Hey, whitey, baby, I love you.
(Conan laughs)
Whitey slim. I love the way you hugged
Edward when he came out here and I figured
I should have a hug.
Thank you. Thank you for doing that.
You've got a grip like a bear.
Yeah. Well, I'm crazy about you Conan.
(Conan laughs)
You know- Yeah.
You are really much taller than I figured you'd be.
I'm a freak, yeah.
Now, (audience laughs)
(Conan laughs)
When you people saw me on television, whenever that was,
in the 1800's, do you think that I look taller in person
or taller on the TV?
(audience answers "in person") (Conan laughs)
How many of you don't give a damn?
Why are we even bringing it up?
(audience cheers) Yeah,
it's a cruel audience. Yes.
Oh no, it's a good audience and it's a good show.
I like that basketball thing. That was cute.
And the nick- Mr. Nickname is terrific.
Oh great, well, thank you very much.
You know, I gotta tell you-
(Conan laughs)
Please. Anything. Well, I don't gotta
tell you. Yes, you do.
By the way, do I get my check tonight?
After you- (audience laughs)
After you tell me- Oh, after I tell you?
you get your check, yes.
That's the arrangement.
Being in this building and in New York
and the Rockefeller Center is just a mindblower, you see
I was here in 1950.
I got through with drama school and I came to New York
to be in the theater.
And one of the first places actors went was
Rockefeller Center.
And on the third floor there was always
a bunch of actors around reading show business,
talking to each other and, you know,
kind of comparing notes.
And there was a bank of telephones, red phones
green phones, blue phones,
and I would see these people would go up and go,
"Anything for (indistinct) today? No, okay.
Anything for (indistinct) today? No.
Another way to another phone.
And I said, "This is amazing."
There is somebody that knows if there's work for actors
and you just have to pick up a phone and they'll tell you
whether there's a job for you.
(Conan laughs)
So I watched all these people and I went,
I picked up an orange phone I said,
"Is there anything for Harvey Korman?"
And he said, "Who are you?"
(Conan and the audience laugh)
These were answering services.
You know, you had to belong to an answering service.
I was so naive. I thought maybe there was some lord
that looked over. (audience laughs)
Oh, that's so sad.
It's so sad and pathetic and it didn't get better.
I was here for 10 years. (audience laughs)
I couldn't get on Broadway, aside, over, off.
But I worked across the street at Radio City Music Hall
selling candy bars in 1950.
(audience laughs) Oh, wow.
Honest to god. The downstairs-
And I found out a way, I have never told this before
on television or any-
my kids don't even know it and they're sitting in the
green room, my two daughters,
but I was a thief at a Radio City here.
(Conan laughs) (audience applauds)
Wow. You heard it here.
I found a way of slipping half dollars
down the side of my pants.
And they would fall into my cuff.
And when my pants were full, well, so to speak,
(Conan and the audience laugh)
I would just, you know, take a break and go and pick-
isn't that awful to admit?
I'd make two or three bucks a night like that, but it was-
It worked.
That was theater for me.
That was it for 10 years.
You were also, at the time, you were living
in a cold water flat and your roommate was Tom Bosley
Well- of Happy Days fame.
Is that true? Yeah.
And I'm gonna see him tonight as a matter of fact.
No, I already saw him, didn't I?
(audience laughs)
Yes. Oh, was he good?
Yes. You already saw him. (audience applauds)
Oh yeah, was he good?
Very good.
Yeah. Thank you very much.
Good night ladies and gentlemen.
No, I'm going to see Beauty and the Beast and he's in it,
you know, and yeah, he was my roommate
and we had a wonderful time. That sounds like a sitcom.
You and he are roommates. And you like squabbles.
Well, he had a cot on one side of the room
and I had a cot on the other side of the room
and he would never move. He would sit there,
he was a Cub fan, he used to read the baseball scores
and eat bologna sandwiches all day
(Conan laughs) and never moved.
Never made the rounds. I was going out-
pay attention. (audience applauds)
I was making- thank you very much.
I was making rounds, as I said, you know, and picking
up telephones and leaving pictures
and he didn't do anything.
I said, "Tom, you'll never get anywhere.
If you don't get out and move around
and try to get people to know you."
Nothing happened to me in 10 years,
Fiorello they dropped right onto his bed,
he became a big star and the rest is history.
And the hefty bag thing came and took off.
(audience laughs)
What? No, he's done great. He's doing very well indeed.
(Conan laughs) Wow.
It's quiet in here, isn't it?
(Conan and the audience laugh)
No, it is not.
You know, I, these are your notes on me.
These are my notes. I love these notes.
Yes, it says, "Beware."
Why Harvey Korman's show flopped.
(Conan laughs)
When Dick Van Dyke replaced him he flopped.
No, those are the mean notes.
I don't, I never consult the mean notes.
These are just- Yeah, I left that show.
What mistake that was.
When you left the The Carol Burnett Show?
Yeah, I left The Carol Burnett Show,
that same year McLean Stevenson, who was a friend of mine,
he left M*A*S*H. We won an Emmy that year
for biggest schmuck.
(Conan laughs)
You know, you cannot leave when the audience sees
you in something and they accept you and they like you,
they don't want you to go anywhere else.
They don't like you doing that.
Don't make a move.
So, you know, I left and the rest is (whistles).
(Conan laughs)
But wait, what did you go do exactly?
I did three, two shows, three shows
Harvey Korman Show, this show, that show, nothing.
Nothing worked and that was it.
Oh, well- So, but thank goodness
I still can do pictures.
Yes. And you're here with me now.
Oh, that right. (Conan laughs)
You mean I could get back in the business.
Oh, don't you worry. Okay.
Hear that Andy?
(audience laughs) I sure do Harvey.
Now, I really do want to ask you something that this is,
this is, when I was, I idolized that show.
And you used to crack up all the time
at Tim Conway. Yes.
And I always used to think to myself, is, you know,
"Is Tim Conway really making him laugh like that?"
Well, here's something else I've never admitted
on television either. The man never made me laugh.
I never found him funny. (Conan and the audience laugh)
It was one of the great acting jobs of my career,
pretending because I knew the audience liked it
and they were expecting it so I-
The guy is funny. I think he's one of the most brilliant
comedic geniuses of all time and we see each other a lot
and he still makes me laugh.
We send funny faxes to each other
which I wish I could show you, but I can't.
(Conan and the audience laugh)
No is a wonderful time with Tim. I loved him.
Now I understand, Brit wanted to mention
that you were in the new Flintstones movie.
Is that right?
The Flintstones movie it's a-
it's coming out this summer in May, I think,
and I'm the Flintstones. I'm his stenographer
who's a bird, you know like this, and you don't see me
but you hear me. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.
(audience applauds)
You were also, I just want to point out
for television historians, you were the voice-
in the original Flintstones, you were the voice
of the Great Gazoo.
Great Gazoo. Anybody remember the Great Gazoo?
(audience cheers)
Sharp audience here.
Wow.
So what else? What else we should we talk about?
The Great Gazoo I only wanna talk
about the Great Gazoo at this point.
(audience laughs)
I don't know what else there is to say about it.
Come on, did they know, you know, the Great Gazoo
he could do anything. He had these incredible
powers. Well, I, as-
the only thing I can say about the Great Gazoo,
and it's a little self-serving, is that Steven Spielberg
also loved the Flintstones and also loved the Great Gazoo.
And he wanted me to do the voice for the Flintstones
because he was a fan of mine when I was a kid.
Oh, that's terrific. (audience sighs)
To be accepted by-
That's cool. (audience laughs)
Don't pay any attention to them, I don't.
Oh, no- It works perfectly.
You have a great audience.
They're very nice. They're very nice.
(audience cheers loudly)
Hey listen, we got to go.
No! Yes, we got to go.
That's it. We got to run. No.
We gotta bring out another, you'll see. But Listen,
Yeah, but I'm on TV again. I don't wanna leave.
No, you stick- Please, come back anytime.
Will you really? Okay, okay.
Seriously, it's a real treat having you here.
Thanks. I love it. All right,
(audience cheers loudly)
we'll be right back with the Crash Test Dummies.
Harvey Korman everybody.
(theme music)