"I usually sleep for most of the hours that we're on the road," says the hot pop parodist. "But when I do wake up, usually for lunch, the first thing I do is turn on the video monitor and see what's playing on the old VCR.
"The machine I have, a Panasonic PV 1225, came with the tour bus, but it looks a lot like the machine I have at home, It's got an awful lot of buttons and knobs, and you know that when something has that many buttons and knobs on it, it's got to be darn good. It just looks so impressive, you figure it'll do all sorts of great things besides play tapes. I tried it once. I pulled up to somebody's driveway and pushed all the buttons and waited. I guess I did something wrong, though. The garage door never did go up.
"Still, it does seem to play tapes nicely. My only problem is, I have just one tape: On Golden Pond. It came with the machine. I've been watching it every day for the past month and a half, and I love it. I've memorized it. I'm even beginning to understand the plot.
"It would be nice to have a couple of other cassettes, but it's a logistical problem to rent tapes on the road. You take them out and the next day, you've got to drive a couple of hundred miles back to the store to return them.
"I'm hoping, though, that everybody keeps getting tapes, especially copies of my new one, The Compleat Al. I hope I don't sound too pushy by plugging that, but I do think it could turn out to be the next On Golden Pond. I haven't gotten Henry Fonda's voice down yet, but I do a great Katharine Hepburn."