What would you like me to call you, Mr. Rickles?
God.
>> God? >> Yes.
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
All right, Zach, when you think of something, say it.
Waitress?
[Don Laughing]
And we've never met.
We met once.
You said, "Hello, rabbi," and you walked away.
>> Did I? >> Yeah.
Where are you from?
I'm from North Carolina.
I don't know if I ever worked in North Carolina.
Are there many places that you haven't?
I'm sure there are, but...
>> Can I taste it first? >> Sure.
It's good, yeah.
>> I have a curiosity about how you got started. >> Yeah.
Do you mind if I ask you about that?
No, I don't mind anything as long as I don't get the check.
Wait, I'm not paying for this.
Then we'll chip in.
Chip in? What is this? Dutch?
I have based my whole humor on laughing at bigotry.
I laugh at Wilt Chamberlain.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
But if you don't laugh back, it's not funny.
[Laughing]
Where was the beginning where you thought you could do this for a living?
I must have been about in my late 20s.
My mother, she pushed me to get up and kid around.
Then all of a sudden they were laughing, so I kept doing it.
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
Do you mind if I...
Do what you want. It's America.
When you started making fun of the audience,
when that turn happened, did people not like it at first?
Because they didn't know who you were, I would assume.
It was a big struggle when I first started.
Guy said, "Hey, I came in to see this guy and he called my wife a moose.
I don't need that, you know.” [Laughing]
Now if you're gonna go to pieces while we talk,
we'll have to go home early.
Sorry, I just like the word “moose" a lot.
[Applause]
Are you a Jewish guy?
>> Yes. >> Oh, do whatever you want.
[Laughing]
Where's the wife?
He's 300 pounds.
Don't you get worried when he makes his move?
[Laughing]
You just do what you're doing now.
No. [Laughing]
No.
Do you find that the career choice that you made has made you
sharp at this age?
Hello?
I can take a drink.
Where's it say in my contract I can't drink?
Oh, I'm sorry.
>> Excuse me, guys? >> Yes.
Can I get your order?
I'd like to eat an elephant.
We'll have one small elephant and I think I'll just have the ravioli.
Where are you from?
I'm from Italy.
No kidding.
Yes.
Would you like to have a seat?
No, thank you.
I'm going to put your order on.
No problem.
God bless. Take care.
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
How old are you?
What's that?
How old are you?
Forty-seven, Don.
But back in those days, how did you magnify your voice, you know,
before electricity?
>> You got off a good one. >> Did I?
And it's pissing me off.
It's interesting to have that long, long career
and it not seem out of fashion at all to me.
I know you from watching Johnny Carson
when you would guest host.
Would you rise, my friend?
What am I bid for this?
[Laughing]
You’v got to be kidding.
George Washington died and he had a kid.
You must've come out of your mother at an angle.
[Laughing]
Look at the face on this guy. Geez.
You probably hit the wall.
[Laughing]
Is he laughing or coming towards me?
But there's a way of saying things to different people.
And a lot of comics don't understand that.
Yeah, well, I know how far to go and when to pull back.
And it's a matter of judgment and...
Remember the words of George Foreman
who said after the Muhammad Ali fight, "Was I down?"
[Laughing]
Not to be too heavy on it, but I do think that comedy
is the way to talk about it, in a weird way.
Well you say you’re not political and this and that,
but I think what you were doing, especially back then,
is opening up dialogue.
Do you think that you did that?
Well, every time I perform I always try to make it like conversation,
like we're talking now,
with some humor in there, you know.
I leave it up to the audience and I'm kind of proud of that.
I laugh at people.
I laugh at blacks, whites, purples.
I laugh at all, my whole humor...
I came this far in America, why?
Because I laugh at what the heck we are.
That's what we have to laugh at.
You're a black man, right?
I took a guess.
[Laughing]
Don, you must be very familiar with my work.
Every night I go to bed and I think of your work.
[Laughing]
No, I really, I didn't know too much about you.
You sound like my dad.
[Laughing]
Have you ever seen “Corky Romano”?
[Laughing]
Go to the psychiatrist.
You got some problems.
Now you sound like my wife.
Did you ever see a picture called “Kelly's Heroes”?
No, I haven't seen “Kelly's Heroes,” no.
Is it still in theaters?
Do you get out of the house at all?
[Laughing]
Clint, I say with due respect:
Twenty-eight years ago we did “Kelly's Heroes”
and I haven't heard from you since.
[Laughing]
I say it, nobody else has said it, and I say it from my heart:
You're a lousy actor.
[Laughing]
Zach, how did you get started?
Well, Don...
No, seriously, how did you get started?
In the back of a hamburger restaurant in Times Square
was my first gig.
Putting me on or true?
Called Hamburger Harry's.
What were you doing then? Jokes?
Sometimes they were jokes.
Sometimes they were just sentences.
I went to my stylist today and...
[Laughing]
She was, like, “What are you looking for?”
And I said, "Just give me ‘the homeless.’”
[Laughing]
Then I came out here and performed at open mics a lot.
Well, that's good.
Yeah, directors would just go to these clubs, I guess.
>> I didn't know it. >> Yeah.
Todd Phillips is director for the movies "The Hangover."
Did you ever see the, ever heard...
We don't have a talking machine at home.
[Laughing]
You're a college guy, though.
I flunked college by one point.
I never graduated.
No kidding, 'cause you seem like a college guy.
You're very intelligent.
Oh, well, I did go to an agriculture school.
You're not a Jew.
>> No, sir. >> A Jew don't farm.
Why do you say that, though?
I don't know anybody that has a horse
and watches corn grow and all that.
I know guys that own that land.
Right. Yes.
Yes. Right.
You can say it.
[♫♪ Music ♪♫]
Do you think that comedy has been good for your health?
People use the word, "Are you still working? Wow!"
I think it's great for the brain, you know.
>> It's a great inspiration. >> My dad still works.
He's 81, but he still works.
His brain is very, very sharp.
Very sharp.
I mean, you think you'll get to a point where you say,
"Ok, I've done that enough."
Do I think I'll stop?
Sure, I'll stop when I fall over on the street and you pick me up.
Yeah. [Laughing]
This is my dream, to be here with you in Canada.
[Laughing]
Don, thank you for dinner.
Lunch.
Is it dinner?
Dinner. Thank you for dinner.
Oh, please. It was my pleasure.
>> I wish you the best of luck. >> Thank you.
You're a nice gentleman and good to talk to.
>> Nice to talk to you, too. >> I mean that.
[Applause]
They're applauding.
This is not a real restaurant.
You know, I used to watch comedies just so I could hear my dad laugh
because it was just, it just was,
so Don Rickles made my dad, on the Johnny Carson show,
we would watch it late at night.
You know, I traded tapes with some stand-ups of Don Rickles.
They'd give me some old stuff of his that was hard to get.
The Sklar Brothers actually gave me some Don Rickles stuff years ago.
If you're a comedian and you don't appreciate Don Rickles,
then you're probably not a comedian.
This is a really amazing experience to be ridiculed by the,
the guy that invented 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 Dogg, live and direct.
Go subscribe right now.
What you waitin' on?
What did he say?
[Laughing]