Transcripts For KQEH Tavis Smiley 20140104

And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tavis his publishing career goes back five decades. Those series earned him six emmy nominations but no statue. That all changed when his guest starring role in the Big Bang Theory resulted in his first emmy win long overdue. And rightfully so. A standing ovation from the emmy audience. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I will need a little more time because this is my seventh shot at this. What took so long . They always had better people in the category than me. Tavis i think the voters tend to have some sort of bias, some sort of issue with comedians. I think of Jerry Seinfeld who, unless im wrong, never 11. Never won one. I think of bob newhart, bill cosby. A lot of comedic giants that somehow never graced that stage in that capacity. Maybe they dont see you guys is acting, maybe you are just seen as bob newhart. You have shows named after yourselves. We took the persona of the standup world and transferred it. If i can exclude myself, in the case of bill and jerry, they just made it look too easy. Tavis what do you make of the fact that there might be some sort of inherent disrespect of the craft. That it isnt as easy as it looks. I think that is part of it. I am not classically trained like bill and jerry. I never studied acting. But as a comedian, it is like inherent in what you do. You just watch equal and that is where you get your humor from. The most difficult thing, when you became successful. When i had the record album that one album of the year, you are cut off from the source of your material. Your material was everyday people and you had to work at it. I going to a city and people stop me and say, you sure look like him. I say i have been told that. Tavis how did you process all of those years . You are a giant, you are a comedic giant. How did you process all those years . Do you take that personally . I never took it personally. I was serious when i said i lost to jack lightman, tony randall, Michael J Fox twice. And they are very good people. At one point, i stopped putting my name for nominations so i can just sit at home and watch the emmys and say, i wouldve one. Won. [laughter] i would have walked away, no question about it. Tavis let me take the funny and tweak it just a little bit because your comment makes me think of something and my staff around here knows this. Some years ago, after winning a few awards for this show, i stopped submitting my name. I dont let the staff submit the show for anything. The reason is, i have a thing it might be arrogant or hubris, but i have a thing about people judging what we do. I think we do the best show that we can do and once we have done that, thats it. If they like it, they do and if they dont, we will try to do better tomorrow. But there is something about waiting for the judgment of others when you know you have done your best work. I dont need them to tell me that what i am trying to do is to get to the humanity of the person i am talking to and if you judge your success by accolades, it stifles you or forces you to do things you otherwise wouldnt do because youre trying to win the adoration of other people. I wish i had thought of that. I will use that. Tavis yours is funnier and the punchline comes a lot quicker. I was the standup, for 12 years before i went to the bob newhart show. You know you have done a good show or not and you have known if youve done am glad show. Done a bad show. People will be applauding and you know, that was not my best. Tavis who taught you the appreciation for silence . Yes. Jack benny. His famous thing now jack, in his Radio Program for years, he was very cheap. He is walking in the park and the guy jumps out of the bushes and says, your money or your life. Theres this long pause and he says, your money or your life . Jack says, im thinking. [laughter] they say it is one of the longest laughs in radio ever. Tavis what is the greatest lesson . What has been the lifelong lesson, the takeaway for you having been such a successful comedian all these years . I suspect whatever you have learned on stage, you have used in every other aspect of your life. I just found that i like to make people laugh. And then go home to a normal life. There are arguments. I think i am normal at home. My wife might disagree. But we have a great time, my wife and i. Comedians marriages, my wife and i, as i mentioned, we were married 50 years in january. I am catholic. We went to this priest and we wanted to get married. They said what do you do . I have a Television Show and my wife said that she is an extra in movies and he said, i cant marry you. Why not . Because your marriages never last. I tried to contact him on our 50th anniversary so that he could attend. But im not sure he is even a priest anymore. I know we are still married. Tavis it was a beautiful thing watching you that night. I dont want to say you were emotional, but you were fall full and you deserved to be. Your wife was in the audience and there was a story behind the Health Challenges you have been going through. About four or five years ago, she had liver cancer. And she was put on a list. She was quite low on the list. The doctor at ucla, a woman came in much larger than my wife. It was not big enough for her. They called me and said, tell jenny to get to ucla, we have a liver for her. I called her and she was getting her hair done or something. I said you had better get home, they have a liver. We werent expecting it, it was out of the blue and she was beginning to show signs of things shutting down. This was about 5 00, i took her right away. They put her right in the operating room. I was in the waiting room and the doctor called and said we are putting the good liver in. That was four years ago, and she made a remarkable recovery. It was part and parcel of her being there and the standing ovation that just got to me. Tavis as it should. Your answer to the previous question begs the obvious. What is the secret for 50 years of wedded bliss . It is funny because comedians tend to have the longest marriages. Jack benny, mary livingston, danny thomas, jenny and i, don rickles. There is something about laughter. It is laughter and the longevity of a marriage. We will be in a really heated argument and i will Say Something and then ill think to myself, i remember that line, that was a great line. I cant write it down now, but i have got to remember it. And then will both look at each other, and the fight is over. Tavis that is funny. How warped my thinking is, as you are telling your story, i was thinking of a wonderful documentary that i saw that you were part of about the life and times of Richard Pryor. And i was laughing because there were a couple of lines, wife number five and wife number seven. There are exceptions. One of the greatest ever and he could not stay married to one person. I raise that because i was moved by the profundity of what you had to say about the artistic genius of Richard Pryor and this is bob newhart talking about prior. Tell me about your respect for his craft. He is just huge. I may have mentioned, i am not sure. I received an award from the kennedy center. And pryor was the very first to receive it. Which to me, was very appropriate because what mark twain was doing at the turnof thecentury, talking about life on the frontier, talking about life in the inner city. They were doing the same thing. As a comedian, the language doesnt bother me at all. I know all the words, they were directed at me very often. But i would feel cheated, describing life in the inner city, gosh darn it is not life in the inner city. I never found it offensive. I think my bone is just a piece of genius. I gave him the comedy award and he turned to me, in a wheelchair at the time and we went to commercial and came back. I handed him the Lifetime Achievement award, and he looks up at me and says, i stole your album. I stole your album and youre into. I walked into a record store and put it in my jacket. I said, richard, i will quote you for an album. He said, give me a quote. He was just brilliant. He was above comedy. Tavis take me back to the days where comedy albums actually work. Tell me what was happening in the country that allowed you to put this stuff on vinyl and after all these years, still the bestselling comedy album in the history of records. A lot of things happened in the 50s. A lot of things were going on. And in the 60s, there was a sea change in comedy. It went from take my wife, please, or i will burn a hole in the code, or if you get the tiger out of here, i will. [laughter] it became conceptual. Johnny winters, they just paid tribute to. Tavis it was an amazing job. There was a sea change, and we were just expressing ourselves the best way we knew how about what was going on in the world. And what was wrong with the world. We didnt all get together, it just all happened at the same time. These are challenging times. I did a blink in, which is maybe one of the most revered president s. Wasnt the brightest bulb in the room. That was kind of a departure. But we were attacking sacred krause sacred cows. A lot of people have said that you laugh not to cry, and that was what we were doing. Tavis that was the case for prior. But the exact opposite of your life. There is almost a consensus that part of what makes the great comedians great is a troubled life. And you are one of the icons, and your life was not like that. Comedy comes from that sort of darkness and you did not have that. There was some hurt in my life. I would have just referred a better relationship with my father that i had. I just like making people laugh. It is my favorite thing. Tavis how did you learn to be a great storyteller . When you think of the greats, you think of this capacity to be brilliant at storytelling. I love comedy shows. When i am on the road, if there is a music concert, i will try to get there. I love those kinds of venues. And yet, you go to comedy clubs, and a guy gets up and a woman gets up and tells the joke, you see the punchline coming. Theyre good at cracking jokes but not good at telling stories. How did you perfect that . All i can think of is that i always watched the sullivan show and steve allen. I would watch the comedians and i would study them. I wonder why he used that word rather than i was a student of comedy. I would watch great storytellers like danny thomas, sam levinson. I guess by osmosis, from watching them and appreciating them, i know comedians like steve martin that if you put a gun to his four head that they could not tell you a joke. It is another art form. Tavis one that you perfected. What did you make of the fact that the way to this and he was the Big Bang Theory. A successful show, obviously. Chuck lorre, he and i talked over the years. He would call and want me to do the show and for one reason or another i didnt. This year, he said i am ready for the annual turndown. I said, i will tell you what. Do you shoot in front of an audience . I dont know how to do a one camera show where you come and do the next line. He said, yes. I said, i would like to do Big Bang Theory because i think it is the best written show. I would like it to be a recurring part, not just a one shot. He said, you got it. They sent me the script. The cast was unbelievable. I only worked with jim parsons and kaylee. They threw themselves on the sword for me. They wanted it to work. They kept throwing me hanging curveball than i kept swinging at them. Tavis you are too modest. When you looked out at that audience, what did you take from that standing ovation . It is your peers. They are saying youre pretty good. The Creative Arts award, they were about to hand me the emmy. I was about to have an enemy in my house and my wife would have to hide it because she doesnt believe in ostentatious i think we found a place in the attic where no one will find it. And then the standing ovation from your peers, that is as high a compliment as you can get in this business. It was a wonderful and gorgeous night. Tavis long overdue and well deserved. You come back any time. Bob newhart, after all these years, that is our show for tonight. Until next time, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with linda ronstadt. That is next time, we will see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Pbs. Next on kqed newsroom, a look back at 2013. 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