Name: Jonathan Winters on Later with Bob Costas, Parts 1 & 2: Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 1988
Uploaded: 2024-08-20T18:24:48.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jonathan Winters on Later with Bob Costas, Parts 1 & 2: Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 1988' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-08-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jonathan Winters on Later with Bob Costas, Parts 1 & 2: Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 1988' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-08-20. Transcript available.

Jonathan Winters on Later with Bob Costas, Parts 1 & 2: Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 1988

Thanks for staying up later. I'm Bob Costas, and we welcome to our humble home
here, Jonathan Winters.
Do you like the surroundings?
You know, Bob, this is just almost like my home.
My home changes a lot. If I have a bad season, of course, a lot of the toys are
sold.
But if I have a good season, then I'm able to get the jukebox back, never with
the innards in it, because that's really expensive.
The trains, I like to go. There's a guy who lives up the street from me who was
in World War II.
I'm wearing this for him. He probably can't see the show right now because he
doesn't have his glasses.
I stepped on him. And this is the, what were they called, the ruptured duck.
The ruptured duck.
The ruptured duck. This was when I got discharged.
They gave us, well, everybody that was in the service.
You could be, you know, sewing buttons on an overcoat.
I was somewhere in the Pacific. Many people have pressed me and said, where? I
have no idea.
I was an enlisted man. We were told to just keep moving.
You were 17 years old, right?
You were in the Pacific, World War II, you were in the Marines.
Did you do your bits for your fellow servicers?
I did everything I could. I killed a lot of guys in my own outfit.
No, I'm kidding about that.
Well, I wanted to. I was on a carrier for a year, and I was very frightened
because we slept over the one thing that was frightening, where all the bombs
were.
And, of course, if it took a bomb or hit, we would go up quickly.
And also, there was a lot of gasoline around us because it was an aircraft
carrier.
So I smoked a lot because I was nervous, and, of course, I'd see no smoking,
gasoline.
And I don't know what was the matter with me.
I was a kid that was, you know, going through a lot of problems, and I'd go, pfft.
And many of the guys would, I guess, were Catholic.
They were genuflecting near me.
And one guy took his life and pasted himself against one of the tanks.
But I was there.
Obviously, I got out of the war, and you see a fairly normal guy now.
Weren't the superior officers alarmed by this behavior?
Yeah.
I went up to one guy who was a major, and I told him at the time.
Now, we're going back to 1944.
I said, I find you to be a very attractive man.
And a lot of Marine majors don't catch on that quickly because they're, many of
them, I might say, are extremely bright.
Most of them are.
This guy probably had a lot on his mind at the time.
You know, the shells were coming in.
And I said, I find you to be a very attractive man, and many of the men like
you.
And I said, Major, you know, what you need for the men to really follow you is
a white horse.
I said, Napoleon had a dandy, even though he was defeated.
Wellington had one to receive the papers.
George Washington had a white horse.
So did Cornwallis.
Caesar, epileptic.
He fell off a lot.
But when they got him back on, he could ride.
Cupid.
Yeah, Cupid.
Lipped tiny, but white.
But hey, and moved.
So I said, you need a white horse, and winked at him, which I shouldn't have
done.
And he said words that I can't repeat.
You were mechanized.
And I said, well, then maybe you need a white tank.
I did ten days.
Now, this ties in with a story I heard about you, speaking of the weapons of
war.
Did you once walk into P.J. Clark's over here at 55th and 3rd and put a hand
grenade on the bar?
Well, let me say this to our audience, because I'm not very happy about that.
But I've learned to tell the truth, because I'm 63, and I'm afraid I'm going to
die.
I think in the last quarter, you've got to start telling the truth.
Yeah, but you have to remember, Bob, I was drinking heavily.
I was into the second quart.
And I was with a man, Bart, we'll say.
He knows his name.
He's probably listening in a retirement home.
It's Bart.
Bart and I were bombed, and it was a snowy night, and I walked in, and I said,
I didn't take it out right away.
It had no dust in it, by the way.
It had been defused by me.
And I bought it in an antique shop on 3rd Avenue.
Walked in, and I said, how about an extra scotch?
Well, of course, I must admit, my movements were considerably slower after well
into the second quart.
And my tongue was trying to pick up flies.
And so the guy said, and rightfully so, you've had enough, Mr. Winters, which,
of course, set me off.
You know, various people get set off at various times.
And he was being a little curt with me.
And so I took the grenade out, pulled the pin, and I said, now maybe the scotch.
And three people fainted, and one guy dropped his hamburger, I remember, in the
sawdust.
Bart said, get out of here.
So we got out.
He ran, I don't know what direction.
I couldn't tell.
We had to really move in.
And I went up.
I was caught up around Rikers.
Which was convenient, because they could just throw you right in.
That's right.
And I put my hands up, of course, immediately to the wall.
And the man said, what the heck is the story?
Policeman, two officers.
And I said, I sobered up rather quickly.
People have a way of doing that, especially if you're going to do one to five.
And so I said, officer, this is a terrible thing that I've done.
I am guilty.
I'm sorry.
I gave him almost the entire, my interpretation of the war, and almost from the
beginning to
the end, and moments, Saipan, truck, marshals, Guam.
And he said, all right, put the damn thing in your pocket and go on up home.
And I said, thank you so much, sir.
And you do a wonderful job.
Protect and serve.
And that was it.
When you started out professionally, was there anybody doing the kind of thing
that you wound
up doing?
I mean, so many comics now cite you as an inspiration.
Robin Williams is a direct descendant, and other people have taken parts of
your bits and embellished
on them, or in some cases, flat out stolen them.
But who was your inspiration?
Well, I was always inspired by two guys that weren't so much.
Well, there were several people that I was inspired by.
And interestingly enough, they weren't comedians.
And it's not that I didn't see other comedians like Laurel and Hardy, my God,
who are two of
the funniest guys that ever lived and still are.
Marx Brothers, people like that.
I had a, I found a very funny man and tremendous writings, and I was very much
influenced by James
Thurber.
And also Benchley, I thought was a very funny man.
Robert Benchley.
And I read a lot about Henry, so I guess it was more writers than it was comedians.
Not that I didn't enjoy comedians, because I did.
But those guys, really, I think it was through their stories.
You were a great nightclub stand-up comedian, but that took a terrible toll on
you, right?
Well, it's, you know, how would you like to stand up there?
I always say in defensive stand-up comedians, with a microphone, and especially
if you play
Vegas, where you're getting big money, I'm not complaining, you get a lot of
bread, but
you've got to hit the long ball out of the park, because those cowboys, about
six feet
away, hey, you stink, you clown.
We was across the street and seen Liberace, and then sequins and everything
else, and that
half-ass outfit he had on, he was a lot funnier than you.
Well, thank you so much.
I hope you have a lot of horses, and they stampede you to death.
And then, of course, they get up and spur you and everything else.
You never know what's going to happen down there, but you've got to, the thing
is, the
pressure lies in that you've got to hit the long ball, and if you don't, people
visit
your dressing room, and you go for a ride on Lake Mead, which is most unusual,
without
the water skis.
You're just pulled around by a rope until you're drowned.
So you don't do that anymore?
No, that's out.
I'm down to writing, painting, but I, no, I'm done.
I still enjoy television, and it's, hey, when I say still enjoy it, it's fed me
in more
ways than one.
That just about does it for this evening.
Hope you've had a lot of fun and enjoyed our little show, and watch us in the
weeks to
come.
Oh, incidentally.
No.
There's a signal.
A signal from the mothership.
Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
They're trying to tell me something.
What is it?
They're trying to tell me something.
Is that what they were trying to tell me?
Don't forget those Tums, will you?
I'll see you next week.
Stay tuned.
Later, we'll be right back.
Back with Jonathan Winters.
You remember the first fantasies you had as a kid?
The first imaginary characters you created?
I can't talk about those.
Imaginary characters, then.
Yeah.
I can't names offhand.
Being an only child, I had a lot of care.
I mean, and also, I picked up on my grandfather.
I had, from him, I'd do another older man, like, maybe Uncle Emmett, who was...
Uncle Emmett, how are you?
Oh, real good.
Listen, I don't know why my hand moves like this, and the cat must think I'm
waving at him.
See if you can find my shoes.
No, they're not there.
Well, old people, it's an interesting thing.
If you ask a young man to turn around, boy, you whip around like this.
Old people, if you'll say there are five people with Uzis in back of you, old
person will go like this.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just, they don't care anymore, I guess.
But I studied a lot.
Well, everybody was around me.
Grandma Frickert came from an Aunt Clara I had, you know, and I just made her
kind of a dirty old woman.
She fantasized a lot of studs that were 28 and 30 and put her in a bracket of
marrying some 12 guys.
Hey, he's a nice-looking man.
God, you can crack walnuts on his butt.
He's cute.
Well, it's obvious that you and Carson get along.
I mean, he revels in your company when you're on the show.
I will.
But Ed Blabby is Maude Frickert, right?
Do you have a problem with that?
Well, to tell you very honest, I get along with Johnny.
And it's one of the few places I find that I can play and really genuinely have
a good time.
He's been there quite a while, I guess, 25, 30 years, whatever.
And I don't think that, certainly as of now, I'm any threat to him.
And we have a good rapport.
The thing is, right in these halls, I mean, for instance, you go out down that
hall and you'll see a picture of Milton Berle in drag.
So they've been playing in drag probably since the time of Caesar or whenever
anybody had a dress.
Maybe the Philistines.
Probably a few guys wore dresses, especially if they want to...
Referring to Sid or Julius?
Yes, Julius.
I think if they want to stay out of war, then you get into a dress quick.
It's one way of not getting into the Macedonian War or whatever.
Well, at any rate, I designed my old lady and I put on the bun and the dress
and had some fun.
And the only thing is that in not playing Grandma Frickard on Carson's show is
if Johnny's on year-round and four or five times a week.
So if he wants to play Aunt Blabby four or five times, he can and does whenever
he wants to.
It's his show.
The thing is, if I come on, I think people get confused and say, hey, Jonathan
is still on...
They think you're ripping him off.
That's right.
Robin Williams, what's your relationship with him?
Briefly, you were on Mork and Mindy together, which was a twist because you
played his son.
Yeah, that's right.
And in a certain symbolic sense, he's your son.
Yeah, that's right.
Robin, to me, is...
Oh, boy, that's a very...
That's more than an article.
That's more than a book.
This guy, I've always said, first off, we're friends.
And I think we have sort of a, hopefully, a great respect for one another in
many ways.
It's like a great air show.
Instead of having a Sopworth Camel, however, and a Stearman or a Glider or the
Goodyear Blimp and SR-71,
you've got the F-1000 and the canopy's back and Robin is going around just once
or twice around the pylon.
And if you don't catch that, and you don't catch it with an Instamatic, you don't
get it with a Hasselblad, you better get it with something.
But this clown is...
And it's usually this for about an hour.
And you come away saying, what did the kid do?
God, I think I have pretty good orbs, you know.
Sometimes the sound is a little gone.
But in following him, you'v