One of the many perks of being the editor of a newsletter, other
than all the great e-mail I get each week, is having people send me stuff. I've gotten presents on my birthday, postcards from places all over the country, toys, zines, letters and food. But last week might have been the best perk of all: A reader sent me tickets to the "Late Show with David Letterman." Apparently he was busy and wasn't going to use them. As it turned out, the tickets were for two days after my birthday, and my mom was going to be in town. How's that for luck!
The taping was on a Thursday night at eight o'clock. Here's something I never knew: On Thursdays, Dave tapes TWO shows so he doesn't have to come in on Fridays. We were the Friday show.
When we got there this huge line had formed in front of the theater all the way around the corner. It turned out the numbers on our tickets were where we should be standing in line. The CBS pages gave us the lowdown: Bathrooms were only available until 7:10 -- after that, no bathrooms before or after the show. No pictures, no out of control hollering -- the usual. We stood in line until about 7:35, and then we were let into the theater. I was surprised at how small it was. The lobby area we passed through was beautiful, with ornamentation all over the walls and ceilings, and beautiful staircases we didn't get to use.
The theater itself was small, and there was a balcony above us that we couldn't see. The ceilings were low, too. The fake city backdrop is way prettier in person than on TV. We had a stand-up comic warm us up for awhile and give us the rules of being a good Dave audience. "Dave may mention this too, but Thursday's audience was really bad," he told us, "so we need you to be a great Friday audience. Pretend you're done with work and laugh at all the jokes, even if they aren't funny."
All I could think of was how my stand-up comedy teacher had done warm-up for Dave for a few weeks, and how he told us Dave always hated the audience and thought they were terrible. I wanted to be a GOOD audience. I wanted Dave to love us. I was determined.
The comic told some mediocre jokes and then started introducing the band. One by one, the band guys came out and got positioned. Some of these guys I felt like I knew - I haven't been watching Dave in the last couple of years, but I remember Anton and of course, Paul, who has shaved his head and looks downright weird.
The band played a little for us and then out ran Dave! He gave us a mini-monologue while the director of the show kept calling out seconds left - he had come out literally 60 seconds before the show was going to start. I was amazed how he knew how to pace himself. He really crammed a lot into that 60 seconds, even taking one question from an audience member. (The question was if Dave had lost weight. Dave replied that a couple of years ago he had puffed up to over 200 pounds, and was now 170 or something. He touched his toes and we all cheered.)
Then he ran away and the show started. I screamed my brains out. So did my mom. We didn't even know who the guests were going to be. It turned out to be Harry Connick, Jr. and Hank Azaria. I love both of those guys. Especially Hank, who does many of the voices on "The Simpsons."
Dave came out and did his monologue. I thought we were a great audience. We cheered so much when he came out that the guy holding the cue cards had to give us the hand-across-the-neck "enough" sign. Dave involved us in his monologue, which felt nice because when I went to Rosie O'Donnell, I totally didn't even feel like she was talking to us at all - just the camera. Then Dave did the Letters to Dave. During one of them, Paul cussed a blue streak. We were in hysterics. I taped the show and when we watched it, they had cut that part out. I guess they did it to get great laughs out of us. It worked.
We cut to a commercial and Dave took off his jacket. Two to three people swarmed around him and were telling him stuff. I couldn't imagine what they could be talking about. He looked pretty relaxed, but serious. Seconds before we were due to come back, Dave put his jacket back on. He did this every break. We came back and he did the Top Ten list, which he screwed up at the end (they edited that out for the real show), and then Harry Connick came out.
My favorite part of the show, other than the monologue, which was the only time I felt like I was PART of the show, was when Hank Azaria did a few voices he does on "The Simpsons." That was stellar.
It was a really funny show, and I'm not just saying that because I was there - I've watched Dave every once in a while lately and the shows have seemed to lack the spark they used to have. But the night I was there, it was a top-notch, old-time Dave kind of show.
I knew from other people that Dave usually runs off the stage when the show is over, not acknowledging the guests or the audience. But on OUR night, Dave stopped, grabbed the mic, and said to us, "Thanks, folks, you were great. Have a wonderful holiday weekend." I was beaming. I KNEW we were a good audience.
Get Back.
Write to me.