-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy and Tony Award-winning,
Grammy-nominated actor you know from his work in iconic films
such as "When Harry Met Sally,"
"City Slickers" and "Analyze This."
He stars in "Mr. Saturday Night,"
which is playing at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway.
It is currently nominated for five Tony Awards,
including Best Leading Actor in a Musical
and Best Book of a Musical.
Please welcome to the show
the legendary Billy Crystal, everybody!
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
I'm wonderful. Congratulations.
This is -- Not only are you making
your musical comedy debut --
-At 74. -At 74.
-Yeah. -A little bit later than most.
-Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's been thrilling.
-And you also -- five nominees, including Lead Actor,
Best Musical, and Best Book, which is a big deal too
because obviously that is, you know, that's the comedy.
That's the the backbone of the show.
-We did this movie in 1991
with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.
And then this sort of came up,
and we kept working on it and working on it.
We wrote it together and here we are.
It's been a great hit, and we love doing it
and to do it with them --
You know, when we wrote the movie, we were 41.
-Yeah. -We're not anymore.
-No. [ Laughter ]
-So to get a nomination for the three of us
for the Best Book of a Musical is thrilling for us.
-And the other, of course, fascinating thing is
when you made this movie in 1991, you were telling
the whole life of Buddy Young Jr., who is this comedian.
And you had to age up a great deal in the film.
-Yeah, plus I directed it, so I was in six hours of makeup a day
for 54 of the 72-day shoot, you know, to be 75 years old.
Now I just show up. -Yeah.
-Which is, like, it's very thrilling.
They actually have to make me look younger sometimes.
No, it's a great -- it's a great character to play,
you know, because we love comedians.
And to do it live is amazing because he's abrasive sometimes.
He's always hilarious. He's confused.
He's his worst enemy.
And to get that from the audience instantly is thrilling.
And also to have David Paymer,
who played my brother in the film,
plays my brother Stan in the show.
He was nominated for an Oscar for the film,
for Best Supporting Actor.
So we're like a pair of old shoes together,
and I mean "old" shoes. -Yeah.
Well, it is -- I mean, it's really sweet
that it's not just the writing team -- Ganz and Mandel.
It's also David Paymer. It's also yourself.
Are there times, again, being a debutante at 74 onstage,
do you ever feel your age when you're onstage?
-No. Today I do. -Okay.
-Well, Broadway schedules are insane.
-Insane. -Insane.
-This is your one day off, we should note.
-Yeah, so from Friday to Sunday, we do four shows in 36 hours.
-Yeah. -And it's a lot.
The audiences have been phenomenal.
I can't tell you, at this point in my life and my career,
to feel so excited about doing something every night?
-Yeah. -It's a really cool thing.
-Can you clock right away what kind of audience
you have on any given night? Have you been doing the show
long enough to see the different kinds,
or have they been pretty consistent?
-They've been phenomenal.
But there are some nights, you know, ugh.
Ohh. [ Laughter ]
Ugh, ugh.
Because when it's work, it's not fun.
-Right. -When it's fun, it's great fun.
-And then I would imagine, especially not only being
in a comedy but being in a comedy that you created
the character, you worked on the script, I imagine you can let it
breathe in a way on the nights where it's really working.
The audience can probably elevate it beyond
what it even is on the page.
-Yeah, that's a good point because we have a lot of fun.
And when it cooks, it takes off.
And I can't imagine a show on Broadway being this funny
consistently like this. It's great.
-Obviously, you have a movie that you work on a great deal.
It has a movie premiere where you're sitting in the audience.
-Right. -Broadway shows have a premiere.
It's a whole different thing
because you also have to work that night.
It's not just sit and watch. -Yeah.
-Do you prefer one or the other?
-Oh, I prefer the Broadway thing.
-Yeah. -Because you got to bring it.
-Yeah. -With a movie premiere, like --
If you're an actor, you did it maybe the year before.
Maybe six months before.
If you directed it, maybe you just finished it
a couple of months before.
You know, and then you just watch it.
Then you go, "I wish I could change it, but I can't."
You have to bring at Broadway.
And there's a lot of big people in the audience,
and word goes out fast if it didn't go well.
It's like, "You know, it's not that good."
[ Laughter ]
And it hits the streets really quick.
We had a phenomenal opening night.
-This is really cool because, of course, I --
When I first became aware of you, it was on "SNL,"
so I knew you first and foremost as a live performer,
but you had grandkids who came to your show
who never had seen you perform live.
-Right. Yeah, the girls are 18 and 16, the boys are 12 and 9.
And they came in from L.A.
They knew me mostly in the beginning as Mike Wazowski.
You know, from -- [ Laughter ]
So they would call the house, I'd go "Hello?"
"Oh, is Mike there?" "Yeah. Hold on, I'll get him."
[ as Mike Wazowski ] "Oh, hi, how is everybody? Everyone okay?"
[ Applause ]
[ Normal voice ] Yeah.
-It's interesting to me because --
I'm glad to hear that because obviously, I have --
A great many of my friends have done voiceover work,
and they say their kids hate it when they do the voices
of the characters they play in movies.
Maybe it's better if it skips a generation
and it's a grandparent. -Maybe. Maybe.
Yeah, but then they hit on "Princess Bride"
because those are the things I could show them.
-Sure. -I couldn't explain to the girls
why Meg is screaming in the deli when they're young.
"Oh, no, the pastrami was spicy.
"Yes, yes! I don't like this! Yes, I don't like this!"
[ Laughter ]
-For their wedding day, you can tell them.
-Right. [ Laughter ]
Yeah, no, it's been -- So it was thrilling to have them there
with my daughters.
-You also had -- Talk about some big names in the audience.
You had Marty and Steve. -Yeah.
-It must be nice. I mean, not just --
[ Applause ]
Not just comedians you respect, but guys, you know, who are of
your generation, when they come and see that like that.
-Yeah, they were great. And Tina Fey was there,
and a lot of other amazing people who I so respect.
And to have them come to, you know, see the show was great.
-And I didn't realize Buddy was originated --
I knew him first from the film. -Right.
-But he was a character you started doing
at "SNL" back in the day. -Yeah, I actually did it before
on a special called "A Comic's Line" on HBO.
And he was only like for 30 seconds,
a little insult-comic sketch that we did.
And then I brought him here, right down the block.
-Yeah.
-He was an insult comic and we did him on the news desk.
So I was like a restaurant critic.
And I would put down these restaurants like Don Rickles
with a bad toupee and so forth.
And then one night, our great producer --
because Lorne was not there the year that I did the show --
Dick Ebersol. -Yeah.
-Who was at the show yesterday.
It was so great to see him again.
And we talked about it.
Chris Guest was the anchor on "Update."
And so Dick came to me and said, "Johnny Cash and June are
in the audience with Waylon Jennings and Christopher Reeve.
Do you want me to put them near the news desk
in case you want to leave the desk and go Rickle them?"
You know? So I said, "Great."
So I was doing my restaurant review,
and it was a bad restaurant.
It was funny stuff and funny stuff.
And I just grabbed the hand mike and went after them
in the audience, and just -- we just improvised.
It was just great. It was really funny.
-That's fantastic, and so unlike the "SNL" I knew.
And I have more questions about that improv style.
We'll be right back with more from Billy Crystal.