

(some cool stuff I did on the radio and on the television)

Before we get to the interviews, I have a challenge for you, just for fun. At one point, in the mid-'90s, I tried to get a book published of these interviews. In order to do so, I had to get permission from the interviewees, as well as the station. All the powers that be at the station gave me their enthusiastic blessing (thanks, Ruth!), and most of the interviewees did too. Most also had very nice things to say about their interviews. However, one interviewee said no, and another asked for a piece of the profit. Can you guess who those two were? I won't post the answer publicly, but if you email your guess to me, I'll tell you if you're right.

DOUGLAS ADAMS

Part One (55:48)

Part Two (35:52)

Douglas Adams was the brilliant author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which, in its original incarnation as a BBC radio series, was phenomenally successful for the station. At the conclusion of the umpteenth run of the series, we were able to get Adams to come down to the station for a chat. This was a golden opportunity to conduct a grad-level interview, without having to explain who he was and what he was about. We were able to ask all the picky little nerdy questions of interest only to the true fans, for whom the show was still fresh in their minds. The station's Production Director, Tom Strother, conducted this interview with me. Years later, when "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" was published, Adams came back for another visit. Since he wasn't a comedian per se, these shows aired on the station during the day, rather than as part of the "Funny Stuff" series. When, at one point, I tried to get a book of transcripts of these interviews published, Adams was particularly supportive and generous. He was a lovely and very funny man, and his sudden early death in 2001 at age 49 came as quite a blow, especially to those of us who were lucky enough to meet him. I don't have an airdate for the first one, but it had to be in the early '80s, as I clearly remember that it took place in the station's old studios on the campus of John Adams Junior High School. The original airdate for the second show was June 29, 1987.







DANNY ARNOLD (30:06)

Danny Arnold is not a household name. However, another name, “Barney Miller,” is. And there’d be no “Barney Miller” without Danny Arnold. Television is a very collaborative medium, and while there were many people who contributed to the success, both artistic and commercial, of “Barney Miller,” the show (like “Fawlty Towers” and only a handful of others) owes its flavor, its consistent excellence, and its very existence to the stubborn vision of one man: Danny Arnold. Danny Arnold wasn’t shy about speaking his mind, and there was a lot in it about the state of television in the late '80s and how it got that way. I'm not sure when this show aired, but the interview took place on 1/26/87.

I originally contacted Danny Arnold in order to try and locate copies of the six episodes of his short-lived series, “Joe Bash,” to pass along to John Cleese. However, upon speaking with him, I had a hunch that he had much to say that would interest my listeners, and I was right. Danny looked like an old boxer, stocky with very pink skin and very red hair, and was one of those men who seems incomplete without a cigar. He was one of the last of a dying breed. Danny Arnold passed away in the summer of 1995.

JOHN CLEESE

Part One (29:12)

Part Two (29:52)

Partly because I was curious, and partly just because I like getting mail, I once asked the listeners to write to me and tell me who they thought was the funniest human alive. The winner, hands down, was John Cleese. I took that as a sign that my listeners had very, very good taste, or that I had trained them well. So it was only natural that I’d want to interview Cleese, if at all possible. I spotted a listing in TV Guide to the effect that he was scheduled to appear on a show that I knew was taped here in Los Angeles, promoting his first book about psychology (Families, and How To Survive Them, written with his psychiatrist, Robin Skinner), and so called the publisher to see if I could be squeezed into his schedule. Arrangements were made, but at the last minute, he was able to get a coveted spot on a local afternoon TV show, something along the lines of “Good Afternoon, Hello, How Are You, Los Angeles.” The TV show was aired live, and so since TV always seems to take precedence over radio, my interview was canceled. Heartsick, I watched the broadcast from the station only to see one of the great figures in the history of comedy interrupted every few sentences by a live remote interview with Michael Jackson’s gardener on the late-breaking news of The Gloved One’s whereabouts. Serves you right, I thought. But my bitterness didn’t last long, and when Universal begged me to interview him to promote his film “Clockwise,” I relented. I guess I’m easy. I brought portable equipment to L’Hermitage, a lovely posh yet intimate hotel in Beverly Hills, to record the interview. John was (and is) a total joy. This was the end of his publicity tour, and it was obvious that he had answered the same six questions a hundred times. When I started in about the Footlights Club and Cambridge and “At Last the 1948 Show,” he was clearly delighted. He gave me much more time than we’d originally scheduled, and although the Universal press person seemed anxious throughout, wondering if we’d ever get around to mentioning the film it was her job to promote, he seemed as happy to discuss this stuff as I was. Making John Cleese. laugh was, and is, one of the great pleasures of my life, and doesn’t begin to repay for the many laughs he’s given me. Then again, who ever said that life was fair? Of all the interviews I ever did, this one required the least editing. The only notes that may require a bit of clarification at the outset are these. The movie Terry Jones was directing was “Personal Services,” the Harvey Korman / Betty White version of “Fawlty Towers” aired as an unsold pilot and was called “Snavely," the “Prue” he refers to is actress Prunella Scales, who played his wife in “Fawlty Towers,” and the reference to Terry Gilliam and Universal refers to the well-publicized battle he had with them over his film, “Brazil." The film with Charlie Crichton, Kevin Kline, et. al. did get made and should be well known to most of you under the name of "A Fish Called Wanda," and is discussed at length in the episode with Michael Palin. “Clockwise” did only moderate business here in the States, but is a lovely little film, well worth seeing.

JOHN CLEESE AND MICHAEL PALIN (30:22)

I think John must have been pleased by our first interview, as it led to a correspondence that continued for many years. It started with my sending him a copy of the show as broadcast, and then I managed to locate tapes of “Joe Bash” for him, which led to my being able to interview Danny Arnold, but that’s another story. Anyway, when “A Fish Called Wanda” was released, John and Michael Palin did most if not all of the publicity together, and since two was the limit to the number of voices I could reliably record using the remote equipment, they came down to the KCRW studios to record this interview. Luckily, I had the foresight to record this one in wide stereo, with each of them in one channel and me in the middle, since many of the funniest moments were spoken softly by one while the other was trying to make a point. Again it was in the middle of a grueling publicity tour, and again I think they enjoyed the ability to go into other topics, reminisce about the Python days, and just be silly on the radio. What was obvious to all in the studio when this took place, and to all who heard the broadcast is the obvious love and respect shared by these two guys. This was certainly the easiest interview I ever did, as you’ll be able to tell by how few actual questions I had to ask. Original airdate: August 5, 1988. BONUS! At the conclusion of the Cleese & Palin session, I asked John for a favor. I asked him if he would read for my audience a lovely little monologue that he'd written at Cambridge in 1962. It was later used on the original British edition of "That Was The Week That Was," but on the LP of material from that show, it's performed by Frost rather than Cleese. (To hear Frost perform it, scroll down and find the "Funny Stuff" episode about TW3.) He most graciously agreed, and to the best of my knowledge, this is the only recording of Cleese himself performing this material. Enjoy! John Cleese: REGELLA (aka Startistics) (2:26)

From time to time, I liked to ask the listeners to write to me for various reasons, mainly to reassure myself that there were listeners. One such shameless ploy was an alleged poll, to ask my audience who they thought was the funniest person alive. I believe that Mr. Cleese won the contest, but one listener, a splendid fellow by the name of David Ritchie, wrote to nominate one Billy Connolly . At the time, I hadn't a clue who or what a Billy Connolly was. He went on to explain that Billy was a Scottish comedian, highly successful in the UK, but virtually unknown in the US. He brought me some material which I found equally hilarious and unbroadcastable, but there was at least enough that we could use, so we did a show on 3/27/87 which you will find below.

Connolly seemed almost perversely unwilling to appeal to an American audience. The performance I saw the evening after this interview took place lasted at least three hours, and was utterly brilliant, though it seemed to be specifically tailored to an expatriate crowd. Billy couldn't have been nicer or more generous to me, as we talked in a motel room for about an hour. Although this moment was edited out of the program, we had a nice little chat about country music, and I will never forget the way, with his brilliant Scottish accent, he pronounced the name, "Merle Haggard." Originally aired October 8, 1989.





PETER COOK

Part One Sept 2, 1988 (38:44)

Part Two Sept 9, 1988 (34:38)

Part Three Sept 16, 1988 (36:31)

This is another one I'd wanted for a long time. Unfortunately, by the time "Bob Claster's Funny Stuff" came to be, the "Peter Cook's Funny Stuff" industry had pretty much run its course. So he had nothing much to promote, and didn't come to Los Angeles all that often. But John Cleese managed to pull some strings for me, and I was able to spend a very enjoyable evening in the company of the man Stephen Fry would describe as "The funniest man who ever drew breath." His legendary drinking problem was nowhere in evidence, as he nursed a single Champagne cocktail through the entire evening. When we were finished, I asked him to autograph a few choice items from my collection. One of my prized possessions, therefore, is the copy of the "Derek and Clive Live" album on which he scrawled, "Fuck Off, Peter Cook." When these shows originally aired, they were each about a half hour long, and the only way to make them fit was to edit the comedy selections down to highlights. For this website, I've re-edited them and replaced those shortened versions of the comedy samples with the complete pieces, which explains the odd lengths. Original airdate: September 1988.

Peter Cook died in 1995 at the age of 57.





Despite the fact that "Bob Claster's Funny Stuff" was mainly about comedy on records, I was always a champion of intelligent comedy in other media, including television. There was a magnificent example of just that which aired for two seasons, 1983 & 1984. "Buffalo Bill" starred Dabney Coleman as the host of a local daytime talkshow in Buffalo NY, the sort of charismatic monster we've all known, to whom we find ourselves inexplicably drawn despite our awareness of how terrible they are. It was rare, more so then than now, for a sitcom to have at its heart such a totally unredeemable character, but this was balanced by the rest of the cast, who were all terrifically lovable. When NBC announced the cancellation of "Buffalo Bill," I was bereft, and tried to do what I could to save it. This is a nearly impossible task, as you can count on one hand the TV shows that have been rescued from cancellation, but that didn't stop me. This show is an interview with one of the writer/producers of the show, a sterling soul by the name of Dennis Klein . He did nothing to encourage my efforts, but did offer a lot of insight into the way the teevee biz worked at that time. He went on to work on a number of wonderful things (including one of my favorite obscure sitcoms, " Bakersfield PD " and the monumental " The Larry Sanders Show " which he co-created with Garry Shandling.) I don't see any recent credits for Klein, and have lost touch with him. I can only hope that he's enjoying a well-deserved life out of the limelight. I thought he was delightful, and if anyone has any current info about him, please drop me a line

This show had been scheduled to be about Bill Cosby, and the opportunity to interview Klein came up after the program guide was published, so this show starts with one classic Cosby routine ("Noah and the Ark"), before settling down to the Dennis Klein interview. Coincidentally, Klein would go on to develop the 1996 Cosby series ("Cosby") which followed "The Cosby Show."

Broadcast June 1, 1984.

TOM LEHRER

1983 Interview (58:58)

1989 Follow-up Interview (9:49)

Tom Lehrer Bonus Goodie (4:58)

One of the wonderful things about my time at KCRW was the fact that I could Learn By Doing. However, I've always felt it's even more instructive to Learn By Doing Wrong. I'm not saying that I'm the greatest interviewer ever (though I dearly would have loved to take over the "Later" gig when Bob Costas left), but much of what I learned about interviewing came as a result of this show. The most important thing about interviewing, boys and girls, is listening. Sure, research is important, and carefully choosing questions is good too, but the best questions are always follow-ups, and they come from listening. This was, essentially, my very first interview. I was scheduled to do a "Funny Stuff" show on Lehrer, and had planned to do as I usually had done, crafting a half-hour from his records. Someone at the station suggested I try and get him on the phone. This struck me as an absurd notion. After all, who gets to talk with Tom Lehrer? But they told me he was a teacher at UC Santa Cruz, so I called UCSC and asked for Professor Lehrer's office. Thirty seconds later, he answered the phone, and a minute or two later than that, he agreed to the interview .

Here's the promo for the original broadcast. This was one of the most popular shows I ever did, and as a result of constant requests, I repeated it a number of times. Every time I hear it, though, I'm embarrassed by it. Don't get me wrong, he's gracious, brilliant, and very funny; and I think the show serves as a fine introduction to his work. But I always hear myself Learning By Doing Wrong. Thinking about the next question rather than listening to the answers.

This originally aired as a half-hour on March 4, 1983, and then was expanded to an hour for afternoon rebroadcast. Listen, by the way, for the original guitar-and-bass version of the theme music. Just about all of the Lehrer tracks in the program that were rare at the time have since surfaced in the essential boxed set on Rhino. I called Lehrer back in November of 1989 for an update, and that's here too. A wonderful full-length performance of Lehrer has surfaced on video, and is available under the name of "The Tom Lehrer Collection," by clicking on the first link below. It's wonderful! Lastly, if you listen to the update show, there's something you'll be curious to hear that you probably have never heard, and that's the mystery bonus file above.





JACKIE MASON (28:00)

Jackie Mason, in 1987, after a lifetime of working the mid-level trenches of comedy, suddenly became a huge hit. His one-man show on Broadway, "The World According to Me," which was basically just his stand-up act, became the hottest ticket in town, and ran for a solid year. The record and book spinoffs all did quite well, too. I was able to get a brief interview with Mason over the phone, from his dressing room, which you can hear here, along with a heaping helping of his material. Original airdate: October 23, 1987. EMO PHILIPS (28:08)

I had been a big fan of Emo's first album, "E=mo2" and so made arrangements to interview him. He was going to be performing in Los Angeles at the Improv, which is about a block and a half from where I lived. So the deal was, I'd pick him up at the airport, bring him back there where we'd record the interview, and then I'd drop him off at the Improv. I'll never forget the sight of Emo at the airport, waving frantically at me and shouting "Hey there, home boy!" As I mention at the end of this show, we all instantly fell in love with Emo, including my then-two-year-old son, who never warmed up to people quickly. Original airdate: Feb 26, 1988.

PHIL PROCTOR (29:25)

The Firesign Theater was... well, there was nothing remotely like them. They were a four-man comedy troupe starting in the late-'60s who used the medium of the phonograph record in ways that no one else had ever dreamed of. And they were so smart, and so funny. Phil Proctor, one of the four, was doing stuff at KCRW at this time, and graciously agreed to come in and chat. So interesting, and if you love The Firesign Theater, as you should, you'll learn some stuff about how they formed and how they worked that you probably don't know. Here's what a nice guy Phil Proctor is: at one point, I was set to play one of the longer Firesign bits in its entirety on "Funny Stuff." As a way to find out if anybody was listening, I got permission from Phil to send a xerox of the script to the piece as taken from their book of published scripts to any listeners who'd write in for it. One day, I was preparing this mailing at the station, and Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman happened to be there and see me. When I told them what I was doing, they insisted on hanging around and autographing every one. Nice surprise for those listeners! Also, if you scroll down to the "Funny Stuff" Theme Shows, you'll find the first (and sadly, only surviving) half of a great show Phil did with me about Bob & Ray. Original airdate of this one: April 13, 1990. ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE (JUNE FORAY AND BILL SCOTT) (29:21)

(significantly upgraded August 2016)



Everybody has heard someone do Bullwinkle, some better than others. “Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.” But it wasn’t until I sat across from this kindly looking older gentleman and heard The Voice of Bullwinkle come out of his mouth that I knew how far off everyone else is. The Rocky and Bullwinkle canon has since been taken out of mothballs and been reissued on DVD, and it’s been hugely and justifiably successful. Bill Scott passed away shortly after this interview aired, ending once and for all any hopes that there’d be new Rocky and Bullwinkle adventures for kids of all ages to enjoy. But he left behind a marvelous legacy of delightful cartoons, and a standard of children’s humor for all to measure up against. June Foray is a wonderful lady, and here’s a story to illustrate that. My son, Max, was about 5 and just starting to enjoy the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, and I called June and asked if she’d be willing to talk to him as Rocky. Max was so awestruck he could barely speak, but June was ever the trouper, getting Natasha and Nell to come on and say hi as well. This experience made the later lessons about the difference between cartoons and reality a bit more difficult (“Dad, I know that Bugs Bunny isn’t real, but Rocky is, because I talk to him on the phone.”) Good thing I never knew Mel Blanc. Original broadcast: April 12, 1985

I thought it was lost forever, but I have recently (May 2013) unearthed this wonderful addition to the collection: a Funny Stuff Promo starring Rocky and Bullwinkle! I should have done this sort of thing more often.

The lovely and gracious Ms. Foray, with the capable assistance of my pal, Mark Evanier, has written her autobiography, and it's highly recommended and available by clicking on the link below. Mark is nowhere near as lovely as June, but he is gracious, so you should go and read his blog as I do, every day.