tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with mary steenburgen. she has costarred in back to the future and "the help." she is costarring with robert deniro, a comedy about lifelong friends coming to terms with getting older titled "last vegas." and we talked to george wallace who wrote a book called "laugh it off." coming up, right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. oscar-winning actress mary toenburgen goes from drama comedy and costars with an impressive array of actors in a new comedy called last vegas.

the screen with deniro, freeman, douglas, kline. it opens this friday. >> you're getting married tomorrow. what are you doing here with me? >> what are you doing here with me? >> i do have an answer. i like you. >> no, no. no! [yelling] quacks i knew you would like it. -- >> i knew you would like it. tavis: where else do you start

this conversation? five academy award winners. all the leads are oscar winners. >> it was amazing and a privilege to hang out with those guys. it was a total joy. i really felt like the luckiest person on the planet. tavis: and the only girl? >> i was the angie dickens in the rat pack. you manage that? >> very well, thank you. i love them all. they are all different. and yet, there was so much chemistry i think, among all of us. we just had the best time. there was something beautiful about acting with people like that in this moment of my life. nobody is rushing off to see what their next job is. people were just absolutely

enjoying working together and the fact that we all kind of survived this crazy business and we are in this wonderful comedy that also has something to say about friendship and aging. it just felt like a privilege. tavis: ted danson must really trust you or trust them, letting you out of the house with four guys all day long. ted have tried to make danson jealous, but he is way to secure. tavis: that is the way you want to be in a lifelong relationship like that. do your point that it was a joy to do this, i got the sense that what you're saying to me was that this group of actors are settled. >> it is not about -- they may

have very different reasons or , we just had ait great big grin on our face. they were adorable these guys. they were so sweet with me. these are all guys i wanted to work with and never really had except for kevin kline, the movie "life as a house." other than that, i had no with any of them. morgan and i had done some political stuff together. other i want to ask a few questions, but i should give you an opportunity to say what the movie is about. i have given some sense of that. it is a movie about four friends that call themselves the flatbush four.

they've picked on each other and defended each other. married. all been some have lost their wives. the only person that hasn't ever gotten married is michael douglas's character who is about to get married to a 30-year-old. his first marriage. he invites them all the come to vegas for his bachelor party and the crazinessbout whatensues and also about it is in this moment in your life to be looking at love, marriage, what is behind you and in front of you. , but aery funny significant film where it talks about aging. a lot of movies would rather die than talk about. tavis: how are you going about,

at this point in your career, making decisions about what you want to do and what you don't want to do at this point? >> i try to do what i said i would do, say yes to the things that make my heart beat faster. particularly if there is something scary about it. it is good for me to try to go there. thingspast year, doing like on 30 rock. it was so fun and so scary. i did not want to let anybody down. they are so fast. it is really sorting through the best of the things i offered. but the things that make it easier for me not to feel concerned if i am not working every minute is about seven

years ago, i started writing music and i ended up with a publishing deal with universal music. we just got a tim mcgraw cut which is pretty exciting. tavis: pretty big, tim mcgraw. i just started writing a song with kris allen who won american idol for a small indie movie. it brings me great joy to do that. it is something i can do whenever i want to do it. i like that. tavis: seven years ago, you got this deal but you did not start writing music seven years ago -- >> i did, actually. tavis: hold up. seven years ago, you started to ?o music

i had surgery on my arm. it was minor surgery, but i did go under general anesthetic. i came out underneath it and i felt very strange. three or four days later, i had not slept. could describe it, and i hear music all the time. there is a book written by dr. oliver sacks. philia.s it musico i don't know if that happened to me, but one day i had a kind of brain and the next day it was another.w way over-scored with music. it took me a few months of was losing it. you are a wife, mother,

daughter, sister. you had better figure out how to make this work. i started studying music and songwriting. sure most of them were terrible. a lot of them were. but eventually, they got better and better. i was signed by this amazing man. me to al signed publishing deal. in nashville at universal. i am privileged to write with some of the great writers in nashville like jeremy stillman and all of these legends. tavis: you are really upsetting me with this story. i have been under anesthesia two or three times and nothing like that ever happened. who was your anesthesiologist? the guys that took care of me took good care of me.

but i woke up and i am less gifted than i was. you come out more gifted. >> it is crazy. and you know what? i don't know what happened. the only explanation. in his book, he said most people had some type of trauma. got struck by lightning or whatever. i did not have any of those things. it was the only thing we could figure out. it was never a goal of mine. which is kind of strange. there are other things that i wished for. i would not trade it for anything in the world. of poets,he city nashville. tavis: i will be even more crass than that. artistjones, a great himself, he said there ain't no

money like music money because music money don't stop. >> i am not there yet. just poetry, it is greatly urkel stuff. you can do well for yourself. before i let you go. it is not just the acting and the music, are you still doing candles? but my daughter had a baby. and she has another on the way. it has been on the back burner because she is the one that did most of that. she has been otherwise engaged. tavis: i see. not enough hours in the day for you. when do you have time to see ted. >> i see plenty of ted. tavis: the movie is called "last vegas." you can do better than the cast with mary steen burgeon, robert de niro, kevin kline -- i'm sure

you don't need my encouragement to go see it. coming up, speaking of comedians, george wallace. stay with us. tavis: here is a fascinating statistic. children laugh on average 400 times a day. adults only laugh 13 times a day. comedian george wallace has done his best to ratchet up the adult laughter portion. he has so many credits in his career. if we listed them all, we would be here all night. he is putting down what he has learned about comedy and laughter getting through difficult times in a new book called "laugh it off." >> that is the proper way to spell laugh.

did you pronounce it right? i think you did. to spell when you get the word out. the most important thing is laugh. it is a different way of looking at life. laughter is healing. laughter is comforting and you need to laugh no matter the situation. angelesned to me in los . if people cut you off on the freeway. you are on a big hurry to get up there and give them the finger. confront them. let them go and laugh it off. tavis: some things aren't funny, george. >> you should make everything funny. even jokes about death. losing a loved one. think about one of your parents. think about the good times and it will always outweigh the bad times and a smile will appear on your face.

you can't stop people. it will happen anyways. funerals should be funny. my funeral will be funny. come sit down, crying and laughing, tell jokes up there. don't open the coffin because i am naked. there is always a reason to laugh. i am trying to be serious about how important laughter is but you keep laughing. don't stop laughing because we get older, we get older because we stop laughing. something is happening all over the world today. i love my job. we have had government problems in the last month, sequester and shut down. this year off in january and we are at the end of october going to november.

we have been complaining and angry about things like that. we have been able to pay our bills, laugh, and been blessed. how you should be smiling. we have to continue laughing and if we don't, we go crazy. tavis: do you feel like you're doing a public service when you're on stage helping people? i am the most blessed person in the world to go on stage. you are catching hell on your job or your home, or on the freeway, that is too much hell. you need to laugh a little bit. everybody wants to laugh. what makes you feel better than everything else? when you give patients a prescription, give them a

prescription and tickets to come down to the show to get some real medicine. laughter is the best medicine in the world. even when the bill collectors call you, laugh it off. tavis: how are you supposed to laugh when you have a bill collector on the phone? >> that's not his money. , i know i'mughing late. cursinge people them out. they get that, they might zero your balance out. can i pay a little bit? , there is a call reason to laugh at everything.

tavis: one way to get to laughter is to move beyond your fears. >> people telling you what you can't do and what is impossible to do. you won't get things done. how many people told you you can't do this show right here? how many books have you ridden? -- written? fear is about doing things in life. it's easy to do it. what if oprah had said that she can do it. what if i told jerry seinfeld 400t you can't own porsche's? he might not have 400 porsches today.

forth, back and sometimes we have to get out of the fishbowl and climb over to see what is going on in the world. let's make things happen. you can have what you want to have. it you can do what you want to do, and you can be. visualize yourself and what you want to do. you will be happy. i love to go to work and go out there. i could care less about how much money i make. said?say what i just [laughter] people come up after the show and say my husband died two years ago and i have not been out of the house in two years. you have helped me tonight. i just had brain surgery. i haven't laughed this hard in a long time. my family -- that is what i love.

tavis: i laugh at people calling you mr. wallace. >> it should be dr. wallace because i make people feel good. tavis: you and jerry have been friends a long time. >> i can't get rid of him. i wish everybody had a friend like jerry seinfeld. thing we havely in common is that we both love him. he loves me and i can't get rid of him. it is nice to have a friend like jerry seinfeld. getou are feeling down, yourself a little wallace. when i finish with you, you will not be a democrat or republican. he will sit back and relax and be wallacized. tavis: that is what the world needs. >> so many things will be much better. people are mean for no reason at

all. look at congress. the negotiations with the shutdown. whatever happened on the last not to havesed us the shutdown could have been done on the first day. let's get it done. let's just make it happen. are there things you can do? >> we will stop being so mean. we will laugh it off. we teach kids to confront their fears. go to another country and see how people live. give me 10 young kids from africa or jamaica.

all speaking different languages. i give the make a good beer and a boombox and i come back one hour later. it's a party. old people are mean and star wars. -- start wars. old, mean men. why you need to travel when you're young. go to the nude beaches and get that stuff out of your system. you are to dam old. -- too damn old. people are looking at the eiffel tower. this is serious. i am teaching people to travel while you are young and while everything is working. tavis: i should leave it right

there. [laughter] before you get me in trouble. >> get into trouble while you can enjoy your life because when you get old, there is not much you can do. i am teaching old people to live their lives. my aunt ruby keeps her silverware up in the attic. i said take it down, use it every day. let company e on the plastic stuff. plastic stuff.he we have stupid habits that we have to confront. you had better not ever ever touch. you better start enjoying your life. i have to start using that stuff.

you are blessed and you will continue to be blessed. you need to laugh off everything. it is amazing. laugh it off. situation is, the sometimes worrying about it makes it worse. look at you today, you have gone through lots of things. but you are sitting here laughing, you have -- it might not be a new shirt, but it's a decent shirt. tavis: it says laugh it off, but not at tavis's expense. >> this book is available now at amazon.com, go everywhere and get it. i hope it enhances your life a little bit. do me another favor. if you see someone without a smile, give them yours.

tavis: all right then. the book is called "laugh it off ." george wallace, forward by his longtime friend who he can't get rid of, jerry seinfeld. >> i think it is around your birthday or halloween. tavis: get out of here. security! that's our show for tonight. thanks for watching. rex god bless you, i love you -- don't take my line. keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with two of the founding members of the great band hour of power and their new cd titled "hipper than hip." that is next time, we will see you then.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more. pbs.

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