Gilbert Gottfried on Being Complimented by George Carlin

One time I was getting on a plane and a few miles down from me I saw George Carlin and well he was a few miles ahead of me and I had never met him before so I didn't want to bother him and I sat down and then he gets up from his chair and he starts, he looks at me and he's walking toward me and I got so excited I thought George Carlin he wants to talk to me and he comes over to me and he says I got to work on some stuff I'm writing I got to read something and then I'm going to take a nap so I can't talk to you and he walked, it was like basically he went out of his way to tell me to go fuck myself. Wasn't he just being courteous because otherwise he would have said I would talk to you. Yes, but when it was getting near the end of the flight when they announced that we're going to be descending soon he came over to me again and he scribbled his phone number down on a piece of paper and he said to me next time you're appearing on TV I want you to call me and tell me because I want to see what's going on in that brain of yours. And that was like holy fuck. Yeah I only got, I saw him perform live a few times. I saw him perform live in New Hampshire when I was like 21 in like 1988. I saw him there and I saw him at the commie store later and I ran into him once at the commie store and he was so unassuming. Yes. He just walked by said hi to everybody hello, hello, like it's like real friendly, easy and just was there to do his work and super nice guy. And the funny thing is I had you know George Carlin's number which when I thought that was like a tremendous thrill. George Carlin's a fan. I thought this is unbelievable. I also met Jonathan Winters and he gave me his phone number and I didn't call either one of them because I've had those, you know what it's like? A couple of celebrities who've given me their numbers it's like you know we meet and they're my best friend the whole world. We hit it off like lifelong pals and then you call them and you go hi it's Gilbert. Oh hello. It wore off. Yes. It's kind of to me it's like when you meet a girl and you get her phone number and she's like oh here's my number don't lose this, don't lose this and if I'm not at this number here's my other number. Please call me, call me, call me. All excited. And then you call them up and you go hi. Remember we met at Joe's party and it's like oh yeah. Yeah I think some celebrities just get exhausted by people wanting things from them. Oh I'm sure absolutely. Just constantly someone thinks that they can get further up the show business ladder just by being friends with you, being around you. That's why when they act normal it's so refreshing. Well it's like when people come up to me and say could you give me some advice or some pointers I always feel like underneath it is like can you like press that button that makes me a star. Can you help me? Yes. Give me a lift up. Yeah. Which doesn't exist. Yeah. No one can do that. I think they'll look at you when you're known and they'll think oh you know somebody sprinkled some dust on you, magic dust and you immediately became known. And you'll be able to tell me how I can do that. Yes, yes. Where I can get this dust from and I'll sprinkle on myself. Yeah. Well I think people just look at the shortcuts all the time. Oh yeah. Yeah. And also one of the reasons why celebrities are the little standoffish with even when they meet other celebrities you know I think they just get but then sometimes they feel like those are the only people that they know. Yeah. That they can talk to. Like I feel like who can the cast of friends talk to? Right, right. They're all oddly famous. Yeah. In a weird way. One of the weirdest celebrity encounters I ever had was Robin Williams. He came to one of my shows by himself. Yeah. And I didn't know it was him until a few minutes and I talked to him. He had a big crazy beard. Oh, okay. And a baseball hat on and I'm talking to him, I was doing like this little meet and greet after the show and I'm just talking to this guy. Yeah. And he's like I really like that bit. I really love this. I loved how you did this and that. And then I'm in the middle of talking to him and I'm like holy shit this is Robin Williams. Oh yeah. I didn't realize it until like a couple minutes into talking to him. I just was talking to him like he was just a regular guy. And he acted like a regular guy. Yeah. There were a couple of times at those clubs, he would pop into those clubs all the time. And there were a few times he called me up on stage with him to riff with him which was great. And what I remember most about him, I was at the improv and I was known at the time. I mean I was known to the comics and everything like that. And I guess he had seen me a few times there. And so I'm getting ready. They're just about to introduce me and then the door opens up and Robin comes in. So of course they go, Robin you're on Gilbert, go away and Robin you're on next. And Robin said to them, he goes, oh I have a few people in the audience to see me and I'd like them to see Gilbert first. And that always stuck with me. That's so nice of him. Watch the entire episode for free only on Spotify.