A Little Bit of Letterman

David Letterman and I didn’t know we shook hands at the end of our high school baseball game against each other until we connected a few years later.  We always lined up and shook hands with the opposing team…so we’re sure we did. The next time we ran into each other was in local television when Dave was a weatherman and late night movie host and I was an assistant in news and programming. Jane Pauley was a cub reporter then too and we had known each other in college. Jane was my Jane’s sorority sister and I managed and sang with a campus singing group where Jane P. was a member.

As time passed and Dave became a television celebrity, we came in contact again and that’s when my long standing acquaintance began. On Dave’s program, he calls it “a brush with greatness”. He admits that after 18,000-some-odd guests, he has trouble remembering who he interviewed on any particular night. So, only if I can give him enough touch points, would he remember us…but I do.

It started with phone calls to his staffers.  I explained our connection to his long-time assistant, Laurie, who interceded for me and relayed greetings and messages. I began to place some clients on the program through the writers who Laurie put me in touch with. One of my favorite segments is when I placed uber-climber Lynn Hill on the show. She and Dave climbed a make-shift wall and Dave feigned hurting his back on the first hold. We had a ball.

My strongest contact happened when I came to know Mary Connelly, now a producer for Ellen Degeneres.  Mary totally got my connection with Dave and became my best liaison with the program. Of the 20-plus times I’ve attended the show, many with Jane in tow, there are certainly standouts.  I spent several of my birthdays there and got the full “green room:” treatment. Paul and band always stopped in for coffee.  I had some great chats with Anton Fig, the band’s drummer and a native of Cape Town, South Africa.  I’ve done a lot of work in Cape Town and Anton and I found that we have several friends in common. As a bonus, Mary took us on stage after the show to sit in the great man’s chair and toss footballs into the garbage can (Mary once beat Dave on the air in this perennial contest.).

With us in the “green room” (which, of course, isn’t green) have been some very fun surprises.  A long chat about the northwest with K.D. Lang, who lives in BC,  began a nice relationship there and Don Henley, formerly of the Eagles, was a hoot when we cabbed together to the airport afterward and talked “Hotel California” as we flew to DC. One time, Al Pacino made a brief appearance with handlers all around but Don Novello aka “Father Guido Sarduccii” and actor comedian Jay Thomas were both a lot more talkative.

The “green room” was fun but sitting in our front row seats (you can see us to the left of the red shirt in this screen shot) was always the highlight. If you’ve been to see the show live, you know that Dave does his own warm-up with an audience Q&A.  I always worked hard on my questions, just in case I got called on, which I did more than once. I brought Seattle and the Mariners into the mix on a couple of occasions and Dave acknowledged his affinity for the northwest and the Mariners ball club. My favorite encounter came when I told Dave that I knew he had a “spacer” to fill the gap between his two front teeth and that I had some work done on my teeth too. When they filled in the gap in my teeth, it seemed to change my life.  He said “How so?” I wasn’t prepared for his follow-up but Danica Patrick was on the show that night after winning the pole position at the Indianapolis 500.  So my comeback was that no woman had ever won the pole position at Indy before my gap was filled in. Dave laughed, removed his plug and I got to meet Danica Patrick.

In one of my early bios, I said, “I worked in local television with David Letterman and Jane Pauley. They went to New York and I ended up in Seattle” They may have become stars but I still think I got the best part of that deal. For me, Dave leaving the Late Show is like seeing a friend you’ve grow up with move away. There’s a void that you can feel. My parents were from Indiana and our Midwest roots are similar. Sense of humor. Easy going lifestyle. Love dogs. Quiet and reclusive away from work. Our mothers had the same approach to life and loved to “spar” with us. So much alike that I could often tell you what he was going to say before he said it. I recorded his daytime show and have seen virtually every one of his late night shows (I’m a late night person). I even found him on the air at 2am in Australia to keep me company.

Through all the ups and downs of the past 30-plus years, David Letterman has been the real thing. What you see is what you get. Whether up or down, healthy or not, happy or angry, you could feel the emotion in Dave. His mentor Johnny Carson was the same way. Neither was a comedian in the strict sense of the word.  They both were just funny and they made their guests feel they were part of the joke. I will miss Dave and the connection we had, no matter how far removed.  He made me laugh. He made look at life straight on. He made me care about those things worth caring about and not worry too much about the rest. Dave, you gave us all a lot of yourself. Now go enjoy some of life on your own…with Regina and Harry, of course.