LETTERMAN'S LOONY
REVEALS ALL ABOUT
HIS OFFBEAT ACTING
CAREER AND THE
"HORRORS" OF HAVING
A FAMOUS FATHER

As a performer and former has amassed a loyal, if not warped, cult following. His satirical characterizations on the Fugutive Guy and the Guy Under the Seats, and his offbeat impersonations of Marlon Brando and Morton Downey Jr. come straight out of his own mind, aided only by hair and makeup professionals.

Elliott's walk on the wacky side occasionally pops up on prime time as well. His goofy characters include a cryptographer (Miami Vice), a Peeping Tom (The Equalizer) and an outlandish maitre d' (Nick & Hillary, the short-lived NBC series). Oddly, he has been cast in small, straightforward movie roles in Manhunter (1986), the recent New York Stories and now the undersea thriller The Abyss. In these, the four-time Emmy winner (as a Late Night writer) still manages to get laughs in what were intended as dead-serious roles.

But that's the way it is with Elliott's deadpan humor - just seeing him gets an audience howling. The 29-year-old comic, who is married to former Late Night casting coordinator Paula Niedert, 32, and has a 2-year-old daughter, Abigail, still maintains a full schedule with Letterman. Last year, when the show was on hiatus because of the writers' strike, Elliott took the time to write Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father. It's an expose of Iris life growing up with his dad - Bob Elliott, 66, of the comedy team Bob and Ray, who have been performing their routine for more than 42 years on radio and TV.

Recently published, the book is a spoof of parent-bashing bare-all celebrity autobiographies, and has a twist -Elliott allowed his father a rebuttal every other chapter. For example, after Chris complains about being forced as a boy to wear Gold Toe socks Just like Daddy, Bob responds: ing a pair of those ridiculous -lookingBucking the trend: "I want to cash in on every relationship that I have. "

Earth shoes, but I never held it against the kid. " What does Bob think of the book? "I haven't read it, " he says.

Recently, Chris shared the painful realities of his life and the equally agonizing repercussions of writing about it.

So, you write, you perform. Do you ever worry about becoming one of those "too much, too soon" cases?

God, I pray that I become one of those cases! No, I'm on that level of fame where if I disappeared from the face of the earth, there wouldn't be much talk on Entertainment Tonight about it. And that's probably the level of fame where I will most likely spend the rest of my life.

Do you have a comedic part in The Abyss?

No. But I'm anticipating that [Abyss writer/director] James Cameron might be a little pissed off, because I may break some of the tense moments. In Manhunter I had just one line, in a boardroom scene. It came at a really tense moment, and everyone laughed when they saw me on the screen.

How did the book come about?

I had to get off my chest all the horrors of growing up as the son of Bob, of Bob and Ray. And the only way I could do that and make some money - was to write the book. It's a shocking expos6. It goes into extreme detail about growing up with him and how the image of my father is so different from what life really was like. And the only unfortunate thing about the book is that he gets every other chapter to rebut my accusations - for legal reasons. He could sue my pants off for some of the stuff I said about him.

Is there anything that you censored from the book yourself?

No. It's no-holds-barred. It's the whole shocking, sensational story of growing up with Bob Elliott. The book starts with my birth in 1960 and takes it right up to the present. I talk about where I grew up, which was this place up on Fifth Avenue [in New York City] - which is now the Metropolitan Museum of Art - but at the time, it was our home. My dad called it the Hut. There's stuff about my celebrity birthday parties where I wasn't allowed to invite any of my own friends and Dad invited all his own friends - Art Buchwald, Dick Cavett, Steve Allen. I talk about our disastrous trip on the Andrea Doria. And I take it right up to when I walked across the World Trade Center on a tightrope.

Is there anything to envy about being the son of a star?

I got to write this great book. I guess that's the best thing about growing up with some body famous - you just gotta look into how to cash in on it. I'm hoping that a movie comes out of this whole thing also.

I'll play the part of my father. There may be a part for him as a waiter or something. Kind of a walk-on....

And your relationship between you and your father now that the book has come out?

Well, I think in a way we've gotten a little closer together because we went on this talkshow circuit. At least we were talking to one another on the talk shows. But in the limo rides to the studio, we didn't say a word. I think it's admirable that he showed his face on all these talk shows. I think it was hard for him to face the truth.

You have a daughter.... Any special precautions you're taking?

We're not going to teach her how to spell or write or read. Hopefully by the time she's at the age when she could write a shocking expose about me, books will be obsolete.

Do you think Dave -is worried that you'll write an expose about him?

Yeah, I think he should be worried. I think anyone who knows me should be worried. In fact . . . there might even be a little book about this interview.

Is it a little upsetting that out of the three segments in New York Stories, the one in which you appeared [Francis Ford Coppola's Life Without Zoe] got the worst reviews?

I didn't have fun doing that movie. Francis Ford Coppola actually called me "the guy with the beard." He said, "The guy with the beard goes over here. I haven't seen it, but somebody told me it was sort of like an afterschool special.

Do you find it amazing that you've gotten all these opportunities from just appearing on Late Night?

Yeah. In a lot of cases, movie people aren't that familiar with Late Night with David Letterman. They are familiar with Dave, but it's not like the phone is ringing off the hook for Chris Elliott

Well, Dave hasn't gotten any movies.

I think Dave will eventually do movies. I think he's a really good actor and really funny when he acts. I would never say that to his face. . . .

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THEO WESTENBERGER

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