Dennis Prager Show - Movie Director David Zucker In Studio With Dennis Prager
Aired: 2021-03-24
Duration: 03:58


=== Behind the Laughter (03:58) ===

[00:00:00]  David, I need to tell you, it's called For Goodness Sake, folks.
[00:00:05]  You'll love it as an adult, but I want your kids to see it.
[00:00:08]  It's a hilarious video.
[00:00:11]  Basically, my idea is on goodness.
[00:00:13]  So, there was a scene.
[00:00:16]  If people were to ask me, what was the most difficult moment of your life?
[00:00:22]  I could think of three or four things.
[00:00:25]  One of them.
[00:00:26]  Like one was smuggling out anti-Soviet documents from the Soviet Union at midnight and being taken out of the train at the Romanian border.
[00:00:37]  But up there with that was a scene in For Goodness Sake, which I was told, Dennis, it's too complex, we can only film it once, get it right the first time.
[00:00:51]  Which is, okay, I like to get things on the first take anyway.
[00:00:56]  However, behind me, Mrs. McGillicuddy, or whatever her name was, Mrs. O'Malley, falls out of a window.
[00:01:07]  It's, of course, a dummy, into a garbage bin.
[00:01:12]  I know what's happening behind me, and David Zucker is behind the camera, cracking up.
[00:01:21]  Just cracking up.
[00:01:23]  And I'm supposed to deliver my lines completely straight-faced with Mrs. O'Malley falling into a garbage bin behind me.
[00:01:34]  The whole thing just cracked me up.
[00:01:37]  It remains the funniest scene in that whole movie.
[00:01:42]  See, there we are.
[00:01:43]  Straight-faced.
[00:01:44]  Thank you.
[00:01:45]  Straight-faced Prager.
[00:01:48]  That was so difficult.
[00:01:50]  I don't remember who else was behind the camera, but I remember you just laughing yourself silly with this woman falling into a garbage can behind me.
[00:02:02]  And I kept a completely straight face.
[00:02:05]  Did you realize what achievement I had accomplished?
[00:02:09]  No, I don't care about the actors.
[00:02:11]  Yeah, and Leslie Nielsen tells the same story, that he'd try to concentrate and he'd hear David giggling at the monitor.
[00:02:21]  I know, it's not fair.
[00:02:22]  It's not fair.
[00:02:23]  No, absolutely not.
[00:02:25]  Did you have fun directing that?
[00:02:28]  I did.
[00:02:29]  It was tremendous fun.
[00:02:30]  I've had fun directing all the movies.
[00:02:33]  Right, well, you enjoy life.
[00:02:35]  I do.
[00:02:36]  I do.
[00:02:37]  And imagine I can work and the test of whether I got it right or not is if I laugh.
[00:02:44]  I mean, I have to laugh on the set as we're shooting it.
[00:02:49]  That's important to you.
[00:02:51]  That's your nature.
[00:02:53]  Look, everybody has...
[00:02:54]  But it's a gift to others because you make us happier.
[00:02:59]  Laughter is very, very important.
[00:03:03]  Now, having said that, And he's totally free to take the microphone.
[00:03:10]  Having said that, and this is serious, I ribbed the living martyr a lot on the show, but now I'm not.
[00:03:17]  So, I will even call him by his given name, Alan.
[00:03:22]  You don't laugh a lot, is that fair to say?
[00:03:25]  I can make Alan laugh, though, but go ahead.
[00:03:29]  You can make him smile, which the rest of us consider a giggle.
[00:03:34]  But it is an interesting thing.
[00:03:37]  Do you miss it, Alan?
[00:03:39]  No.
[00:03:41]  He finds the question essentially meaningless.
[00:03:46]  Ah, that's a good point.
[00:03:49]  The man knows his work.
[00:03:51]  We'll be back on the laughter issue.
[00:03:54]  How could I miss what I've never experienced?
[00:03:56]  How could he miss what he never experienced?