Name: Lash La Rue on Letterman, February 16, 1984
Uploaded: 2017-04-04T02:38:55.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Lash La Rue on Letterman, February 16, 1984' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-04-04. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Lash La Rue on Letterman, February 16, 1984' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-04-04. Transcript available.

Thank you very much. Thank you, folks. Thank you, Paul.
In the 1940s and 1950s, my first guest was one of the most popular actors
making good old action-packed Western adventure films.
Here now, take a look at some of the movies that this man starred in and that
made him famous.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the king of the bullwhip himself, Mr. Lash
LaRue.
Lash. Lash, all right. Nice to see you.
It's been nice to meet you.
Come on over here.
Let me ask you about some of the films we saw there. How many of those movies
did you make?
I made about 75 pictures altogether because I can't remember all the titles.
But the Westerns that I made where we used the whip was the idea of bring them
to justice rather than kill them.
And how did you decide that the whip was the way to bring them to justice?
Well, it was the people that enjoyed my pictures to such an extent.
They didn't know my name.
They'd write letters to the guy that used the whip in the picture of Song of
Old Wyoming,
which was the first Western I made.
Excuse me. It's the chicken salad.
Now, Lash.
Is that your real name, Lash?
Well, no, that's a nickname.
My mother called me Lash.
My mother called you Lash.
Now, when did you first start using the whip?
When did you, how did you know you could perform with the whip?
Well, there was a fellow by the name of Bob Tanzi.
He was a producer.
He said, always be nice to the producer because tomorrow he might be the gate
man and he wouldn't let you in.
Yeah.
So, he was looking for someone who could handle a whip.
And I wanted to part, so I lied about it and went down and rented a couple of
whips and beat myself to death trying to learn.
But about three days into the picture, he was complimenting me on my acting.
And I said, Bob, there's something I better tell you.
And he said, what is it?
I said, well, I can't handle that whip.
And his face fell to his chest.
He said, but you said, I said, wait a minute, now you doubted if I could act,
so I just acted like I could use a whip.
Right, right.
So, I went, he was worried about how are we going to bring these guys to
justice then.
Well, no, that was before the pan mail started coming in, Dave.
Is there a practical use for these at all?
I know, I guess the only question.
It's good exercise.
Have you ever used one?
No, I've never used a bull whip.
Have you ever fished?
Did you ever do any fly fishing?
No, I never did any.
I've done a little just casting, but not.
Now, I'll tell you, with a whip, the camera's all moving back.
Yeah.
Now, why do they call it a bull whip?
Well, they used to drive cattle with them, and if you pop a whip alongside of a
bull, he ain't going to mess with you if you got the whip.
Yeah, well, that certainly makes sense.
The man with the whip is the man.
Yeah.
All right, so now, the practical application for this would be what?
Well, it's good exercise.
It's good for timing and coordination, and it's instinct.
You can't aim it.
You have to know about where it's going to be.
For instance, now, if we were ... I was going to get a doctor and bring out and
have him take a look at Paul's hand there.
Yeah, you apparently hit Paul.
Did you know you hit Paul?
Yeah, I told him that that was as far as we wanted to go with it, and he wanted
me to do it again, so I did it again.
Well, all right, so this is good exercise, and what are you going to show us
tonight?
Well, let me tell you.
These are dangerous, though, aren't they?
Well, you get the feel of it.
You kind of just throw it out there and get the feel of it.
Well, no, you got to put a little more into it than that.
Oh, jeez.
You know, explain it to me slowly.
Take me through it.
It's all in the rust, isn't it, Lash?
It's all in the feel of the whip.
The end of the whip is like your arm.
Now, why does it make that noise?
What actually is happening?
Well, that's the breaking of the sound barrier.
Oh, really?
All hell is broken loose.
Now, let me, I'm afraid I'm going to hit you.
Let me try to just pop it once, and then we'll get on with this.
I feel like a jerk here if I can't do this.
All right, here we go, and just over the shoulder.
That's it.
Well, that, I couldn't have knocked a fly off the...
Come on, David.
Thanks, ma'am.
I'm feeling like a sissy.
No.
You have to have it have a curl.
All right, let me try.
Maybe it's, uh...
Now, you were the good guy in those films, weren't you?
Well, uh, the bad good guy.
Well, no, but you were all, you were dressed in black.
Yeah.
Well, I wore black before it got popular.
When did it, when did it get popular?
Well, uh, let's see, uh...
I could get...
Wait a minute.
Now, I'll tell you what.
You can throw...
I'm afraid of hurting someone.
That's the problem.
Who are you going to hurt?
Well, I'm afraid I'm going to hit you.
Oh, you won't hit me.
Go ahead.
All right.
Well, now, you know.
No.
No.
All right, but you can kind of get the idea.
All right, what else can...
Easy, easy does it.
Not...
You don't even have to throw it hard,
but after you get the feel of it,
then would you like to learn how to pop it?
Let's see.
Come on back here for a minute.
Come on, Dave.
Now, take it around this way.
Well, jeez!
Yeah, okay.
Take it over your head,
and I wouldn't hit you.
And we got people over here, Lash.
All right, so I get it, uh...
Oh.
I'm just about to hit you.
And now what do I do?
I'm trying to pop.
Oh, heavens, this is...
You know what's going to happen, this is...
There you go.
No, we're looking at the...
You almost had it.
We're looking at the headlines of tomorrow's post,
is what we're looking at here.
Whip maniac kills for a TV show.
I don't know.
Show us what you were going to show us.
I'll do this in my spare time.
Hold your arm out there, like that.
Now, this is the idea of using a whip
so that it wraps around the man, and...
So you can bring him to justice.
See, it's kind of a short whip
for that kind of a wrap around.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, is there something else to do with the paper?
Yeah.
Can we get some...
Who's going to do the paper routine?
Here's our own Al Frisch is going to help us out.
Nice to see you.
Al...
How do we do this?
Come on!
Tell you what.
You can just drop this one.
Just drop your whip.
All right.
and you spread this out between you
and, uh...
and I'll...
I'll cut it.
Have you ever been injured?
Now, the idea is to cut the paper, right?
Woo!
Wow.
Want to try the shorter one?
Okay, another...
Well, that's pretty impressive.
That's very nice.
Now, we...
We've got some targets here.
Uh...
Let's see if I can...
What do you need, Blanche?
Let me help you.
Let me, uh...
Hi.
Just one of those.
And hold it out.
Oh, okay.
Sure.
Like that?
Yeah.
Is that...
Is that out enough?
Oh, no.
Is that it?
Are we done?
We're going to do a commercial here, Lash.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Give me your hand, Lash.
Lash LaRue, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll be back, folks, right after this.
Very nice.
Take a few weeks off.
We'll straighten the whole thing out.
Here now, once again, Lash LaRue.
Somebody said, get your whip, and I thought I was going to do a poem.
What happened?
Go ahead with your poem, Lash.
Are you ready, Paul?
I'm...
I'm a guy that's been kicked around, pushed and shoved, and now I found...
I don't like that old rough stuff, and I'm telling you now, I've had enough.
So if there's something you want me to do, and it seems important to you, ask
me.
But ask me nice.
I guess I'm not the type to force because I like...