-You were an understudy for a bit?
-I was an understudy. Yes, which I highly recommend.
I was an understudy for a play called "Gemini," 1980.
Danny Aiello was in it, a few other people, Bob Picardo,
who went on to do "Star Wars,"
Reed Birney, Jonathan Hadary, and I'll keep going.
But, anyway, 1980. I was an understudy.
There were like six roles, I'm going to say --
three men, three women.
I understudied -- Four men --
I understudied the three young guys.
And I had to learn, I mean, three different support --
And they're onstage, so it's
like blue, red, yellow, I mean, the whole script is.
I had it all down. I was ready.
Picardo, I think, was so sick one night,
at 5 to 8:00, he was puking into a bucket.
They were holding the bucket.
I'm in the costume, ready to go, and he goes, "I can do it."
And he goes. And he goes.
So, it's five months of never going on.
So, 8:00 comes. They all go on once again.
So I slip out the back door, go down to the apartment,
my little one room on 23rd Street.
And I'm watching the Rangers hockey game.
One night, the phone rings. It's the stage manager.
"What are you doing?" "Well, Rangers are up 2-1."
-Yeah. -"I'll see you tomorrow."
And now I had to say "good night" to him
at 10:00 every night.
-So you had to stay all the way through.
-Yeah, I had to stay all the way through
and watch other people do it.
-You mentioned the Rangers.
I know you to be a sports fan, and I'm always curious
about this Broadway softball league that happens,
where different shows --
-Do you have one with the TV thing?
-Every now and then, yeah.
Every now and then, we go out and get --
Steve, is it fair to say we don't do great?
Our stage manager is doing this,
and he's pretty arrogant, so that's bad, yeah,
if he's willing to do this.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-He's part of the problem. -Yeah.
-See, he was probably a good high-school athlete.
-Yeah. -Still thinks he is.
-I think he -- [ Laughs ]
-Which is the problem, because once you get into your 30s
and you're out there playing that ridiculous, stupid game
called slow-pitch softball, which is...
and these guys doing that, you are --
It's just a matter of whether you tear an ACL in your knee,
whether you pop an Achilles,
or whether you rupture a hamstring.
It's all going to happen, because you're going
to be going around pretending you're 18 and you're not.
You're 32 and now you're face-down.
-I played in a charity softball game,
and the third time I came up, the charity coach --
not a regular coach, just one of the other people of the charity.
He goes, "Hey, you want to bunt this time?"
I was like, "Buddy, was it that bad my first two times up?
I mean, I can't, like, somebody doing the big swing,
and then I just lay down a bunt."
I'm like, "I'd rather just go home."
-Get your first base.
-We were talking -- I always like asking people
who do Broadway shows.
You know, do people -- 'Cause Keri Russell was just here
and said, you know, they played a song during her production
of "Burn This," and somebody just audibly said,
"I don't like this song" in the audience.
Have you gotten vocal feedback like that from people
who sort of have -- There's a sense of entitlement,
I think, at Broadway shows.
-Yeah. I mean, we get a lot of "oohs" and "ahhs."
I mean, there's a lot of power and moving things.
And we had a guy the other night.
I don't know why. He was dead asleep.
-Oh, yeah. -Dead asleep.
He was in his 90s, so God bless him for even showing up.
-Yeah. I mean, to get out of the house, that's already --
-And he was out of the house. -That's a triumph.
-It literally was this...
[ Cheers and applause ]
I had a guy -- In the '80s, I was doing off-Broadway,
and I had a guy sleeping in the front row.
And I had some anger issues.
So, I get over there and I can see it.
I'm going, "I can't even believe it."
She says, "I love you."
And I go... [ Sighs ]
"I love you, too!" [ Cheers and applause ]
He was like, "Boom!"
-Hey, congratulations on the show.
Congratulations on the nomination.
Always a pleasure to see you. Jeff Daniels, everybody.