Name: Jake LaMotta on Letterman February 9, 1982
Uploaded: 2017-11-12T20:36:15.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jake LaMotta on Letterman February 9, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-11-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jake LaMotta on Letterman February 9, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-11-12. Transcript available.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Charlotte. I certainly enjoyed talking with you.
That was
very nice of you. What do you think? You want to see the remote control sweet
roll one more time?
I have every reason to believe the bugs have been taken out of the remote
control sweet roll.
Oh, my. I can't steer the darn thing. Wait a minute. I'm sorry. Here. Oh, it's
much easier. I'll move the sweet roll. Leave the camera there. There. It won't
steer, boys. Oh, my goodness. There you go. $600 for the remote controlled
sweet roll and worth every penny, huh? Yeah, bring that on back over here. That's
all right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Wayne. Well, there you go.
The remote controlled sweet roll.
Well, disaster is stricken once again. My next guest is probably the only
person in this room portrayed by Robert De Niro in a feature film. The film...
I hate to see him die like that. It's an ugly sight, isn't it?
You don't... don't get the kids up.
Yes, once again, carnage on our highways, ladies and gentlemen.
The film Raging Bull... I'm about to introduce the man about the... about whom
the movie was made.
Where am I now?
Raging Bull and the man De Niro played was the former middleweight boxing
champion of the world.
Well, he is our guest this morning. Please welcome Mr. Jake LaMotta.
Thank you, Jake. Have a seat, Jake. Have a seat, Jake, if you will.
You know Liz Taylor sitting up there, don't you?
Oh, I know. Hi, Liz.
That guy you had on before, that Shakespearean guy, what's his name?
John Houseman.
He talks kind of funny.
Yeah, he does.
He should have had my diction teacher.
A diction teacher?
Yeah, my... Rocky Grasiano was my diction teacher.
Yeah.
He gave me electrocution lessons.
I had to get that in.
Let me talk a minute about the film.
I saw the film, and I loved it, but the...
I wouldn't... I saw it once, and I said, boy, I'm not going to see it again.
It's a... it's a wrenching experience, and you don't seem like a really nice
guy in the film.
Oh, that's true, because you have to remember that that picture ended 20 years
ago.
And since then, I had to change, because if I didn't, I would have ended up in
a crazy house.
And... but while making that film, it was a wonderful experience, because, in
my opinion, Robert De Niro, who...
I mean, the picture was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and it earned
superstar Robert De Niro a well-deserved Oscar for Best Actor.
Accepting for Mr. De Niro.
I told the producers I like to play myself in the picture.
But they said to me that... they said... he said to me, Jake, you're not the
type.
So... so they were thinking of using Sammy Davis Jr. instead.
But he couldn't do it either, because he was too Jewish.
Now...
You don't like that.
No, I mean, that's... that's what we need.
That's...
We'll be playing Ramadians all over the country, Jake.
Uh...
I thought... I thought it was cute.
No, it was cute. It was cute.
It was cute. I... the last thing I want to do is get you upset.
No, no, no, no, that's... that's the past.
Yeah.
That's a long time ago.
Now, let me ask you something. Now, when... you wrote the book in 1970, about
your life.
Correct.
Now, what happened... according to the... the film, you got out of prison, you
did some time for whatever, some kind of, uh...
Yeah, well, yeah, it takes too long to say.
A nightclub violation, right.
But, uh... but since then, I've been in show business. I've done... I've done a
legitimate theater.
Right. Now, how did you get... how did you get to write a book?
Well, that was... that... that took, like, about ten years.
Uh-huh.
And, uh... and, uh... at the... at the time, I thought about writing it, and I
spoke to a lot of great writers.
And, uh... and one way... some like... some like to do it. They wanted to do it,
like, uh... Bud Schulberg, he wanted to do it.
But it took time. So then I said to myself, uh... nobody knows this story
better than I do.
Right.
And I had very little education and all that. But I sat down, like, for four...
for four days.
I sat down, and I wrote a... a synopsis, you know?
Yeah.
And I finally gave it to my partner, who, by the way...
he, uh... he just... he just recently died.
Right.
Peter Savage. He was my partner.
Now, how did... once the book was published, how did it get to De Niro?
'Cause you... you maintained that that pretty much saved your life, didn't it?
It did. It really did.
Yeah.
I get a call from, uh, Bobby. I... his friends call him Bobby. Robert De Niro.
Oh, yeah. Bobby.
Yeah.
And, uh... and he wanted to see me. And he...
This is just out of the blue you get a call?
No. He read the... he read the book.
He liked it. From then on, it was easy.
Yeah.
Then the United Artists took over, and the rest was easy.
Yeah. So, the thing... you're back on top again. Things are pretty good for you.
Yes. Things are very good.
Yeah. Well, that's great.
I... I... I... I'm doing college lectures and, uh, commercials and things like
that.
Yeah.
Um, in... in one point in the, uh, the movie, you throw a fight, because you
have no choice.
If you want a shot at the title, you've got to throw a fight.
But that's going to rehash over and over again. You want to hear it again?
I just... I just... no. What I want to ask you now, days in the world of big
league boxing, does that sort of thing still go on?
No. Today, if the public sees it on TV, so many millions of people see fighters
fighting, and... and if they deserve it, the... the public demands it, and they
get their chance.
But back in my day, uh, I have to remember that I was on Crown Chan for five
years.
Nobody wanted to fight me.
And, uh, I managed myself at the time. I... I wasn't involved with the mob.
And, uh, in order... in order to get the shot, my time was running out.
Mm-hmm.
I was getting older. I had everything. I had a beautiful wife.
By the way, uh, Vicky was my wife at the time.
Right.
And she... she's the one that was in Playboy, the oldest girl in Playboy.
You remember?
Over there on Playboy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Over there.
And, uh, we're still very good friends, and, uh, I'm friendly with all my wives.
I have five of them.
Let me... let me... you brought that up now.
She was in Playboy, and the kind of guy you played in the film, or not you,
that, uh, Bobby played in the film,
um, not a real tolerant guy, kind of a jealous, uh, fellow.
How did... how did you feel about, uh, Vicky showing up in Playboy?
We've been divorced now. It's about... about 25 years.
But we've been friends all along.
Mm-hmm.
She... she's my favorite.
We've been very close for all these years.
And we went to... we went to, uh, we went to, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh...
We went to Hollywood to see, uh, for the Academy Awards last year.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And she... you know, we were together.
And somebody approached me, and, uh, uh, from Playboy, I introduced him to, uh,
to Vicky.
And, uh, she says, "What do you think, Jake?"
I says, "Why not?"
Mm-hmm.
"Why not? What do you got to lose?"
Yeah.
No, you... you endorsed the whole thing.
I... I'm good.
Yeah.
Terrific.
I... I want to thank you for being here, and, uh, and I hope you'll come back
and see us
again sometime.
We're running out of time.
Okay.
Jake LaMotta, ladies and gentlemen.
Dave Clark will be here.
Dave, come here.