Name: Robert Downey, Jr. on Letterman, August 1, 1990
Uploaded: 2019-08-16T00:39:15.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robert Downey, Jr. on Letterman, August 1, 1990' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-08-16. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robert Downey, Jr. on Letterman, August 1, 1990' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-08-16. Transcript available.

thank you very much robbie shankar ladies and gentlemen sitting in with the
band
our next guest is a popular actor who has starred in such motion pictures as
chances are
and true believer his latest is a film with mel gibson entitled air america
ladies and gentlemen
here's robert downey jr you know you uh you used to work in this building you
were at one time part of
the cast of saturday night live yes how long ago was that i think that was in
80 uh in 86 who else
was in the group it was you anthony michael hall uh randy quaid right and uh
john lovitz that was
his first year too it was the first year that lauren came back and was
producing yeah it was an
interesting group of folks there wasn't it yeah it was how did you get the job
get the part try out
what did you do uh well anthony michael hall had already been uh you know he'd
already been set
and it was it was slight nepotism he's like well get downy in here and they're
like we don't give
a damn about but then i came in and uh and i did this audition i thought they
said we'll just be you
and a few people but i came in and said it's lauren michaels it's like 30 it's
30 shirts it's the
and so i'm really nervous but i took my t-shirt off and i put it over my head
and i did this
character that i saw this club called voila in la this iranian guy was really
hammered and he didn't
know the language well enough to really be offensive so he's like you're
looking at myself you want
come outside you kick my ass because you're sleeping with my mother's
hammered iranian is beautiful if you get it done the veneer is very uh and did
you enjoy that
experience up there yeah well i think there are two seasons one season one
season yeah yeah well it's
like i think doing live television is probably the is probably the most nerve-wracking
thing you can do
you know yeah get out of that attila outfit we've got to get you into the spaceman
suit jay leno is
very angry you know
you know uh is is it more difficult or is there any way to compare to making
films
well i think it's because you've got 200 of your peers in the audience you've
gotten you know you
got the guy who goes it always seems like it goes from five to one there's no
point so it's like
yeah it's completely nerve-wracking and this is a pretty good gig for you here
this mill gibson deal
huh yeah it's um it's called air america and and it's a i play a guy who's like
eye in the sky
traffic reporter in 1970 in los angeles and he gets in a little kind of air to
ground tiff with this
guy driving an 18-wheeler and so next thing he knows he's lost his license so
he winds up
getting approached he winds up flying in laos for this after called air america
which was like the
cia kind of deal yeah it was it was like a cia's airline and they flying like
you know rice pigs
guns elicit sub you know like all kinds of stuff and did you uh and this is
this is a real talk show
question here but did you get a chance to actually fly helicopters while you
were doing this yeah well
i mean if you were you know if you were directing a film you say you know let
bob take the stick on
this one you know i don't think so but i went and took some lessons and i was
with this guy who's
like well i'll take you out by the beach my name's todd and i'm into it yeah i
was at the beach you
know just first gonna drop by and see my girlfriend you know and we'd go out by
gladstone's this
restaurant on sunset you know yeah and he's like waving to his girlfriend out
the window like this
is so surreal he takes me around takes me to downtown la he's like you'll be
all right looking a
little blue there pal it's like sure am but just cup your hand put your face
out the window most of
those little movie guys usually toss your cookies anyway so yeah but did he
actually let you control
of the the uh helicopter yeah well once you're helicopters are they safe or are
they not safe
they're this one like the bell helicopter supposed to be the safest single
engine flying machine right
but the thing is it's like it's it's once you're up there you're flying it's
like there's nothing to
hit so it's not it's like you can't go too raw unless you go what about that
you know let's see
what todd would do then yeah anyway uh did you ever get to uh the point where
you could land the thing
or that a little too advanced landing helicopters is really tough you know yeah
i did one of my own
stunts though there was a scene where my character is supposed to be hung over
because they like fly
during the day and then they get like really trashed on these like laotian mai
tais at night
and they um and i'm i'm like hung over in the morning and i get woken up
suspended by a rope
underneath the helicopter and mel gibson's character gene has picked me up to
take me to work
and i saw the stuntman do and i was like i'll do that you know and then i did
it and i forgot i had
to keep my eyes closed until the scene until the scene was that they yelled cut
and i opened it
dangling from a helicopter i was dangling dave and and mel and mel gibson is
gene in this film is that
what you're saying that gives him is gene gene uh and was that had you worked
with him before
no did you guys get along all right yeah he's really great yeah he's really
great what was the
uh the first film you were in was this one of your dad's projects oh yeah the
first film i was in my
father got a grant to do this movie called pound which is about dogs and a
pound and so i think he
got like some like national geographic type grant and then he said i believe i'll
cast people to play
the dogs and so it will make it more realistic so he cast he cast a um like um
a guy with a silk
robe on to be the boxer and a guy mexican guy to be the chihuahua hey and he
got a bald guy to be
the the mexican hairless and my first line was i was six years old i was
supposed to play a puppy
and i go up to the guy and say basically you're bald you got any hair on your
gooey bag
i'm sorry so let me let me get this straight
mel mel gibson is gene
in the film and who are you in the film i'm billy covington it's gene and billy
well that's good uh and
this thing opens now it's open now it was all over the yeah this is like
another summer blockbuster
it opens august 10th august 10th all right there you go i hope it's a huge hit
for you and a nice
meeting i hope you can come back as well nice to see you robert downey jr we'll
be right back
you