WIUS/WTTS David Letterman Interviews
Mike Conway & Jeff L. Nance, WIUS Radio
Mighty Mike Morris, WTTS Radio.
Little 500 Variety Show (w/ the Spinners)
April 25, 1981
David Letterman and The Spinners were booked to perform at the 1981 Little 500 Variety Show at the IU Auditorium. A few days before the concert, Letterman did a phone interview with Mighty Mike Morris on WTTS Radio. That interview starts at 24:30.
The day of the show, Letterman met with Mike Conway and Jeff L. Nance at WIUS Radio at 815 E. 8th Street for a recorded interview. That interview is first.
1:23 Q -Tell us about new contract you just signed
1:25 got a little of the contract in my throat.. real nice contract. Looks like there might be another show for DL at NBC. Specs are boring, unlike when I bore you with comedy later tonight
-contract just says it’ll be a late night program, no format specs
2:12 Q -reflections on the Letterman morning show that was cancelled in October 1980
2:20 looking back, I’m proud of the show. It wasn’t 100% every day, we had the guts at taking a shot at doing something
2:50 towards the end, NBC realized it made a mistake by cancelling it because the ratings started to turn around, but so many stations had dropped the show that they couldn’t bring up national numbers
3:45 NBC said they’re cancelling the show, but if it starts to do really well…. and it started doing well in LA/NY/Chicago…. But couldn’t bring up nat’l numbers since so many stations dropped it
4:10 Q -What are you up to now?
Just beat up a teenage girl in Indianapolis, that went pretty well
-Did a special for Home Box Office. Not sure if we get HBO in Bloomington
4:44 Q Saw you played a club in Lake Tahoe. Is that the first time for that kind of show?
4:55 It’s as nice as that kind of work gets. I just don’t like that kind of gig. Stuck at the place for two weeks. Two shows a night, riding the elevator w/ fat women. Gotta do the shows even while they’re eating dinner and not paying attention
5:20 “What you’re really doing is babysitting drunks
-not the most gratifying work in the world
5:55 Q when interviewing person, when can you be funny and when not
6:15 you want to make fun of them in a playful way…but not to be mean. It’s a fine line you try not to cross
6:30 Q when did you realize you had ability to manipulate people’s minds?
-make me sound like Kreskin here.
7:05 -TV has gotten so slick over the years, the technology is better than the content.
-Let’s not treat it as so sacred.
-We had a great audience every day and it was more fun working with them than talking with some guest about vitamins
7:44 -audience was good mix.. lots of tourists in the summer, before that, locals
-we had less than half dozen bad audiences the whole run
8:05 Q What are you up to now?
8:12 involves beating up a teenage girl
I worked at Channel 13, now the NBC affiliate.. worked there in summers when I was going to Ball State, booth announcer. Hired full time when I graduated… five years, then went over to an all-talk radio station, WNTS, think it’s religious station now.
8:55 I got fed up because I couldn’t get a job in a bigger market and I had done about all I could do in Indy. Getting boring and people were tired of me. Made a decision to leave and go to LA.
9:10 Q Did you go out to LA wanting to be a stand-up comic?
9:15 No, I never had the courage to say that. Thought I would be a writer. But I got involved in stand-up almost immediately when I got to LA.
9:30 Q Who are your influences? Who are you watching now?
9:40 Of my peers, there are two guys that are the best for small clubs I’ve ever seen. Richard Lewis-he is perfect blend of personality and material.
10:12 The other guy who makes me laugh until my sides ache is a guy named Jay Leno. He’s the best. For a club comic, he’s terrific. Unfortunately, neither of these two seem to come off as strong on TV. They seem lose the edge.
10:35 Q Influences when you were younger?
I liked Jonathon Winters, and Steve Allen. I got a kick out of Johnny Carson when he was doing “Who Do You Trust” in the afternoons. Bob Newhart was great. Low key and smart.
11:15 Bill Cosby is unbelievable. For a guy who works without jokes, he’s the best. Just tells stories and it works great. He’s one of the best in standup
11:30 Q Do you hang around w/ other comedians in LA?
11:50 Not really, I live so far away from downtown LA.. I live in Rajkovic, Iceland
I live about an hour away from downtown so I don’t hang around the comics as much as I used to
George Miller and Tom Dreesen are two comedian friends he has
12:20 Q You make a lot of references to Indiana & Ball State in your act & on your show
12:30 When you start doing the Tonight Show, and you do it more than once.. like this week I was supposed to do it 4 nights but the Writers Guild Strike stopped that
-You need as much material as you can get. You get less selective because you need more material. If I had four shows this week, with 7 min monologue, that’s 28 minutes of comedy. It took me 3 years to pull together a good 28-minute set.
-Where am I from? Indiana, what can I do w/ that? What’s my shoe size? It’s really more out of a necessity to fill time.
13:23 Q When you’re walking down the street and see something, is that where you get your material?
-That’s the easy way. Doesn’t happen that often. Only tried and true way is to sit down and write. It’s painful and takes discipline that I don’t have. Unfortunately, when you start doing television, you need more material and you’re working more so you have less time to write.
14:00 Q When you get new material, do you go into a comedy club like the Comedy Store to work it out?
That’s what those places are for. You gather as much material as you can and work it out. So that’s what I do. I go to those clubs and work out material.
Q Do you get more respect now that you’ve been on national TV?
14:25 People come into the clubs and hope they see somebody they know from TV. Could be Love Boat, etc. But then if they recognize you, then they are daring you to be funny, so it could work against you.
15:00 Q Tell us about your final show. You had told us it would be a regular final show, but the final two shows turned out to be quite the spectacle. Did you get in any trouble for that?
-What are they going to do, fire me? I’m pretty much gone by that point.
-We were being replaced with a game show that the press release said would feature humans dressed up as playing cards.. this is a new low, even for American TV.
15:50. So we worked some human playing cards into our show and we heard later that Fred Silverman called the producer and said ‘Kill the human playing cards.” They had already show a weeks worth of episodes and had to cut it out.
Q Was Wink Martindale (host of new game show) at your final show?
-No
16:30 I can remember people holding up signs that said “Kill Wink Martindale,” and I thought, haven’t we gone too far? Are we over reacting here? We want to kill a guy who makes a living as a game show host.
17:00 Q Tell us about Johnny Carson, since you are one of the most popular guest hosts.
He’s amazing for a few reasons. Usually people last 3 years and go home wealthy. Carson has been on for so many years. He’s an American institution. It would be hard to talk about American television without quickly talking about Johnny Carson.
17:40 Q How did you first get on Carson?
18:00 At places like the Comedy Store, there are scouts for Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, etc. So you don’t have to be there too longbefore a relationship is established.
The Tonight Show is what you want. After about 3 years in LA, after I did work on a Mary Tyler Moore Variety Show, when that went off the air, he got a serious offer to go on the Tonight Show.
18:41 Q What was that first time on the Tonight Show like?
It’s everything… It’s not scary because you have spent your career on these best 5-6 minutes of material. You know it so well. in grained in your body and soul. You won’t screw it up. Then you do it.
-After doing pretty well, you never experience it again. And for stand-up comics, the top thing is to get on the Tonight Show and have Johnny say you’re a funny guy.
Q Is it Johnny who decides who gets on?
19:30 Producers do his bidding. They know what he likes and doesn’t like. If he does like you, that helps you for the future.
Q What do you do to stay on his good side or avoid his bad side?
20:12 He didn’t like it much once when I put a big kiss on his forehead when he came out of the men’s room. I said “John, can I have a word with you” and kissed him. He didn’t like that.
20:20 He has very specific likes about comedy. He doesn’t like comics who use props. He comes out every night and gets people laughing with just the written word. So if you come out with a whoopee cushion or ballooning shorts, maybe it’s a crutch.
-He likes people to treat the show with respect. He wants you to dress up when you go on his show.
Q I Heard he doesn’t like English comedians…?
I had not heard that.
21:40 What are your career goals now?
I like to keep beating up teenage girls.
Hard to really think about a career. Just try to be involved in as many quality projects as you can.
22:05 Just finished a show for HBO, different than other shows. If you have a chance to do a show, you need to take advantage.
22:30 Im waiting to hear about another NBC show. And I’d like to start that one off about where we left off with the last show. We can fix all our mistakes from last time.
I’d like to say I’m going to eventually write a film, but I don’t have that kind of discipline right now.
23:00 What advice to you have for people who want to break into the business?
If you want to be an actor or an actress, I couldn’t be more discouraging. Jay Leno has a funny line.. there’s a big furor in Hollywood over Suzanne Somers asking for $150k an episode for “Three’s Company.” Jay Leno wonders where in Hollywood they could find another blonde with big breasts.
So if you want to be an actor, all you gotta do is wait in line. If they want somebody who looks like you, there must be 15,000 guys who can go out on a casting call looking like you.
24:05 It’s just silly. So I can’t be too encouraging for those who want to be actors or actresses
24:20 He does a promo for WIUS radio
Hi, this is David Letterman. Whenever I’m in Bloomington, which is frequently, I just can’t stop listening to WIUS Radio. In fact my only other favorite thing to do here is beat up teenage girls. WIUS, you’ll be glad you did.
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24:35
WTTS Radio, Bloomington. David Letterman interview with “Mighty Mike” Morris, a DJ at the station.
24:45 Weather forecast.
25:10 MM: I called this number to order a pizza. Who’s on the other end?
DL: Who is this? You called me? I want your information.
Just let me get this out there for once and for all. I don’t know any Phillipinos.
MM: We heard you spent the night in jail in Encino with 75 Phillipinos, so thanks for clearing that up.
DL: I thought I was going in there for a massage.
25:50 DL I can’t tell you how excited I am to come back home to Indiana and see all my friends in West Lafayette.
What kind of ugly color combination is black and gold?
26:40 MM: I have some good news and some bad news. You’ll be here Saturday night for the Little 500 Variety Show. The bad news first: they gave away your hotel room. The good news is you’ll be staying in the girls locker room.
DL. I think you have that reversed.
27:15 MM: I don’t want to call you a liar but I tuned in the Tonight Show last night because TV Guide said you’d be hosting. But I saw a re-run.
27:30: DL We have a writer’s strike out here. Writers Guild of America. And being that I’m a card-carrying member, I couldn’t host.
28:10 MM: anyone listening to my show know I’m honoring the writer’s strike.
28:14 DL: I got that feeling just in the brief time we’ve been talking.
And another thing. Stop calling me. I don’t have Jodie Foster’s address.
28:30 MM: I know you host the Tonight Show and it’s taped in advance.
DL: It is? Holy crap, I didn’t know that.
MM: Do you ever want to go to Sears to watch the show on a bunch of TVs?
DL: I love the smell of popcorn whenever I shop.
29:00 MM: Everyone is looking forward to your visit to the Little 500 Variety Show.
We gave away a VIP package and the winner gets to ransack your luggage after the show.
29:30 MM: What are you going to be doing? The normal David Letterman, or will you be a different person.
DL: What time is the show? If you show up, … I’ve been looking at beachfront property in Malibu. It’s going for $975k but I bought it and will give it away at the show on Saturday.
MM: Wait did the tax people sell my house?
DL: I’ll even throw in a garage full of qualudes.
I will be appearing nude on stage… first five rows will have quite a show. The Spinners are here now showering and they’ll be ready.
MM: Do you tour w/ the Spinners?
DL: I’ve never laid eyes on them. I thought Bruce Springsteen was gonna be there.
31:20 MM: Would you tell people to go rush out and buy a suitcase full of tickets?
DL: nah, just show up a few minutes before the show and you’ll get extra cheap tickets.
31:50 MM: Would you consider this more fun than human beings should be allowed to have?
32:15 WTTS Jingle