Turning 80 hasn't slowed enduring broadcast icon, who's a big fan of San Diego
Larry King has been the king of the talk business — radio, television, and now the Internet — for longer than most Americans have been alive, 56 years.
He has a new deal with Carlos Slim, richest man in the world, to produce and distribute "Larry King Now" on Hulu and
Ora.tv. His 80th birthday was Tuesday. And, oh, yeah, baby, he's married to his seventh wife.
King launched his career in Pumpernik's Restaurant in Miami Beach, with pop singer Bobby Darin and actor Jackie Gleason as guests. He got more political over the years, while staying celebrity with guests such as Vladimir Putin and Jodie Foster on CNN's "Larry King Live." All the while, he employed his gentle curious style, a gravelly laugh, and those trademark red suspenders.
Intellectual Capital talked with King about why San Diego is his favorite city (along with Beverly Hills, where he lives, and San Francisco, where he likes to eat), what his first question would have been to Osama bin Laden, and how he became so successful that he says he still has to pinch himself.
His formula: "When desire meets opportunity, that's luck!"
Q: What's the secret to a good interview?
A: The secret is to ask short questions. Leave yourself out of it. Listen to the answers because the answer may produce the next question. Be sincerely curious. I try not to have an agenda. I may disagree with the guests, but I want to know where they're coming from.
Q: What if you had had an interview with Osama bin Laden?
A: Well, the worst first question you could ask to him would be, "Why did you bomb so many people on 9/11? Because that puts him on the defensive. What I would have asked him is, "You grew up in one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia, why did you leave that?"
Nobody looks in the mirror and thinks they're evil. Nobody combs their hair in the morning and says, I'm a terrible person, right? Nobody. And everybody has an excuse or a reason for doing what he or she does. And that absorbs me, and that's what a good interviewer does.
Q: How do you get a reluctant subject to open up?
A: I'm pretty good at that. (Actress and director) Jodie Foster was on once, and she said, "I will not discuss the shooting of Ronald Reagan," because, you know, the guy that shot Ronald Reagan was obsessed with Jodie Foster. He used to write letters to her. So, of course, my first questions to her was, "Jodie, we know you have a rule not to discuss Hinckley. Why?"
Q: What's changed in the business?
A: The only thing we don't do now is we're not live. So I can't be on top of a major breaking story. But I'm still basically doing exactly what I did 56 years ago. That is asking questions: who, what, where, when, why. The only difference is the means of distribution. There will always be a need for some quality program. That will not go away, hopefully. Robots will never do what I do!
Q: Who do you like out there among the young pups?
A: I like the Lettermans and the Lenos. I like Jimmy Kimmel a great deal. I love Craig Ferguson. I go on with him a lot. These are all more shows than interviews. Stewart and Colbert. They're magical. Because they're both geniuses in their own right, and they've got it down. I'd say that that's the best hour in television.
Q: You come to San Diego to headline events for Feeding America. Does it surprise you that so many Americans go hungry, so many children?
A: Two saddest things in my opinion about America — and I love where I was born, and what I do, and what has been brought to me — is that we're the only industrialized country in the world without a national health care plan. I would have made it universal. That was a blight on America. And hunger. Hunger is shocking to me. Nobody, anywhere, should go hungry. With all that the fertile ground gives us, people are being paid not to produce food. That's insane to me. It's insane. That someone is hungry is insane! There's no other way for me to describe it.
Q: Do you think that the rest of us should address this issue more strongly?
A: Absolutely.
Q: You're in the city a lot. Why?
A: I love San Diego. I like the climate. I like the openness. I think downtown San Diego is one of the most underrated places in America. I think the food there is terrific. There are some great hotels, the beautiful ballpark. Best zoo in America along with the Bronx Zoo. I like the laid-backness. I like the Navy. I like landing in the downtown airport. I love La Costa. I like La Jolla. It's just a very special place, San Diego. Nothing beatsCalifornia. I gotta run.
Q: Hold on, Larry! What do you owe your success to? How did you do it?
A: I just love what I do, and I have a natural ability for it. I never planned it. I never wanted to be famous. I just wanted to communicate. Everything happened to me happened. I got on television because I was good on the radio, and they came to me. Ted Turner (founder of CNN) liked my work. He came to me to go to CNN. Mutual Radio came to me for a national talk show. Events sort of happen to me. Even when I retired, Carlos Slim called me (after he interviewed him). "When can we do something together?"
A friend of mine, Herbie, says, "People don't change. Circumstances change."
Circumstances changed throughout my life. And the circumstances brought me a great deal of good luck. When desire meets opportunity, that's luck.
Q: What advice would you give to people younger in the business — and they're all younger!
A: Never give up. If you say, "Well, no, I don't think I want this," then you don't want it. If you doubt yourself, don't do it. If you doubt yourself, you're right. It's like food. If you look at something on the plate, and you think, boy, that may be fattening, you're right. So, in this business if you say to yourself, "Well, I don't know," you're right. You don't know.
OK, Steve, I gotta run.
No comments:
Post a Comment