Name: Luke Perry on Letterman, 1992, 1993
Uploaded: 2019-02-28T17:47:21.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Luke Perry on Letterman, 1992, 1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-02-28. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Luke Perry on Letterman, 1992, 1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-02-28. Transcript available.

Luke Perry on Letterman, 1992, 1993

- Hey! Oh, they're clapping along.
That's my favorite part of the show.
I realized then that the audience
is actually enjoying themselves.
- For one split second, yeah.
- That's right, yeah, one shining brief little moment there.
- They almost have a good time.
- Our first guest portrays a tortured high school student,
Dylan McKay on the runaway hit,
Beverly Hills 90210 on the Fox network.
Ladies and gentlemen, please say hello
to the hunkiest rebel in Beverly Hills, Luke Perry.
Luke?
- Good to see you.
- Good to be here.
- Welcome to the show.
- Thank you.
- How are you?
- Nervous.
- What are you doing in New York City besides visiting us?
Are there other things for you to do while you're here?
- I've been going to restaurants, been eating a lot.
There's no good food in L.A., really, so...
- So you're taking some time off and just enjoying yourself
on your trip to New York?
- Yeah.
- And when do you go back to work on the big program?
- 3rd of June.
- 3rd of June.
- Let's first of all talk about your character.
You're Dylan McKay.
- Yes.
- Now tell us everything we need to know
about your character, Dylan McKay.
- All right.
Everything you need to know about Dylan McKay.
Well, alcoholic, as you mentioned before.
- Now he's a high school alcoholic.
- He's in high school and he has a drinking problem.
- Drinking problem.
Is he getting some help?
- He's been getting a lot of help.
- That's good.
- And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
So he falls off the wagon from time to time.
- So he's a bad boy, Dylan.
- Well, he's got a lot, he's got too much money is the thing.
He's a 17 year old kid with about a hundred million dollars.
- How did he get his dough?
Paper route?
- Sort of, sort of.
No, my father was an insider trader.
- Oh, oh, yeah.
- He traded some of it real inside.
So even when they froze the rest of his assets,
I still got about a hundred million.
- Now this, this cast, everybody on the cast
is very, very popular, very, they're all stars.
We had Jason Priestley here who was like
your best friend on the show, yeah.
And then at one point, you sort of took off
and became the focus of a lot of the attention.
Was there a specific thing that happened on the show
that caused that or was it just the way these things go or?
- Well, I think there was an episode we did last year,
first season, where I had sex
with the girl, with my girlfriend, you know.
And it was sort of a different,
different thing from then on out.
I mean, once, once, once you have it,
there's kind of no going back.
Although, you know, it hasn't happened again.
It's something that we never,
we never addressed again, which makes me wonder,
one, was I that terrible?
Or, or two, you know, was it that good?
- Now how, how was, now I know things are a little different
over there on the Fox network, but how,
how was, how was this depicted on, on screen?
- Well, it all happened off screen, was that, was the thing.
And that, that's why I really couldn't understand
the reaction that we got.
It, you know, it wasn't, I mean, certainly I've done things
on soap operas that were more graphic
than, than what we showed on, on, on that episode.
It's just, uh, the reaction from, you know,
some of the sponsors and the people writing in.
And they, uh, so they were a little concerned,
and they had us not do that.
- Yeah.
- They never actually had us apologize for it,
which I thought was good,
'cause it's not something you should apologize for.
- Now, now do you get more, uh, negative comment
from like sponsors and parents about your character
being drunk or having sex?
- Well, it's, I gotta tell you,
it's mostly been the sex, because they know,
they know I'm getting, they know that, uh,
my character is trying to get, um, help with his drinking.
And by and large, he doesn't drink, it's just--
- And there's no cure for the other thing.
- Every now and then, and there is no cure for the other thing.
- Hopefully there's no cure for the other thing.
- You can't start it like a car,
you can't stop it with a gun.
- You can't shut it off.
Just one of these, huh?
- Those are imaginary rifles.
Uh, well, now, what has this done to your life?
Because, uh, we were talking this afternoon,
5,000 pieces of mail you get a week.
Now, what kind of adoration and attention,
how does that affect you?
What does it do to your daily life?
What does it do to your, just,
when you're sitting around at home?
- Uh, I don't sit around at home much.
When I get, when I get time to sit around at home,
I certainly like to do that.
But, um, it just, we spend so much time,
actually, in production on the show.
I mean, serious television's real time consuming,
so I don't have that much time to let it affect me.
I just try to concentrate on doing the work,
and finding other projects that interest me to do.
And, uh, yeah, that's kind of a by-product
of what happens to you.
And if you worry about that too much,
then you're no longer doing your job.
- But it has become troublesome,
because I know that when you travel,
uh, people follow you,
they come up to you in shopping malls,
they come up to you in your hotels,
certain precautions have to be taken,
and it must be just like,
suddenly you're in a whole different solar system,
for that kind of thing to be happening.
- Well, you know, I mean, I grew up in Ohio,
in a pretty small town,
and it, uh, it, it's a fur piece from that,
that's for sure.
I mean, it's, it's a lot different.
But it's not, I'm not complaining.
You know, people always say, uh,
how can you complain about something like that?
I'm certainly not complaining,
but you're right, it complicates things.
There's no more just walking down the street,
and going somewhere, and hanging out with people.
But, it's a price you pay.
- Yeah, I'm complaining because it doesn't happen to me.
That's my only complaint.
- I've seen it happen to you, I know better.
- Hey, hey, hey, and I understand you have
a little, uh, thing you're gonna do for us.
A little, a little trick?
- You know, uh, well--
- Let's do a commercial.
Do you still wanna do it or not?
- Well, it was something I saw done on this show.
- Okay, let's, let's, we'll talk it over,
and we'll do a commercial, and we'll come back,
and maybe he'll do it for us.
We'll be back with a new story.
- Hi, Luke Perry is here, George Miller, and Barbara Waller,
who is, uh, she's president of, like, a turtle club
in Great Britain. - She's, yeah.
- And she'll be out here later to talk to us all about,
uh, turtles and, uh, tortoises and things here.
- She's a lovely woman, got some big turtles.
She's a sweet lady.
- You mentioned, uh, oh, that's what the kids
are calling 'em these days, eh?
- That's right, well, it's the only thing
to make it past standards and practices.
She's got a big tortoise.
I mean, a tortoise is on this woman.
- What, uh, now, when you go out and you do interviews
about the show, and, uh, for television, newspaper,
and radio, and you come on programs like this,
do people always ask you, what, what was your
high school experience like?
Is that a question you're tired of hearing?
- Uh, well, it's one that's been posed to me.
- Well, let, let's hear a little more of it.
- Uh, my, you know, I went to a very small high school.
It was very rural, um, I--
- What city in Ohio, I'm sorry, what little town?
- It's called Fredericktown, Ohio.
- North of Columbus?
- North of Columbus, Ohio, um, which, uh, you know,
Jack Hanna's gonna be here tomorrow.
- Jack Hanna, yeah, the, uh, director of the zoo.
- I wanted, I wanted to see that, but I missed it.
- One of your boyhood, uh, heroes?
- Definitely, I mean, that was the zoo I grew up going to,
and Jack Hanna, you know, it's great what he does.
But I, uh, I was in, I was in high school there,
and it wasn't great for me, high school.
It was sort of, I wanted to be somewhere else,
but my mom always said, "They'll arrest me if you don't go."
So I had to go.
- Now, when, when you, when you say that,
where, where did you want to be as a kid, as a 15, 16-year-old kid,
when you thought, "I would like to be somewhere else"?
What did that mean?
- Well, it was like, I didn't know where I wanted to be,
but I knew where I didn't want to be,
and I definitely didn't want to be in school.
- Yeah.
There was nothing about the high school experience
that kind of, uh, captured your fancy
or held your attention?
- Well, you know, I got in, I got in some trouble in high school,
and I didn't really feel like I was doing anything bad.
It just, you know, things were a little different.
I, uh, a friend of mine was in suspension,
in school suspension, where they keep you on the premise,
don't you go anywhere, and he'd been in there for some time,
and I felt it was time for him to be free,
so I took a ski mask and a gun,
and I kicked the door open to the office and said, "Let him go."
- And they did, oddly enough, you know, the...
But the secretary was an older lady,
and she had a problem with her heart,
and they said, "I almost killed her."
I didn't mean to do that,
but they said, "You know, you almost killed that woman,
and we have to do something, we have to punish you."
So they put me in the book depo...
That was like the Hannibal Lecter of my high school.
They put me in this book depository
behind two locked doors,
all the way at the end of this really long aisle,
and the wall was right there,
and there was a wall right here,
and they just kind of kept me pinned,
and I hated that.
- How long were you there?
- Two weeks.
- Two weeks?
I mean, they wouldn't let you go home?
- Two weeks. Well, no, I'd go home,
but the second I'd show up at school,
someone would escort me.
- Boom, right there again, yeah.
- Right to the room, you know,
I didn't have the face thing and all that,
but the Stray Jack was there.
The Stray Jack was there, so I'm back there.
- Standard issue in high school.
- Like this.
- But you know, you pull a stunt,
you look back on that,
you're lucky that somebody didn't put daylight through you,
you know?
- And mayhem, huh?
Has she been packing like a 45 out from under that skirt?
- Yeah.
- That would've been a problem, certainly,
but it didn't happen.
- What?
Time for the trick?
Oh, do you want to do this trick or not?
We have the stuff here.
- I remember a little something about this.
You want to do it right here?
- I think I do it right there.
- Explain to him what you're going to do, Luke.
- Now, I saw someone on Stupid Human Tricks one time
pour some unidentified liquid into a glass,
place that glass on his forehead,
proceed to drink the contents
without ever touching it with his hands.
I thought it was pretty amazing, so I tried it,
and like a fool, I succeeded,
so now I have to do it here.
Okay, here's what it requires.
Don't try this at home.
- Anton.
- Do I need to do anything?
- No, you're doing, you're doing,
it's great what you're doing.
- We're closing in about 20 minutes.
I'd like to change.
Oh my goodness, I,
I'm not sure I do remember this.
It's looking more and more like cable access.
- It's looking more and more like cable access.
- It's looking more and more like cable access.
- It's looking more and more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
- It's looking more like cable access.
It's looking more like cable access.
- Oh my goodness, don't know you, you busted the glassy.
Glass.
Look, he busted right through the glass.
- Amazing.
- Oh man.
- And that was live, not memorized.
- Very, very impressive moment.
- See what he picked up?
- Yes sir.
Luke Perry, we'll be right