Name: Levon Helm on Letterman, January 6 and 11, 1983
Uploaded: 2017-10-07T06:27:16.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Levon Helm on Letterman, January 6 and 11, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-10-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Levon Helm on Letterman, January 6 and 11, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-10-07. Transcript available.

Levon Helm on Letterman, January 6 and 11, 1983

We have a lot of important, exciting work here to accomplish in American
television tonight.
A good friend of ours, Mr. Jay Leno, is on the program here.
Now, what about name number two? Is name number two on the program?
We have scheduled the following person on our show, Mr. Levon Helm, is
scheduled to be here tonight.
That's it?
We must be doing something else. I'm guessing there's something else in store
for you home viewers.
Now, please, at this time, say hello to our good friend, a marvelous performer,
ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Paul Schaefer.
For heaven's sakes, I was caught off guard. So much drama here tonight. I was
taken aback momentarily.
And by the way, if you've ever been taken aback momentarily, you know just how
painful that can be.
Now, this is interesting. I'm going to explain something here to you folks.
My next guest played drums and sang with the legendary rock group, the band.
He then went on to a career in films, receiving great acclaim for his portrayal
of Loretta Lynn's father and coal miner's daughter.
Not only that, he's not here tonight.
Has not arrived.
For some reason or another, we believe that he is in transit and perhaps will
be here.
So, in the meantime, until Mr. Levon Helm possibly arrives, we thought we'd let
you meet the gentleman who was responsible for this booking on our program,
talent coordinator and segment producer, Mr. Gerard Mulligan, ladies and
gentlemen.
Sorry we have to meet under such circumstances.
That's all right. And once again, Jerry answering the question, is there a
dress code for the staff?
No?
Not on the money we make, no.
Now, we were all looking forward to meeting Mr. Levon Helm.
With the band and, of course, coal miner's daughter.
And tell us...
Nobody was looking forward to it more than I can.
Yes, I can imagine so.
I'm still looking forward to it.
Now, is there a chance he will be here tonight?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Now, we don't mean to infer that he is negligent.
We are under the impression he's on his way, right?
Well, he pinned it down to this week.
I don't think we ever told him a given night.
No, no, no.
We specified a night.
I think we probably did.
Now, tell me what you kept telling me all day.
Well, he'll be here, I think.
Don't worry.
I think, well, we'd like to have you go on in a good frame of mind.
Can we do anything to ensure that a good frame of mind?
But he is en route, traveling from...
He's coming down from Woodstock.
I think, as anyone who's followed the band's legendary career,
Big Pink, the house at Big Pink.
He lives up there.
I don't know if he's still in the Big Pink house.
I was going to ask him this when he showed up.
What other things would we have heard from Levon, had he been...
I think he had some great stories.
I think.
We booked this guy because we knew he had anecdotes.
Kind of a natural storyteller.
Natural storyteller.
Not good with time, but real good with the anecdotes.
Let me ask you this.
What do we know of Levon's relationship with Bob Dylan now?
It's real curious.
I was going to ask him about that, because...
As you know, he backed Dylan at his famous Forrest Hills appearance in 65
when Dylan went electric, which all the fans know.
And then Dylan made a world tour, and he took all the band with him
except Levon Helm.
We don't know if Levon...
Levon went back to Arkansas, right?
Yeah.
We don't know if he didn't want to tour with Dylan or what the deal was,
because later he did play behind Dylan.
Back together.
Yeah.
It would have been great.
Why don't you run down...
Why don't you run down some of those legendary songs that the band was
responsible for?
Well, I guess, the night they drove Old Dixie down, I guess he was always
identified with Levon Helm.
And I meant to ask him.
This would have...
I think...
Thank you.
Thank you.
I feel...
I feel identified with the guy.
I know.
Yeah.
Well, you know, that brought up an interesting point.
I was going to...
I was going to ask the guy.
You see the last waltz, of course.
I think we all like that.
Yeah.
He's playing the drums.
He's playing the drums, and he's also singing.
Now, I was just curious.
I was going to ask him if that's kind of a strain.
Is that difficult?
Well, we have a drummer and a singer.
Steve, is that hard to do, drumming?
If you work on it, you know.
Give us an example, Steve, of drumming and singing simultaneously.
I think we have the time, so...
Oh, that's good.
That's good.
That's good.
This is great.
I like this.
That's, of course, a band song.
That's right.
You know, I want to say one thing, David.
It's a whole...
It's a breakthrough.
It's a wonderful concept.
We just kind of discussed the guest.
I'm starting to feel like...
I'm more and more like Ed Subitsky out here.
Just to show that we really were in earnest about this,
his manager is here.
His manager.
Well, let's meet Levi.
No, he won't come out.
He won't come out.
He's sitting there.
Where is he?
Where is the man?
Oh, he's running.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Is Mr. Helm's manager in here?
Hi.
How are you?
Nice to see you.
I'm Dave Letterman.
What is your name, Chris?
Harold, nice to see you.
Any chance of being here tomorrow?
I'm surprised.
I thought he'd be here today.
Oh, that's all right.
We're having plenty of fun without him.
Nice meeting you, Harold.
Nice meeting you, too.
Thanks for being here.
What is your name?
Drew.
Drew, nice to see you.
How are you?
Who is this here?
Tracy.
Tracy, nice to see you.
Thank you very much for being on the show.
Two more disappointed humans waiting to see Leon Helm.
Jimmy Fitzgerald, of course, ladies and gentlemen.
You and Mr. Fitzgerald.
What the hell else can we do here?
All right.
Now, where was I?
I wanted to ask you about how Mr. Helm learned to act.
Well, the story is, as I read it, as I say, I haven't talked to the gentleman.
He has a friend, Tommy Lee Jones.
I guess we know Tommy Lee Jones.
And they were in the movie Coal Miner's Daughter Together, Tommy Lee Jones
playing Mooney.
And according to the story, as I read it in Rolling Stone, we do a lot of
research on this.
But I don't think people realize just how much we do.
He and Tommy Lee Jones were driving to the set, and they did some s*** or
something.
And Tommy Lee Jones told him six or seven things to do to be a good actor.
Don't mumble and don't rush and things like this.
And that's it.
It was pretty natural.
Is he here?
Is he here?
Don't kid about that, please.
Now, you know, I wish that manager would come out.
He's a nice fellow.
He had a nice suit and a nice cigar.
That's the mark of a good manager.
He had a nice, expensive cigar and a good tie.
And a client.
Sure, a client.
And the green room was packed with people we've never seen before.
Anticipation.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it would have been keen.
You know something?
This manager, Gene Levy of Second City, this is his uncle.
Oh, really?
He's related to you, Gene Levy?
Yeah, I talked to him last night.
Oh, great.
He would also have told you if this guy...
Levy.
Levy, that's right.
I always get confused.
He would have...
Levy.
Well, let's get him on the phone.
No, he would have told you that in 25 years, he's never known Levon to miss an
appearance.
Huh.
Well, it's kind of a landmark for everybody then here tonight.
You know, we have another guest lined up.
We do have another guest.
Yeah, Bernard King of the Knicks.
Bernard King of the Knicks.
He was...
See?
Now, explain why we have access to Bernard King but not Levon Helm.
Bernard King was in the building.
He was right across the hallway.
He was across the hallway.
Okay, so what do we do?
We're going to go to a commercial and...
And then bring him out.
Larry Budd!
Okay.
And then bring out Larry Budd, sure.
We'll be right back to Bernard King.
Thank you very much, Joe.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So Bernard King, now wait a minute, he's Bernard King and Marv Alpert.
20 point per game average.
Okay, Marv Alpert was helpful in getting this.
Marv Alpert was very helpful. New York Knicks.
All right. Thank you very much, Gerard. Gerard Mulligan, ladies and gentlemen.
Hi there. Welcome back. We're done. I want to thank my guest tonight, of course,
Mr. Jay Leno, Levon Helm.
Also, Bernard King. Thank you very much, Bernard, for coming by.
And our own segment producer, Gerard Mulligan, Bill Wendell, Paul Schaefer, and
the gentlemen.
Tomorrow night, our 90-minute special with David Johansson.
We'll see you then. Oh, stupid Petrix also.
Have a good night. Thank you, folks.
Thank you.
We had a good show for you tonight, ladies and gentlemen, a grand show.
Lee Von Helm is here tonight.
He was, sure, you can applaud.
He was supposed to be here last week.
We had him booked on the show and came right down to it.
He was unable to make it, and tonight we'll find out why and then punish him.
So, no, very nice, talented gentleman.
We'll be talking with him from the band, of course, also the coal miner's
daughter, on
and on and on.
Now, another interesting gentleman, the author of The Vanishing Hitchhiker.
Is this Jan Harald Brundvand?
Let's all try it together.
Jan Harald Brundvand.
Thank you, Paul.
My first guest tonight played drums and sang with the legendary group, the band,
and since
then he has pursued a solo career in music and also in films, winning wide acclaim
for
his portrayal of Loretta Lynn's father and coal miner's daughter, and most
importantly,
he's actually here tonight.
Please welcome Mr. Lievon Helm.
Hi, Lievon Helm.
Nice to see you.
Have a seat, man.
What do you have here?
Well, I'd like to make up for the...
Now, first of all, let's just talk about that.
You were supposed to be here when?
You've got me there.
I think the day before yesterday, yeah.
No, it was last week sometime, and you could not make it, but it was, I mean,
actually not
negligence on your part.
You had a real problem, didn't you?
Well, as it turns out, it's a little embarrassing to talk about.
My manager, Mr. Cudlitz, is backstage.
He told me not to come out and whine about it and try and get on with it.
Uh-huh.
Well, do you want to tell folks what happened, or that's it?
Well, if you think it's...
Oh, sure.
I think, sure, if...
Well, just a minor fire.
Had a fire.
Had a fire.
Yeah.
Lost a pickup truck, but a lot of us are losing pickups this year, so...
But the same night that you were supposed to be on our show, you had
engagements elsewhere
in the area, didn't you?
Yes, we did.
Now, did you get to those?
I got to that one.
Yeah.
And how did that go?
It seemed to be okay.
Okay.
Now, should I open this here?
This is a peace offering, if you'd like.
Well, it's certainly not necessary.
We understand.
Well, I'd like to give you something that you might like.
Let me just see if I can guess what this is.
Okay.
No, I have no idea.
No need to guess.
We just...
Well, it's, uh...
You...
It's, uh...
What is that?
That's...
That is genuine Arkansas Delta barbecue sauce.
Oh, well, now we're getting someplace.
That's from Wayne Shedden down in Marvel, Arkansas.
Do you mind if I have a little...
I wish you would.
By the way, these are great on wool hats.
This, uh...
Oh, yeah, that's, uh...
That's very nice.
You can always give it to Bob, right?
Yeah, no, that's very nice, Levon.
Thank you very much.
And I appreciate not only the gift, but I appreciate you coming back.
And I'm sorry you had a little fire in your garage.
I'm sorry for the big mix-up myself.
Well, thank you for asking.
Uh, when you were...
When you were not here last week, some of the things we wanted to ask you was,
uh...
One, the question came up when you were playing drums for the band or when you're
playing generally.
Is it tough to sing and also play drums?
Well, it's tough enough for myself.
Yeah.
It seems to be easier for other people, but, uh...
Have you ever had any real problems along that line?
Well, consistent problems.
I've never learned how to do it yet.
Mm-hmm.
I'm still on the case, you might say.
Well, do you ever, um, uh, place yourself in physical j