Legendary comedian and impressionist Rich Little

Today Alison interviews Legendary comedian and impressionist Rich Little

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Love bye.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm this is the Alison Arningham Show. And well some
of you may know me as Evil Millie Elsen, but
luckily tonight I am Allison Arnkheram and this is the
Alison Ingham Show. And here in the Alison Ringham Show
we talk about things that make you feel good, the
TV shows and the movies that made us feel good,

(00:40):
and the people who made them, and people who are
doing things now to make the world a better and
more interesting place. Yay, I have a you love this person.
You love this person. I know you love this person.
I've had him on my show before. I love this person.
You love this person, and I know not to get
like old about it. Your parents love this person because
like I'm hey, I'm all, we're talking legend. We're talking

(01:03):
absolute legend. Yes, actually really honest to goodness live in person.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I have.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Speak presidice mister rich Little, who has a new show,
Rich Little? How the heck are you?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm doing great For an old guy.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
You always do great. You always do great. You've just
I mean you've You've been around absolutely forever and in
a good way, oh totally, in an amazing way, because
you continue to work constantly. You're living in Vegas and
you've been doing regular shows at the Laugh Factory Theater
in Las Vegas.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Right, and I haven't worked since I'm kind of right
like I'm coming out of retirement in a couple of
weeks to do Cavina at the laugh Factory down there.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
You're in California, Yes, in Cavena. There's a whole laugh
Factory Theater in Cavina, and it's going to be September eighth,
the Sunday, and uh, what do you do at seven
o'clock to seven o'clock show? It's the whole show. People
need to know. This is the whole show. Isn't just
like even regular stamp because I have seen your show.
In fact, I got to see your show in your
living room because we did an online show. I was

(02:29):
doing all these online shows during the lockdown, and you
did a full online internet version of your show from
your living room and it was epic.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Oh yeah I remember that now, Yeah, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
It was totally wild. So I've seen it with all
the stuff that explain to people who have not seen
your show because they go, oh, yeah, which little I've
seen him on TV. Yes, he does the incredible impressions.
But tell me, this show of yours has special effects,
has things in it that people may not realize that
they're going to see. It's it's truly amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, I'm an artist, you know, I've I've done sketches
portraits of celebrities for years. I've done over gosh, a
couple of hundred, and I incorporate them into my show.
When I do somebody imitate somebody, I show the picture
I've drawn off them and sometimes they talk. No. Remember

(03:25):
how people used to get a dog to talk, Well
I talk one day. If you get a dog to talk,
why not a celebrity. So I have some of my
pictures actually asking me questions in the show, and we'll
use how many routines and I'm talking to myself.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Really, it's absolutely incredible. Yeah, in your show, I mean
there are people do imprecious celebrities, but you actually have
entire conversations with a celebrity. Absolutely mind blowing. Your career
has been amazing. I mean, as I said, you're chestnut stopping.
You've moved into the twenty first century of a show

(04:06):
with special effects. You've done online says like nothing stops
you when you started. I mean it was so long ago.
I mean we're talking about hanging around people like Judy Garland,
and it was really I mean, Judy Garland in a way,
really boosted your career.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah. Well that was the first US show that I
did because I'm a Canadian, you know, and I came down.
I came down from Canada to do the Judy Garland
Show in nineteen sixty four, and that started my career
in the US. And she was great. I got along
great with her. I really did. The show that we did,

(04:43):
though wasn't over until three in the morning.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Good lord.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
You know, there are a lot of problems getting Judy
out of the dressing room, getting her on the set,
and we had Peter Lawford on the show and he
was a train wreck, and so we didn't finish the
show till three in the morning. But it came off
great and that started my career in the US. The
Judy Garlan Show.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, I mean it was the sixties and this is
how things went down on television back in the day.
You have done impressions of absolutely everyone.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Just go back.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
How many presidents have you impersonated in your career?

Speaker 3 (05:25):
I do about eight. Eight. Yeah, eight. I don't do
Lincoln because nobody knows what he sounds like, sounds like
sounds like Henry Fondo. Maybe I don't know, but I do.
I do presidents from I guess Kennedy on, although I do,

(05:50):
I do a little of FDR and you know, but
I don't do too many of the older ones. But
starting from Kennedy right through, I didn't do Barack Obama
very well. So I didn't do him. But all the
other presidents I've been able to imitate.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
And I think Ronald Reagan was one of your legendary ones. Really,
that was one that was just fabulous.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well will I love Reagan. Reagan was the best. I
got great with him.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
You've met most of the people you comversonated.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, I have, actually, Yeah, most of them like it
when I impersonate them. Very few have been upset. Even
Nixon liked my impression of him, which I have to believe,
but he did.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
People make fun of Nixon a lot. It's shocking today
they're still making fun of Nixon because Futuma. You actually
are in the Futurama movie doing.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's right, that's right. And I did a play on
Nixon in New York a couple of seasons ago, and
unfortunately it was during COVID and it didn't do that well.
But it was a great play. Wonderful player.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Did do an entire one man show in the Life
of Nixon off Broadway in New York.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
It wasn't one man, but we had a cast of
about eight people, but it was a wonderful show. It's
just too bad that COVID was around then and we
didn't draw that many people. But I thought the show
was great. I read it and Nixon's daughter came to
see the show and thought it was wow. She loved

(07:32):
my impression of her father. Truscian Exon absolutely loved it,
which made me feel good. You know.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
See, that's an amazing thing about your impressions. It's not like, yes,
people coming they seen't they laugh because they recognize it
and crack up and go, oh my god. You say
hilarious things while you're being all these people. But there's
nothing vindictive about it. The people that you've impersonated, even Nixon,
who kind of you know, wasn't known for having a
soft spot for people making fun of them. He liked it.

(08:01):
Reagan liked it's people who are being impersonated are thrilled
that you're doing an impersonation of them. It's that good,
it's that fabulous.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, that's true in a way. You know, sometimes the
impression can be better than the person you're doing. Ah.
But you know, I'm thinking of when I started to
do Kennedy. Here'sg It didn't get that bigger reaction when

(08:32):
I did Kennedy until I did von Meter, And von
Meter was the guy that imitated him and made the
First Family Rides again a number one seller, And that
impression was so great that if I didn't imitate von
Meter doing Kennedy, nobody thought I did it.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, Okay, this is completely bonkers because okay, now, yes,
von Meter, who became insanely famous as sixty because he
did the great he did such a good Kennedy that
there are people who only think of that voice as
Kennedy when they when they say, oh, I'm going to
talk like JFK, they talk like von Meeter. The First
Family album, that's my mother, the famous voice artist Norma
macmillan doing the voices of Little Caroline and John John.

(09:16):
She did the kids' voices on the First Family album
and knew von Meeter, so yes, that absolutely bonkers, but
that makes sense. You would actually be doing von Meeter
so that people would go, oh right, it's Kennedy.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, yeah, well I used that. Kennedy was one of
the first voices I ever did, ask not what your
concrete can do for you, but what Maryland can.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Do for me? You have you go, you go all
the way back to the rat Pack and all of
these people. But you're doing current impressions. Now you do people?
Now you do? You do what Arnold Schwarzenaker, you do,
Sylvester Stallone, you do everybody. Who's who's your most hot

(10:01):
current one? Well, I really love it.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
I can do Kamala Harris because it's easy to do.
All you have to do is laugh. If you can laugh,
you can do Kamala Harris. She's a laughing machine. And
I don't think I've ever heard her speak, but I've
heard her laugh many times. Of course, I was doing
you know, our current president for the next twenty minutes anyway,

(10:31):
Joe Biden and Joe Biden was great to do because
if you if you get all screwed up and forget
what you were saying, it only enhanced the impression.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
You simply worked it into the bit.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
I worked it into it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, Well I saw you in on stage in Vegas
and you did I think you did Stallone. Did you
do Schwarzenegger as well?

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah? I did Schwartzenegger on the Swartzenega. Okay, ah soul, No,
that's Japanese. I was thinking of a joke the other
days talking about Japanese and that I used to do
on on George Bush Senior. Oh right, when he barfed

(11:21):
all over the Japanese minister.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
He did there. He was quite he was almost an
international incident. He got sick and he threw up on
the prime minister.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah he's somebody gave him some that broccoli, I think,
and he barfed over the Japanese Prime minister, who was
very gracious about it. You know, he just stood up
and went, as you know, that's all he said, asshole, asshole.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Translation. He probably didn't notice it at the time that
he's actually sague about him. Who have not done as
you said. There are people that you don't have not impersonated.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Oh yeah, there there there are many people that I
can't do. Good Lord, A lot of movie stars are
hard to do. How do you do Harrison Ford, You know,
I have no idea how to do that.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
What makes someone hard to do? What does it? What
makes someone?

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Something distinctive about their voice? You know? And if you
heard Harrison Ford probably talk without looking at him, you
probably wouldn't know who it was. He's just got a
very masculine voice, and there's nothing really distinctive about it,
you know. But when you hear Jimmy Stewart or Humphrey Bogart,

(12:37):
I mean immediately you know who that is. There are
just some people whose voices are very distinctive. And you
know Rock Hudson, Now how how would you imitate him?

Speaker 2 (12:47):
You know, So there's all a thing in Hollywood trying
to sort of almost I mean, we're to make people all,
you know, sound the same. Well, he's got a good American,
plain sounding, manly voice, and that it was popular, But
then what do you do with that comedically? Whereas the
people have a tick or something unusual, have an accent,

(13:08):
have something about their personality and their voice that must
make it easier.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if they have a lisp or or
you know, like Humphrey Bogart, it's a lot easier to do,
you know, but as I said, there are just some
people that you can imitate, and you can you can
practice it all day long, and it just you know,
sometimes it'll just come to you just immediately, and other

(13:33):
times it just never comes and you know, it's it's tough.
There are people that you know that I've been able
to imitate in like two minutes, like well, like doctor Westheimer,
Ruth wester HaOmer.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
Oh, they took me about two minutes.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
You know.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
Sex, sex it's a lot like the air. It's not
important unless you don't get any You've done.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
I've also heard you do. Carol Channing. I love it
because I knew Carol changing.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
Carol Channing was Everybody liked Carol Channing. You know, people
that that you instantly liked, you know, and like Jimmy
Duranty and Louis Armstrong. There are people that you just like,
you know, and Carol was great. She She always reminded
me of somebody who had their finger in a light socket,

(14:33):
you know, because she was larger than live and she
come up to you. You know, she was she couldn't
see very well. And then at the end of her life,
at the end of her life, you know, she went blind.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Her eyes got worse and worse, that's absolutely worse.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
And then she got I want to see her in
Palm Springs and she couldn't see it all. But you know,
but she was interesting because she would come up to
you in a room and she wouldn't register until she
was about six sentis from you, and then she'd go, oh,
rich that yoush, Oh that's wonderful. Oh you're looking. She'll

(15:11):
be mildly. You know. She was. I just I'd adored her.
Read it did.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
I loved her. She was an awesome person. How how
did you start? I mean, what possessed you as a
young person? Was it always to become an impression of student?
Impersonate people? How did that start?

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Oh? I started imitating teachers at school. Yeah, And after
a while they got wives of it to it and
put me at the back of the room and never
asked me anything because they knew I would answer in
their voice and it was usually the wrong answer. So
I got opened it by by imitating the teachers. And

(15:52):
then nobody none of the teachers bothered with me, so
I never did my homework, I never did anything.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
No, really, Oh my god, And you got to with
us in the Canadian school Systemtheless, I would.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
Think, yeah, and I would get up at the school concerts,
you know, at the end of the year, and imitate
all my teachers. And that was great fun. The kids
loved it. Teachers were embarrassed, though, Oh my god. I
used to get up and imitate the teacher before they

(16:28):
entered the room in the morning, and I would I
would do their voice and their mannerisms and everything. There'd
be a lookout at the door, and then after a
while somebody say, here he comes, here he gums, and
so I would take my seat and then the teacher
would walk in and do exactly what I was doing
before they arrived. The kids would fall about just screaming

(16:51):
with laughter, and the poor teachers couldn't understand why they
were so funny. Oh no, Then when I got my
first book looking in New York. Let's see, what was
my first booking in New York. Copa Cavanda. Wow, cop

(17:13):
When I worked at Copa Cavanda for the first time,
all my teachers from Ottawa, from Canada came down to
see me, hoping I would do it in my show.
Oh and of course I wasn't going to do the teachers.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
People don't know who they are who they.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Were, and I didn't of course, and then they got
all upset and went back to Canada and really mad
at me because I didn't imitate them at the Copa Cavana.
Can you believe this?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Go? Wait, so after years after putting me in the
back of the room and practically getting expelled for this,
they like jumped in the car and came down in
New York to catch a show hoping to gets hope
you would God, maybe you should do a special sometime
just all your teachers, just for the.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
H You imagine to be standing up at the Coco
with an American audience is going to be saying, now
I'm going to do mister tom or so are our
history teacher? And now I'm going to do miss mcmerchant.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, now personade a Canadian school teacher. Yeah, totally bonkers. Now,
when you first started, you started in clubs, is like
in a regular stand up type venue or or were
you booked already as a show.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
The regular started in radiot?

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Well of course then.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Even better, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would imitate people on radio,
and I have people come up to be the next
day and saying God, that was great what you did
like you looked exactly like them, But it was great
because you had to use your imagination.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
I I mean, I've done obviously, you know, my parents
were in radio and I heard all these great stories.
And now, of course there are people who do recreations
a famous radio place, and I've had the pleasure of
doing radio place, as you know, with some of our friends,
and I love it. I love it because it is
a whole different thing. It's all your voice. You go
totally into character and you're not even thinking about it.

(19:21):
I mean you wind up, of course having the mannerist,
it's the person you're doing, and you probably do look
like them by the time you're done. But I love
the freedom of the audio plays, of the radio plays,
of doing different people. Gracey Allen, et cetera. I think
it's fabulous.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. And you know, we
had great sound effects. Man, people did all of doors
opening and closing and people walking, and you had to
use your imagination. That's what I loved about radio. You
formed your own pictures in your head, you know. And
remember William Conrad, he played he played and then.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Was the cop Show. Wasn't that him.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well he played Matt Dillon, you know,
on radio really and and he was a big, heavy
set guy.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, I mean he.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Was a big He pictured him looking dashing and young
and you know and everything. And here was William Conrad
on radio playing a guy he didn't resemble at all,
you know.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
And casting choices became like a whole other thing in radio.
You could you didn't have to look the part. I
just you. When did you first play Vegas, because you're
definitely it became ensconced there for years.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
I played Vegas in nineteen sixty four, sixty four Hotel
I opened with Jack Jones.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Jack Jones. I'm just having instances like flashbacks and stuff
of childhood hearing all these fabulous names you hung out with,
the rat Pack and Dean Martin and all those.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
No, no, oh, I was late for the right Pack.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Oh we missed. Okay, okay, I was late for that.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
I didn't really see the lack right back.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Which were the Vegas people who were here there? Who
were the Vegas people who were the big stars when
you were there in the early sixties that time.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Oh, let me think the first person I met when
I went to Vegas was what's his name, Maxwell Smart
don As.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Oh my god, I loved.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
On Adam Adams. He met me at the door of
the Sands Hotel and showed me around. I've ever been
to Vegas before, and I followed him around and in
half an hour he lost twenty thousand dollars at the table.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Jesus, Oh my god, I remember, I said.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
He said to me, I'm going to have to work
here at the Sands. Don Adams said, for the next
ten years for nothing to pay off my bill.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Now, wait, when you were in Vegas and you live there, now,
do you gamble at all? Do you go to the
machine and go no?

Speaker 3 (22:04):
No, right, no, no no no. If if you win,
you will play again, and if you don't win, you
will play to try and get it back.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
My my biggest gambling recently, I was stuck in a
bunch of airports and a friend I we were in Vegas,
and we went, we're in the Vegas airport and yes,
we want a couple hundred dollars on the machines. Mind you,
we didn't wind up putting money back. We probably would
have left with more money had we not been idiots
to go well, I guess it was there and it
was a miracle because like we never we never do it,

(22:39):
and it's just I remember my father tell explaining to
me the house the wins. They say, the house wins
for a reason. And if you continue gambling, I mean,
and my father said, if you want to do it
because you think it's fun and fine, but you will
walk away with the house keeping your mind.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, well, I think it's great. And a lot of
people that go to Vegas say we're going to take
five hundred dollars and we run out of that them
are going home, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
If you like a certain game, go.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Over your limit, you're going to go home really broke coming,
you know.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah, don't bet the rent. If you want to go
and begin and go, okay, I'm going to play. You
have a certain game you like or whatever, it's fine.
But I remember my father said, you see all those
lights that are on twenty four hours a day, that
enormous hotel. Think of how many people work there. How
are they paying for all that?

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Is it they are paying exactly? So it's it's it's
not something that's going to make a profit. And I've
noticed that a lot of people who work Vegas, who
live in Vegas or really work the shows, They're like, yeah,
I gambled the first time I came here for ten minutes.
It's they they're not at the tables.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, yeah, well, you know it's Vegas is a wonderful
SETI if you know, if they if they ever get
it finished, it's but it's not like it used to be.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Though, I was going to say, what if you've seen change,
because Vegas has changed so much. I mean, it's become
completely different things just in the time I've gone to Vegas.
What have you seen in the changes of Las Vegas,
the shows and everything else.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Well, when I first came to Vegas, and even before
I came to Vegas, Vegas usually were one man acts,
one person performing on stage, you know, like Tony benn
and Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, one person performing.

(24:33):
And then gradually, over the years it became a more
family place and you had big extravagances and big production shows.
And that's what there's most of today.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
The Curt de Sola, the Blue Man Group.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
I think very few single performers perform in Vegas anymore,
not like they used to you know, you could put
you'd see all the names of all the celebrities on
the signs, and now you see these production shows and
no names, and instead of Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin

(25:12):
on the Marquee, it says roast beef to ninety eight.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
You can still get that dollar ninety nine shrimp cocktail.
That's what I like about Vegas. They still have those traditions. Yeah,
it became it went from like the grown ups playground
of drinking and gambling and partying, and then they tried
to do things bring the whole family. Then they say
let's go back to it's a party place. And it's
gone through all these permutations. How have you also in comedy?

(25:38):
I mean, I said, you've just someone who has been
an institution for all of these years. How have you
seen comedy change? I mean just in my time, as
I said, I started back in the seventies at the
Comedy Store, and yes, the laugh Factory in LA and
the improv and the changes I've seen in stand up

(25:59):
of who's doing an how they're doing it is just
like complete different planets over the years. How have you
seen comedy change?

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Well, you now have you know, the laugh Factory where
you bring comics in from all over them from all
over the United States, and some of them are great.
Most of them are blue.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Though, you know, people are dirtier, yeah, I think.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Much dirtier than they used to be, you know. I
mean that's why when you see somebody roasted today, you know,
and they do roasts, but they're blue, you know. And
they Dean Martin ros are never blue.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Never they used to do when they were before they
were televised. Sometimes they'd be at the Friars Club and
they would be really they'd be blue and not televised,
they'd be blue, probably not very blue by today's standards,
but bluish. And there were always certain comics of work blue.
But there was sort of a thing like oh, the

(26:56):
Late show, the Guy going on after eleven, or the
special like Late Night after that that was going to
be the blue show. The Smokers, you play a smoker.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
And I did a lot of those four shows, and
they were blue. They were pretty dirty, but they were
funny though, you know, they were very risque and some
of the lie I did a routine once. I won't
do it, but I did a routine once. So Jimmy
Stewart a.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Swearing because like we never I mean we never did.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Something something you'd never hear, you know, right, And it
went over big because here Jimmy Stewart used four letter words.
Was quite funny.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Actually, I think that's the thing is that the stuff
that we used to be sort of blue and it
was sort of like special that it was like, has
now become just like now everybody's blue and they're blue
at seven o'clock. You know it's it's.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Well, you know, it doesn't
take you know, you don't have to be too clever
to do dirty material. You know. It's it's kind of
a shock, isn't it a shock? Laughter? You know? Right,
the effort is used a lot, I mean a lot.

(28:16):
And I can remember when I host the Tonight Show,
I couldn't use the word.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Damn, right, you couldn't say anything.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Then o oh and and it's so funny that I
remember doing a Tonight Show and they blipped me saying
the word damn. They took they blipped it out and
then they went to a commercial and on the commercial

(28:43):
they were hyping a movie that was coming out called
The The Damn Damns with damn in it?

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Damn right, really well, I admitted myself. I mean, obviously
I swear in my act, but I used to have
an act where I did where I not blew at all,
could be clean. And then I played New York and
they're like, oh, could we could do? Do we have
a dirty act? And like yeah, I got a blue

(29:15):
extra And so then I had did that, and then
I had stuff that I do where like I talk
about swearing, I go like about certain words which I
will not say on this show, but how did this
word become okay? And sort of like almost like unbelievable
the things I've been called in print? Going? How did
I get called this in print? And it was a
compliment and that kind of stuff. But it's interesting because

(29:40):
I at this point, I think I have three different acts.
I got a daytime one, I got a late night one.
I got an which what time is it? And who's there?
Because we can go anyway you want. I now have
a tailor made like three different shows, which when you
want the G you want the PG, you want the
you want the NC seventeen, which would you like.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
I do a lot of jokes in my act that
are not it's not dirty, but maybe in your mind
it is. You haven't said it excellent like I would
do a Carson a Karnak, you know, two big hits,
two big myths, and a country western star name. And

(30:25):
then it was let me think, two big hits, two
big myths in a country westerns that was that was
the punchline, a home run on a triple a first place,
basement glove and a catcher's glove. And then the punchline
was two big hits, too big myths and a country
Western star. Right, well, you haven't said anything, Blue, but

(30:48):
you have in your mind.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Right, so the and of course, well at the laugh
Factory and at seven o'clock on a Sunday, so it'll
be more, you know, double entendre than Blue at that show.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's Vegas. You can be
a little uh a little riskue uh than you can
if you're performing in a concert somewhere, you've got to
be you've got to be a little a little cleaner,
you know.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
So let's see who are you doing? Who are you
doing in Coveno? Which which ones are you doing there?

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Well, I'm going to do a lot of the ones
that I'm known for like Johnny Carson and Dean Martin
and Paul Lynde and uh, you know, and I'll do
I'll do a lot of presidents. I'll do Reagan of course,
and and Bush and uh Ford, my god, and Joe

(31:44):
Biden and and I have Kamala Harris throughout the show
just laughing.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Just like she's like, she's the laugh track basically this
he's the laugh track. Yeah, she's the laugh track. Okay,
I can.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
Get if I tell the joke and I show that's
ready corny and doesn't really work.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
I have her laughing, Jeff, you have her laugh for
you because okay, that works? And who do you have drawings?
You have you've drawing to John Wayne speaking, didn't you?

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I have drawings of everybody. I'm personally
everybody and some of them, as I said earlier, talk
you know.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
When did you start drawing? When did that happen?

Speaker 3 (32:27):
That happened before I did impressions. I started drawing. I
was about twelve. I would sit on my streetcar in
Canada and draw people in the streetcar, and then when
I would go to get off the street car, I
would give them the drawing that I did of them

(32:48):
and some people some people ripped it out and upped
it in front of me, but most people were flattered.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
You know, you were like a people doing portraits in
the street.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah. Yeah, well you know, I I just I used
to used to take me to do a portrait of somebody,
used to take me about a day. But now I
can do it in about an hour.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah. And in the early days when I was sketching
on the street car, I would do it in a
couple of minutes. But it was kind of a caricature,
you know. But sometimes people would look at it and
rip it up.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Well, I've seen your drawings. You're not that bad.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah. Well you know. Here, I'll show you some of them. Okay,
all right, I follow American.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Hold them up a little higher, all them, I ever did,
hold them up a little higher.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Who Humphrey Boguard? Buy it again? Sam? Now see here? Starlett?
Yeah yeah, get Jack Yad, Jack Lemon, Dennis Sweever you know.
I mean he was on McCleod And this is the

(34:12):
guy who got me into show business. May you remember
Melturmay I.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Do I do the Christmas song and all that? So wait,
mil tour May got you into show business.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Melt Tarmay got me on the Judy Garland Show.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Oh that's right, that was the big best. Judy Garlin
did not want you on that show. I remember that
Judy Garland wasn't going to have y'all.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Well, the thing was, uh Melan I did a television
show in Canada way back in the sixties, early sixties,
and we became great friends. And he was a great
movie buff. He loved movies and he loved my impressions.
I mean, he just flipped over my impressions, especially the
ones that nobody else did, you know, like I would

(34:59):
do Dana and Andrews, and I do Raymond Burr, and
you know, a lot of voices nobody else did. And
he said to me, I'm going to work on the
Judy Garland Show soon. I'm going to do special musical
material for her on her upcoming television show on NBC.

(35:19):
And he said, Rich, I'm going to get you on
the show. And I said you are He said, oh
my god, I'm going to get you for sure on
the show because you do so many great voices. And
I said, well, you know, that'd be great. And he
took a tape that he did with me doing a
lot of impressions, and he took it over to Judy's

(35:40):
house to play the tape for to try and get
me on the show. And Judy said to him when
he got there, I don't want to hear it. I
don't like impersonators. She said, they make me fart. That's
what she said. That's what she said.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Okay, he hated impersonators that much, so much.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
So Mel said, well, just listen to a couple of voices.
She said, Mel, I don't like impersonators. They made me fared.
I said, well, yeah, well I'll take some pepto besmo. Anyway,
he did play me doing James Mason. That's the impression

(36:24):
that she flipped over.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
My impression of James James Mason from A Star is Born.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
And that was the one impression that got me on
the show. My impression of James Mason.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Judy Garland a door James Mason.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
They made a movie together. Yeah, they made that Star
is Born. And you know that. After I did the show,
I saw James Mason at some charity event and I
went up to him and I said, mister Mason, I
want to thank you for getting you on the Judy
Garland Show. Stupid, you know. He looked at me and

(37:01):
he said, what are you talking about? I said, well,
I did an impression of you for Judy Garland and
she loved it so much she booked me on the
Judy Garland Show. So I have you to thank for
getting me on the Judy Garland Show. And he looked
at me and he said, how much did they pray
you for doing it? I said, the show? I got

(37:23):
a six hundred dollars. Oh, Gordon, since you did me
send me three hundreds? No, which I never did.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
You never did? He demanded a cut. I don't want.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
A cut, but I thought that myself later, why I should?
Where would I send it? I don't even know where
to send the three hundred dollars and probably's forgotten about
it anyway.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
He said, I don't think. I don't think, Yeah, do
you get a cut if someone does an impression of you?
I don't think that's a thing.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
I never sent the money to James Mason. Sure he
forgot about it.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
He probably, I'm sure he didn't get over.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yeah. Anyway, that's a true Wow.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Wow, I mean, that's it's it's these it's these old
Hollywood stories, all of these kind of people. It's amazing.
Did you ever have anyone that you did an impression
of who really who didn't like it? Who said, I
don't like your impression of it?

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Doesn't sound like Paul n hated my impressions brillant.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Now, Paul in all people who had an absolute rageous
sense of humor, mister Hollywood Squares, who was just a
screen You would.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Think, I think that the problem with Paul was he
was gay. I don't think we're giving away anything by.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Saying I think we don't know. Yeah, yeah, I know that.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
So when I did Paul and I probably emphasize the
gay side of them. So he probably just didn't like it.
You know.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
You used to say in those days it was difficult
to be very used.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
To actually on Hollywood Squares say rich your brother does
me better than you do, which was interesting because my
brother doesn't even do him. But Paul hated my impression.
Every time I did him on Hollywood Squares, they would
cut to a shot of him while I'm getting it,
and he'd say, who was that? Oh, God, get a

(39:17):
day job, that's disgusting. You know, he hated it. Absolutely
hated it.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Well, I can see, okay, back in the day when
it was difficult for people to come out and he couldn't.
It wasn't like announcing then that he was gay and
it was doing He was probably like uber sensitive about it.
It's like, okay, but I mean, I mean he sounded
when Paul ND spoke the reason he was hilarious, he
sounded like he was doing an impression of himself.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
I mean, that's that's true.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
He was doing a bit.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, he was. He was a very funny man. And
he he really put Hollywood Squares on the map. I
mean he really did because of Paul really and you know,
the the way he delivered the line. Uh. But he
never liked the show and he never and he would
drink too much. You know. We we'd do three shows

(40:10):
Hollywood Squares, then we'd have a dinner break right for
about an hour, and then we do two.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
When I've done games, was like, bang, bang, we're gonna
do three shows. We're going to eat and then you're
gonna do two more shows. And the women we all
to change her clothes and fix her hair and the yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Well when we had the dinner break, he would just
drink so uh. Then we'd start to do the last
two shows and he was bombed, totally bombed, so they'd
have to strap him into the chair all out.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
You know, he was like the upper level, what do
you do? There's stairs and you.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Know, even though he was totally bombed out of his mind,
he still was funny.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
He still was still yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
So sober. He he still made it work. Isn't that amazing?
But he was not really good. I shouldn't say bad
things about the dead, but it wasn't that he was
a bad person. He was just hard to get to know.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I think, I think, I think, I think was very troubled.
I mean, hence drinking in the middle of Hollywood squares,
for having sax so that anyone else every other he.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Wanted to be you wanted to be a leading man.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Really really did you ever have anything?

Speaker 3 (41:30):
He was always the second banana. You know, he's like
Tim Conway, and he was a great second banana.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
One was a huge star. I mean, everybody loved him.
I mean he wasand he wasn't That's true. He was
always he was the comic relief. He was the best friend,
he was the neighbor. He was the funny guy.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
You couldn't see paul In in some dramatic role, could you.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Well, no, nobody would cast for that now.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Playing Red Butler. You know. Frankly, my dear, I don't
give it that.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
I would have paid a lot of money to see that.
Who didn't like your impressions or said you didn't sound
Did anyone else say you didn't sound like them? Tony Randall,
who would be hard to do because he's like good American,
regular dude voice rich.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
I saw you imitate me last evening on the Tonight Show.
Absolutely missed it. It was disgusting. He just didn't like
it at all.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
I mean, Randall didn't like to do great Tony Randall.
Oh my god. I guess it must be weird for next.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
The reason that I didn't think it was I have
perfect pitch.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
That's what he said to me. Really imitate me, Tony
Randall said, because I have perfect pitch. What does that mean?

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Were you singing as Tony Randall?

Speaker 3 (42:56):
I don't know, but that's what he said.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
I don't know. I mean I could see where it
would be weird. I guess it must be weird for
all of us. Do we see ourselves. Do we know
to see when someone impersonates us and say that is
that who I am? Oh? My god, is that how
I look? And some people may freak out more than others.
I mean, we did that back in improv class. Friends,
we did a thing. They paired us up and said, okay,

(43:18):
come on stage as them, and we didn't teams. You
go be her and you go be her, and of
course we thought it was great. From my friend Judy
and I did have said, so I'll be you. We
went in the bathroom and changed clothes and traded each
other's outfits and went up on stage and absolutely did
savage impersonations of each other. And we thought it was fine.
But it must be very weird for some people to

(43:39):
see themselves being portrayed on stage.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
Yeah, yeah, Well, you know, as I get older, I
don't like to look at myself on the show, you know,
because it isn't pleasant to grow older, you know, and
you keep thinking that you're still thirty years old, and
you're not. You know, I don't look too bad for
my age, but we all get older and it's just,

(44:05):
you know, you've got to accept it. But you know,
I watch myself on TV. Like this.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Now now not to can we say, can you say
how old you are? Because I'm sitting here looking at it.
You look amazing. It's because you don't stop working. You
don't stop working, you don't stop performing, you don't stop
going when they shut everything down. You did a show online.
I mean you're like bang bang bang, And I think
that's why you. Also, if I recall you exercise, and
you have a swimming pool and you swim and exercise regularly,

(44:35):
what is your workout, sir?

Speaker 3 (44:37):
I do eight laps every day in the swimming pool.
Actually I do about twelve laps because I have to
avoid the wasps and my pool. And it's an obstacle
course really because if I bump into a wasp but
he stings me, it's not pleasant. I don't know why.
But every wasp in Las Vegas love is my pool.

(45:01):
So when I get into the pool every afternoon, I
have to watch out for wasps.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
So you exercise through wasp evasion essentially.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Yeah, I have a wasp swim every day, and then
I work out on a bicycle, you know, one of
the bicycles that don't move, and I do that for
an hour.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Wow, Well that's pretty damn good. And can you state
your approximate age? Dare you?

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (45:29):
It looks a freaking fabulous.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Twelve years old and doggy.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Years perfect there works back through the math people eighty five?
Holy gee, exactly. I don't know how many people in
your age even range are doing an hour on the
stationary bike and swimming twelve laps daily and doing shows

(45:57):
at the lap factory. There's people they're a little more
than a ray. I would do that.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
I would do running, but I don't like to run
on pavements. You know. The only place to run really
is on the beach or on grass. But if you
if you run on the highway every day, if you're
pounding your back when you're.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Doing that, and I also hot, you're in Vegas and
it's also hot to run too.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
I have a bad back. I've got bone and bone
in my back.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
But you still that's with a swimming Okay.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
Forty years ago I fell off the stage.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
You fell off the stage? When did you fall off
the stage?

Speaker 3 (46:38):
I fell off the stage about forty years ago in
a theater. I can't remember what theater was, but it
was a brand new theater and it was dark backstage
and they had no lights, and I fell off the stage,
fell party feet and landed on my butt ow and
I felt okay and no problems and no blood, nothing,
and I got up and finished the show. But thirty

(47:01):
years later my back started to hurt. Thirty years later
after that.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
See that's how it always is.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
I fall.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
I fell off the stage, and I was only I
was like twenty one when I did it, so I
have like absolutely zero excuse. It was dark, it was
a blackout scene change, and you know, they had the
nice glow tape to what I followed like the wrong
piece of tape. I don't know what the hell I did,
As Carol Channing can't see in the dark. I took
a header and it was a couple of feet and
it was carpet. Tore a ligament in my hand, snuck

(47:31):
around the back, came out when the lights went up,
and literally no one knew I had fallen off the
stage and kept going and finished finished the play. And
then when the curtain came down, went out and because
what the hell are you talking about? I fell off
the stage. No, we were all here. When did you fall?

Speaker 1 (47:48):
We know?

Speaker 2 (47:48):
And when we were all here, I was that's a
magic prick.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
That's that's like the old joke that you fell off
the stage, you went back on and finished your act
and it was over. You went out the back, went
into a field and went.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Oh, essentially, this is what I did. This is completely
what I did, and I need the way very rare
visit to an emergency room and then they put a
little splint. I was fine, But now, yeah, now you
got me worried that in a couple of years, is
this thumb going to start hurting me? Is it's going
to start aching in a couple of years, because I yeah,
everything it comes back. Everything comes back and gets you

(48:25):
as you get older, and it just it's But I
think that's the swimming. I think the swimming is so good.
That's just why your workout is working. Because the swimming
is nice. It doesn't have the bang bang to wear
and tear on the on the bones and ligaments. That's
very smart.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
You're using every every part of your body when you're swimming,
you know, and it's a great therapy. I swim on
my back because to do just to do the you know,
the breaststroke as a little tough on my back. So
I swim on.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
My back, but this is probably great for you for
the BacT.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
No, I don't see the wasps when I swim on
my back, you know, so I have to be careful
when I swim. I've never been stung though, And when
I swim every day there are usually about twenty wasps
in the pool that I have to avoid every day,

(49:22):
and I've been doing it for a couple years now
and I've never been stung.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Be perfect record. You are absolutely bananas still to this day.
I just love talking to you. So what do people get?
We had show is Covena Laugh Factory Sunday, September September eighth,
Sunday September eighth, Couvena at the Fabulous Laugh Factory at
seven o'clock and they're going to get everything to getting

(49:46):
the impressions of getting the drawings, to getting the special
effects with the talking heads, and then camel laughs, and
then Arnold Schwarzenaker shows up, and then John Wayne's a
painting any talks and all of this happens in one show.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
Yeah, And I'm doing a new bit now on with
Richard Burton doing King Arthur from Camelot, and I'm gonna
call it kamelaw instead of camelot.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Richardson, I kind of like it to do this. You
could do the song, you could do the song from
Calan to the song. Yes, oh my god. Okay.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Two years ago she couldn't get arrested. Her numbers were
so bad, the worst we saw. But things look right
for the future. Or came law, came law. They said,
you wouldn't go far. But kamelaw, kamelaw.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
It's it's a gimme, what are you gonna do? Yeah, right, Camela,
it's what are you gonna do? All right? So where
do people get tickets?

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Deer Well, I don't know how the how are you
get tickets? But it's you know, I set the laugh
Factory with La Factory.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
So the Laugh Factory website, everything's online, So the laugh
Factory website, they can book a show. Those probably tickets
at the door, whole bit, all right. So for the
very young people, the very young, they should bring their parents.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Well, young people come and see my show. A lot
of them don't know who I'm doing. They laugh at
the humor. No. I had a kid one time at
the Tropicana who was laughing his head off during my
show and he was about fifteen years old. I summoned
to him at the end of the show to come over,
and I said, my god, I can't believe it. You

(51:28):
already enjoyed my show, he said, mister Little, you were hysterical.
I said, well, thank you, he said, but I was
confused though, I said, what were you confused about? He said,
I just wonder why you kept changing your voice. You know,
so a lot of people just like the humor. They

(51:49):
have no idea who John Wayne is, no idea who
Jimmy Stewart is, or you know, John Wayne or George
Burns or anybody like that, just laughing at the humor.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
I guess they may.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
They'll know Joe Biden, and they'll know doctor Phil maybe
or Clint Eastwood, but very few they'll wow.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
All right, Well, keep dodging wasps, keep performing, keep swimming,
keep hanging in there. You are an inspiration to us
all and everybody. Rich Little gonna be at the Laugh
Factory on September eight.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Good to see you again.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
But he's still doing it. It's like, I don't believe it.
Thank you, thank you for coming on my ship.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Did anybody ever imitate Michael Landon?

Speaker 2 (52:35):
You know, I don't know. Ooh, can you work them in?

Speaker 3 (52:40):
No, I don't imitate them, but if I was doing them,
I think the laugh he had a very distinctive laugh,
didn't he.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
I pitched giggle like a girl. Yeah, yeah, I think
I think you should work them in. All right, thank
you for coming and thank you now. It's been argument
the Alas Harlem Show.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
Okay, I'm from across the blan