-Ben Stiller, I'm so happy that you're here
and that you're doing our show.
I gotta be honest, I just heard the news about your dad,
the other day, passing, Jerry Stiller,
and I go, "Well, I don't know
if we'll be seeing Ben on the show, you know?"
But you're a man of your word and you're on the show.
I know this must be tough,
but thank you so much for comin' on.
-Yeah, thanks.
It's good to he see ya, man.
I mean, I figured it would be good to do it
'cause it would be a chance to talk about my dad
a little bit and you know.
It's a weird time now, you know,
and people can't really gather together
and you can't do sort of a --.
You know, I think, somewhere down the line,
we'll do a memorial for him, when everybody can get together.
'Cause there are so many people who loved him
and, you know, and he worked with.
But I thought it'd be nice to be able to, you know,
just have a moment to celebrate him a little bit.
-Yeah, 'cause we actually got to work together
with him and your mom.
-Yeah, and that's literally one of the first things
I thought of when I knew I was gonna do the show,
was that time that we did the charades game on your show.
-[ Laughing ] -And it's one
of the most ridiculous things, ever.
-It was great. -My dad --.
It was my dad and my mom
and they were such a unit together
and they just had this amazing chemistry
and were married for 60-plus years
and worked together, you know, their whole lives.
So, to watch them, you know, just do their thing together.
And, of course, my dad, you know,
it's the way that he was always funny
was that he wasn't really trying to be funny.
I mean, he was aware, you know, that he wanted to be funny,
but he wouldn't go for a laugh.
He'd just be himself.
And for him, playing charades was such a --
And he was talking through the whole thing,
literally explained what he was doing.
-[ Laughing ] It was so funny!
And the audience, I mean --
But I think that, you know,
and seeing them together
in front of a live audience, too,
that was like, as a fan of comedy,
just going like...
It's just so awesome
to watch two professionals just turn it on,
you know, who, they've done it for years.
-Years. I mean, yeah, they started out,
you know, in the late '50s.
They got married in 1953.
And I think they started doing their act around 1960,
to try to make money,
'cause they were both starving actors.
And my dad always wanted to do comedy.
My mom never really did.
She was a serious actress.
My dad dragged her into it
and, of course, she was brilliant at it.
-[ Laughing ]
-But she always --. It always stressed her out.
You know, and they'd go on "The Ed Sullivan Show,"
which was huge, right?
And there was, you know, 30 million people watching
and he had to invite you back the next week,
so there was always that pressure.
And, every time they went on -- They did it 35 times, or 30 --
I don't know. Something like that.
-You know what's interesting is that, you know,
when your dad came on,
obviously, people knew him from, at the time,
"Seinfeld," of George Costanza's dad,
and like they know him from yelling
and it couldn't be more opposite in real life.
-No, he was very, very quiet.
and, you know, I think he suppressed a lot.
and just did his whole life.
He came up from this upbringing
where he was very, very poor.
His dad was a bus driver, Depression era New York City.
And, you know, he had all this kind of stuff inside of him,
but that's where it would come out.
-Yeah! -It would come out, you know,
in the characters.
-Have you heard any stories like
or remembered any stories or like, agh! in the past week?
-I mean, you know, a lot of people have reached out,
which has been really nice.
I mean, just to feel how much he touched people,
you know, how much enjoyment he gave people.
'Cause it really --. I mean, I know
that he would've felt good about all this, you know?
-Agh! -You know, 'cause he really,
you know, if you would ask him, he would say,
you know, "Like do you care about kind of all like,
you know, the show business aspect of things?"
And he really did, but he'd always say,
"But like I really care, you know, I really care
about my kids and my kids being happy."
And he was so happy, watching us do our thing.
That really made -- Or his grandkids do their thing.
-Yeah, he got to see his grandkids.
And, yeah, did he get to influence them at all?
Are they -- -Yeah, I mean, they loved him
and they love him, you know? He --
There's a story that's pretty funny,
that he came to Ella, my daughter's, fourth grade play.
They were doing "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," I think.
And he came to see it at the school
and, afterwards I said, "Dad, what'd you think?"
And he said, "I didn't care for it.
I didn't care for it." -[ Laughing ]
-I said, "What are you talking about?"
[ Laughter ]
-Fourth grade. -He goes, "Ella was great.
Ella had the commitment and she was shining up there,
but I didn't feel the rest of the kids were up to it."
-[ Laughing ] -[ Indistinct ]
He wasn't kidding and my mom was like,
"Jerry, what the hell are you talking about?
It's a fourth grade play." -They're kids.
-He's like, "I just didn't feel it.
I think -- No, no, no." And it's so funny
'cause he was really --
It really bothered him.
[ Laughter ]
-Would he come see you perform? -But that was how he was. What?
-Would he ever see you perform?
-Yeah, he came to everything.
You know, he was a very, very supportive dad.
I remember the first job I had was a play in New York,
"House of Blue Leaves," and it ran for a while
on Broadway and I had a small part in it,
but he would --
He would do what they call second acting it,
which is, you know, you come in with the second act
and sort of slip in and don't tell anybody.
And he would do that all the time
'cause he just wanted to watch, you know, and enjoy it.
-Also, but, I mean, the whole family,
including you, you're very New York.
Is there any New York City moments that you have
that you remember of your dad, at all,
that you can talk about? -I mean I have --
There are so many 'cause it was like,
growing up in the '70s with, you know --
New York, first of all, was a whole other world, right?
And, I mean, I had my bike stolen
when I was about 11 years old,
11 or 12 years old, in Riverside Park.
You know, a kid like -- I was with a friend
and then this kid came over and sort of said,
"Hey, can I take a ride on your bike?"
And my friend said that kid was cool
and the kid took the bike and never came back.
-Yeah. -And so my dad took me
to buy another bike, to buy a secondhand bike,
like get a Schwinn, like three-speed.
And we were at the bike store on Amsterdam Avenue
and I saw the kid who took my bike riding on my bike.
And I said, "Dad, that's the kid! That's the kid!"
And he started running after the kid
-No! -and I ran after my dad.
And he chased him down.
The kid's riding the bike and saw that, you know,
[ Laughing ] my dad was running after him
and he ran -- -How long?
-What? Like three, four blocks on Amsterdam Avenue
and then turned down 86th Street and --
I mean, a long run.
He used to run at the Y all the time,
so he had trained for it, I guess.
And the kid went into like this like lower level
of a walk-up on 86th Street and my dad said,
"Alright, wait here. I'm gonna go in."
-Get that bike. -And he went in -- Yeah.
And ten minutes go by and he comes out
and he doesn't have the bike.
I said, "What's going on?"
He goes, "We're gonna let him keep the bike.
We're gonna let him keep it. He needs it.
I'll go get you another one."
-Ah! -And he literally let the kid
keep the bike 'cause he felt bad.
-Ah!
That's a great story.
-[ Laughing ] I mean, it's just --
-That's so thoughtful, though.
That's actually -- -I wasn't happy at the time.
-[ Laughing ] -I think I --
I didn't get my bike back.
But --. -You were like friends --
Remember? There was some story that we didn't tell on the show,
I don't think, but I remember you telling me
or something that --
Did you try LSD or something, once, and you called your dad?
-Yes, and I have talked about this, but I --
-[ Laughing ] -Yes. It's kind of
a crazy story, but, when I was 16 years old,
I had a friend and, you know, we experimented and tried LSD,
which was the first and last time I took it.
It was not a fun experience for me.
And my instinct -- -Where were you?
-I was in New York.
I was on the same, Upper West Side,
like near the Museum of Natural History,
pre-"Night at the Museum."
And I got freaked out, scared, and my first instinct was,
"I'm gonna call my parents."
'Cause every kid calls his parents on LSD, right?
But I guess maybe that speaks to our relationship, too,
'cause I felt like, "Okay, that's where I wanted to go."
And they happened to be in Los Angeles,
shooting a "Love Boat" episode.
-Ogh! -So --
And my parents were not, you know,
not really into the drug world, I'd say.
-Sure.
-They were working in the '60s.
They used say like they missed the entire '60s
because they were working.
[ Laughter ]
-And so I called -That's great.
-and I said, "Dad, I took some acid."
And I think his first thought was like acid,
like, "He drank battery acid."
-[ Laughing ] -He didn't [indistinct]
I said, "No, it's LSD."
And I could just sort of hear him,
like the silence on the other end of the phone,
'cause I really think he was just that feeling of like,
"Oh, you know, I've failed as a parent."
And then, the next thing he said was like,
"It's gonna be okay," and he started to talk me down,
even though he knew nothing about drugs.
He said, "I know what you're feeling.
When I was 10 years old, I smoked
a Pall Mall cigarette and I was sick for two days."
-[ Laughing ]
-And I said, "No, it's not --
This is different."
-"A little bit different, Dad.
I'm seeing like monsters coming out of the walls."
-Yes, exactly.
-"The room is melting."
-Yeah. It was --
Actually, though -- -Smoked a Pall Mall once.
[ Laughing ] -Yeah.
-My parents, they didn't do drugs, either.
-Yeah. No, no. Very straight, my dad.
I think like his thing was, you know,
it was all about just -- it was all about the work.
It was always just putting it all into the work.
-Oh, well, he definitely entertained millions of people.
But, I mean, everyone loved him and I hope that you see
all these nice stories and keep all of them somewhere,
just so we can always think about him.
And, anytime you wanna come on the show
and tell stories about him, if you even just think of one,
I'm here for you 'cause I'd love to hear 'em.
I thought he was great. -Thank you.
-And I was so honored to meet your mom and dad.
And just to meet them,
but then to do a bit with them, too --
-That was great. I just remember them having so much fun.
and the same thing as you,
like seeing them sort of light up
and being able to kind of do their thing.
It was so natural and, you know? Yeah.
I also have to say, just, you know,
I feel really fortunate you know, like at this time,
just to say it, that there are so many people
dealing with so much, you know,
in terms of what's going on with COVID and losing people
and not being able to be together with them,
that I just, you know, my heart goes out to all those people
'cause I feel very fortunate that, you know,
I was able to be with my dad and, you know,
it's not like that for so many people right now, so.
So I wanted to -Yeah.
-put that out there, you know. My heart goes out
to those people who are losing people.