Name: Martin Short on Letterman, February 14, 1984
Uploaded: 2016-04-29T00:54:42.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Martin Short on Letterman, February 14, 1984' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-29. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Martin Short on Letterman, February 14, 1984' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-29. Transcript available.

Thank you, boys.
It's always a treat to have this gentleman on our program.
He is a very talented comic actor who has created many memorable characters,
some of them based on actual people.
Let's take a look at a few of these characters
and watch this wonderfully talented man at work.
Kit of Deliverance!
Thank you.
Now, Lawrence, you are telling us you're still in school.
Right-o, Alex.
Post-graduate work?
No, high school.
I'm having some degree of difficulty getting through high school.
I see.
We asked Robin Williams if he could tell the difference
between freshly squeezed orange juice and new improved tang.
Oh, tang you.
You're welcome.
Robin, can you tell the difference?
Oh, what pressure.
I hope I don't let you down.
What if I pick the wrong one?
Don't win me for Mama Steaks, Captain Bob!
This has got to be the most exciting evening of the whole year,
Christmas Eve, I must say.
I can't believe it.
I couldn't be more excited.
I wish you were here now, you know.
This waiting is like making me mental.
Ooh, Peter Pan, Peter Pan.
I'm tired of hearing about Peter Pan.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome from SCTV Network on Cinemax
for Delighted Abbott, Martin Short.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Well, now, when Jerry did the show, I saw Jerry do the show.
You're going to do some Jerry for us?
They told me this afternoon, they said,
the man does the best Jerry Lewis in Canada.
Now, when Jerry did the show, you know, he came,
just give me that ending, if you recall.
Jerry's 58 years of age.
That's right.
I've just injured myself.
No, no.
Nice to see you again.
Good timing, Paul.
Marvelous to see you, as always.
You guys worked together in, was it Godspell in Canada?
Yes, that was years ago.
He was taller then.
What, what, what did, did Paul have a acting part in it?
No, no, Paul was, Paul was a musical director at Godspell.
Yeah.
That was the first show that many of us did.
Gilda Radner was the first show.
Eugene Levy.
A lot of big time folks.
Yeah, Juanita Quigley, she never made it.
But there were others, uh, Andrew Martin was in that show.
Tell me about some of the folks we saw you doing.
The guy in his room on Christmas Eve with the hair sticking up.
Who was that?
Oh, Summer Gremley.
Now, what's the deal on that guy?
Well, it's, uh, I was, it was a stage character.
Some characters develop, uh, on stage, and, uh, that's one of them.
It was actually just, uh, a hairdo that a character grew around.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, and now he's kind of like a little spirit.
He's a little fella that, uh.
Does he have a living, uh, do anything for a living?
Yeah, he's an actor.
He's an actor.
Uh, he's done such films at CTV as Whatever Happened to Baby Ed.
Um, you know, and he's about to start All Over Grimly,
which is going to be a piece that we do.
And what about the, uh, the really dumb guy on, uh, Halfwits?
Who is that?
Lauren Schaubach.
Yeah, what's the deal on Laurence?
He's got an IQ of about 86.
Uh-huh.
But good-natured.
Oh, good-natured.
All these characters are good-natured, sure.
And, uh, the, the young man playing the banjo in the beginning?
Well, I think he talked for himself, didn't he?
And you also did, uh...
He'll be home every Saturday night.
No dates for that fella.
Yeah.
Robin Williams was on this?
Oh, well, Robin, of course, is backstage.
He's a very old friend, and...
Did he come to be...
Did he come to see you tonight?
Yes.
Robin, actually, when I was doing...
The first time I did Robin, it's interesting, because you sit in that makeup
chair.
Some characters you just don't have.
You know, like, I can do Gary Cooper, but one line.
Uh-huh.
You know, forget it.
He's dead.
But you can't...
You can't build a career out of that.
But, uh, with Robin, I kind of, you know, I, I, I know Robin, so I was kind of,
uh, tentative.
How will I do it?
And then, you know, they set you in front of the makeup chair, and suddenly you,
oh, they
put a nose in you.
Oh, that's wonderful.
And suddenly you find getting the character, and then, oh, it's made of putty
like a putter.
Oh, like golfing.
Oh, what a concert.
And then you have, you, you, you, you, you think you have the character.
Yeah, well, they tell you you do.
You did a terrific job on it.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's very nice.
Now, uh, on the show on, uh, uh, you're on cable now.
You're not on network.
Any difference in the program at all?
A lot of people thought, well, uh, the sky's the limit here.
We can do anything we want on cable.
No, I, I, I think that, uh, you know, we weren't allowed to do drug jokes on
NBC or,
uh, do nudity and, uh, but, I mean, we didn't want to do that.
Yeah.
Drug jokes, anyway.
Nudity, there is lots of nudity.
Now, there's no nudity.
The show is very, very different.
The only thing that has changed really is the, uh, we, we're not having
commercials.
We had to find a pace within that new, uh, nonstop level.
So that's...
How long is the show now?
Forty-five minutes?
Forty-five minutes, yeah.
Uh, tell me about, uh, a character.
Do people like this guy, Jackie Rogers?
Well, Jackie Rogers Jr. actually is, uh, a character that, um, he was my stage
name as a kid.
I used to, uh, uh, have my own TV show,
fantasy world time, uh, which is kind of borderline mental illness.
And I, during the 60s, when a lot of you guys were out protesting and, and, uh,
questioning
whether the revolution was going to happen,
I was up in my attic with a mic going, weather-wise, it's such a cuckoo day.
Uh, with the Marty Short show that I taped, um, once every two weeks.
I alternated with Andy Williams on NBC 8:30, I would type up, uh, the little
entries for
TV Guide, I'd do my own promos, and I would have, I had an applause record, but
I worked
under the name of Jackie Rogers because I didn't think that...
Now, this is all going on in your room?
Yeah.
Now, what do the folks think of this?
Were they, uh...
Not happy about that at all?
No, they're worried.
Uh, we have to do a commercial here, Martin.
Uh, we'll come right back.
Martin Short is here, and, uh, having a lot of fun.
Thank you.
All right, now, uh, uh, uh, the Jackie Rogers Jr. show or Jackie Rogers?
I'm sorry.
It was Jackie Rogers Jr. show.
Jackie Rogers Jr. show.
Now, how long did this go on in your room?
Well, for about two years.
Yeah.
And we were cansy.
Uh-huh.
By Tateco Junction, I think, at the time.
You came in and bumped the Jackie Rogers.
Now, you do this show on SCTV, or you do that character on SCTV.
Yeah, it was, it was, I would, uh, have a mic and an applause record.
As I said, it was about 15, and I, you know, just, I'd come out and I'd sing a
song like, uh,
like, uh, "She Loves Me" or something, uh, contemporary to my frame of
reference,
or not to what was happening in '68.
And I then would, you know, say, you know, in my business, or in our business,
when a song lingers for many, many years, it becomes what we call a standard.
This next song, we haven't really changed much.
Let's just say we put a new dress in the new gal, and then I break into the
most, you know,
beautiful girl in the world.
Yeah.
14 years of age, mind you.
And then, uh, I hear, "Dinner!" and I come down.
We tape later.
Now, now the folks weren't, weren't crazy about this.
Now, how are the fellow cast members on SCTV reacting to...
They hate Jackie.
Well, Jackie...
No, no, they don't.
No, yes, they do.
Why would they hate this guy?
They find him just kind of obnoxious.
Well, I mean, I also, now I make him albino with a long, blonde wig.
Yeah.
So, he's not that likable.
Uh-huh.
But, uh...
Now, he has a father.
Now, what is the deal, uh...
His father was killed while filming, uh, "Old Mother Nature, She Loves Me."
Uh-huh.
In 1972, he was attacked by a cougar and mauled.
Oh, geez, that's awful.
Yeah.
I didn't realize that.
Well, look, it was this, it was a stunner to all of us.
And so, his son...
I just, I just took the band off, uh, last week.
Uh-huh.
The, the son is now carrying on in that wonderful tradition.
Yes, he is.
Okay.
And he's, uh, he's, in fact, with Jerry Vale tonight and hoping that it's gonna
go well.
All right.
Now, are we gonna see, we have some more videotape of you at work.
Are you gonna see, are we gonna see Jackie here?
I think you're gonna see Jerry here.
Okay, we're gonna see Jerry.
All right, uh, this is, uh, I guess, a compilation of several things you've
done on this season
of show.
No, I think this is just a clip from, uh, Ruck it out.
"Go away from my window, leave at your own chosen speed, I'm not the one you
want, babe,
I'm not the one you need, you say..."
Hi.
I'm Jerry Lewis.
Jerry Lewis has always been a protester, not only to the fashion of his times,
but the
trends of the day.
And that's super, super marvelous.
So when Paramutual Records came to me and said, "Hey, Jerry, whoever you want
to record,
would you just do?
Manlo would be good.
You want, we should give Barry a call?"
And I said, "Uh-uh, I want to do Dillon, because he makes me feel good a lot,
and that's
why I chose to stop to be on my album, Lewis Sings Dillon.
Oh, yeah!
Oh, no, no!
Oh, yeah!
Oh, yeah!
Oh, yeah!
Oh, yeah!
Martin Short, very nice stuff.
Thank you, Jerry.
SCTV on Cinemax.
Cinemax.
Good luck to you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you for being here.
Marty Short.
We'll be right back, ladies and gentlemen.