Callaroga Shark Media. I'm Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news. Today is
part two of my interview with Mike Chisholm. He hosts The Letterman Podcast,
which celebrates the incredible body of work done by broadcast legend David Letterman and company.
On The Letterman Podcast, Mike highlights folks who work with Dave or were
part of the show's productions. Today is a little more nerdier than yesterday.
We start to geek out about some specific subjects, including Chris Elliott, who
I adore, But we'll pick up the conversation here with me talking about Steve
Allen. I think another influence that maybe for younger people goes unrecognized is Steve
Allen. I think there's a tendency to go work backwards and go Letterman,
Carson, Jack Parr, and you have a version of the Tonight's Show in
your head that starts with Parr and goes through Johnny and Jay. But the
Steve Allen Tonight's Show, if you watch clips of that, you'd swear you're
watching nineteen sixty two Late Night with David Letterman. I think he even did
a version of the Alka Seltzer suit unless I'm totally hallucinating. Yeah, No,
Dave in the Serial Bowl, Dave in the Alka Seltzer suit and some
of these things. But Dave has never shied away from the idea of saying
that he was influenced by some of the antics of Steve Allen. The man
on the street again, the razor sharp wit of talking to people in the
audience and the coming up with these responses, that kind of thing. There's
no doubt that there's a Steve Allen influence there. This is where we bring
up Don Giller and his might of what he has done with this insane collection
that he has, what he has done. If you go onto Don Giller's
channel on YouTube, he's got a seven part in. Every single part is
like an hour and a half. It's called the Talk I think it's called
the Talk Show Guest Series, and it's in chronological order every single late night
host or talk show host and every appearance that they made on any of David
Letterman shows. So Parr is there, Steve Allen, is there, Dick
Cavott, who've had on our show, he was there, and it goes
through every single time he interviewed or had these people on the show. And
the cool thing about it because he does it in chronological order of each guest
or each host, I should say it's both their yes and a host in
this case anyway, because he does it in that order, you see the
evolution of Dave, and you see the evolution of Dave's interviewing skills and his
courage is his self esteem. Early on, when he's interviewing some of these
people, he is really you can tell he's in awe of some of these
folks. And then as his experience and skill level increased over the years,
you just see how formid old David Letterman has become. And it's a fascinating
That's comfort food for me, Johnny. Honestly, if I'm having a bad
day of some sort and i need to vege on, I need to take
some time and just recharge, I'll go and I'll watch those Those are absolutely
astounding in their insight, but of course their entertainment value as well. Highly
recommend them. But yes, Steve Allen huge influence, as was Tom Snyder,
as Johnny Carson you could throw, as was Dick Cavot for that matter.
You can see influence in Dave from a lot of these folks. Jack
Parr of course as well. I shouldn't, but you see it today too,
younger people influencing Dave as well in my next guest. And I just
love this evolution that he has had. If you look at it that way,
it makes it a lot easier. That change is a lot easier to
stomach if you look at it as an evolution. And where Dave is at
right now, as far as I'm concerned, he's top of his game.
I saw him a couple of weeks ago in La too. I saw two
nights during his three night run in LA I saw him interview Nate Bergazi and
Tim Robinson from I Think You Should Leave on Netflix, and watching him talk
to these amazing comedians that are hot as all ghetto right now and not just
hang with them, but they're hanging off his every word. It's quite astounding
to see that, to see him become our Johnny Carson right now. But
the thing is, Johnny Carson left, Dave didn't, and I'm so grateful
for that. Did you watch Malini's show the first couple nights, especially the
first twenty month, and it's of Malini's show I was like, twelve thirty
days back, this is chaotic, this is crazy. I love it.
That's exactly what I thought it was too. I was down in La while
that was happening, and I was trying my very best to try and figure
out a way to get to the episode where Dave was on it. And
I think I'm glad that Dave wasn't on the first episode because I think that
there was You're right, there was some chaos there, but there was also
some of that chaos that was like, Okay, is this working? Is
it not working? But by day three or four you're like, okay,
this is crazy. And it was very much like Late Night. But then
you throw in the idea of having a group of people out there unscripted.
No real it doesn't feel like that. A segment producer came out and said,
Okay, we're gonna go from here to hear other than the special guest
who was the expert topic on, Let's make sure we give them some time.
But other than that, it seemed to be pretty free form. Yeah,
it was. I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. I
know that there's a lot of people who are scratching their heads because they're used
to seeing no offense to Falon's Tonight Show. But Falens Tonight Show is pretty
buttoned up, is pretty A to B two C A to B two C
formulaic, and mullaney show was anything but that. Putting Richard Kind as the
as the sidekick, Holy, that was funny. Richard Kind is always He's
always just made me laugh. That guy is just a He's like a cartoon
character come to life. What a genius move throwing Richard Kind on that in
those suits on as that and I thought it was very funny. And the
cool thing about it is the response to it. At the beginning, I'm
down in La as it's happening, and I'm watching, I'm going online and
reading these responses while I'm down there, like right before. I think one
morning I actually talked about when we had breakfast down there and it was just
watching the responses and people were like, what the hell is this show?
And they didn't like it at all, a lot of people, a lot
of people were like really against it. But since then, you've seen,
like Mulaney just had an interview again the other day talking about are you gonna
be doing more of these? Are you gonna do more talk shows because there's
this audience that's clearly there, that clearly enjoyed the strangeness of it, and
I believe one hundred percent you're exactly right. It can be directly compared in
many respects to Late Night with David Letterman. I've seen a lot of people
with the take, and I agree with it. The move from Malaney is
to do that four six times a year, maybe take it on the road
like Conan. If he were to start doing that on Netflix at ten pm
Eastern every night, I think I'd wind up with the same place I wind
up with eleven thirty day of like you know what, I'm gonna watch something
else to night. I don't really need to see m'laney, but I love
the potential there. I want to spend a couple of minutes just nerding out
about Chris Elliott and I Another thing, you realize the influence on Late Night
on me. I won't get into it here. My audience knows. I
have a recurring joke about Joe Coy and Taylor Swift that I have beaten to
death to the point where it went from funny to not funny at all,
and it's now back to funny because you know I'm going to do it,
and that I'm thinking of the Chris Elliott bits of Guy under the seats.
We all know where this is going to go, and we're all laughing and
we're all in on the jokes. But let's do it the Fugitive Guy over
and over. It's the same setup, it's the same payoff, but I
couldn't get enough of it. Let's just start about Chris Elliott. Chris Elliott
is as far as I'm concerned, he's an international treasure. He's just and
I say that because Shit's Creek up here in Canada. Of course, we're
very proud of Schitz Creek being a Canadian production. And I was so happy
to see him in Shit's Creek. I was so happy to see Chris Elliot
back. Chris Elliott is just He is incredible and one of the most humble
people that you'll ever ever talk to. He and I have had conversations.
He's reluctant to come on the Letterman podcast. Doesn't want to talk about some
of the stuff he did back then because out of just Again, it's so
interesting how these people can be so self deprecating and not understand the influence that
they make. But again, a few weeks ago, watching David Letterman and
Tim Robinson on stage, Tim Robbins Dave asked him, do you have any
questions for me? And one of his first questions to Dave was can we
talk about Chris Elliott for a second. And one of the things Dave said
on stage was, at one time was probably the funniest human walking the planet,
I think was what he said. And it's true Chris was Oh was
he good? One of the things that I love about Chris Elliott. And
it seems to be this way behind the scenes as well, from everybody that
I've talked to. And I don't think I'm telling tales out of school when
we talk about Larry Sanders and how people say nobody was afraid of Larry.
If there was one guy on the staff that was directly interacting with Dave and
performing with Dave that wasn't afraid of Dave, it was Chris. At least
I don't know if he was or not, but at least he came across
like he wasn't he was, He wasn't afraid. To give it back to
Dave, and really play with him. And if they're hockey players, I'm
not afraid to hit each other, They're not afraid to throw an elbow here
and there. It was edgy and dangerous and unpredictable. It had that unpredictable
nature to it, even in some of these canned things that were gonna happen
that were quote unquote predictable. They weren't like the guy under the seats,
But what's he gonna do next? Is there something that's gonna be different or
is it going to be just the same. And you didn't know that.
That was the unpredictable part of it. And you think about the family,
the draft. I the name escapes me right now. I can't believe the
name escapes me. But Chris acting with this acting troupe and the little sketches
and skits that they would put on night Light. Oh my god, do
you remember night Light? Yes? Oh, when Chris would have his own
show, that night Light with Chris show, the middle of Dave Show,
his own show. Yeah, he knew late night show. This is night
Light with Chris Elliott right in the middle of Late Night with David Letterman,
And it seems like a new show. Is beginning and Chris completely lampooning day,
doing almost a caricature of the types of jokes he would do, and
some of the things, Oh boy, was that good. Chris Elliott is
a genius. He is amazing and I don't even know if he knows how
much of an impact he has made on people. Yeah, he is absolutely
incredible. There's a great clip on YouTube. I'll encourage everyone to seek out.
They don't even explain it, which is why it's great. It's Chris
Elliott is in Paul Shaffer's place doing a Paul Schaeffer impression, exaggerated, jumping
up and down, saying things Paul would say, not even like trying to
be funny. He's just doing a dead on ish Paul. And they don't
even knowledge that really that it's Chris Elliott. They just go with it,
and it's amazing. That was the thing. When Norm MacDonald was on SNL.
People remember him mostly for his Weekend Update, and but one of the
things that Norm MacDonald did on SNL was he imitated Dave. And it was
funny watching Norm do that because one of the things that he did, if
you really look at it and deconstruct it, all he was doing was just
trying to imitate exactly what Dave was doing, and it was really interesting.
It wasn't like where you look at when Dana Carvey would imitate Johnny Carson.
He would put in some surrealistic things, not just Carcinio, but some of
the other things he would put in. He would throw in some things there
that made Johnny a little bit more cartoonish or whatever. Norm didn't do that
with Dave. Norm didn't do that with Dave. Norm basically just acted the
way that Dave did. But it was so ridiculous because only Dave can act
the way that Dave doesn't get away with it, and it was just very
very interesting to see the takes on that. And I think Chris doing that
with Paul is something very similar. Paul Shaffer has the most amazing, you
know, unique presence, personality, delivery, wit character, because part of
that is character of course for the show, and when somebody else just imitates
it but dead on, I think that there's something that's funny about that.
Doing this every day, sometimes I'll go and I call them half ass impressions.
They're not meant to be impressions. But if I'll read a quote from
somebody, I'll try and to approximate their cadence, if that makes sense.
And both Norm and Dave have an if you're going to do a really lazy
letterman impression my next guest, and just it's that little uh. And Norm
has that as well. Yes, there's no question about that. Someone once
told the like, it's funny when I do these things. Someone once told
the it's funny when I do these things. I just did one right there.
I don't have a lot of us and OZ many times when you and
I are communicating back and forth, it's not like that. But when I'm
hosting the show, I have some of these little noises that I make and
I want I watch Dave. I swear to god it's because Dave has them
too. And it's something that I think there's a lot of people out there
that are trying to be you know, there's a lot of stand ups out
there who tried to be Hicks for a long time, and I think that
I think there are broadcasters out there that try and be Dave in their delivery
somehow, because he's got that Auschuck's Midwestern not perfect, even though it is
absolutely perfect. Delivery and like I just said it there that sometimes I'll do
that. But it's funny. When I do these shows here, I don't,
but when I'm hosting, I do them. And Norm I could not
agree more. Norm had this relaxed style. There's a little bit of Canadian
in it for sure. Every once in a while I hear the Canadian in
him come out. But I guess say this to you, Okay, So
we're talking Late Night Late Show Norm MacDonald. Nor McDonald is one of the
highlights of Late Show with David Letterman. For me, anytime that he was
on it was an incredible thing, including when he lost Weekend Update. He
was fired from Weekend Update in the season NBC pulls in and fires him.
The very next day or the day that it happened. He is on Paddel
at Late Show with David Letterman and they're talking about it, and Letterman's calling,
oh, which exec was, it doesn't matter one of the NBC executives
that he knew, you know, calling him a quizzling and doing all these
things, and it's just it's this, it's beautiful exchange. Watching that to
me is a little bit of Late Night that was in Late show and Norm
McDonald always provided that. And then you know, after when Johnny Carson retired,
he had this moment with Bette Middler. Middler sang the song to him
Dave when he retired from Late Show. I think there were two moments that
to me was like Dave's Bette Midler moment. They were combined. One of
them was a song that Adam Sandler hit. The other one, though,
was Norm MacDonald's last stand up set on Late Show with David Letterman. Can
you recall that? Do you remember that set? Have you seen that?
Johnny? Yes, incredible might be the greatest stand up set on a talk
show ever. And you look at those two guys, the mutual admiration from
two very interesting personalities. Dave had gone on record many times saying that Norm
was his favorite comedian walking the planet at that time, and Norm absolutely worshiped
Dave. And when he came in to do that set, was completely nervous.
The scuttle but is the night before, whether it was at the Cellar,
he he bombed a lot of it. He was walking around the theater
all day trying to figure out what was going to go in that set,
what wasn't going to go in that set, and it was just for anybody
out there who likes Norm MacDonald And maybe you haven't seen that set in a
while, go look at the last Norm McDonald's set on Late Show with David
Letterman. It is absolutely picture perfect. Norm's one of those guys that in
death I feel like has been elevated in class that we all rediscovered him instead
of taking him for granted. Another great rabbit hole to go down on YouTube
is the insane amount of OJ jokes, which is what got him fired.
But there are these thirty five minute compilations of just one liner is like Prince
Charles has a new book. It's called of Course OJ did it like just
but like that for thirty five minutes. Oh I know, and it is
that same guy who ran NBC. I just, oh, I keep forgetting
I don't know why normally I can pull out these NBC executives like out of
the back of my no problem. For some reason, it's just eluding me
right now. But yeah, he was apparently friends with OJ, and so
the OJ jokes were just. But it's so interesting though, because okay,
that's the case. Here's the thing that I was wondering about though Norm MacDonald
targeted at SNL. But yet at the same time, Jay Leno on The
Tonight Show, you know, has the dancing ETOs, and they're making fun
of OJ and the trial and the circus. They're making fun of that stuff
all the time. In fact, Late Show with David Letterman didn't do that.
Dave went on record as to say, I don't find double homicide that
funny. They called me crazy, but I don't find double homicide that funny,
and they didn't do what the finan should. And part of that is
is one of the reasons why some folks believe that Leno surged ahead again in
the ratings was part of that. So there's a lot of irony there because
he's on NBC. Norm McDonald's getting fired from a weekend Update, but Jay
Leno, no problem. That's the entertainment industry. It's easy to fire the
part time or the producer, the host. Can we replace the weekend Update
guy who's one of a twelve person ensemble. Yes, can we mess with
the host of the Tonight Show. That's front page of Variety and probably the
New York Times for six months. It just the rules are never equal.
The entertainment business is not fair, Oh that's for sure. And it's funny
how Dave can certainly point to that and how he was passed over for the
Tonight Show. I maintain, of course it was the greatest thing that ever
could have happened to him, because the industry was changing and he had such
a reverence for that franchise that it was going to it was inevitable that the
Tonight Show. Like people don't understand that today, they don't understand the dominance.
I don't know if there is a show in any form of entertainment right
now that the Olympics might be the one of the only like certain big sporting
events might be one of the only comparisons that might be apt. The Tonight
Show owned late night television. They owned it for thirty years. They owned
it. They were dominant. There was no counter programming. As good of
a guy as Dick Cavot was and is to this day, love him.
He's one of my favorite broadcasters of all time. He could not crack The
Tonight Show when it came to the dominance in the ratings, our Sineo flash
in the pan in broad history, but was changing television. He started to
for a little bit. But other than that, the Tonight Show was dominant.
Nobody had ever touched it. But at the time when Johnny retired,
things were starting to dilute. There were more networks that were showing up.
There was more things that were coming on to distract people or to put people's
attention elsewhere. And I just think about if David Letiman would have got that
franchise that he loved so much, and it would have been on his watch
that the industry would have changed and the Tonight Show would have lost its dominance,
that would have been so sad. But instead he got to be the
guy that walks across the street to CBS, and he got to be the
guy that started shelling this thing, lamparding this thing from across the street.
And the fact that there was even a show that could even compete with The
Tonight Show was astounding. It was unprecedented. Never mind the fact that they
beat them in the ratings for eighteen months, when you could probably go really
far down this rabbit hole when it came to the fact that CBS had a
massive disadvantage from affiliates from they on paper should not have been able to beat
the Night Show in the ratings, But yet they did it for eighteen months,
and then the fact that they would go back and forth and be even
competitive with them for thirty years. That was unprecedented. It had never happened
before. And I think if Dave was the guy in the Tonight Show chair
where that happened, I think that would have really been a sad thing for
him. But to be the guy that actually walked across the street with Johnny
Carson's blessing to do that, man, it was so much better that he
got that show more worth Mike in a second, don't forget. If you'd
like this podcast, add free link in the show notes four ninety nine a
month. Go to Calaruga dot com slash plus you can get this program and
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sale in the show notes and subscribe. Please into my substack. It's where
I pontificate about the media in the written form. Mcteepod dot substack dot com.
Link in the show notes. Are you affectionate for Conan? I feel
like I missed the boat on Conan, just because I was doing other things
in the nineties. But I feel like once he found his fastball, Conan
spiritually picked up the it's twelve thirty, let's just try stuff vib Oh gosh.
Yeah. I love Conan O'Brien, I love Robert Smigel. I would
watch Conan at first again a little bit with with the John mulaney thing you
were talking about earlier. Okay, what is this Because my mind, of
the four hosts that have hosted Late Night, You've got Letterman, You've got
Conan, You've got Fallon, and you got Seth. I think Conan's really
the only one who wanted to take the spirit of Late Night but make it
their own. Whereas Late Night may have had a little bit more of a
sarcastic edge to it, Conan turned that dial down and turned up zany.
But the creative stuff that they did, I did like him right at the
beginning, even during the shaky times, the times where he's getting week to
week commitments for a show he's about to be canceled, about to be canceled.
I liked a lot of the stuff that they were doing. I liked
Andy. I loved the stuff that Robert Smigel came up with for them,
and I thought that they were really inventive. It was certainly worthy of the
title of Late Night in my mind. But the idea that he was making
it completely his own to me was completely evident as well, which I respect
the heck out of, especially now with the benefit of hindsight. But at
the time, I just really liked it. And I'll tell you this because
I really liked it. A couple of years into it, or maybe eighteen
months into it, when Dave came back and Dave was a guest on that
show, I was electric, Like that was as a fan. I was
so happy the night that Dave came back on. He didn't go on the
Tonight Show on NBC No, but he did go back to Late Night,
and then when Conan would start coming on Late Show, and then they would
do things. Do you remember the bit You weren't watching Late Show, so
you might not have remembered this. There's a really cool moment where Dave took
his stand by audience and sent them to the Conan O'Brien show. Oh now,
they said a camera. They sent a camera. Oh it's worth watching.
It is so funny and so he sends a camera with them, so
there's a stand by audience. You're going to see Conan tonight. They bring
them, brings them on the stage of the Insulimon Theater and says, hey,
good news, we're setting you to see Conan. Camera there and then
you watch Conan, of course at eleven at twelve thirty, I should say,
and you get to see the mirrored response Letterman show showing up. And
it was just a beautiful little piece. I wish. I can't believe I've
actually even said to a couple of writers, former writers for Letterman who now
worked for Fallon, I'm like, why the heck don't Seth and Jimmy do
stuff like that? Like why don't they call up Dave ask him if they
can do elevator races they're in the same building and bring back some of these
old late night things in thirty rock. What if and you have team team
Seth and team Jimmy and you do stuff like that. I love stuff like
that, And Dave and Conan used to do that every once in a while
and it was a really cool thing. Yeah, I really liked Conan.
During Late Shift two, when Conan went through his trouble Tonight. That's my
favorite run of Letterman of all time other than the last six weeks. The
last six weeks was magic and perfect with his run up. But my favorite
Letterman period in history. I'm the host of the show. I love Late
Night. I understand the people who love Late Night so much, But my
favorite period in Letterman history was the time where Conan and Leno were going through
their stuff at the Tonight Show, and every single night Dave on Late Show
was just, oh, it was so great. And then he would have
Kimmel on and they would talk about it and all of that stuff. That's
my favorite Letterman run in history is in twenty ten. Yeah, Dave unleashed.
Maybe you could get a reunite the cast from the Late Shift movie,
which if people haven't seen, is probably somewhere on HBO Max. I love
that film. I know they made fun of some of is it Daniel Roebucks
prosthetics, But I thought that movie was fantastic. It was really The Late
Shift as a book is, in my opinion, one of the greatest.
Even know Bill Carter when he talks about writing The Late Shift and the War
for Late Night for that matter, The warf for Late Night is incredible and
I highly recommend that one as well. But he wrote it like a thriller.
He literally wrote it. Wrote this book that is the behind the scenes
of late night talk shows and a lot of executive talk and contracts and stuff
that would be considered boring by many. He wrote it like it was a
thriller, and it is a thriller. And so when the movie came out,
if you watch Bill Carter's first time he appeared on The Letterman podcast,
he actually goes through the entire process of the movie being made, and it's
incredible because they had a writer and the writer totally didn't you know. He
wrote this fictitious scene of Dave and Jay drinking together. I think they're having
a beer together. Famously, Leno doesn't drink and Letterman stop drinking. And
so the producers of the of the HBO guys come back to Bill and they're
like, what do you think of this? And Bill's this is not my
book. And so Bill ends up going and writing the screenplay and it gets
made. So he tells that whole story when he he's on the Letterman podcast.
His first time that he was on the Letterman podcast, and we definitely
talk about some of the things. But you look at the portrayal of Helen
Kushnik, incredible. She got nominated. Oh, Kathy Bates got nominated for
an Emmy for that, And yeah, the prosthetics were interesting, a rich
little being Johnny Carson now looking back at it, Okay, that might be
a little campy. Yeah, but it was a really fun movie and I
watch it. I'll watch it every eighteen months still. It is on up
here in Canada. It's on the HBO. We've got a thing called Crave
that has HBO and Showtime and everything mixed into one. It's in the archives
there, and I'll watch it every eighteen months or so. It's a really
fun movie. There are some elements though that I'm not gonna say which writer,
but there's a couple of places where they truncate the culture of a behind
the scenes of a late night television show where's yeah, not even close happening
like that, and things like that. But there are a lot of elements
of it that are really fun and it does a good overview of the story.
But it does not compare to reading Bill's book. You can get a
digital copy of the Late Shift now and Bill's actually added some extra material semi
currently, like within the last five years, I think, and it's very
good. I highly recommend it. Yeah, both books are great opera plugs
in for your podcast. Hopefully we turn some new people onto it today.
One hundred and thirty episodes in, that's a lot. We don't have one
hundred and thirty hours to kill. So if we were going to pick five,
who do you want to point people towards? Oh gosh, that's hard,
because Johnny seriously, Like last summer, for example, I had what
we call the Summer Intern Series on and I had I think five interns,
folks who literally interned for the show, and some of them went on to
do some big things in entertainment and whatnot. I love them just as much
as I love interviewing Robert Morton. You know. That's the enthusiasm that I
take to the show, This puppy dog type love and enthusiasm. So I
really have a hard time choosing because I love them all, whether it's the
Obscure, whether it's a guy who performed on stupid Human Tricks and he talks
about his entire letterment experience all the way to somebody like Steve O'Donnell, legendary
comedy writer. But that being said, if I was to pick five episodes,
I would probably pick Paul Shaeffer. I would probably pick Dick Cabott.
I would probably pick Robert Morton. Early on, we had Steve O'Donnell on
and I certainly hadn't hit my stride, or if I have a stride now,
I hadn't hit whatever it is that I have now, but at that
point. But I still I love Steve to this day. He's a good
friend. And then another writer as well, Steve Young. He's been on
multiple times. Steve and I are are friends now. He did the documentary
Bathtubs over Broadway, and so I've had him on and we've talked about all
sorts of stuff. We're you gotta actually have him on. He just released
a comedy album, and we're gonna have him back on with a listening party
with a few Letterman alum on there as well, and we're trying to make
the show to do some fun stuff with the show as well. But those
five episodes, probably Cabots is a talking to Dick Cavott, and I'm talking
to a broadcaster here. So I don't think it takes much to imagine the
honor that was having him on the show. That was an incredible moment.
When check he passed away, we did a tribute episode to him, and
then the very next week, which is just me talking to camera for ninety
minutes. Imagine that. I don't recommend that, but it was a special
moment. And then the next week Alex Bennett came on and we talked about
his connections to Letterman and of course to Sheky as well. We've had some
great moments on the show. It's I'm really proud, and as somebody who
suffered with imposter syndrome of a financial planner by trade when I was a little
kid, if you had asked me what my dream John was, it didn't
exist. I wanted to be a ghostbuster. The job didn't exist. And
if you would have said to me even five years ago, Mike, one
day, you're going to host the Letterman podcast, I would have said,
I would have looked at you like you had three eyes. Like when Rupert
g the owner of the Hello Deli, retired, I went up to New
York and I spoke in the Ed Sullivant Theater in the Ed Sullvant Theater,
the Worldwide Pants Thru in a party for him, and I got to speak
at that party, and it's are you kidding me? And I got to
actually say some things that actually elicited an emotional response from an audience of about
one hundred folks who worked for Letterman over the years. I'm so grateful and
I can't believe that this has happened. So I don't know if people think
the show is good or not good. I just know that it is one
of the greatest honors of my life, and it brings so much joy to
host that show, and the experiences I've gotten from it is just it's unparalleled.
Are the bookings getting easier because they have a track record now, so
you're not some rando who's going to do five of these and quit with one
hundred and thirty and some people that the others have heard of? Is it
the cool party to be at a little easier to get people a little bit
of Colum, a little bit of columb It's funny. There are some folks
who gave me the absolute green light yes early on, and now they're getting
sheepish about it because it's so funny because I just say, no, just
come on, we just have a conversation, just would be you. But
they're sheepish about it because of a variety of different reasons. But part of
it is the fact that, oh, you had Steve young on all these
times, you had Steve O'Donnell on, you had more toy on. What
could I bring to this? You get some of that. Some of the
heavy hitters were reluctant before and they're still reluctant now, but there are a
few who are coming around because of exactly what you said as well. So
there's a little bit of both. If you get Dave, is that good
or bad? No, that's a great question. It's good, absolutely good,
There's no doubt about that. But the show is not over because again,
the Letterman Podcast is a celebration of the greatest body of broadcasting work in
history, that of David Letterman and Company, and the company is equal,
if not greater, to Dave. A Dave is a part of it,
and that's how we view this and Checky and I talked about that was one
of the things about the show that we talked about. The guy who was
on Stupid Human Tricks and at a life changing moment because of it, and
got all these extra bookings and things because of it, and his life was
changed because of that moment. Is equally as important as if David Letterman comes
on in how I present it now. Obviously having him on would be an
incredible moment. It wouldn't be the end of the show, though, because
the show focuses on his body of work, and so I would love I
hope to have him on. So far, I've had a polite no.
I don't think the door has closed forever. The polite no is not what
we do. I think if we get to a certain place, that might
change. I also think if the beauty of serendipity comes into things and something
happens where though just the right combination of events or doors open, it could
happen as well. But it would be definitely be a good thing. You've
been very generous with your time. This has been awesome. We're let me
see, we are like twenty percent over what I even asked you for.
So I will let you go and hopefully we can connect again somewhere down the
road. But this was really fantastic. Anytime. I will do this anytime
and talk about this stuff for sure. I love it. You're a fantast.
Obviously you're a pro. You're a seasoned pro, and I appreciate this
so very much. It's guys like you I wish I would have had a
moment where I could have been given the permission to chase my dreams. I
would have gone into broadcasting. I appreciate where you guys. I appreciate the
skill set that you have. I really do, and I'm glad that you're
still doing it after all this time and not too jaded from watching this industry
that you have been a part of that has changed in so many ways to
where it is now. I'm so grateful that you're doing what you're doing.
It inspires me to do what I'm doing. Thank you so much, shawnny
Oh, you are too kind. I hope you enjoyed that one. I
love geeking out about Letterman. I wish I had known about Mike when Late
Night turned forty em back in twenty twenty two and we were kind of still
in the pandemic and doing major filler some weekends. I think I did a
month of Letterman back then. If you want to scroll back through the archives,
maybe I'll resurface those. I'll put those in the feed as bonus episodes
or something. Not today, maybe next weekend. Let me think about that,
all right. The Letterman podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and in
the Facebook group Today Daily Comedy News podcast group. I have scheduled a few
things, a couple of Chris Elliot things and some other stuff to check out.
All right, hope you enjoyed that. I'll see tomorrow.