Dennis Miller & Larry King remember Don Rickles

Larry King: Let’s talk about our dear friend Don Rickles.

Dennis Miller: Yeah. Well-

Larry King: I’ve known him for 58 years.

Dennis Miller: You’ve known him for 58 years, I’ve known him for 58 minutes. But I’ll tell you this, when he first came on my HBO show, where you could swear, and this was an anomalous situation-

Larry King: He never swore. Wait a minute, you’re telling me he swore?

Dennis Miller: He comes out-

Larry King: I never heard him swear off the air. Never on stage.

Dennis Miller: Well, you can probably find this on YouTube then-

Larry King: Okay. Better tell me.

Dennis Miller: He comes out, and they say to me, “Do you want to meet Don backstage?” I’m like too nervous, he’s my guy, and I go, “Ah.” I don’t know, it’s like you when you used to say, “Oh I didn’t read the book, I want to stay tabula rasa, I’m on the houseboat,” you know there’s that sort of thing. So they said, “Do you want to meet Rickles?” and I said, “Ah, I’ll meet him out there.” So he comes out and he does this circuitous route around the Cape of Good Hope while we play the matador music. [Laughs]

Larry King: That’s when he came out you were just like [mimics matador music]. Used to wear an emperor’s hat, when he started in Miami. The Mad Emperor, they called him.

Dennis Miller: Really. [Laughs] Well I was not privy to that, but he does the long route, he finally sits down, I go, “Don, what a thrill for me. How’s things going?” I’m sitting with Don Rickles, and he goes, “I’m on this piece of [bleep] aren’t I?” [Laughs]

Larry King: [Laughs] I never heard him say that word.

Dennis Miller: I fall out of the chair, because it’s just like when you meet a guy like that you want him to lay into you.

Larry King: Oh of course.

Dennis Miller: You want to be able to say that Rickles eviscerated you.

Larry King: Oh, he was unbelievable.

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