Your favorite stars will be seen in a whole new light after being interviewed by eight-year-old Lauriston Lee Crockett IV with important questions and the questions you always wanted to ask.
"Well, the Camptown ladies sing this song doodah doodah!"
You might recognize these lyrics of the iconic “Campfire Lady” song from “Blazing Saddles,” but hearing the song performed with the cowboy dance will take you back to 1974.
That’s exactly what happened on the first episode of the “Celebrity Interviews w/ Milk and Cookies” podcast when eight-and-a-half minutes into the interview, eight-year-old host Lauriston Lee Crockett IV and “Blazing Saddles” star Burton Gilliam began singing and dancing to the tune.
In the first episode of “Celebrity Interviews with Milk and Cookies,” Crockett interviewed actor Burton Gilliam of the western film, “Blazing Saddles.” Gilliam is a proud Texan and has starred in many films and tv shows like “Evening Shade,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” and “Charlie’s Angels.”
Crockett opened the interview by confirming that Gilliam went to Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas, prompting Gilliam to recall a few high school memories:
“I’m in the Woodrow Wilson Hall of Fame. There are only 42 of us in the Hall of Fame, and this year my school is 90 years old.
I was a boxer for about 11 years, and I won more Golden Glove championships than anybody in the history of the sport anywhere. I had 217 fights and I won 201 with around 166 knockouts. I got hit real hard and real
fast. But the best thing I had going for me was that I was scared to death. When you’re scared, you can hit hard, and you can hit fast.”
Crockett then brought up the history of Gilliam’s family as firemen, on which Gilliam elaborated:
“My dad was a fireman, my brother was a fireman, my brother-in-law was a fireman, my nephew was a fireman, my son-in-law was a fireman. There’s actually nine of us in my family and extended in-law family that have been firemen.
I don’t think our father intended for us to be firemen, but after we became probably 18 or 19 years old, he was real proud to take us down to the chief and say, ‘hey, I’ve got a couple of boys here that’d make good firemen.'”
Next, Crockett taught Gilliam how to perform the show’s signature cookie-dunk-before-you’re-done. Crockett showed Gilliam how you first grab the Oreo cookie, then bump it, put it in the milk, and finally eat it. Gilliam had no idea how to perform the cookie-dunk-before-you’re-done but clearly savored the treat.
After 52 movies, around 200 TV shows, and 300 commercials, Crockett asked Gilliam how it felt to be a movie star, to which he responded: “It’s fun because everywhere I go people say, ‘Wow! Are you in ‘Blazing Saddles’?”
His question transitioned into a discussion of some of Gilliam’s larger movie roles, first asking about his role as Smiley in “Gator.”
“My name was Smiley, and I was supposed to be a mean guy but a funny mean guy. I can’t play a real mean guy. It’s kind of the same type of character I did in Blazing Saddles, one of what they call heavies. Even though I was a heavy, I’ve always been able to put smiles on faces.”
“I talk about Blazing Saddles every day, and I love every time I get to talk about it because it changed my life like that. **finger snap**
I’m the first person in motion picture history [to eat beans around the campfire]. They told me that’s what they used to do back in the 1860s-70s, so that made for Blazing Saddles jokes anyway!”
Crockett then invited Gilliam to sing “Camptown Ladies” from “Blazing Saddles” along with him:
“Well, the Camptown ladies sing this song doodah doodah
Ah the Camptown race track’s five miles long oh doo-dah day
Goin’ to run all night, goin’ to run all day
I’ll bet my money on the bobtail nag, somebody bet on the bay.”
After singing and dancing to the “Camptown Ladies” song, Crockett fired off a series of questions that Gilliam answered in series:
Q: How old were you when you made your first movie?
A: “I was 34 years old. I wish I would’ve become an actor many years before that, but it happened by accident. And you can’t plan on accidents, so I guess it happened at the time the good Lord wanted it to happen.”
Q: What message would you send to your fans?
A: “If there are those fans out there that I might inspire in some kind of way to be an actor, what I would really say is to study hard to be an actor but also study hard to have another life if acting does not work out for you. You need to have a rounded education, and make sure you get that rounded education. You’re going to need it later on if the acting thing does not work out. It worked out for me, but there are things I know about that if this hadn’t worked out, I could’ve jumped right into them.”
Q: If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
A: “I would like to be able to hear better than I can hear. When you get old, that superpower goes away. And when you’ve been a boxer and people are hitting you in your ears all the time, that doesn’t help either.”
Q: What was your favorite Halloween costume of all time?
A: “My Blazing Saddles costume. This past weekend, I was in Austin and San Antonio, and the weekend before last, I was in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut doing four shows there. In each one of those shows, I put on my Blazing Saddles outfit. And it’s hard to do believe it or not. When you put on chaps and boots and riding pants and a western shirt, it takes a while to put all that stuff on. It takes me about 25 minutes to get it just right.”
Q: Do you still talk to Mel Brooks?
A: “I talk to him all the time. I talked to him about two-and-a-half weeks ago. Monday thru Friday, he’s in Los Angeles. From 9 to 6, he’s in his office. He’s 93 years old [and] writing lines that are not a part of any movie that he’s writing, it’s just something that’ll hit him. He’s not writing scripts, he’s writing lines that he can work into a script.”
Q: What is the weirdest thing a fan has ever done for you?
A: “I was known for sleeping pretty hard, so all the firemen in the firehouse took my bed, which was on rollers, and rolled it out of the fire station onto the main street at 3525 Valley View Lane in Farmers Branch and set it right next to the street. And that was a main thoroughfare. Finally, some guy honked his horn, and I jumped up, with only my underwear, and ran back to the fire station.”
Q: What celebrity would you like to see on the show next?
A: “He likes to have fun with people, it’s okay if the joke is on him. He feeds off of it and loves it.” Gilliam then pointed to the camera and said, “Cliff Harris. I want you to come be on this show. No, it’s not going to make you rich. You’re already rich, pal.”
Finally, Crockett presented a picture he drew to Gilliam and asked for his autograph and signed off from his the first episode of his “Milk and Cookie” Interview. The energy of Crockett’s interview with Gilliam cannot be encapsulated with words alone; below is a gallery of photos from this special interview with milk and cookies!
Lauriston Lee Crockett IV is considered the youngest podcaster in America. He is in second grade and wants to be able to interview people and find out the beautiful things they have to offer for his career. He recorded his first radio commercial at the age of five. Lauriston IV loves music and dancing and accomplished his red belt in American karate by the time he was six years old.
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