Jack Hanna Funny Videos With David Letterman

They're not Laurel and Hardy, but Jack and Dave — as in Hanna and Letterman — have delivered a lot of laughs to late-night television audiences for three decades.

Tonight is their final comedic duet. Letterman will bow out of television on May 20, and this is the last time that Hanna and a parade of animals will appear on his show.

It'll be funny, no doubt, but Hanna will be laughing through tears.

"It's going to be hard — I'll miss him," Hanna said last week. "Sometimes, I get really emotional about it, and if that happens (tonight) I know he'll crack on me. But I don't know how to thank him."

For 30 years, Hanna has taken Letterman's verbal pokes and prods as he tried to talk seriously — or not — about a skunk's anal gland or the difference between a two-toed sloth and a three-toed sloth. Letterman attacked Hanna's "aw shucks" banter and frenetic explanations as Hanna pulled Madagascar hissing roaches from his pocket, reptiles from under his seat or baby owls from a box.

>> Update: Jack Hanna brings alligator, kookaburra to last appearance

>> Video: Best of Jack Hanna on the Late Show

>> From the archives: Late Night with Jack's Menagerie (1986)

The two hit it off on Feb. 14, 1985, when Hanna took the stage on what was then Late Night with David Letterman on NBC.

"He was pretty nice the first show," said Hanna, the emeritus director of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. "Then he started ripping me apart in the second show. He'd say: 'You got these animals from the dog pound' or 'You're a walking encyclopedia of misinformation.'??"

Hanna knows that Letterman's needling is part of the shtick, all in the name of entertainment.

"It doesn't bother me," he said. "The point is, it's exposure for our zoo. I don't try to be funny on his show. I just play off him."

Hanna counts more than 100 appearances on Letterman, now The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. But he still gets pumped up, and nervous.

"You have to get yourself ready mentally for every show because you never know what's going to come out of David's mouth," Hanna said.

He follows the same routine on the day of a show: Eat breakfast; walk 3 miles through Central Park; eat a lunch of matzo-ball soup, three crackers and a chocolate-chip cookie. Take a shower, walk to the studio, study notes about the animals he's taking on the air. Finally, spend 15 to 20 minutes alone before he's called onstage.

"We never rehearse," Hanna said. "I don't meet Dave before the show."

In fact, he said, he had never spoken to Letterman offstage until this year, when he was showing the animals to Letterman's 11-year-old son and the host popped in.

Still, the two have formed a close relationship over the years. Letterman knew little about animals in the early years, Hanna said, but now could write a book about them and has become devoted to conservation.

"I really admire David," Hanna said. "He does a lot for a lot of people anonymously. He's probably one of the most-private people in the business."

When Hanna's daughter, Julie, had a brain tumor removed in 1995, Letterman sent her a bouquet of 50 roses.

"That meant so much to me, and it's something you never forget," Hanna said.

For Hanna's last Letterman appearance, his menagerie will include a baby leopard, a kookaburra, an otter, a flamingo, a serval and an alligator.

One animal that definitely won't be going is what he refers to as a "damn — um, darn — beaver." During an appearance in the 1980s, a 35-pound beaver, frightened by a burst of band music, bit into the meat of Hanna's left hand.

Hanna hustled offstage, put a paper towel around his bleeding hand and slipped it into a rubber glove so he could return with two electric eels. When blood began seeping from the glove, Letterman realized what had happened and wrapped up the segment.

Hanna ended that night at a nearby hospital, where an emergency-room worker mistook him for a shooting victim because blood covered his khaki shirt. Hanna is pretty sure that one of the two doctors who helped him after he said he'd been bitten by a beaver was from the psychiatric ward.

NBC producer Barry Sand once said that the unpredictability of Hanna and his animals is what made his appearances so popular.

"It could have been some zoo figurehead or a bureaucrat," Sand said. "But Jack was very loose and very game to do anything. After the first time, somebody said, 'It was out of control.' We said, 'That was the best part!'??"

Letterman's exit might not mean the end of Hanna on late-night TV. His representatives will discuss appearances with other late-night hosts, including Letterman successor Stephen Colbert, to help the Columbus Zoo stay nationally prominent, Hanna said.

This week, Letterman emailed these thoughts about his years with Hanna:

"Over the years, Jack has been a great friend and perhaps our favorite guest.He performs an invaluable service in educating us about the magnificent creatures with which we share the planet.And he always makes us laugh.

"Plus, his clean-up tips work on a wide variety of zoo odors."

kgray@dispatch.com

@reporterkathy

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Source: https://www.dispatch.com/story/entertainment/television/2015/04/28/jack-hanna-on-letterman-for/23756677007/

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