This is really exciting to me,
Bob Newhart off the record.
This is an hour long comedy concert,
and it's kind of a special event,
tell us, explain to people what this is.
Well, when I made the Button-Down Mind,
the first album in 1960,
we sent the tapes to Warner Brothers Records,
and they edited them, and they were like,
"Oh there's a pause, we'll take that out,"
And, "Oh, you got about 2 seconds there,
we'll take that out."
So, when I heard it, it was like jarring to me,
but I wasn't about to complain because it was,
it was a huge hit but I thought if I ever get the chance
to do it the way I heard it in my head,
you know, as a comedian you can understand
the pauses are sometimes as important
or more important than the words themselves.
Yep.
And so, showtime approached me and this is 1995,
and they said "What would you like to do?"
And I said I'd like to re-record,
hearing it the way I had heard it.
And so we recorded it,
and this is the first time it's out digitally,
which is like a whole new world,
it isn't like the record business.
You don't go into a store and buy it and take it home.
Mhm.
Or steal it.
[Laughs]
You just call up and next thing you know
it's there in the house.
Yeah it's streaming, well this is,
It's kind of the way,
it's the way I heard it originally, yeah.
You know, I'm not the first person
to make this point obviously,
but there's such a close connection between
comedy and music rhythm,
and I think you more than any other comic I can think of,
always used the spaces the way a really good musician,
a jazz musician would use pauses and spaces
to help create the music, and I believe that that's,
something you honed in on very early in your career.
When everybody else was trying to fill the space with noise,
you would take these very long pauses, little stammers,
and it was very musical.
Yeah, I've always felt, I've felt 3 things.
I've felt mathematics, music, and comedy
somehow are all intertwined.
I'm not sure exactly how and people used to say,
and you know after this interview,
I stammer, I mean that's the way I talk
and people would say "Do you really stammer,"
and I said yeah, because there have been comedians
who have stuttered, but they didn't really stutter
they only stuttered on stage and one of them was Joe Frisco.
You ever hear of Joe Frisco? He's very funny.
I don't know, I didn't know about Joe Frisco.
He stuttered, and they told a story about Joe Frisco
that he was standing at this flop house in New York
and he ran into a buddy of his who was even in worse shape
than Joe was, and Joe said, "I'll tell you what,
you can stay with me but you gotta climb up
the fire escape," you know when the fire escapes
were on the outside of the building.
Mhm. Mhm.
'Cause if they find out that you're staying there,
they're gonna hit me with a double occupancy.
So the guy said yeah Joe sure,
so he crawls in up the outside
and he's in Joe's small apartment and the phone rings,
it's the clerk downstairs and he says,
"Mr. Frisco, we know that you have a guest,
and we're going to charge you for double occupancy."
And then Joe Frisco who really stuttered said,
"O-o-o-o-okay but send-send s-send up- send up another
another Gideon Bible.
[Laughing]
We lost sound, I have no sound.
I can't hear, I can't hear anything.
Can you hear me?
Yeah. Now I can hear you, yeah.
Oh good, oh good, oh good.
There was a great moment there,
where we're doing this obviously via zoom,
and you told this punch line and I laughed really hard
but you couldn't hear me, you couldn't hear me laughing,
and you thought that I just didn't like the joke
and that you had bombed, is that true?
That's right, which I've been through before, you know.
Yeah, I've never experienced that Bob,
so I don't know what it's like.
You know what it's like?
What?
You hear the air conditioning.
Yes! Well I'm quite familiar. There are times,
[Phone Rings]
Oh, there's a phone ringing.
Bob you're not taking this interview very seriously.
[Laughing]
You're clearly not taking, this is a big deal
to be on the Conan O'Brien show,
and you're treating me with contempt.
It could be somebody on the phone
saying that Conan laughed.
[Laughing]
No it is a laugh, I don't know why.
But you did for a moment there, we were talking on zoom,
You know, I know men don't compliment other men
on their hair but I like the way you're doing your hair.
Thank you, you've always been a big supporter
of my hair and my career.
Well someone has to.
Not so much my comedy, but you've always said
the hair is good.
Yeah.
That's, that's more important to me than the comedy.
You must be very anxious to get out there and do
stand-up again.
I'm very anxious to get out of this interview.
[Laughing]
That's it. You've done nothing but abuse me,
I think I've been good to you,
I think I've been good to Jenny,
and how am I repaid? With absolute scorn.
You gotta check this out,
the hour long comedy concert, Bob Newhart off the record,
this is very special, it's available to stream
digitally for the first time via streams
on all major digital platforms,
and whether you're an incredible fan of comedy like myself
or just someone who wants to laugh right now,
make sure you check that out.
Bob, thank you. Thank you for doing this interview.
Always a pleasure.
Please if you need me to insult you again.
You did, you did my podcast,
and it was an hour of you insulting me viciously.
I've never heard my staff laugh harder, they loved it.
It was, Conan it was low hanging fruit,
I mean you couldn't avoid it.
You're saying that I leave myself open,
maybe I do.
You do.
Well Bob, I can't wait for this pandemic to be over.
You know the last thing that happened,
my last social engagement was my wife Liza and I
were gonna have dinner with you and Jenny,
and it was the night that they shut down
all the restaurants in LA,
and I've been suspicious ever since that somehow,
you did something to get out of that engagement.
That's the excuse we used, yes.
[Laughing]
And guess what,
it was 4 months before the pandemic even hit.