Name: Amanda Plummer Collection on Letterman, 1987-93
Uploaded: 2021-02-06T05:50:29.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Amanda Plummer Collection on Letterman, 1987-93' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-02-06. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Amanda Plummer Collection on Letterman, 1987-93' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-02-06. Transcript available.

Amanda Plummer Collection on Letterman, 1987-93

Sally Struthers and Pee-wee Herman. Ah, it's been a full life.
Our next guest is an actress who has been in the motion pictures of the world
according to Garp,
also in Daniel and the Hotel New Hampshire, and she recently won a Tony Award
for her role in the play Agnes of God.
She is now appearing on Broadway with Peter O'Toole and Pygmalion. Folks,
please welcome Amanda Plummer.
Hi. How are you? Nice to see you. Come on over. Sit down, Amanda. Thank you for
being here. You look great.
You look very, uh, that's a lovely summertime kind of dress.
This is a Russian summer dress.
A Russian summer dress? Was it actually purchased in Russia?
No, no.
But just something that you might see in Russia in the summer?
Yes, in the olden days.
Have you ever been to Russia?
Never. I always wanted to go.
Would you like to go?
Always.
Yeah.
You know, I said that you recently won, uh, a Tony Award for your role in Agnes
of God, but it wasn't really recent, was it? It was...
Oh, yeah, 1982.
Yeah.
So, well, I guess, relatively speaking...
And now you're working, uh, every day with, uh, Peter O'Toole.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, he's, is he a little, uh, goofy?
He's wonderfully goofy in a great way.
Yeah.
He's a big giraffe.
A big giraffe?
Yes.
He walks like a giraffe.
He's a lovely, lovely man.
Yeah.
Now, he's been with us twice.
And, and one time, a couple of years ago, he, he seemed like he was, oh, I don't
know.
And then, and then the other, and then the other time, he seemed like he wasn't
so much that way.
Yeah, when he lost his button.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
He, he, uh, I don't know, and he has kind of a reputation for somebody who, who
will drink from time to time, right?
He did have, he did have, but no longer.
He doesn't, he doesn't, uh, show up, uh, with a load on or anything?
No longer.
Yeah.
But he's still beautiful.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Do you, do you get along all right?
Beautifully, yeah.
Do you, do you go to dinner together?
Do you?
Never.
We're very, he's a very private man.
Uh-huh.
But I see his son a lot backstage.
Yeah.
He's got a lovely, lovely boy named Lorcan.
Yeah.
And gave me a bouquet of four roses.
Oh, that, that's very sweet.
All by himself.
Yeah.
What, no, you, he said.
He said he bought them all by himself.
And he's a youngster, right?
Four years.
Four years old.
Four years old, yeah.
Or five.
Yeah.
Forgive me.
Yeah.
Uh, now the play is pretty much all consuming for your time, isn't it?
Yeah.
If you get any free time, what do you do with it?
I do a lot of sleeping.
You sleep a lot?
Yeah.
And I sleep, um, but I sleep, um, but I sleep, I go to bed about five, and then
I, uh, sleep
through the day.
What time do you finish up at the theater every night?
This one, midnight.
Mm-hmm.
So it takes a while.
Sorry.
Eleven.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Um, I, I was gonna let that go.
I'm glad you corrected it.
Um, so then it takes a while to let all of that nervous energy work itself out
of your
system.
Oh, yes.
You can't go right to sleep.
Well, you're very awake.
Yeah, yeah.
And what do you...
And you want to talk a lot.
Yeah.
And what do you do?
Do you, do you have the friends over?
Do you chat on the phone?
What do you do?
Oh, I go out, and I go listen to music, um, anywhere.
I go to bars and see what's going on inside, and I walk in.
What kind of music do you like?
Oh, gosh.
Well, whenever Levon plays at the Lone Star, I go there.
I love him.
Yeah.
Very much.
Yeah.
And Rick Danko.
Yeah.
I love, uh, the band.
The guys from the band, sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you, now, I also know that you have an interest in,
uh, horse racing.
Yes, I did.
I wanted to be a jockey.
Yeah.
When I was 15.
It's true.
I was damn good, too.
Did you ever, did you ever...
Did you ever ride competitively?
No, but, uh, but on the clock I did once.
Mm-hmm.
On the, for the breezing.
Mm-hmm.
The breezing is the, uh...
The breezing is when you, uh, clock your two-year-olds.
Uh-huh.
To see how fast they are on a clock, but they're racing with each other.
Yeah.
So we had four horses against each other, but being a clock.
Uh-huh.
Were you frightened doing that?
Loved it.
Yeah.
I loved it.
And I...
Oh, it is, it is frightening.
Well, these, these animals weigh, you're like a ton, don't they?
Huge.
Huge.
And you're, you're, you're up there like this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
With, uh, no calf touching it.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're wonderful here.
Yeah, but you're, you're, uh, comparatively speaking, a tiny woman, and you're
on top of
these thoroughbreds, and again, they literally nearly weigh, is it a ton, or
closer to...
I have no idea, but they are, um, they have, they're so well-fed and well-trained,
and, and
they want to run all the time.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So, to hold them back, you, you can't, it's, it's stopping them, that's hard.
Did you, did you, did you get the sense that you had very little control over
the animal?
Never.
Yeah, you were always in control.
I always, I loved feeling what the horse was feeling.
Yeah.
Out of control.
Yeah.
I'll tell you what, I think, I think we're running a little short on time, so I
want to
ask you if you can, if you can come back, uh, later in the summer, and we'll
have more
time to visit.
Would that be right?
Thank you.
Oh, it was a pleasure meeting you, Amanda.
Thank you very much for being here.
We'll, we'll do it first, and then we'll be back with, uh, Alan.
Thank you.
Well, I hope you're having a, uh, happy holiday season there in, in your own
home.
Uh, our first guest tonight is a, uh, lovely and, uh, talented actress.
This woman has, uh, won a Tony for her performance in, uh, Agnes of God, and
her films include
The World According to Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire.
She has just opened on Broadway in the hit revival of Tennessee Williams, The
Milk Train Doesn't
Stop Here Anymore.
Our folks, please welcome back, Amanda Plummer.
Hello.
Hi.
How are you?
Good to see you.
Thanks for coming.
Thank you.
You look nice.
You look, you look different from the last time you were here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is there something different about your hair or?
No, I just put it in a ponytail.
Yeah.
Well, it looks very nice.
Yeah, they did the job last time.
Who's that?
Oh, the, the folks here at NBC.
And you did it today.
Yeah, I did it.
Well, you look, you look nice both ways.
Boy, thanks.
Uh, did you meet my sisters?
No.
You know, they're, they're in town visiting.
Yeah, and they're quite surprised.
They, they thought I worked in the garment district.
Um, how you doing?
I'm doing good.
You know, last time you were here, we didn't, we didn't mention your, uh, your,
your mom
and dad, did we?
No.
No.
You know, they're, they're in town visiting.
Yeah, and they're quite surprised.
They, they thought I worked in the garment district.
Um, how you doing?
I'm doing good.
You know, last time you were here, we didn't, we didn't mention your, uh, your,
your mom and dad,
did we?
No.
You, you want to talk a little bit about that?
Tell the folks who they are if they don't know.
You must be sick of this though.
No.
All right.
Well, tell them, uh, who your parents are.
My parents are Christopher Plummer.
Mm-hmm.
And Tammy Grimes.
Right.
So, you really couldn't have been anything but an actress, could you, from that
family?
Um, I guess, um, there, there, there, there are a lot of offsprings of us.
Mm-hmm.
From acting fam.
George C. Scott.
Right.
Kids.
Um, there, we're, we're coming out of the woodwork now.
Yeah.
Did, did you find it to be, uh, an encouraging environment?
Were they in favor of you being an actress?
No.
No, no, no.
Jokingly, my father said when I, when I was 18, I dropped out of college and I
said, uh,
I said to dad, I said, I'm gonna be an actress.
And he said, you might as well put a gun to your head.
Mm.
Yeah.
Jokingly.
Yeah.
Uh, was it, was it fun for a kid to have parents as actors?
Oh, it's wonderful.
Was it?
It's got its ups and downs as any child.
Give us an example of, of, uh, each.
Oh, well, you've, you, you, you, you travel so much, you tour so much as a
child and, and
you're backstage a lot and you see, uh, things from the wings.
Mm-hmm.
And I shush people up, keep them quiet.
And that was, that was the good part of it, right?
I loved that.
Yeah.
Well, traveling for a kid I think is invaluable.
Yeah.
Uh, and what, what about something that was not so good?
The not so good is, um, getting used to the missing, your parents.
Mm-hmm.
They were gone a lot, I'm sure.
Yeah.
And, and understanding.
Yeah.
Why?
Um, now tell me about this in the paper today.
There's a discussion of you in this, this current production of the Tennessee
Williams play.
Uh, you slept through the show last night.
Oh.
How does that happen exactly?
I did.
I, uh, I had, uh, they called me a sleeping beauty.
Mm-hmm.
Which was nice.
Yeah.
And Kyle Rennick, who runs WPA.
WPA being?
Theater.
Yeah.
Um, said some nice things on my behalf because I could get slandered for that
one.
Well, sure, you blew the gig.
You sleep, if I were to sleep through this, I'm gone.
Jack Cafferty is in here like that.
I know.
I know.
It's.
Now, do you do this often, I remember?
No.
Oh.
No.
You, you talked to one other time, you said that you were, you, you have
trouble sleeping.
You were in it.
I have trouble sleeping.
But I was doing two gigs at the same time.
I see.
I was waking up at 4:30 in the morning.
Mm-hmm.
And then, um, going to, to the theater.
Yeah.
What were you doing up at 4:30 in the morning?
I was doing an equalizer the last two weeks.
Oh, doing some television work then.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So now, after the, the embarrassment of sleeping through the show and a lot of
people there
at theater.
Guilt.
Uh.
What, what do they say to you?
They don't say, they call me up.
They worry that something has happened to you.
Mm-hmm.
Well, sure, that's the first reaction.
That's the first thing.
Yeah.
And then, do they send somebody to the place?
To my house.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A friend of mine climbed the grid work behind, up to my window.
Yeah.
It was banging on the window.
Right.
Another friend got around the front entrance, banging, banging, and yelling and
yelling.
I thought I'd die.
Did they?
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought I'd die.
Did they?
Oh, no.
Did, did they say to you one more time and that's it?
You're out of this thing?
Mm-hmm.
Will this go on your record?
No.
I hope not, unless, unless the press really want to make a big deal out of it.
But you think it was a one-time only deal.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, are you, uh.
I know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Uh, we do have to do a commercial?
All right.
Stay right here.
Okay.
And, uh, we'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
We'll be back with Amanda Plummer.
That'll be tomorrow night.
I think Sarah Purcell and Ed McMahon host that.
Is that right?
I don't think so.
And Friday night, Christmas night, we'll have D