No, they say you're a very successful actor.
And I'll be honest, I never heard of you.
[Laughing]
This is a real thrill.
Thank you for sitting with me.
Well, we've never met.
No, we've never met, really.
We don't know each other.
I've just been a big fan.
I've seen you perform live.
Oh, did you?
>> Yeah. >> Thank you.
At, uh, Twentynine Palms with Cybill Shepherd.
I made the trip
because it was a great show.
I swear to God I wanted to do a good show.
Dear, fix your dress.
You're over 40, for Christ's sake.
[Laughing]
Get up, Pop, get up.
[Laughing]
Now stay the hell outta here.
I don't want you in here anymore.
Just get outta here.
Just get the hell out.
[Laughing]
I wanna do a show, for Christ's sake, and that's the whole...
Watch your hand, lady.
Watch your hand.
[Laughing]
The old broad touched me.
Forget about it!
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
Uh, a glass of water.
What are you having?
I'll have a little vodka.
All right, then I'll have a glass of tequila.
[♪♫ Music ♫♪]
So, when you come to a place like this, do you have a set dish?
Do you get the steak here?
Do you have a, do you like, uh, do you have a menu?
Do you ever say, do you say, "Give me the usual."
Um, what kind of question is this?
Is this a question?
No.
Oh, God, I'm, I'm just gonna start insulting myself to beat you to the punch.
[Applause]
Dean, I thank you for your wonderful introduction.
Uh, you would love the evening if you knew you were here.
[Laughing]
I kid about great stars such as you, Bob. Why?
'Cause you're old and washed up.
Jack Benny, a great star, God bless him.
Milton Berle, great people.
This is wonderful being here at the Home.
And I say this from my heart.
[Laughing]
No, it's a joke, it's a joke.
[Laughing]
You know, they, they say “insult.”
What got me there was exaggeration.
Over some 50, 60 years, uh, I started picking on people in fun.
I kid around about life.
But no matter what your beliefs are, we all pray for one thing.
As Lyndon Baines Johnson, our great president, only said last night,
"What's happening?"
[Laughing]
I don't think you would have had the career that you've had
and been as beloved if your innate goodness and kindness
isn't the thing that comes across the most.
That's, that's absolutely apparent.
Well, thank you, Paul.
It's your personality.
I can walk up to a guy that I don't know and say, "Huh? Get rid of this shirt."
"You're ridiculous."
No. And the guy, like you did, will smile 'cause there's a way of saying things
that are not putting a knife in you.
But as you know, Paul, as an actor, you can't please everybody.
I'm just trying to please a couple.
[Laughing]
Once.
That was a good one, Paul.
Thanks.
[Laughing]
I'm just too nervous.
More tequila.
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
Uh, a steak.
Yes.
That sounds terrific.
Yes, please.
He's a mind reader.
You got a nice smile.
You're a nice gentleman.
You got children?
Well, you don't have to thank me.
You did it.
I didn't.
[Laughing]
Let's toast to your bar mitzvah.
L’chaim!
That's the worst tequila I've ever, I've ever had.
Where was your bar mitzvah?
Spain.
Just a classic Madrid bar mitzvah?
No, I got mine at a place called Young Israel at Flatbush, in a place called Jackson Heights, Long Island.
It was a small synagogue.
Do you remember your bar mitzvah piece?
Are you alone a lot?
[Laughing]
I don't know.
>> Some people... >> I'm 90 years old.
I remember the haftarah, backwards and forwards.
So around this time, then, 13, are you thinking, "I know what I wanna do”?
"I wanna be an actor”?
Well, I went to, uh, I heard you did, too.
We went to the same school.
Yeah, American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
I used to come on like gangbusters.
When I made an entrance into a room I went, "How are ya, Tom?"
They went, "Take it easy."
You know, I went to school with people like Jason Robards, Grace Kelly.
It's now, it's the oldest established acting school.
This was the first, uh, accredited acting school in this country.
>> Was it really? >> I believe so.
And, and when I, when I applied, you, Danny DeVito, they were all,
all your pictures were in the literature.
>> Oh, really? >> Yeah.
When you first discovered this, this, uh, style or you,
it seemed that people were getting a kick out of it,
was it ever, uh, intimidating?
Did you ever feel nervous about doing it?
Well, I think every actor, including yourself, I would assume,
whenever the light went on, you're nervous because you say, "Will they like me tonight?"
But that makes the machine, as I call it, the machine go
and makes me very entertaining, I think.
To tell the truth, I, I exaggerate.
I make fun of blacks, whites, Jews, Ital — well, Jews...
[Laughing]
We're the chosen people.
We had a few bum breaks.
I must admit that.
The Red Sea trick...
[Laughing]
Should we eat a little bit here?
[♪♫ Music ♫♪]
Don't choke, just...
Having a conversation with food seemed good in theory.
They wanted a plate of stuff like everybody loves it here.
[Laughing]
Uh, I heard recently that you joined Twitter. Is that true?
I write my own tweets, yeah.
My wife thought of, she's the editor and she, she turns around and says,
"Uh, that's not that funny."
How is it when you meet kids and they recognize your voice from “Toy Story”?
Has that happened?
It happens a lot, yeah.
It's on my box.
Ages 3 and up.
I'm not supposed to be babysitting Princess Drool.
What are you lookin' at, you hockey puck?
Sometimes performers remember a certain show, a concert or a performance
that really sticks out in their mind.
Do you remember what some of your, like, your greatest ones?
The greatest thing up to this point was to do the, uh, Ronald Reagan inaugural.
Did you ever get nervous doing that, though?
>> I mean... >> I'm nervous doing this.
[Laughing]
Good evening, Mr. President.
Nice to see you, sir.
And your lovely wife, Nancy.
It's, it's a big treat for me to fly all the way from California to be here for this kind of money.
[Laughing]
But your career has been going great, too.
My God.
Uh, I've been pretty lucky, yeah.
>> I'm very fortunate that I've been able to assist... >> How old are you now?
I'm 47.
You look it.
[Laughing]
I feel it.
How long you married now?
I've been married for 14 years, but my wife and I have been together for 22 years
>> Wow. >> we've been together.
That's great.
Do people ask you what's the secret?
What's the secret of a long marriage?
Oh, well, you get that, too, I'm sure.
To me it's, uh, the relationship you have between two people, to be friends as we are
and very intimate with our conversations.
And she's for me and I'm always for her.
And yet she's very low key and I'm a loud Jew from the neighborhood, you know.
[Laughing]
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
>> Hello. >> Do, do you want to take this to go or do you just want to go?
[Laughing]
I'm, uh, I'm, I'm just gonna go.
OK, good.
Who's paying?
That's gonna be on Don.
All right, we'll see.
>> Yeah. >> Good.
All right.
Well, this has been, uh, a real honor.
Oh, please.
How are the, uh, clams?
Just delicious.
Let's hear it for Paul, gang.
[Applause]
When I was a kid I, I, you know, heard about Don because my, uh,
parents always thought he was really funny.
Uh, seeing him on TV and, uh, seeing him on “The Tonight Show,”
and, uh, you know, I think that he kind of falls in that, uh, legendary category.
I, I'm a big Don Rickles fan and a big George Carlin fan.
And I think that they are both guys who have never, ever wavered in their brilliance.
Don Rickles is just proof that you can have an amazing career and you can be,
be that funny and sustain it.
What it do?
It's your boy, big Snoop Dogg.
And I need y'all to go subscribe right now to the AARP Channel.
You know what I'm talking about?
So you can see Don Rickles and see his right-hand man,
no, his left-hand man, Snoop Dog, live and direct.
Go subscribe right now.
What you waitin' on?
What did he say?
[Laughing]