Name: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill on Letterman, Spring 1983
Uploaded: 2015-12-28T02:35:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill on Letterman, Spring 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-12-28. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill on Letterman, Spring 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-12-28. Transcript available.

Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill on Letterman, Spring 1983

On our program tonight, well, this is the one, this is the motion picture that
they say is now going to make all the money in the world.
And we have one of the stars of that film, Carrie Fisher, is here tonight,
ladies and gentlemen.
From the motion picture Revenge of the Jedi, is that correct?
Revenge or Return?
Does it make a lot of difference?
It doesn't make a lot of difference.
Ladies and gentlemen, my thanks once again to Dr. Nichols for allowing us to
have the, well, actually, it's the largest vase in America, if certainly not in
the world.
And still, the pride is a wonderful feeling.
Now, my first guest tonight is a versatile stage and film actress who made her
screen debut in the motion picture Shampoo and became famous as Princess Leia.
She is currently appearing in the latest Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi.
Please welcome Carrie Fisher.
What did you say?
I just wondered.
You just wondered what?
Talk show protocol, I don't know.
Do we sit down?
Eventually, you're requested to sit down.
I never know what to do either.
I guess, in my case, I should wait until the guest is seated.
The princess fits, yeah.
Or the princess, surely.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I screwed up the name of the movie.
I called it, whatever I called it, I'm sorry.
Revenge.
Yeah.
I hope it doesn't hurt the box office.
No, no, I think it'd be okay.
Now, this, how do you feel about, this is the third, is there going to be
another one?
What do they say?
I don't think so.
I mean, Han and I sort of choosing what planet to live on and having a child
that grows up
with hair like that and so forth.
No, I think they were considering doing the prequels, one, two, and three.
And I don't know that they're going to do that now.
I think, well, Mr. Lucas is very tired.
Yeah.
How about you?
Would you be interested in doing another one if they're...
Choosing a planet and stuff like that, yeah.
Does it, how does it affect you now that you can go into stores and buy stuff
that looks
like you, the merchandising?
It doesn't, it doesn't look like me.
The second one they came out with looked like Eddie Munster, the Empire doll.
And I was very upset by that, as upset as you can get about dolls and your
likeness.
I don't like the shampoo that much because you can screw my head off and pour
liquid out
of my neck and wash your hair.
Yeah.
And it says, lather up with Leia and you'll feel like a princess yourself.
Well, that's, uh, uh, now do you have to give your approval for that sort of
thing?
I signed my likeness away, so they made me into a racer and stuff like that.
But they don't even come to you and say, uh, this is as close as we can get.
Is that all right?
They don't...
That's, no.
Yeah.
Not at all.
They just take it from pictures and so on.
How, uh, when you're, when you're making these movies, you do a lot of acting
to...
Nothing.
Yeah.
Things that are filled in later, right?
Yes.
Like, uh, uh, talking little fuzzy guys and, and a lot of, uh, laser fights and
that sort
of thing.
That's right.
So how do you do that?
Uh, when they say action, you just do it.
I've been, I started doing the films when I was 19, so it's one of my specialties
except
for a type of chicken that I can make.
That's really good.
But, uh, I mean, I, you know, you just go, ah, and that's, that's about it.
Or, no, look, get down there.
There's nothing.
And that's what you do.
And you're not sure what you're getting at?
You feel like an idiot in the beginning and then eventually it's just, uh, that's
it.
Now, now when you're, when there is a, a scene in which, uh, when you're
sitting in the theater
watching it, there's a lot of tension and, and maybe you're frightened, uh,
theater goers,
I mean, are you frightened and filled with tension when you do it?
Or is there any sense of, uh...
Certain times where I was frightened when they put a squib on my arm and my arm
caught fire.
It was right before I caught fire.
I thought I would feel it and it would hurt.
Yeah.
Because I'd seen other people blow up before.
They blow up people on the back.
This is a device that would simulate an explosion or something?
Yes, they put an explosion.
My arm caught fire and Harrison had to sort of hit the wound.
But, um, it's, uh, the tension, when we did the swing across and those are
scary because
they just shoot the rehearsal.
Then you like it and want to do it again because you didn't die.
Yeah.
But, uh, we don't think we really didn't.
But you know what I'm saying?
In a, um, in a scene where it's, whatever you do, don't open the door, don't
open the
door, and then you open the door.
Sometimes there's certain reactions to a gun or something.
Yeah, yeah.
And they can do that.
I, when we see the films, we see them exactly like everybody else.
I mean, we don't see giant speeders careening across.
We do it to a blue screen and they put all that on later.
Yeah.
So going into hyperspace and so on, we never would see that.
We would just react.
What is that chicken recipe?
It's, um, it's, uh, you broil it and then there's a soy sauce, which you can
combine
with the barbecue sauce on the other side, which is very good.
Served with, uh, the broccoli and, uh...
Broccoli is a nice, uh, addition to any chicken.
And the corn, and the sweet corn.
And sweet corn.
Yeah.
It's tough to get really good, fresh sweet corn, though, isn't it?
And follow that vase, I think.
Well, the vase.
Vase, yeah.
Vase.
Vase.
I think in Iowa, it's probably a vase.
Vase.
I know it is in Indiana.
We're going to look at a few seconds of your new, uh, film, Return and or Revenge
of the
Jedi with Carrie Fisher, uh, right after this, folks.
Thank you for your turn.
Some of that, uh, film, uh, and I know what this is.
Tell the folks what it is.
It's a very exciting scene, isn't it?
Uh, this, this is the motorcycle sequence, um, and I, I don't know, I don't
know how to
set this up.
We're being chased once again by, uh, the horrible stormtrooper people.
And, uh, and we're on flying motorcycles.
Harley Davidson's in space.
All right.
And we'll look at this.
And then, uh, when this is finished, I want you to explain to me how this was
accomplished.
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
Okay.
Here we go.
Uh, the Carrie Fisher and, uh, Return of the Jedi and the motorcycle, you know.
Go for help.
Go.
Great.
Come on.
Over there.
Two more of them.
I see them.
Wait, Leia.
Hey, wait.
Wait, jam there calmly.
Center switch.
Move closer.
Get alongside that one.
That's very exciting.
Is, uh, how did you do that?
That was one of the most boring sequences we had to shoot.
That was in front of a blue screen once again, on top of 30-foot poles.
With these sort of plastic bikes.
And we would just sit there and they'd turn a wind machine on us.
And we'd go like this and go like that.
And look this way.
Look over there.
And now he's coming in.
And they'd blow up a squib.
And, uh, then they, somebody stayed up in Crescent City and walked very slowly
and took, um,
I think it was one frame at a time.
Just walked through the forest.
And they, I shouldn't say all this.
And it ruins it for everyone.
No, it doesn't ruin it.
Those are actually flying, uh, things.
And it was very exciting.
They'll be on the market soon.
I don't want to spoil this thing.
Yeah, I know.
The Russians have had those flying motorcycles for years.
For years!
And now they're just finally, uh, thank God for them, too.
Uh, how I got here.
But it's terribly exciting, that particularly.
Something about, uh, motorcycles flying through a Redwood Forth that's very
exciting.
It's very appealing.
Uh, in this movie, you also talk to, uh, uh, more, yeah, more little fuzzy guys,
don't you?
Uh, now they actually figured out a language for those guys, didn't they, or,
or thought they did?
They have Ewokies, they have Ewokies, and for the new character, Jabba the Hutt,
who they compare to Edward G. Robertson and a slug, um, is, uh, that's Huttonese.
And they actually do go to UCLA and get a language expert and develop some sort
of language.
I want that, I want that, I want that, sort of like that.
Yeah.
But they never talk, when we do, when we perform with them, they just sort of
go like this, and then they put in the sounds later.
But now, why do they go to the, the trouble of getting an expert to come in and
figure out just what you did there?
More fun.
It makes it more fun.
It makes for more talk here.
Oh, I see.
I just said they went, I couldn't just, I couldn't have told that whole long
thing.
But, but are there, in fact, people who would, who would probably not go to the
movie because they heard it was not authentic, authentic Ewokies?
An authentic language?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I wouldn't go.
I wouldn't have done the film.
Uh, well, I don't blame you then.
To heck with it.
No, I've got principles about this.
Uh, I was, uh, uh, reading a book, uh, about Michael Todd.
And, uh, in the book, uh, your father is mentioned, uh, a good friend of
Michael Todd's.
And they are in Florida, and, uh, Mr. Todd arranges kind of an impromptu
concert on the beach for your father to sing.
And I thought, well, this is, must have been pretty embarrassing circumstances,
uh, for your father.
And you tell me, uh, that that was pretty much the way he was.
He was on.
Everywhere.
Yeah.
The world was a shower to him.
He just sang everywhere.
He would sing all the time.
And now, was that, as a kid, was that fun to be around?
I think there were a couple of years where I might have been embarrassed.
He would do it in shopping malls.
And he wasn't totally inconspicuous anywhere.
And he was, Carrie, come here.
There's a toy on the shelf.
And, Dad, come on, please.
Yeah.
Eat all your food, Earl.
Eat all your food, Earl.
And, uh, uh, what about your mother?
Was she, was she performing on all?
Pratt falls.
Yeah.
That was, she had prat falls.
He had singing in stores.
She did prat falls.
Uh, I, I also, this afternoon, found out that one of your, uh, long-range goals,
and I don't
think it can be accomplished now, you wanted to be the center square in
Hollywood squares.
I did.
I wanted to do it with Greta Garbo to block, and I wanted to be a really
interesting, you
know, Fred Flintstone to win, please, and just a whole...
It may not happen now.
I don't think so.
Sad but true.
So what are you going to do now after, uh, this particular project?
What is the next one looming on the horizon?
I, I, I think I want to do a, uh, play a princess for HBO, kind of fairy tale.
Oh, really?
I'm just going to do princesses from now on.
Well...
You know, it's a living.
Apparently good, good dough in it, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, it was a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you very much for your time tonight, and good luck with this movie, for
everyone's
sake.
Very official, ladies and gentlemen.
Uh, we'll be right back with more next time.
My first guest tonight burst into prominence in 1977 as Luke Skywalker.
Uh, currently, he is in New York City playing quite a different character,
Mozart, in the
Broadway production of Amadeus, and we are more than happy to have him with us
here tonight.
Please welcome Mr. Mark Hamill.
Mark.
Nice to see you.
Thank you very much for, uh, being on the program, and by the way, I thought
you were terrific
in, uh, Return of the Jedi.
Thank you.
Very nice job there, sir.
Thanks very much.
Let's, uh, uh, talk a little bit about the part you're currently playing.
I started, uh, thinking that, uh, I should get back to why I became an actor in
the first
place, because I did a lot of plays in high school and in college.
None of my family was in show business.
Uh...
What did they do?
What did your folks do?
Well, my father was in the Navy.
Uh, I have a brother who's a doctor who is considered the success of the family
to this day.
Oh, I see.
Uh, but, uh, you know, I'd done a lot of television, and I'd been working
basically, I'm 31 now,
I've been basically working steadily since I was 17, and of course, in 77, I
became an
overnight success, and discovered that, uh, people sort of forget, really, that
the films
were made for young peopl