Comedians

Dom DeLuise

Bill Thompson
Photo: Allan Warren

Today we’re wrapping up Celebrity Cookbook Week on Now I’ve Heard Everything.

On Monday, we heard from actress Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island), then on Wednesday, musician-actor Isaac Hayes.Today, one of my favorite comic actors from the ’60s amd ’70s,

Dom DeLuise may be best known for the many movies he made with Burt Reynolds, and Mel Brooks.

I met him on a snowy Friday afternoon in January 1988, after he published his cookbook “Eat This, it’ll Make You Feel Better.”

So here now, from 1988, Dom DeLuise.

Dom DeLuise died in 2009. He was 75.

Phyllis Diller

Bill Thompson

Like many of my fellow Baby Boomers, I grew up watching Phyllis Diller on TV and in movies. She was one of America’s first female stand-up comedians, inspiring the likes of Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others.

Photo: Allan Warren

Diller was known for her wild outfits, her even wilder hair, her self-deprecating humor, a cigarette always in a long holder, and her jokes about her long-suffering husband whom she nicknamed Fang.

Phyllis Diller wrote a memoir in 2005. She was too frail at that point, in her late 80s, to go on a book tour, so I interviewed her by phone.

So here now, from 2005, Phyllis Diller:

Phyllis Diller died in 2012. She was 95.

Rita Rudner

Bill Thompson

I first saw Rita Rudner perform her comedy on an HBO special in the mid-1980s. And I immediately fell in love with her, and her comedy.

Her routine is so low-key, so dignified, yet so hilarious. So I was delighted to have the chance to interview her, in 1992, when she had written a book of essays called “Naked Beneath My Clothes.”

So here now, from 1992, Rita rudner.

Rita Rudner is 67 now.

She is currently the longest-running solo comedy show in Las Vegas, where she’s performed since 2001.

Whoopi Goldberg

Bill Thompson
Photo: Daniel Langer

Whoopi Goldberg has been entertaining us for almost 40 years, in movies like “The Color Purple,” “Ghost,” and “Sister Act” as well as TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and of course, on ABC’s “The View.”

I met her in 1997, after she wrote a book called “Book.” It was a kind of stream-of-consciousness effort, with chapters each having a single syllable word as their title.

And our interview was kind of stream-of-consciousness, too.

So here now, from 1997, Whoopi Goldberg.

Whoopi Goldberg will be 65 in November.

She lives in New Jersey.

Tracey Ullman

Bill Thompson

She burst onto the American television scene in the late 1980s, when she hosted her own show on the fledgling Fox network.

Phoro: John http://www.celebrity-photos.comMathew Smith

And Tracey Ullman has been a favorite in this country ever since.

Her Fox show ended in 1990, and she next appeared on American television in 1996, on the HBO series Tracey Takes On.

I met her in early 1998, when she published a book that was companion to the HBO series.

So here now, from 1998, Tracey Ullman.

Tracey Ullman is 60 now. According to Wikipedia, she is the richest British actress and female comedian and the third richest British comedian overall.

Jim Gaffigan

Bill Thompson

If you know Jim Gaffigan’s comedy, you know he has a big family, five kids.

He was one of six kids, his wife was one of nine. So they know big famililes.

I met Jim in 2013, when he wrote a memoir that was funny and poignant and reflective — as was our interview.

His book was called “Dad is Fat.”

So here now, from 2013, Jim Gaffigan.

Jim Gaffigan just turned 54 earlier this month. He and his wife Jeannie and their five kids live in Manhattan.

Carl Reiner

Bill Thompson
Winner of 2019 Mark Twain prize Carl Reiner
Photo: John Mathew Smith

We lost a true American comedy genius last week.

Carl Reiner was 98 when he passed away.

I first met Carl Reiner in 1993, and again in 1995, when he published a sequel to his iconic 1950s novel “Enter Laughing.”

So here now, from 1995, Carl Reiner:

Carl Reiner won nine Emmys, a Grammy, and The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Chris & Bob Elliott

Bill Thompson
Bob Elliott

Father’s Day is this Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’ve been featuring interviews about fathers.

Today a conversation with a father and son who have been making us laugh for decades.

Actor-comedian Chris Elliott and his dad, Bob Elliott, collaborated on a 1989 book called “Daddy’s Boy: A Son’s Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father.”

Chris Elliott Photo: Alan Light

Don’t be alarmed — it’s a parody celebrity tell-all memoirs, and was all very, very tongue-in-cheek — as was our interview just before Fathers Day 1989.

I’m not sure if their book ever did become a major bestseller, although it did get a really nice write-up in the New York Times and a lot of other places..

Chris Elliott remains active and popular in moveis and TV.

Bob Elliott died in 2016. He was 92.

Samantha Bee

Bill Thompson

Canadian-born comedian Samantha Bee was a fixture on TV’s The Daily Show or twelvve years. Indeed, she was Most Photo: Senor Correspondent.

Photo: Montclair Film

I met her tewn years ago next week, at the height of her popularity on that show, when she wrote a breezy memoir, a hilariously guided tour of her childhood and adolescence.

So here now, from 2010, Samantha Bee:

Samamtha Bee left The Daily Show in 2015, to launch her own show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,

She became a U.S. citizen in 2014, but also retained her Canadian citizenship.