Dennis Prager Show - David Zucker and Dennis Explore the Ultimate Issues
Aired: 2021-03-24
Duration: 06:08


=== Why We Fundraised (04:37) ===

[00:00:00]  In fact, one of the reasons we had David Zucker on is because he pledged $25,000 to PragerU.
[00:00:07]  And I'm very happy to do that, Dennis, for you.
[00:00:10]  I assume it goes right into your pocket.
[00:00:13]  It does go into my pocket.
[00:00:15]  That's why I did it.
[00:00:16]  Unfortunately, the living martyr has access to my pocket, so it is that possibility.
[00:00:23]  Anyway, it is fundraising month.
[00:00:26]  I thank you.
[00:00:27]  You are the audience that made PragerU possible.
[00:00:29]  Our first fundraising was with my listeners.
[00:00:33]  We're doing good stuff.
[00:00:36]  Anyway, your kids watch it, right?
[00:00:38]  They do, yeah.
[00:00:38]  I send them the videos.
[00:00:40]  They're in college, and I send it to them.
[00:00:42]  Well, I'm very touched and happy to hear that.
[00:00:45]  So David Zucker is my guest.
[00:00:47]  It's a very different Ultimate Issues Hour, and one deeply necessary, the importance of laughter and comedy, which is part of his nature.
[00:00:55]  And, of course, the Airplane, the Naked Gun series, Basketball.
[00:00:59]  And now you've come out with an e-book, which I had the delight to look at.
[00:01:04]  And I say look at because it's more looking than reading.
[00:01:07]  That's right.
[00:01:08]  I figured you'd get through it because it has pictures and captions.
[00:01:11]  Yes, it's like the daily news.
[00:01:13]  See, he laughed.
[00:01:15]  No, he smiled.
[00:01:16]  I was right.
[00:01:18]  No, no, you were wrong, and I'm right.
[00:01:19]  He smiled.
[00:01:20]  All right.
[00:01:20]  You consider a smile from him to be...
[00:01:25]  Uncontrollable laughter.
[00:01:26]  I agree with that.
[00:01:27]  Dennis, I'm a glass half full guy.
[00:01:29]  Three quarters full.
[00:01:31]  Yes.
[00:01:31]  I love your attitude.
[00:01:33]  I really do.
[00:01:35]  And I love you.
[00:01:37]  I mean, you're a special human being.
[00:01:39]  Thank you.
[00:01:40]  And give a big hug to your brother.
[00:01:42]  I will.
[00:01:43]  Because I deeply appreciate him, his work, his role in my life.
[00:01:48]  And I wanted to say that publicly.
[00:01:50]  By the way, I had him on for a movie I think is totally hilarious, Rat Race.
[00:01:55]  Oh, yeah.
[00:01:56]  Rat Race was, I thought, it's very funny.
[00:01:59]  Okay, so you put out an e-book, and the title is Before the Invention of Smiling.
[00:02:09]  Because all these ancestor pictures, they're just so...
[00:02:12]  I guess they're like Alan, you know?
[00:02:16]  I never thought I was thinking you said one.
[00:02:18]  They're so serious.
[00:02:19]  And that happened to be one of the captions.
[00:02:21]  It was a picture in the book of my grandfather, probably at his bar mitzvah in Stila, Russia.
[00:02:28]  And his father.
[00:02:30]  And they're just so stone-faced.
[00:02:32]  Well, let me just say, on behalf of your grandfather, that...
[00:02:37]  Bar Mitzvahs in Russia under the Tsar.
[00:02:40]  We're not happy events.
[00:02:43]  Just for the record.
[00:02:45]  There's no picture, but there is a picture of the yeshiva that he went to.
[00:02:50]  I know.
[00:02:51]  I can't believe you have...
[00:02:53]  I don't have anywhere near that number of family pictures.
[00:02:56]  Well, actually, I used a picture from the Internet.
[00:02:59]  God bless the Internet.
[00:03:00]  Of the yeshiva.
[00:03:02]  There's literally a hundred kids in it.
[00:03:05]  And I say the caption says, Leo Zucker is fifth row.
[00:03:10]  So, you know, 13th from the right, you know.
[00:03:12]  Right.
[00:03:13]  No, I love the pictures were amazing.
[00:03:16]  So, you had a happy childhood?
[00:03:19]  I did, but it isn't so much about my childhood.
[00:03:22]  No, it isn't.
[00:03:23]  I used to listen to these stories that my grandmother would tell, and I'm interested, you know, I'm very devoted to family, and I love history.
[00:03:33]  So my grandmother was one of eight brothers and sisters who came from Hungary, and none of them talked about it.
[00:03:39]  My grandmother was the only one, and I was the only one of her ten grandkids who listened.
[00:03:49]  I went back for a visit to Milwaukee from L.A., and I got the whole story on tape.
[00:03:55]  And then 20 years later, I had a transcript made, and by that time, my kids were able to hear the story.
[00:04:03]  And so I did a children's book, and I wasn't satisfied with that, so I let it go for 10 years until two years ago, and then I read the transcript, and it's fascinating in my grandmother's voice.
[00:04:17]  And so that's what I used.
[00:04:19]  And I hired my storyboard artist, Gary Thomas, and then another artist, Cynthia Angulo, to do the drawings where pictures weren't available.

=== Bow Ties and Colors (01:45) ===

[00:04:29]  Normally, that would not succeed, but you made it succeed partially because of the humor, partially the photos and the drawings.
[00:04:38]  I mean, everything contributed, obviously.
[00:04:41]  You think...
[00:04:43]  Well, let me ask you, obviously, how do people access this?
[00:04:47]  Oh, well, you can get it on Amazon.
[00:04:51]  You can read Amazon e-books via the Kindle Library app on any device, Apple iPad, or on Android and Windows tablets.
[00:05:01]  Oh, it's up at DennisPrager.com, the connection?
[00:05:04]  Okay, that's perfect.
[00:05:05]  If you own a Kindle device...
[00:05:06]  Yeah, well, you don't even own it.
[00:05:08]  You just download it.
[00:05:09]  It's free.
[00:05:10]  Yeah, but a Kindle device will only show it in black and white, but it's worth it to get it in color.
[00:05:15]  Oh, how do you get it in color?
[00:05:16]  If you view it on any other device, it'll be in color.
[00:05:18]  Oh, really?
[00:05:19]  That's very interesting.
[00:05:20]  I didn't know...
[00:05:21]  Okay.
[00:05:21]  Anyway, the connection is up at DennisPrager.com.
[00:05:25]  But there's a great...
[00:05:25]  Picture that I discovered in just in the last couple of years It had been a color slide and it was taken when I was four years old and I'm standing on a chair In between my grandfather and my father and my father and I are wearing bow ties I probably had one of those clip-on bow ties, right?
[00:05:45]  This is like in 1950 Two or something.
[00:05:48]  And my grandfather is standing beside me and he had converted his necktie.
[00:05:55]  That is the largest bow tie I have ever seen outside of a circus.
[00:06:00]  Into a ridiculous looking bow tie.
[00:06:01]  And you have a hilarious comment there.
[00:06:03]  That's why it's fun.
[00:06:04]  Because it's a straight face.
[00:06:06]  We'll be back.
[00:06:06]  Final segment with David Zucker.