Name: Paul Shaffer on Bob Costas, ABC In Concert, August 1993
Uploaded: 2017-08-04T21:46:12.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Paul Shaffer on Bob Costas, ABC In Concert, August 1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-08-04. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Paul Shaffer on Bob Costas, ABC In Concert, August 1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-08-04. Transcript available.

Paul Shaffer on Bob Costas, ABC In Concert, August 1993

All you can do is invite the coolest people in the world, keep the nut balls
filled, and rock.
Thanks for staying up later. We're in Studio 8H at NBC, and Paul Schaefer is
with us.
And just before we started here, you mentioned that the first thing you ever
did at NBC was in this studio, the Saturday Night Live studio, and now this
could be the last.
I'm feeling very, very nostalgic today. It was 1975. I came into the building.
I had to go around to the back, the 30 Rock entrance.
I didn't know you could get in off 6th Avenue at that time. For the whole first
year, I would take a cab and go around and up and around the one-way streets,
you know, instead of just going right in.
I came here to make a demo with Howard Shore of his theme song for Saturday
Night Live in 75, and it was a big, huge room and kind of musty smelling.
I don't think anybody had used the room since Toscanini, probably.
Yeah, Arturo Toscanini conducted the NBC orchestra here.
That's right. They built the studio for him, to his specifications, and he has,
as you know, his own private elevator that has been bricked off and sealed up
since he died, somewhere in the building.
Except I used to go in there and go, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, and sure enough, it
did have the master's touch.
Anyway, here we are, back, you know, Letterman Show no longer working in this
building, and we did our last show, what was it, end of June or something.
And here I am, back to be with you, and I'm a little bit choked up.
A little misty here, Paul. This is early August, as we tape this, first week in
August.
August 30th, Letterman debuts on CBS, so this could very possibly be, at least
the last time before you wind up at CBS.
You might be back here for other reasons.
They're not going to let me in to this building, and once we start over there,
you know, my pass is gone.
I can't get into security anymore over here.
Well, the key question is, what is still your property?
I noticed that you have a new CD, and it's Paul Schaefer and the Party Boys of
Rock and Roll, the world's most dangerous party.
Right.
But not technically the world's most dangerous band.
Now, is even that the, quote, intellectual property of NBC?
Apparently it is. I'm no longer calling my band the world's most dangerous band.
We had to leave that here.
This worked out quite nicely because it is a party CD.
It has 22 or 23 of the greatest party songs in the world, and I'm kind of
hosting a party on this record,
kind of like Hef used to host those parties at the mansion.
Right, right.
This is an audio version of that.
Kind of loses something without the video.
So it is a, yeah, but we give you the idea of a party going on.
And so for this, we use the name The Party Boys of Rock and Roll.
It kind of all works out.
But I think that when we go over to CBS, we may change the name again.
As a matter of fact, I have something in mind.
Paul Schaefer and the intellectual properties.
I'm going to hit him with that and see.
I notice on this new party CD, it's literally a party, and a partial list of
celebrities.
Richard Belzer, Tony Bennett, Dana Carvey, George Clinton, James Coburn is on
this.
LL Cool J, Eartha Kitt, Letterman Stops By, John Lovitz, Mike Myers, Bill
Murray, Aaron Neville, Lou Reed, David Sanborn, Harry Shearer.
I want to make it clear, though, that this is really an instrumental album with
my band, Anton, Sid, and Will, and myself playing instrumental versions of all
your favorite party tunes, as we do every night on The Letterman Show.
These people come in and do little cameos in between cuts.
A couple of them do sit in.
David Sanborn sits in with the band, Joan Jett.
George Clinton raps a little bit over Black Dog by Led Zeppelin, but it really
is an instrumental album featuring my band, and these are just sort of little
cameos that add to the party atmosphere.
I can't believe it, look, it came to the party, my idol, Phil Spector.
Phil, thanks for coming.
Hey, Paul, what a pleasure it is to be here.
I want to make sure you have another album.
You mentioned the last show, Springsteen on the last show.
So a great moment for you as well as for David.
It was a thrill.
That guy is some performer.
He came at the very last minute, didn't bring anybody, didn't bring anybody
from his own band, came over to play with my band, quite an honor for me, did
Glory Days, and he knew, he said,
this song has got to feel like a party for it to work.
I remember the rehearsal so clearly because he just knew exactly what he was
doing.
Ran it through once, music sounded good right away.
He said to Sid, my guitarist, okay, first chorus, you come over, sing with me.
Ooh, you know, he's starting to go.
Second chorus, he says to Francisco, who was on bass that night, you come over,
sing with me, second chorus.
So now he had my two guys right up here, you know.
Yeah.
And the last thing he said, he came over to me and he said, this organ, it's
sturdy.
It's been reinforced.
So I knew he was going to jump up on top.
He didn't do it in rehearsal, but I knew he was going to jump up on top of the
organ.
When he did, he rocked heavily up there.
And we were right with him.
It was a lot of fun.
One of the great things about your band is that he was going to jump up on top
of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
He was going to jump up on top of the organ.
One of the great things about your band, Anton Figg, Sid McGinnis, and Will Lee,
and yourself,
and then, of course, many people sit in.
Almost every night, there's some recognizable name sitting in, but you can
adapt to any style.
I've seen you play with Barry Manilow and play not only competently, but with
conviction.
When Manilow was on the show.
What are you saying?
Strangely enough, Will, Lee, and I met playing in the studio on a record for
Barry Manilow.
That's how we met.
All the guys in my band, the three of them, are studio musicians.
They have the competence of studio musicians.
That's sort of the basic requirement for getting into the band.
Then on top of that, you have to be able to fake any style, which they can do.
You have to know all the same songs that I know.
So that if I turn around and say, you know, Time Won't Let Me, Outsiders, 1965,
Let's Go, you've got to be right there.
Um, so Will and I met on a Barry Manilow date, and so when Barry comes on the
show, it is a sort of, uh, like, old home week.
We do play for him, like, because we know him.
We kind of started out with him.
We made, uh, as Sidemen, we made some of his early records with him.
Um, but then...
You guys are on Mandy?
Will's on Mandy.
Will's on Mandy.
Will is on Mandy.
I was on, uh, the one, Ready to Take a Chance Again.
I'm on that.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, the one he did, um, Boogie Woogie, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
What's the name of that song?
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
That's Boogie Woogie, Boogie Woogie, da-da-da-da-da.
He got his own, yeah.
Jump Shout Boogie.
Uh-huh.
He let me play the acoustic piano on that.
It was a big deal.
He moved off the piano, and I sat down and played that.
Um...
I remember when Wayne Newton came on the show, and in a certain sense, that's a
perfect Paul
Schaefer guest, because there's that aspect of Las Vegas which you parody in
your persona,
but you have to know it and you have to love it to parody it the way you do.
My humor is kind of right on the line, uh, isn't it?
I love it.
I hate it.
I parody it.
I mock it.
I become it.
I am it.
I hate myself.
I hate myself for loving you.
I gotta get out of here.
I relate to Wayne Newton because he is a lounge performer, and, you know, in
Canada, that's
how I started out, too.
Well, I don't care what's right or wrong.
Baby, I don't try to understand.
That genuine appreciation for a wide range of styles, I think takes those
moments when you
play with those different people beyond musical competence and into an area of
real conviction.
Uh, James Brown comes out, uh, Paul Simon comes out, Eric Clapton, these people
are certified
to the audience.
But I remember when the late Del Shannon came on.
Now, some of the audience is gonna know who Del Shannon was.
A large portion is not.
But there was a period of time when Del Shannon made some pop rock songs that
weren't just early
'60s ditties.
They had some grit and some drive for them.
Runaway is one of the best songs of its era.
Doesn't it have the greatest organ solo?
For you.
Ever.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I remember you accompanying him on this, and it was a genuinely moving
moment.
This guy, Del Shannon, was back on a national stage, and he had an unhappy life,
and, uh,
he was on our show shortly after he was on yours, and then a short time after
that, uh, he took his own life.
Uh, and, and you could tell what this meant to him, Del Shannon, and how even
the uninitiated in the audience were moved by this and brought into what he
must have been and what he must have meant to his audience when he was at his
peak some quarter of a century earlier.
That, that moment really moved me.
Well, thank you.
You know, I would, I would hope, uh, that perhaps some of these artists may,
may get a feeling for how seriously we take their music.
And I wonder, I, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why,
why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why.
She ran away, and I wonder, where you're gonna stay, yeah.
And we will run away.
And run, run, run, run, run, run.
Work it out, Paul.
We really tried to learn the records and play them the way we think they were
initially intended to be played.
And maybe, I think it was true, for instance, with James Brown, when he came on,
I think it was because he had heard us playing his music on the breaks.
And he came on with a knowledge and a confidence that we knew a little bit
about his music.
As a matter of fact, when James Brown made his first appearance, which was in
our first season with Dave's show, he sent a message to us through his agents,
what songs would you guys like to play with us?
And I guess he thought we'd say, Papa's got a brand new bag, Cold Sweat, you
know, the usual ones.
But boy, we were so thrilled to get to play with James Brown.
We sent him back a list of about eight different songs.
These are the songs we've always wanted to play with you.
There was a time, because it has that great guitar part.
I get up, I feel like a sex machine because of the drum part, you know.
And he, he picked from our list and did the songs that we wanted to play with
him.
And man, I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
And I'll never get over that first time James Brown was on the show.
He played, I think, better than I ever thought the band was capable of playing.
Because when he opens his mouth, you start to see tha