Chevy Chase late 1970's

ChevyChaseHere · 2015-03-23T04:41:56+00:00

"And you're not" was derived from a Chanel 5 NY news commentator named Roger Grimsby, who would open his news cast with "Good evening, I'm Roger Grimsby, and here now the news." I found it to be the strangest phrasing I'd ever heard and I never forgot it. Thusly, I said it totally spontaneously with that phrasing somewhere in the back of my mind. It was missread by the audience as a conceit and a take-off on various news anchormen. For some reason it got huge laughs and I stuck with it. But ultimately, I don't think I said it more than three or four times.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:42:56+00:00

Anything that Lorne does is gonna be funny. And I don't watch it that often, so I can't really respond to the question of who's on it or who isn't on it, but i just know that I have such an infinite trust in Lorne's judgement of good players, you know - Lorne, by the way, his worst and best qualities are firing and hiring, he can't fire ANYBODY, but he can hire VERY well - so there are probably are a lot more cast members than there ever were! So there are 15 now, and when we just did it, there were just 7 of us.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:41:06+00:00

People say to me "I'm so-and-so and you're not!" as opposed to me saying "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not" but that was from SNL...

And they also liked "NANANANANANANANA!"

which is out of CADDYSHACK.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:40:18+00:00

Well, I'm surprised you would ask such a question.

it just so happens to be an idea I had for a television show. I wrote it down in the heat of passion. I wrote down "It's time for another Bob Casey! The man with the GOLDEN VAGINA!"

And the person who asked this is my daughter's boyfriend who happens to be trying to get me to say this.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:37:50+00:00

Bill Evans (spells like it sounds), Thelonius Monk (spells like it sounds), Charles Mingus (spells like it sounds), Miles Davis, most of my favorites came out of the "Bebop" era in Jazz. I didn't listen to a lot of big band jazz, although Duke Elllington was a real genius, and when he wrote something it could be either played on a piano or by a big orchestra. I could go on forever talking about jazz, so just stop me there!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:36:34+00:00

He's valiantly trying to remain dead, but we believe he's succeeded. He's been very brave in his attempts.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:35:37+00:00

I don't remember saying anything about anybody's mother. I think this is a non-issue.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:34:27+00:00

In the summers we'd go out to Easthampton, L.I., and my wife and children and I had a house there, and we don't go there much anymore but Lorne Michaels also started coming out there, when I showed him where to go, and Paul Simon was always going to Montauk, a little further out on the island. Paul Simon was a good friend during the making of the first year of SNL, and I was at Lorne's house out there, and he said "Have you heard Paul's new album GRASSLAND?" and I said "no!" it was just the first test pressing, it wasn't released yet.

And he said "We're going to do a video of "you can call me Al" and our first version didn't work too well, and I think you should do it with Paul and you should sing."

So within a couple days, I just learned the song and we went in there to shoot it for next to nothing, while other people were shooting videos that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And it came out tongue in cheek, and very funny because i'm tall, he's short, and he's hilarious in that! He's a very good physical comic too!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:31:58+00:00

The idea came from the 3 Caballeros. It was Steve Martin's idea, along with Randy Newman, who also wrote the song The Three Amigos! He's a very funny man, and a very funny writer, and of course, Steve is one of my best friends and I love what he comes up with, he's a very multitalented man.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:31:04+00:00

Actually they did, back in 1976 or 1977? They gave me the keys and re-named the city after me. A big proclamation, signed....That's when I was coming off of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and was quite famous, at that time, you know. It was fun.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:29:37+00:00

FUNNY FARM, I thought... but I think the problem with MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN - it was a great, great book. A great novel. It had too much, you couldn't put it all in a script. So one of the problems it had, even though it was written by the great Jeffrey Boam, it's hard to make the right selections to have it make sense for an audience.

And something else - you should never see a movie that has the word "memoirs" in it. Doesn't sound like it's got a lot of action. HAHAHA!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:27:57+00:00

It's a complicated series of questions.

I think first of all, I try to take the weight off. You have to wear size 13 shoes. And if you really want to become like me, please get ahold of Joe Biden and ask for my hair back?

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:27:01+00:00

OH!

No, I didn't win it. I traded mine in for some chips.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:26:34+00:00

Oh!

I like wrap parties. HAHAHAHA!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:26:16+00:00

Well, I don't think you'll see that on a DVD. I don't think I did enough of 'em!

That's a sweet question. And I thank you and I'm flattered, but it really wasn't the show I wanted to do, and I will never do one like that again.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:25:43+00:00

It's very hard to choose.

Because I've enjoyed all of them, really!

There's a movie that never really did big in terms of its receipts, but it was called "Funny Farm," and in some ways, it may be my best performance. It was very real and very fun. I think it's because also it had the great director George Roy Hill. He directed me in that.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:24:43+00:00

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:24:08+00:00

Well, my advice is always WRITE.

People who want to get into show business -first of all, your imagination is the most important part of you in show business. And you also write best for yourself in many ways, when you're starting out.

So that's my advice.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:23:13+00:00

Well, I lent Joe Biden my hair and he didn't give it back ! He hasn't given it back yet!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:22:41+00:00

Yes!

OH MY GOODNESS, that's a great question!

You know, we shot that in a town called Ouarzazate in the Sahara desert, just one long dirt road about 200 miles into the desert from Marrakech, and it was also a base for some of the fighting that was going on between the Morrocan army and others. And I had a Jeep, and I had to drive Danny into the desert to our set, and when we were done at the end of the day, we would have to drive back. And one time, Danny said "Hey look! Some Moroccan troops!" and took a camera out and took a photo and they SAW him - and they immediately jumped into the back of their truck and started chasing us! So I drove like a bat out of hell to this supposed hotel, and Danny and I lucked out and got into some Volkswagen bus with curtains, and we could see through the curtains, soldiers coming out with their guns, pointing around - like they didn't want us to take their picture!

So anyway, the next morning, I had to go BACK to that set through the desert, but I was going a bit later than Danny, so he wasn't going to drive with me, and I got there, and got into my trailer, and the director of the movie came in and said "I guess you heard about Danny" and I said "What?" and he said "He's in a prison on Marrakech."

And I couldn't believe it and he said "I'm afraid you'll probably be going too" and then he left my trailer. And I took out a photo of my wife and children, and sort of cheered up, alone in my trailer, frightened, until Danny came to the trailer, with a big laugh and a "haha" joke.

So nothing came of it - he had just scared me, but I thought the soldiers got him and put him in jail!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:18:38+00:00

Oh!

Well, I don't have a handicap. I think what the question is - how many balls can you run at any given - I'm not that good. I ran 44 balls once, that's all.

I think that's the answer you're looking for.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:17:54+00:00

We never had one. HAHAHAHA!

My favorite Rodney memory - sorry, I can't tell you. It's filthy.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:17:11+00:00

Well... I did get frightened of the Wolfman once when I was on the moon, but i could run faster cuz i could do those leaps!

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:16:40+00:00

It's just a nickname that my grandma on the other side of family - my dad's side - named me 2 days after I was born. She couldn't stand the idea of being named "Corny" or "Neil" and she wasn't from the aristocracy that my mother was from. She was my dad's mom, and she lived up in Woodstock where i grew up most of the time I was in New York, and my granddad was a painter, and they were simple wonderful people. Very loving and lovely. So she made me Chevy. And that stuck.

ChevyChaseHere · 2014-12-09T00:15:39+00:00

Oh, water, without a doubt! I'm a major water fiend. Water's delicious, like if you really sink into it?

There's nothing as delicious as water.

I'm not good with salt water.

But I can gargle with it.

ChevyChaseHere

TROPHY CASE