something
a couple of days later and say, I don't know, it's not too strong and eliminate
it or?
Always.
Yeah.
Now, you mentioned memory.
I know that you've, uh, you have something prepared for us this evening in the
way of,
uh, is this memory?
I forget.
I know, memory.
We have a, uh, very, uh, distinguished, uh, gentleman.
He's one of the world's famous memory experts.
He's, uh, the great, uh, the great, uh, what was that?
My name is Hubert R. Gruber.
I know.
But, uh, weren't you Bill is the great something or other?
Yes, I was known as the great blotto.
But I'm off the stuff now.
Oh.
Well, let's see, uh, I know that, uh, we all remember you from the early
television days
and your great Vogel act, but could you bring us up to date?
Tell us what you're doing currently.
Yes, currently I'm offering my services to business and industry.
I help to, uh, teach young executives to have better memories.
Oh, that sounds like, uh, fascinating work.
Well, you run across a lot of meatheads, but, uh, generally it is interesting
and I find I'm
able to improve, uh, make them remember people they're introduced to.
Well, uh, could you tell us, uh, how it works?
How your system works?
Certainly.
Well, suppose you're introduced to a man named Fordyce.
You form a mental picture of Fordyce.
Oh.
Thereafter, whenever you're introduced to that man, you think of Fordyce and
you remember
his name.
Well, uh, how would that work with a name like mine, Goulding, for instance?
What?
Goulding.
Well, suppose your name was Ramshot.
You'd think of, uh, you'd think of a hunter shooting a ram and you'd never
forget the name.
Uh-huh.
Well, now, how would that work with my partner's name, Mr. Elliot?
Suppose his name was Richman.
Oh.
You'd think of a man surrounded by wealth, a rich man.
Well, in other words, what you're telling us here is that your system doesn't
work for
names like Elliot and Goulding.
Yes, it does, but that's in the more advanced case, and I don't want to go into
that right
here on the air.
So then you're, uh...
Goulding.
What?
Goulding.
Goulding, yes.
So the whole thing now is that you teach young executives how to remember names,
right?
That's about it.
And we give them a course which includes remembering long lists of numbers.
That seems to help their memory a great deal.
For instance, we give them a number like 351, and after a few weeks of study,
they're able
to read that right back to you.
351?
Oh, you've taken like more.
Well, I think our time is about up.
All right.
It's been nice talking to you, Mr. Gruber, and anytime you're in New York,
please come
by and chat with us.
How do I get out?
Which door was it?
In addition to the big, uh, of course, the retrospective at the Museum of Broadcasting,
you were preparing
a project now for National Public Radio.
Back on the radio again, yeah.
We're going to do a series beginning in October, uh, what's it called?
The Sunday Show.
The Sunday Show.
The Sunday Show.
National Public Radio, yeah.
And I'm just taking a guess here, but beyond Sunday?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's...
What kind of things will we hear here?
Well, you hear a lot of old Bob and Ray Ian.
We'll have, like, a half-hour segment in that show for the first eight weeks,
and we'll
bring back...
We have a new soap opera we're bringing back, or starting, I should say, called
the, uh...
What is it called?
Garish Summit.
Garish Summit.
Garish Summit?
Garish Summit.
It's our answer to Dallas and all those other shows.
It sounds like a blockbuster.
It is.
Yes, I think so.
When we first were here at NBC, we had a network...
We had an early morning local radio show from, like, 6 to 8.30.
And then we had a network radio show from 11.15 to 11.30 in the morning.
And at night, we had a coast-to-coast television show at 7 or 7.15 for 15
minutes.
And then on Saturday night, we had a one-hour radio program.
Good heavens.
I don't know how we were on that treadmill for so long, actually, but we did
that for
several months.
You guys were pretty much the franchise, then, for the network for a while.
We were presenting NBC every other time we turned around.
Does it interest you or that your appeal has not grown through the years?
It's always...
Well, actually, it has grown through the years.
We like to watch.
Yes.
What I'm trying to say is they're pretty much washed up at this point.
What I meant to say, as the years have gone by, the age group to which you
appeal has always
broadened.
Did that make any sense to you?
I wish you'd said that the first time.
Yeah, I probably...
We have.
No, no.
Well, I think we all...
Do we all understand what I meant?
And before we go any farther, as they say, before they go any farther, I want
to mention
that your son works on our staff.
Chris Elliott right over there, Mr. Elliott.
In fact, he's been on the program several times.
Let's see him.
Funny man.
And now, he's your son.
He's not actually Bob and Ray's son, is he?
Oh, that's the one case where that doesn't work.
We get that hang up your hat, Bob and Ray, a lot of times.
Does he ever listen to the things you do and help you write them?
Well, he listens to everything we do, I guess.
That's what I was trying to say earlier, that you are one of the few acts in
show business
who has been very successful for a very long period of time and still seems to
appeal all
the time to a younger and younger audience.
Well, I hope so.
Now, you have a little...
Yes, sir.
I'm sorry.
No, I was going to say anything.
I was just listening.
You have a little something else you were going to do for us tonight?
Well, another guest, if you have time for him.
Sure, I would love to have another guest.
He's a world traveler and certainly has a prominent place in the broadcasting
field because he's
written books.
Best of all, he's a raconteur.
We know him by his dapper little trademark, a pencil-thin mustache.
He is Martin Lassure, ladies and gentlemen.
Maybe you could tell us how that happened, first of all, Martin.
You mean my dapper little trademark?
Yeah.
Well, I wasn't thinking while I was shaving this morning and my dapper
trademark went on
the floor.
Sorry to hear about that.
Well, the doctor, I called the doctor and he said it'll go in in about two
weeks.
And Martin has canceled all other engagements until that happens and we're very
appreciative.
What we want to get to is some of those stories that you tell that only you can
tell.
Sure.
That go over so well, the stories of adventures you have.
Well, sure.
You know, when I first started in this business, I was a cub reporter on the
old St. Paul Ledger
Dispatch, Eagle Tribune, Courier Citizen, Daily Item, and Morning Sun.
That was a famous merger, wasn't it?
Yes, it was.
Well, I was in the city room there one day and I heard the phone ring and the
editor picked
up the phone and he was talking.
It seems that there was a man hanging from the 15th floor of the Vaseline
building over
at 15th and Chestnut Street.
So I said to the editor, I said, could I go over and cover that story?
This will be a big break for you in the newspaper game.
Oh, I don't know.
So, he said to me, go on over.
He said, take public transportation.
What was that?
Trolley car.
Uh-huh.
So I get over there about 15 minutes later and...
Still hanging up there?
Yeah, and there's a crowd of people, policemen, firemen, fire trucks.
And I said, well, look, has anybody tried to humor this man, you know, tell him
a few
stories maybe, get his mind off his troubles and, you know, talk him back in.
Well, they do that at times like that, I've noticed.
They said, no.
I said, well, would you mind if I tried?
Let me ask you this.
Were you known for having a sense of humor then?
Not particularly.
So I go in the building.
They have the power turned off.
So I have to climb up all these flights.
I get up there and there's a policeman standing outside the door of the room
where he's hanging.
And I said, I've been authorized to go in and talk to this gentleman.
And he said, well, go ahead.
And he opened the door for me.
So I go in.
Go in, too.
And I go up to the window and I said, I said to him, I said, uh...
What'd you say to him?
I said to him, uh...
Well, maybe that'll come back to you, Mark.
We've got to move along.
I remember a story, uh, you told us about fishing off the North Atlantic, off
the Grand
Banks.
You remember that one, the fishing story?
Oh, oh, yeah.
I was doing a, uh, 1,500-word piece for a magazine on fishing in the North
Atlantic.
That's a rough, rigorous, tough kind of life, isn't it?
Well, it's not for me.
We're out there.
It was in, uh, November.
And there was cold and the high seas and all.
I'm sitting there, and they're dragging in all this mackerel and haddock and
halibut
and everything.
And I look over here to the starboard, and I see this, uh, submarine service
with a foreign
insignia on it.
Oh, is this wartime?
No, no, no.
But, uh, I see this thing happen.
So I, uh, I said to the captain, I said, uh, captain?
I said, uh...
Captain, I said, uh, Martin, I don't, I hate to interrupt.
Do you have one story you do remember the ending to and wrap it all up?
I wrote one down so I wouldn't forget it.
It goes like this.
Well, that's all right for you, sir, but this is Tuesday.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.