Name: Mort Sahl Collection on Letterman, 1988-2002
Uploaded: 2021-10-27T18:00:51.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mort Sahl Collection on Letterman, 1988-2002' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-10-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mort Sahl Collection on Letterman, 1988-2002' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-10-27. Transcript available.

Mort Sahl Collection on Letterman, 1988-2002

so much welcome back to the program now uh paul schaefer and is it everybody in
the band tonight
is going to be at the big deal or not yeah everybody in the in the rhythm
section yes well
tell them what it is it's the uh third annual rock and roll hall of fame dinner
uh we've been
the uh orchestra there for three years in a row and uh tonight they're inducting
the beatles and the
beach boys the drifters the supremes and uh and somebody else some other great
rock and and uh
the drifters and somebody else yeah and you make a fortune in tips don't you we
uh we do it out of
the goodness of our heart because we love rock and roll music and somebody
makes a hell of a lot of
money i'm not exactly sure well by the time this is on the air it's already
taken place and plus you
can't get in anyway right that's right can't possibly get tables go for like 13
million dollars a piece
that's like with four chairs isn't it four or five get a complete dinette set
for that squeeze
that well that's true so it is it would that be six chairs whatever it is
whatever it is it is
anyway possible uh possible beatles reunion tonight we're kind of uh all
excited very nice
our first guest is one of the most influential comedians of our time this man
was the first
stand-up comedian to ever appear on the cover of time magazine and his offhand
and irreverent
approach to public officials helped change our political system folks please
say hello
i hope you don't mind a little lull before we bring you out did i uh did i
change the political
system that's what it says right there more than it all what it all is today
yeah yeah we have you to
thank for that i guess you read about the drug enforcement administration wants
to uh they wanted
the clearance last thursday they asked for this and was denied by the way to
shoot down any plane in
which there are drugs i'd hate to see that mgm flight from la going down over jamaica
bay every
afternoon but i'm sorry contemporary humor let's uh let's before we get to
anything else you want to
discuss there's an aspect of your life that i've always been interested in and
was never of course able to live
it firsthand uh and that's the when you were working clubs yeah i guess we're
talking about it uh an era
that was in the 50s sometime and and went right up to the mid 60s 70s and 80s
all right but i mean the
the first great clubs the ones that i always hear guys talking about the ones
that are now no longer
there sure the hungry eye hungry eye in san francisco crescendo in la and was
there mr kelly's in chicago
was that in there also yes yes and what in new york did you work uh the blue
angel here with jonathan winters
right and uh yeah we were all around now were these actual clubs because there
are there are comedy clubs
now that are not really club clubs are they no these were like uh bon vivant
kind of executives and black
tie a big night out yeah and you'd uh you know you'd open for a singer you know
peggy lee or julie london
and actual supper clubs now what was that exciting was it glamorous or was it
is this just something
i have a false impression of well it was it was a drudgery but uh it uh you
learned how to do it yeah
and is that where you started being a stand-up comedian i started in san francisco
yeah the hungry
eye now how does that work if because now i think anybody who's interested in
it understands you go to
california you put your name on a list sooner or later you get a show yeah
but but in those days if if you wanted to practice stand-up comedy how did it
begin what was the first
step who did you talk to how did it work well in san francisco you went to the
hungry eye which had folk
singers right place with a brick wall you know and uh no liquor 25 cents to get
in beer and wine
and uh american cheese and white bread a lunch meat smorgasbord and you made
your own sandwiches
there and they had folk singers and i would uh open for a folk singer and if
you were funny they might
laugh if you weren't funny they thought it was whimsical they tried to get with
it was pretty yuppie
i guess maybe yeah you know and uh now forgive my ignorance on this and many
other topics but was
are we talking about beatniks or was this after beatniks before beatniks first
beatniks were better
because they wrote you know they wrote something yeah they didn't just rent
tapes
this was a kerouac etc then we go to yuppies you know those people who uh
somebody said the
definition of a yuppie was somebody who thinks it's a courageous to eat in a
restaurant that hasn't
been reviewed yet right so anyway yeah back to the clubs yeah and then you'd
get up and uh nobody would
laugh in my case it took about three months to get a laugh you know because i
was talking in a strange
language and uh i was dealing in politics in 1953 and we finally broke through
with one joke which
was which was uh at the time of senator mccarthy not your friend gene uh but uh
joe joe and and dick
nixon and the joke it had to do with blacklisting the joke was every time uh uh
the russians put an
american in jail we put an american jail to show them they can't get away with
it
and then you were all right and then so it was this uh kind of a subtle humor
and i came to new york
and jonathan and i were at the blue angel who else who else was in that group
lenny bruce was around
now uh were you guys pretty much on the same level or was one a little farther
ahead of the others
well uh he can incite people more than i could you know uh we worked uh
together in san francisco he
was at a club called the purple onion and i was at the hungry eye and they were
across the street from
each other and he had a deal with the club owner to pay him every night he
never he never trusted club
owners and he had a volvo station wagon and if they didn't pay him every night
when they closed out of
the receipts in the uh cash register he would take all the furniture out of the
club you know tables and
chairs and put it in the volvo i held hostage till he got his money when he was
busted for profanity
you know they had police in front who would listen you know he never knew they
were playing close
police even though they had white socks and rather short haircuts and all but
he never caught on and then
he one of his devices was to swear in yiddish but then they got bilingual
police you know to sit in front
so he'd swear and they'd arrest them and i would go back and do his show and
collect and go down and
bail them out right on at the san vicenni of santa monica boulevard at the
sheriff's station right
so uh i only did 12 minutes in those days see so i could do his show too and
the star would do
about an hour you know peggy lee or whoever and uh a lot of people who see me
now you know they'll
say uh well gee now you do an hour and a half what happened to your discipline
so i always say
well there wasn't that much wrong then so i could cover it faster anyway i
would do uh his show and
then i i would go back and might do my show across the street and i would do
his show and i
go back and do my show and we did three shows that yeah and it was a big
convention of doctors in town
for the american medical association they're all reeling around the street
without their wires and
they've got those buttons on it says hi my name is fred you know western
regional ama so i'd finished
his second show was going back to do my second show and as i crossed the street
these three doctors
came lurching toward me and a guy said hey kid there's a guy in the other club
doing all your material
and i'm fairly well confused is uh i want to talk a little bit more about this
uh uh because i've
never i don't know i can't talk to anybody else about it you're the perfect
person yeah all right
uh we'll do a commercial here we'll be right back
mark saul is here uh you know you said something that went right by and if you
stop and if you stop
and think about it it's uh inconceivable what the that they were waiting for
him to swear on stage
so they could arrest him oh yeah they did say that and it went uh i know but i
mean if you stop and
consider what if you go to into any comedy club anywhere in the country it's
likely you will hear somebody
not swear you know i mean it's just uh the the way things have turned upside
down completely but that
for in those days you could be arrested for using swear words yeah that's
standard
comedian's equipment now it's it's it's a standard as uh hi how are you guys i
feel pretty good i just
came out here from new york boys and hard to get a pizza in this town yeah same
kind of deal but it's
uh it's true uh it would be hard now they dissipated so much profanity
that it uh it would be hard uh to let people know you were angry by uh cursing
it's like uh our friend
mark russell said uh you know madeline murray the famous atheist her her son
became a catholic and i
said to mark why and he said he didn't know what to say when his mother sneezed
just a joke folks we
didn't mean any harm is there are there jokes that you used in the very early
days that are now applicable
in 1988 that you can change a little and use them as well oh yeah i suppose you
could
say uh you could say uh nixon's going on mount rushmore both faces and there's
somebody you'd
probably like to apply that now uh to now there's some jokes that won't die and
of course there's
some things that are extremely perishable um well let's talk about let's talk
about the guys who
are running for that office right now yeah speaking of perishable who who gets
your attention who do you
like to work on who are you having fun with who who do you have uh sincere
interest in i was in uh i was
the white house correspondence dinner this year with the president and by the
way you'll love this jerry
falwell led the prayer and he he turns to me and he said would you like to pray
with us about that so
uh you know somebody had said that 30 years ago i might have had a different
life yeah so i realized
so i joined arms with jerry falwell sam donaldson who then joined arms with ronald
reagan there were all
all of us you know i mean forgive me again but how does this happen i mean you
were an outlaw you
were the guy on the fringe and now you're locking arms with sam donaldson jerry
falwell and the
president getting ready to i don't know that's right doesn't that seem odd to
you now well they uh you
know they hired a comedian for the night to address the reporters that's all
that was oh so just a gig
for you
they're uh uh up close it's interesting about falwell you know uh we put our
heads down you know for the
prayer you know i'd say you do it and if you've never done it like i did and uh
as i did you know
careful to tie a ground wire around my ankle in case you and uh i looked up and
falwell said to me
we're not through yet oh see you have a longer agenda than i did you meet them
as you go i would
say the bonus of this job in my view dave is uh is getting to meet them you
know i met the reagan
socially but i met him when he was out of work you know i'm great with lost
causes i mean you're
right i mean they're all friends of my gene mccarthy's a friend of mine uh
general haig is a friend of
mine now is he is he is a candidate or not again yeah he's a candidate they're
doing a fundraiser in
at philadelphia on the 29th now do you think that's a good idea uh what's that
a fundraiser
well no he's being a candidate yeah that he would be uh running for this well
yeah he's uh uh he's
gonna make it kind of spicy you know it's a good idea to get some choice in
there and gary hart
quickly anything here no i was gonna say that i thought you did everything yeah
the uh i would say
the uh the scandal was a cynical attempt to humanize heart that's what i always
felt i never believed
the word of it but oh well uh time has gotten away from us here i it is my
fault because i wanted to
talk about and we didn't even really get a chance we'll have to meet at the friars
all right take a
steam and talk about that's right u