Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Q+A:

Larry King: From CNN to the Encore stage

IF YOU GO

  • Who: Larry King
  • When: 8 p.m. Friday
  • Where: Encore Theater
  • Tickets: $59 to $79; 770-9966

The unmistakably resonant voice of Larry King came on the phone. He had 15 minutes to talk about his upcoming show at the Encore Theater before he was needed back in the CNN radio studio in Los Angeles to talk to several country music stars, among them Tanya Tucker, Gretchen Wilson and Dierks Bentley.

The preeminent interviewer, with more than 40,000 interviews to his credit, was promoting his gig and his new book, “My Remarkable Journey.”

King, who has been in the broadcasting business since 1957, is one of the country’s most recognizable personalities. He has interviewed kings and sheiks and presidents, entertainers and authors. Among them are Marlon Brando, George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, Johnny Carson, Jimmy Carter and Roslyn Carter, President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Mark “Deep Throat” Felt, President Gerald Ford and Betty Ford, Jackie Gleason, Mikhail Gorbachev, Billy Graham, Audrey Hepburn, Bob Hope, L.Ron Hubbard, Michael Jordan, Bobby Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ken Lay, Monica Lewinsky, Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney, Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon, Al Pacino, Marianne Pearl, Prince, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pete Rose, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Martha Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Oprah Winfrey, and Malcolm X.

Born in Brooklyn, the 75-year-old King was 9 when his father died of heart disease. After high school he moved to Florida and pursued a career in radio.

He steps out of the studio this week to perform in Vegas. His wife, singer Shawn King, will open for him.

Jerry Fink: You have had an amazing life.

Larry King: I’m amazed myself. I have a book out. I write about my marriages and everything. Calling it “My Remarkable Journey.” It was an apt title. I wanted to call it, “What Am I Doing Here” because a lot of times I feel like a little Jewish kid from Brooklyn who is doing exactly what he wanted to do, but he never thought he would be seen all over the world and have this kind of attention and success. I did it because I love doing it. I pinch myself a lot. If I step back and take a look at myself I say, “Holy cow.”

J.F. You’ve had some rough times as well as good ones. How did you survive?

I don’t know what makes a survivor. I get up off the floor. But I made my own trouble. I don’t have anyone to blame. When I got into debt, I got into debt. I had my marriages. I don’t fault them. That was my life. I tell about them in my book. If you’re going to be honest you’ve gotta be honest. I don’t know.

I don’t know where my curiosity came from. I have an insatiable curiosity. I talk about as a child, for example, being a big baseball fan. I was very poor and would sit up in the bleachers for 50 cents. After a game, as the players were leaving, all my friends wanted autographs. I never wanted an autograph. I would ask questions. I’d run down the street asking questions. That’s what I still do now and they pay you for it.

J.F.: What exactly are you going to be doing at the Encore?

L.K.: All my life I always wanted to be in radio -- broadcasting was my No. 1 thought in careers. But I always used to be able to talk to people and make them laugh, made my friends laugh. I was the school clown, but I got into radio and television and the career did pretty well so along the way I would appear at a lot of conventions. I get booked at a lot of conventions and seminars. I’d get up on stage and do shtick. I’d tell stories. A lot of them are in the book I just got out. I’m a storyteller, a joke teller. I can make people laugh.

Steve Wynn saw me at some convention. We were having dinner with my wife Shawn -– who’s going to open for me, singing. She’s played Vegas a lot. She sometimes opens for Don Rickles. Anyway, we were all having dinner and we’re talking about all sorts of things. Steve is talking about Encore. He says, “You know, Danny Gans takes some nights off occasionally. I saw you work. Would you want to do a nightclub act?” I said, “Well, I’ve done theater. I did that once in Louisville.” He said, “OK, I challenge you. Let’s do it.” I said, “OK, let’s do it.” We were going to do a night around this time when Danny Gans was going to take a night off. And then of course the tragedy of his terrible passing happened. I loved him. So, we kept the night intact. It’s a one-time shot. We’ll see how it goes. I hope people like it. I try to be funny. Usually it works because the stories are really funny, and they’re all true-life stories.

J.F.: What do you do in your act?

L.K.: I’ll talk about things from my chidlhood, things that happened to me as a kid, things that happened in broadcasting, things that happened with famous people. Then I’ll involve the audience. I like to take questions from the audience. I’ll make it, “An Evening with Larry King.” My nephew is Scott Zeiger. He produces many shows on Broadway. He’s got “Jersey Boys” there in Vegas now. He has a lot of shows in China. He’s a top producer. He wanted me to do Broadway, “An evening with Larry King,” but in order for it to be financially successful you’ve got to do like six months to turn a profit. I was really enticed, but the question would be what do I do with CNN. I’d have to do a 7 o’clock curtain, do an hour and half and then run over to CNN and do the show. I suppose I could do it, but it would be hard. That would be something I would love to do. If I had a wish, I would love to do a one-man show on Broadway.

J.F.: Is Encore the first time you have performed in this kind of venue?

L.K. The first time, an actual show. I once did a night for theater owners around the country so they could take a look at me. I planned to do a tour, but it never came off because of CNN -– it’s impossible to do both. But they had bunch of theater owners who saw me in Miami Beach. I did a night for them. Then we tried it as theater. We booked it in Louisville and sold theater tickets. It was like a one-man concert. It was very much produced. I couldn’t really ad-lib because of the props behind me. I thoroughly enjoyed that. It was fun. Who knows? I don’t think I’d start a new career at this point but if this works, and they like it and it does well enough and Steve wants me back I’d do it again anytime. The problem is the public doesn’t know what they’re going to get.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at [email protected].

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy