Episode 615 | David Zucker | Director: The Naked Gun, Airplane, Top Secret.

[00:00:07] Yeah, good. Nice to talk to you again, legend. Well, thank you. You know Bob Hope? Somebody called Bob Hope a legend and he says, I don't believe in all this legend stuff. You start believing in your own legend. Well, you don't have to believe it, but I'm going to say it. Oh, thank you very much. Just between you and me, I agree with you, but yeah. I have to say though, and I'm not going to get political, but I will say this, you know, there's been a lot of...

[00:00:36] And I've been having this conversation with my friends. There's been like a lot of conversation about late night hosts. Boy, do I miss Johnny Carson and I'm going to leave it there. And you know, those old school guys, it's just, it was like you still, you, you, you stayed awake. We had worked there next morning early, but you did so knowing you were going to be entertained. You were going to laugh. You were going to enjoy the questions. It wasn't just like every time it's an attack on this and attack the same political statement.

[00:01:03] It wasn't a political podium for Johnny Carson. I think I love that a lot. That's all I'm going to say. Well, I'll, I will say, you know, Johnny Carson played to the whole country and these guys that they have there now play very well to half the country. Yeah. And they're all, they're all on the same side. So that's fine. God bless them.

[00:01:23] The difference is though now, David, or back then, David, is that you, regardless of political party, you could turn into Johnny Carson and not, and just love it. Like you didn't, you don't have to cut your audience in half, you know? So anyways, I just, whatever. I don't know. You didn't know, you didn't know what Carson thought. And so he talked to both sides. Yeah. And to that same degree, you didn't know what Jay Leno thought either. Like, I didn't know what political party Jay Leno was a part of. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:49] You know? So, uh, David, talk to me about the small town, you growing up. I didn't ask you about that in our first interview and I kind of regretted it. Like I just, you talked to me about your, you know, the writing days early on, but you never talked about as a kid growing up. How about that part of your life, David? It's none of your business. That's fair enough. Those, those topics are off limit. Didn't my publicist tell you? Well, I thought, okay. I'll tell you though. Okay. Thank you. We, we, we know each other.

[00:02:20] By the way, I love your publicist. I love your publicist. And I got to say, I can't always say that. Oh, good. You know, she's great. They're all great. But, you know, uh, I, I, I had the advantage of growing up in a relatively small market town, Milwaukee. And we, Jerry and my brother and I were, you know, we grew up in the, the first

[00:02:45] suburb north of Milwaukee. And I don't know, there's something in the water, but a lot of funny people that we grew up with. And we just, I guess when you're from Milwaukee, uh, you, you can't think that you're really hot stuff like kids from LA and New York and even Chicago. But so we, we grew up with kind of, we learned to laugh at ourselves, self deprecatory sense of humor.

[00:03:14] And that's kind of translated to Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen making fun of themselves. Right. Right. Right. Right. And later Charlie Sheen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. David, let me ask you this. How far along are you with the naked comedy podcast? Is that up and running? Is it in process of, you know, we're in process. We, we have banked about 15 episodes and you know, we've been so busy. I haven't really had a chance to fully, you know, they're being edited.

[00:03:44] Yeah. Yeah. By an editor, but I I've got to go over them and pass on them, but we're, we keep doing them. And, uh, I'm excited about releasing it because it is unique. It's a, it's a teaching podcast. Right. And so a lot of people want to know about this. People want to know about comedy, part of master crash generally, which there's no, there's no one teaching comedy. So.

[00:04:09] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're absolutely right. And that, that hints at your book, you know, surely you cannot be serious. The true story of airplanes. So yeah, there's a lot of good stuff you have on the table in the airwaves. So that's awesome. Um, so I want to tell you, uh, David, I went to Reddit and I told people I was going to be speaking with you and these people were your fans and they have a lot of questions for you. I narrowed them down.

[00:04:29] Oh, I think, I think you're going to appreciate the depths of, of really, first of all, a lot of the, the replies were not like questions. They were just, please tell him how much his work means to me kind of stuff. Like, so that, that's awesome, David. So I'm looking forward to the questions because as you know, you know, most of our fans are not very bright forward to this. Yeah.

[00:04:52] Uh, so somebody wanted to know updates on production of the star of Malta filming soon. And there was a few comments about that. Okay. We're actually in pre-production. We are casting, we have two agencies working on this. It's my current agency and my former agency. And, you know, I, I stay friends with everybody. They love the script. Everybody's really enthusiastic.

[00:05:16] I have a lot of partners here, producers, uh, who really believe in me and believe in the script. And as you know, it's so hard to get anything going in Hollywood because everything's weighted toward, they don't want to do anything original. They don't want to employ a 78 year old. You know, it's, it's unbelievable there, but I've always had odds against me and I didn't matter.

[00:05:41] So we're now casting and we're looking for the lead and it's out to, I don't think I should mention the, the actor, but it's out to an actor who's pretty well known. And, you know, you have to wait kind of a week or two, but we're able to make offers. That means that we're not just giving out the script. We're saying, uh, it's a pay or play offer. If you like the script, you're, you're in, right. You're in for like a million dollars or something. So it's, and soon that'll add up to real money.

[00:06:10] Right. Right. And I had a few questions about, so, so I, I narrowed that down, but there was, there was many people asking about the star of Malta. So you should know that. Um, why choose zero hour as basis for airplane and not more recent movies like airport 70, 75, 77, 79. That's what, that was, that was another question.

[00:06:27] Well, the thing is, you know, we did use airport 75 and airport, but zero hour had the most important thing, which was an entire three act plot and a character and something that was just so great for parody. You didn't have to think too much.

[00:06:51] Guy goes up in the plane. He's, uh, having problems with his girlfriend, uh, food poisoning takes out the pilots. He's got to land the plane. It was just the perfect story. And that's why we used it. I think the, the other ones were a little bit more complicated. Yeah. Yeah. Um, this was, uh, there was many versions of this question. I just made it simple. What was Leslie like?

[00:07:17] Oh, he was great. You know, a lot of, uh, he, he was, he's a superb actor, but not an A-list Oscar guy, you know, like Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman. So that helps that he's a, he was a journeyman actor and did a lot of B movies and, uh, and, and T television movies.

[00:07:46] And he was, uh, he had a great sense of humor, but he, he didn't write them lines himself, you know? And so, and he wasn't, he was, he wasn't Jim Carrey or Steve Martin or Robin Williams, where the director can kind of sit back.

[00:08:06] I'll relax. Just turn the camera on Adam Sandler and they're funny. Um, but, uh, so it, it takes more work for the writers and directors from behind the camera, uh, to make, to make that work. And then on his own, Leslie was a closet clown, a prankster. He had that fart machine and you can go on YouTube with any one of his interviews.

[00:08:35] Yeah. The interviews, the press days, the promotions, he was always using it, right? He was always doing the, the fart machine. And in fact, I have, I have one of his, uh, actual fart machines here. Oh, how cool is that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is so cool. What was it like when the cameras behind the cameras, what was his rapport like with George Kennedy, OJ, any of those other guys? What was, what was all of their rapport? Like when you guys weren't shooting?

[00:09:00] Well, they're all pros and, uh, you know, George Kennedy had been around forever. You know, Priscilla Presley is a veteran had, you know, had been famous for most of her life.

[00:09:14] And also, you know, she, no one, no one required her to be a good actress, but she was on Dallas and I saw that and I thought, gee, you know, she's great. She can just, she can do it. I never, she had it so much on her own. I never had to direct her.

[00:09:32] And, you know, OJ got better with, with every, uh, with every movie. And, uh, you know, of course his, his legacy ain't so great, but, uh, he, you know, oh, well, his acting was a lot like his murdering. You know, he, he got away with it, but nobody believed him. Oh my God. Um, let me ask you this. I think that's another outside of the tremendous writing in a lot of these, um, movies, your strength is the casting.

[00:10:01] Like the guys you have and the girls you have that you turned into comedic actors or, or introduced them to comedy was unbelievable. We're gonna get to a couple of those, but let me ask you about, how about like, like with Reggie Jackson and Kareem, did you find yourself as more of a teacher than a director at times? Cause these guys are not really.

[00:10:19] They're not, they're not actors. Kareem and airplane, you know, the, the thinking behind, uh, and the motivation behind his character was that he was stuck in the movie. He couldn't, he not really an actress, not his first skill, which was true of actually OJ before that was in some movie called, uh, Capricorn one when they, they staged a moon landing.

[00:10:45] And he, and he, it was just clearly there because he was a sports star. So that's how we use them in, uh, in airplane. And in fact, Kareem, uh, read off of cue cards, which was fine with us. And, and, uh, and, uh, and, and, and also easy because that he was a pilot, you know, facing forward.

[00:11:04] Right. Right. So he could read it and, uh, you know, and Reggie, Reggie was, was very, uh, comfortable with acting and, and, uh, and, and we used him, I, I thought, you know, just perfectly in, in, in naked gun. And then we, we even, I put, uh, Kareem in basketball again. And then we also, and Shaq was great in scary movie four.

[00:11:32] Yeah. So, and, and they, they were great. I mean, I thought Shaq naturally kind of took to it. And then when we wrapped, he said, uh, I, I really want to do another movie. And so I, and, and there's a part for him in star of Malta. So I'll call him again. Oh, that would be so great. And somebody wanted to know, this is, this is their words, not mine. Can we get another airplane movie, especially in this day and age, that shit would be hilarious.

[00:12:02] Yeah. Well, it's on the surface. Yeah. Let's do another airplane movie, but I don't want to do the same thing over and over again. That's for, that's for people who, you know, are, shall I say less original. So you, you have, uh, and, uh, I've gone on record about this, you know, you have naked gun for, and, uh, I don't want to do the same thing over and over again.

[00:12:31] So Pat Troft and Mike McManus and I wrote a wonderful script, but not set at an LA cop station, but in the world of international, uh, spy thriller, espionage, like Bond, Born and, uh, Mission Impossible. Right.

[00:12:49] And, but it was still naked gun. It was going to be this, it was, it was going to be a great movie, but then Seth MacFarlane, you know, big, wealthy, uh, and successful producer comes in and wanted to do it and didn't care, refused to meet with me. So that's Hollywood, you know, that's, that's what, so, and they did naked gun for, so, and, but then that inspired me.

[00:13:15] It actually did a good thing for me. It inspired me to do master crash because I realized that it, this stuff looks easy, but it's not. And you have to learn it. And Jerry and Jim and I, over 40 years evolved, uh, 15 rules of comedy.

[00:13:33] And, uh, and, and it's just a lot of, a lot of things that, that save a lot of time that if, you know, if just being a fan of this kind of spoof genre, isn't enough. Because, uh, the people who made naked gun for our big fans, but so was the guy at my dry cleaner, but he doesn't mean he can make one. So, so that, but, and master crash has taken off. It's great. It's, it's, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

[00:14:03] There's a question somebody asked. I have a few more that kind of, um, hints at some of the stuff that's in master crash. And I'm going to get there in a moment. Um, this question is a great one. Airplane used zero hour in a humorous way. What modern dramatic movie do you think would make for a similarly good comedy? Well, what we did was, you know, it's funny. You should ask it's, uh, you know, we, we got, we got ahold of this movie in 1945,

[00:14:32] noir, uh, black and white movie called a detour. And it's got a really good plot. It, of course it doesn't have the complete plot that zero hour had, but, uh, if you watch it, it's pretty unintentionally hilarious. And the guy, the guy, uh, kills a couple of people on, you know, not intentionally. And we just added a lot to it and added on a third act. It became a wonderful love story.

[00:15:02] And, uh, and, and we have people, you know, helping me who really believe in me. We have individual investors. We have, uh, one big producer who's, uh, you know, taking half the budget. So, uh, we're it's, it's really, I'm really excited that we're actually going on it. And also we've rewritten the original script that we had for naked gun for, which, uh, Seth MacFarlane,

[00:15:27] you know, erased. And, uh, we just didn't make it about Dreven or naked guns. We can't, you know, Paramount owns that. Uh, and, and we call it counterintelligence spelled with one L and a J and, and that's, and we can still do that. That's a little bit higher budget. Yeah. Yeah. There, there, I just wish David, or I feel like your path should be a lot easier because of your, what you've done. No, I just, because there's, there's one studio in particular I'm thinking of that puts out these movies, but you'd be a perfect fit for.

[00:15:58] Oh, what is it? There's a, well, there's a studio. There's a, there's a, I don't want to say faith based, but angel studios. I feel like I've heard of them and I heard of the, the criteria that they use. And I, there's some hoops that I didn't want to jump through, you know, there I'm sure there are. And I'm sure a lot of his faith, but I just feel like it'd be such a great marriage. I don't know. I mean, anyways, I, you know, a lot more about

[00:16:23] this stuff than I do, but, um, I just, there was a lot of comments, uh, David about a top secret. Um, people wanted to know if the silliness of the farewells, the characters using the RAF, um, uh, you know, on the plan as a dartboard, are these planned or these improvised? I love these so much. It was, was what this person said. Oh, well, that's very nice. I appreciate the comment, but you know, nothing is improvised. Everything's written, Jerry and Jim and I, uh, you know, we,

[00:16:52] we write everything and fight over every word and, uh, and all these things are planned. I mean, sometimes we think of a joke on the set, uh, but it's rare, you know, on, on airplane. I remember all the jokes that we thought of on the set. Uh, you know, originally they were just shaking the woman, uh, and not slapping her. And the actress suggested, why don't you have them slap me? And then

[00:17:19] a grip suggested, how about having, uh, additional people come in with guns and knives and whips and, and baseball bats. Uh, and, and so I, I, I just, I remember those things. Occasionally we improvise a joke on, on the set. You know, I don't know who the actor is you're, you're, you're, you're reaching out to, but I just feel like Charlie Sheen would be a good marriage for your newest

[00:17:45] project. I feel like that would be. Well, uh, you know, uh, he's, we're, we're looking for, uh, uh, someone like 30 years old, you know? Oh, well that changes. I did call Charlie and offer him, uh, you know, uh, one of the cameos with the star Malta is full of cameos. There's a great cameo for him. Uh, but I think that he, he really, at least at that time,

[00:18:11] it was a year ago. I think he was more interested in playing the lead in something. Yeah. Um, yeah, same thing. Kelsey grammar. I want him for, I wanted him for, to play the bad guy. And, uh, I think he's looking for, uh, more of a substantial part, but you know, all these people, you know, I, I want to use them again. Jeremy Piven is great. And I, I, he was in,

[00:18:36] uh, he was in scary three and, uh, and I, I have so much respect for his talent and he wants to play one of the parts. So he's, he's up for playing another sleaze ball in, in, in, in star Malta. He's such a good actor, which he, he's almost criminally underrated David Piven. Yeah. But he's, he's great. He'll be, he'll be wonderful in it, but I'm just kind of waiting to cast the lead

[00:19:05] and to get the start date. Once we get the start date, we'll be able to fill it in with a lot of people. Yeah. Easy. Uh, any Val Kilmer anecdotes? Uh, you know, I, I, I, I run into Val. Okay. I ran into him occasionally, you know, in the last 30 years since top secret. And, uh, and then for a

[00:19:29] while he was even living on my street and, and we'd run into each other just, you know, he'd go walking or something and I, I, I'd always say hi. And, uh, but you know, the thing about Val was he, you know, it was his first movie top secret and he was excited to play it and everything. And

[00:19:53] then we found him to be kind of moody sometimes. And we didn't know, we never knew which Val Kilmer we'd get on any given day of shooting. And, uh, and, and later we, we figured it could have been because he's a Juilliard trained actor. Right. And in top secret, we, you know, we had a lot to learn

[00:20:20] about writing at that time because we got the script, the, the character development on airplane from Arthur Haley who wrote airport and wrote, uh, zero hour. And we didn't have that on top secret. And so he may have been a bit lost and Jim Abrams and I would talk about this in, in, you know, in the years since and said, well, you know, it wasn't entirely Val's fault, but, um, he was an

[00:20:48] interesting, interesting guy. You know, one time, you know, we shot the movie in London and we would have these occasional drinks parties and invite like Omar Sharif or, you know, or Peter Cushing would be all these stars, you know, we were, and we were just a couple of guys from Milwaukee. We, we did, we were kids in a candy store to have this experience. And we're, I was sitting with Val

[00:21:15] and I guess I w I was getting, I was in one of my funks and I said, I just said, and Val was sitting right next to me and I said, I hate everyone. And Val turns to me and he goes like, dude, you know, and then we, we really bonded. He understood that he understood. Yeah. Yeah. But I, I don't know how he was a complicated guy, but yeah, you know, we, we all, we all

[00:21:45] liked him and, and, you know, we miss him. Yeah. Speaking of Reddit, uh, another Reddit question that has to do with Val and I have to say, I want to interject that this might be one of the most impressive scenes you've ever shot. Uh, the under, the underwater fight scene in top secret. Um, they want to know, um, who had the idea, how much of it was a back and forth was their pushback and it seemed like a logistical nightmare.

[00:22:11] Well, it took a whole day of filming, but that was all, you know, the backwards scene took an entire day of rehearsal and then an entire day of filming, but the underwater scene, uh, you know, I, I, of course I don't remember who thought of it. Right. Um, you know, it's we, we should have taken notes, but you know, in fact, what, and what we kind of stress

[00:22:35] in surely you can't be serious is that one of the keys to our collaboration being so successful for so many years is that none of us, any care, uh, none of us cared at all, uh, about taking credit for individual jokes or ideas. Like I thought of this, or I thought of that. And so, and I'm trying to think, people have asked me who thought of it was probably the most famous

[00:23:02] line in airplane was, uh, I am sir serious and don't call me Shirley. And, and, you know, and we can't remember who thought of it. It's just like, yeah. And that's, and in the end you do forget. And, and it was, it was such a great collaboration. And, you know, I, I miss Jim

[00:23:22] Abrams every day and it's sad that he, he passed away, but, uh, you know, just, uh, that's life and death. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good, that's a really well, really well said. Uh, somebody want to know about basketball and how did the writing work out between you, Dre Parker, Matt Stone? How'd that work out? Well, I actually, um, uh, actually invented the game

[00:23:49] in my driveway. We really played that game. Wow. And it, the, it happened just like it happened in the movie. We invented a game just from playing horse and, uh, and then more and more guys wanted to play. And so pretty soon we had eight teams, three, three guys on a team uniforms. We, we closed

[00:24:12] off the street for the championship game. Uh, and, and we awarded a, a traveling trophy, like, you know, the, the Stanley cup. I mean, it was, and so then we decided to make a movie out of it. And at that time I had gotten to know Matt and Trey because, uh, they had just come to town and they were working on their first season of South Park and they didn't know at all if it would actually

[00:24:41] succeed. So, uh, I gave them their first job writing a promotional video for universal studios, which I had just signed on with. And, and that, that was called your studio and you, that kind of became legendary. If you ever, we, I think it's on YouTube. And so, uh, I talked to Matt and Trey about the idea and they jumped at it. They thought it was a great idea and they wanted to do it.

[00:25:09] And because they, they, they didn't know that South Park would take hold. They wanted to, you know, make sure that they had other options. And it turned out that they were so good in it. Yeah. Yeah. Basketball, uh, has, has really, uh, lasted as a, as a, as a cult classic and it's, it's my son's favorite movie. That's for sure. Yeah. Fun for sure. Let me ask you this.

[00:25:38] Uh, somebody wants to know, is there a chance of a 90 minute version of a fistful of yen? Huh? No, it's again, I don't want to go back and do anything. Yeah, I get it. You know that I've already done. So I don't want to do, we didn't, we want to do airplane too. Uh, so, and we didn't want to do another, go back and do that same, you know, LA cop station, naked gun. Uh, so whatever

[00:26:04] I'm looking forward to doing star of Malta or counterintelligence with, which is essentially naked gun, but not, not some hack version, uh, trying to replace Leslie Nielsen with Liam Neeson. So, you know, that, but that, uh, and, and also, uh, so the Amazon Germany, uh, flew me out

[00:26:25] to Berlin to have, uh, meetings about doing what they want to do, like a, uh, a German gun. Again, people want to do the same thing. And I, I said, why don't we do something original? Uh, and so we have written a movie called Oktoberfest, which it turned out to be, it's a totally original thing and takes place at the Munich Oktoberfest. And it's kind of a rom-com, but it's with, you know,

[00:26:55] the ZAZ humor. Right. And so we, and we just finished writing that script and we're waiting for Amazon to say green light or, you know, you're better off that you people do star of Malta. Right, right, right, right. Uh, let me ask you this. Um, this is my favorite question. Um, so compared to the eighties, um, comedies in modern day are a movie desert. Why is that? And thank you

[00:27:23] for making the best comedies of all time. Well, thank you for that. Uh, there is no good comedy, uh, and not just cause I'm some old guy that doesn't understand. There really isn't, there's just hacks like naked gun four and, uh, whatever then lame rom-coms, you know, they used to do,

[00:27:46] there was a, uh, a writer director called Amy Efron or no, uh, Nora Ephron who did, you know, Sleepless in Seattle and you've got mail and, uh, Billy Crystal did, um, when Harry met Sally, those were really funny that you'd go to movies and laugh and they were really good,

[00:28:10] well-constructed scripts. Now I think it's kind of a lost art. Uh, when we pitched Oktoberfest to Amazon, the head of Amazon over there said, we've never heard a pitch like that, where you start with character. So it's just like, I don't know how to do it any other way. And, uh, if you want to laugh, you can go watch South Park, which is, you know, Matt Stone and

[00:28:38] Trey Parker are true geniuses. Genius. The other thing I would recommend if you want to laugh is, uh, uh, impractical jokers and they've been doing that for 10 years and they're really funny. I mean, I, I reached out and contacted them and I told them how, how, how rare it is. I don't really

[00:29:04] laugh at anything. Uh, but I said, I impractical jokers, I can only watch like about 20 or so minutes of it because I'm choking. I'm literally choking. So those are things that mean people want to laugh. Don't go to the movies. I mean, until star Malta comes out. Correct. And you made an appearance in impractical jokers, which I was so happy to see, you know, when Murr picks up his iPad and it's you calling, it was a great, that's right.

[00:29:31] Great scene. Yeah. Yeah. It's great scene. Um, so let me ask you this. Um, there was a question about your casting choices specifically as it applied to Peter Graves, but I could throw in almost the entire cast of there's, there's many in naked gun. Um, George Kennedy, we've talked about stack. We, you mentioned, how do you, how do you continue to go? How do you do the out of box characters? We'll say in this case, Peter Graves, how do you decide he's right? You know, a very serious

[00:29:58] actor, you know, we don't write for comedians, you know, as much as Jim Carrey is brilliant and Robin Williams is brilliant and all these guys, uh, we don't, we don't write for them. Uh, and we, we started out not writing for them because we couldn't afford them. You know, what we could afford Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen at the time. And, uh, so that, that, that's what we would,

[00:30:21] we would do it. And that's kind of just what we write for. Um, and, and now star Malta again, I have to say, I'm not doing the same thing. So there's no, there's no straight old guy anymore. Uh, there's, you know, it's going to be a, it's going to be a young cast, you know, the hero is

[00:30:41] going to be 30 and the Harriet, the love interest is probably 25, probably be a singer and, uh, everybody else is going to be characters and, uh, but kind of journey journeyman actors, not, not comedians at all. Yeah. Well, that's good. That's, that's, that's, that's makes it more, much more original. Um, my last

[00:31:09] or the last Reddit question, uh, the Mariners angel set piece makes one of the greatest, uh, final acts in film history. How difficult was this? Which part gave you the biggest headaches getting approval? Anything you wanted to say about that set piece in particular? Well, we, we wanted a big public set piece, something that would get, you know, national attention and a baseball game like that

[00:31:34] would be, it was an important game, even though it was the Mariners against the angels. Uh, but so we, and, and that's all our third acts has to be, have to be some big public events. So for naked gun three, it was the Oscars and, uh, and, and, and, and, and the baseball game was, you know, a logistical

[00:32:00] challenge because we only had a hundred or so extras and that was on the biggest day. And so what we did was in pre-production, we went to Dodger stadium and with a camera lens, we mapped out every single shot and how much, you know, mainly how much background we had. There was one shot where we

[00:32:23] did do a big matte painting. And that was for when Leslie comes out to sing the national anthem, uh, that, you know, there was, you know, uh, you know, 40,000 people there, which were painted in. Yeah. Yeah. Um, there is, um, uh, a scene, the scene that in that same scene where the guy gets up

[00:32:46] and screams, Hey, it's Enrico Palazzo. That actor is also in Teen Wolf. He plays the, um, he, the bigger basketball player, the best friend to Michael J. Fox. I didn't, it took me a while to figure that out. I didn't know that. I thought that was, yeah. He's made a whole career out of being Enrico Palazzo. Yeah. David, uh, last question. This is for me. Um, are there, I have two more actually, are there any actors, um, you'd love a chance to direct or maybe you, you wish were, were, you know,

[00:33:16] when you were making airplane or, or are there any actors you really, you watch their work and you're like, I would like a crack at this guy or girl. Actually not. I mean, I don't, I don't really think about that. I think about writing a good script and making good characters. And then we get whoever is, is right for that. And, uh, I've never had big stars. I mean, I, I, it may have been nice to

[00:33:42] relax and have just do a Jim Carrey movie or an Adam Sandler movie, uh, or, or Steve Martin, big stars. Yeah. And, but we already, we always start out just by writing the script and seeing who the character is. And then, and I, I, I don't, I don't lust after big stars. It's like, that's not what I think of. I just think of doing the whole movie and then whoever's right for it. And, but I do,

[00:34:10] I do like getting the cameos. I mean, we had fun, uh, on airplane with, uh, well, of course with Kareem and Ethel Merman and, you know, it's great because in, in movies you can get anybody. I mean, I would love to get for, uh, for star Malta, lady Gaga. And, and I figured out we can do it. Uh, we, if we could go to wherever she is and get a green screen and just shoot her face

[00:34:40] doing the whatever, and then everything else would be done by a double. Yeah. We could, we could, we could do it. You know, David, I think about the quality of work of writing that you and the three of you did over the years. Um, I, you know, I bet you the stuff that you guys left on the cutting room floor is still better than most of the stuff we see today. Oh, it's a lot better than most of the stuff that you didn't put in the final edit, you know? Well, you know, we would have put everything in if

[00:35:05] it was funny. I mean, and the truth is, you know, you, when you have a, uh, when they released the movie, uh, streaming or on a DVD, they used to have, uh, there'd be special features and it would be deleted scenes and deleted scenes from comedies are not really worth it because if, if they were really funny, they wouldn't be deleted, they'd be in the movie. So it's kind of interesting to see

[00:35:33] some of the stuff on the cutting floor, but you know, even in bad comedies, I mean, I think Naked Gun 4 people told me there were a few funny things. So, uh, I didn't like it, David, to be honest. I didn't like Naked Gun 4. I went to go see it. I wasn't, it didn't, I remember watching. Yeah. I didn't like it. I didn't, I haven't seen if I've just heard from people. Yeah. Yeah. Terrible. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. I mean, I remember watching the first couple of yours with my dad, just like,

[00:36:01] like, like the way you get when you watch Impractical Jokers, that's the way I got watching. So the, these, these wonderful movies that you created with my father and I was just, you know, near that pass out point because I was laughing so hard and I missed those days of having movies like this, which is why I'm hopefully we get star of Malta sooner than later. That's my, my hope. Right. Because they are enjoyable by families and it does kind of bring people closer together, which is not a intention, but, uh, it does happen. And even to, I mean,

[00:36:31] even now I just hear about people, their, their mom or their dad are in hospice and they all watch airplane. You know, you're so gifted, David, let me ask you this. What's what around, what's your priority of things you want to get done, right? You got the podcast, you got the book, you've got a lot of stuff going on in order of priority. What's what, what do you really want to happen? I guess ASAP. And then is there like an order for you? How's that work for years and

[00:36:58] years? It's been star of Malta. I want to do star of Malta. I want to direct it. And then, uh, the next thing is Oktoberfest. I'm not going to direct it, but, uh, it it's possible. I could get them to hire a director who I have enough confidence in that will do a good job because you can lose it if you, if you don't know what you're doing with the wrong director, even if it's a good script. So

[00:37:23] I'm looking forward to those two movies. Yeah. Yeah. I got to tell you, um, you know, you've got a lot of good work left in you and I'm so excited about the future, David. And I, I hope you come back a third time. I would love to talk to you. I mean, I feel like I've talked to you twice and I haven't scratched the surface on the stuff you've done. Well, I, I, I'll, I'll come back anytime and you, you always have good questions. So even though I've never liked you personally, but your questions are great. Yeah.

[00:37:50] David, you rock. Thank you so much. And, uh, let's do this again sometime. Thank you, David. Okay. Wonderful.