See Don Rickles Trade Insults With Amy Poehler in Posthumous New Interview Show
Beginning late last year, Don Rickles recorded a series of interviews for a new digital series pairing the comedian with different celebrities interspersed with clips of some of Rickles’ greatest moments. Dinner With Don, Rickles’ final project, was announced Monday morning, with Rolling Stone premiering his chat with Amy Poehler.
The pair had a lively chat over dinner (and several straws) at one of Rickles’ favorite Hollywood restaurants. In the episode, Poehler and Rickles talk about how they met, Rickles’ penchant for performing without ever writing down his act and a few of the elder comic’s late friends. At one point, Poehler asks, “Did you ever go to Italy and find a tiny restaurant that Frank told you about?” “Frank who?” Rickles deadpans. “Didn’t he die?” Poehler looks at him with humorous scorn and says yes as Rickles looks up and goes, “A little humor, a little humor, Frank!”
In another funny moment, Poehler asks, “Do you ever get tired of saying, ‘God rest his soul’?” Rickles stares at her and says, “I guess you don’t say that. You just say, ‘Dig deeper.'” The table next to them burst into laughter.
Other guests on the series include Jimmy Kimmel, Snoop Dogg, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Rudd, Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal, Vince Vaughn, Marisa Tomei, Judd Apatow, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, among others. All 13 of the episodes are available now.
“Initially, the Dinner With Don series was created to bridge older and younger generations of comics and actors through laughter and shared experiences,” Jeffrey Eagle, VP of AARP Studios who produced the project, said in a statement. “With Don’s passing, the series turned out to be a touching and hilarious tribute, featuring his very last work.”
Rickles died of kidney failure earlier this year at the age of 90. “He’s one of those people who remained great,” comedian Gilbert Gottfried told Rolling Stone at the time of Rickles’ death. “Even when, physically, he looked very weak, he was still totally sharp and totally funny. He wasn’t one of those performers that people applauded because they were still alive; he was one of those people he applauded and laughed because he was just so funny all the time. His legacy to me will always be that he didn’t care who he insulted, he didn’t care who he offended. If it got a laugh, it was great.”