Steve Young Performed For Rupert Jee And Everyone Loved It

You're watching the Letman podcast with Mike Chisen, endorsed by the Hello Delhi. Yeah. Welcome once again to the Letterman podcast. My name is Mike Chisum. I'm stoked we're getting two in a row here. I wasn't sure if last week's episode was going to be our last one for a while, but uh um the universe kind of opened up and I' I've still got another episode that's in the can with Steve Winer that I've got to do some editing to uh that'll come out. So, that one's going to come out as well. Hopefully, we can string together a few weeks in a row again and maybe get back to the weekly schedule. I'm not sure. Um, Rupert G., Irene Hoffman, and Steve Young are our guests today. We've got an amazing conversation that centers around Steve's oneman show that he did at the Caveat Theater in New York on Sunday. Uh, great. I love I'm so grateful to reconnect with my friends and and uh I need it. Like, the reason I we've been unpredictable lately. Life has been unpredictable lately. My wife and I last episode talked about this. My father's going through dementia, uh, has been hospitalized, uh, will most likely be institutionalized if the hospital or he may stay in the hospital for the rest of his days. I'm we're not sure yet. That's all up in the air. And, uh, going through the unique set of circumstances that we're going through right now have been harrowing to say the least.

Um, since releasing last week's episode, um, I, you know, I've been feeling a lot of feelings, a lot of different feelings, uh, throughout this process. One thing I haven't felt is alone and and and and I was blown away by how many people reached out uh staffers which is still weird for me um of of the show which yeah but also even probably more confounding uh people who are fans of this show people who enjoy this show um thank you for reaching out and and many have told me their stories. I believe that podcasting um is has grown into the medium that it is. Uh because there's a huge hunger for people to be part of long form whether they're receiving it, whether they're part of the conversations producing it and releasing it. Long form is one of those things where, you know, people reached out to me this last week and they told me their stories about having a family member go through what my dad's going through or something similar and how what they learned and how they got through it and what they went through.

And I think um boy do they help. I really really believe that stories and us getting our stuff out there is a reflection for others. I certainly have used many of of people's stories for reflections on my own life and so I just want to say thank you for that. Um we definitely start the show where Rupert and Irene are asking me about dad and how things are going and and whatnot and I and I and I get into it with him a little bit partially because Irene who is a gigantic uh enthusiast of Steve Young, she loves him. I don't know that she would leave Rupert for him but she would certainly consider it or ask them to consider an arrangement anyway. That's how much she appreciates Steve Young. Um she didn't know Steve was coming on the show. And uh she thought it was just going to be her. Rupert and I, we were just going to talk about, you know, the show that they went to. They went to see Steve's show live on Sunday. And and she thought that's all it was going to be.

And at some point uh Steve jumps in and you'll see it. The viewers will see it because he just kind of comes in quietly and and Irene is just singing his praises. We had finished talking about my dad by that point and she's just singing his praises. And then now suddenly Steve Young joins the conversation and and we get to talk about uh his journey and his process of going from you know the writer on the show Bathtubs over Broadway of course uh you know worldclass documentary that was spawned literally from a late show with David Letterman bit or late night with David Letterman bit I guess Dave's video video collection um and all of these little pieces of things that he has been doing these pieces of creativity and and and Sunday's show was a throughine as to how these things can come together and be part of something bigger. The show was so good. Um, it's available on video on demand still. We'll put up links if we have them.

I' I know in the Letterman Facebook group if you look there's you'll see us talking a lot about Steve Young Show and you can click the link and and and the video on demand it's temporarily available. Uh, but I believe this is the first of of many uh of performance ventures for Steve Young in this uh in along this direction. And I'm so happy for him.

Um, I just want to say thank you very much to everybody uh out there. Again, I'm I'm I'm extremely grateful. Uh, I'm grateful that we're presenting another episode here. Um, this one and the one with Steve Winer that we have edited. I've got to edit it and I'll get that one out as well. Um, hey, maybe we can still keep this thing going weekly or semi-weekly. I'm not sure what it uh I'm not sure what it's going to look like, but I do know that we have a new episode of the Leman podcast. Um, I hope you enjoy it. Hey, Mike. How's it going? Oh, great. Stop tapping. It's good to see both of you. It's very good. Oh, man. I get It's so weird. Like, we're just spending time setting up here and now I'm just looking at you and it's like, oh, I miss my friends. I miss you guys so much. We miss you, too. And um maybe off camera we'll uh catch up on how things are going. We can you know what? We can do it on camera. I'll tell you this. Um, last week Candy and I released an episode where we kind of talked about what uh what I'm going through and some of the some of the things that our family is going through right now. And I am blown away by the amount of people who have um reached out and and and told me stories of their own where they have gone through with a relative with dementia. Staffers have reached out to me and I've like that that blew me away.

Um, I just appreciate everybody who is has said these it's it's weird. It's a new normal and then the new normal keeps changing like like the night my dad was first admitted and you sort of think okay here's going to be some consistency and then he gets moved over to this new ward and okay we think there's going to be some consistency but then behaviors change and medications change and there's no real footing and consistency and I think that's one of the hardest parts. Um, but I really appreciate you guys asking. Yeah, dad's dad's, you know, in the hospital. Dementia, uh, we're going to see him every day when we can. Um, you know, my mom and I are kind of taking shifts. My sister came in from Vancouver last week to see him and it's just it's a new normal and um, it's it's weird. Yeah, it is. Well, Mike, if there's anything we can do to help, just, you know, feel free to ask. Okay. You already have, and I appreciate that.

and and just just even, you know, having a place where I can talk about it. There's a lot of people who live lives of quiet desperation and they don't really talk about it and that's that's really really tough. Um, I mean, it's a, as you know, Rupert, it's a it's a marathon that you're running whether you want to run it or not, right? It's just and it down. It wears you down. Yeah. Um, but at the same time, I think it's also making us all stronger. Um, it's it's an excuse for me to see my dad every single day, which I didn't do up to this point. And yes, he's in this world of his own and and I mean, he's seeing things all the time. Like, it's weird. Like, it's almost like he's living in Alice in Wonderland. like like if he's talking to you guys right now, he'll he'll he'll be talking to you and then he'll look up at the no the Joe Nameoth jersey and the 12 will start to do things and and things will it'll evolve into a squirrel will run across it or something and that's what he sees is his his reality is really really kind of crazy but he's got a good disposition.

Um which I'm very grateful for. Now does he still recognize you? Yeah. Like like I'll come in and he won't see me there and he'll be either fiddling with his hands or be doing stuff or whatever and I'll say I'll say, "Hey, Dad." And he'll look at me and he'll smile at me, right? And I'm like, "Yeah, he is like I'm familiar and he knows instinctually I'm safe." And that's where that smile is coming from. But one thing with people with dementia is they cover. And my dad's been covering for a long time, right? Like he would he would prolong something. He'd make a joke. He would do something till he kind of figured out his his situation. And we can kind of tell when he's doing that. And now it's basically the entire time he's trying to figure things out. He's trying to he's trying to kind of stall for time to figure out who I am. But he does recognize us from time to time for sure. Um yeah, it's weird. It's really really weird. How How old is he? He's only 73.

But um mother has had it now for over 16 years. Alzheimer's, but um hers is a an entirely different form than what you're describing. But what what triggered my comment is that my mother is the absolute most cheerful Yeah. Alzheimer's uh patient. However, um, of course, it's progressed and, uh, in the beginning, she would allow me to make jokes about her repeated question. Yeah. The question would get repeated, and I said, "Well, I answered it 20 seconds ago, but I'll be glad to answer it for you again, and I'll make a joke and she'll laugh." Or I would say, "Mom, I'm going to go in the bathroom and have a conversation with my Colgate optic white toothpaste because getting a little better feedback from it than you and crack up. It would crack her up instead of being a cranky person." Yeah. because um my principal's mother was cranky and very defensive and I Irene's mother still has a really good sense of humor and she could still carry on the conversation. Yes. But she's got to still she has a very happy demeanor to her when she sees us, right? And it's dementia affects people differently and that's one thing I learned. And um yeah, definitely who are rowdy that you that would be the most difficult to deal with. Mom is getting mom is getting a little rowdier and and she will say things like tell those kids in the next room to to uh keep it keep it down.

They're they're too loud and there's no next room. My my dad will do that as well. um will be in the room and and he's got his own room now uh because uh well he you know if my dad does get agitated uh you know the temper flares and oh my gosh it's bad. So so suddenly I came in one day and and and realized oh my goodness you've got your own room dad. Look at that. How did that happen? Um and and and he just sits there looking at me cheerfully like like what you're talking about. You know he's mostly cheerful. Um, I think I think what happens is if he's walking around the ward and and and a nurse or a care aid uh tries to get him to do something he doesn't necessarily want to do in that moment. I think that's when the static shows up. But I'll be in his room and he'll be looking and suddenly he'll be looking off to the door and I'm like, "What's going on, Dad?" He goes, "Oh yeah, all the people are coming in now."

Yeah. Yeah. There's no people, right? It's the same My dad has the same um dementia that Robin Williams had. It's called Louis Lou Body Dementia and it's um you're right like it's such a nuance thing and um you know you don't really you don't know you're part of this club until you get into this club and then you realize that this club has a whole bunch of different facets to it and u learning it as we go and and and um you know to both of you for you know Irene with your your mom who's you know you've got your challenges with with family and all of that sort of stuff but she's So, 16 years. My gosh. Uh, and then Rupert, I mean, you know, we're in that sandwich generation where we're taking care of our parents. We want to take care of our kids, too. For me, I want to take my care of my grandkid. And it is it's tough. And I just want to throw out there to everybody out there who's got a a struggle going on with family members and whatnot. And I've certainly a bunch of people have have have written into me uh since last week. I was kind of blown away by that. for the people who are kind of running these silent races, just know that you're not alone and um and and if ever you need to talk about it or whatever event um you know, reach out.

Please do reach out um just like just like we're doing here. So, uh I appreciate you guys for asking and and thank you so much. Rupert, thank you for your words along the way too and and and you've been an inspiration to me because I know I know the race that you ran and and uh I just appreciate it very very very much. I use those things as sources of strength and Candi appreciates it too. So she and Oh, and Candy says hi to both of you. She loves you both very much. Love to Candy. Um, let's talk about some happier stuff. You guys just went and hung out with Steve Young. Yes. It was a great show. I so happy for him as he's trying to explore this performer side of him and watching it. I was so grateful to see it live streamed because I I texted Oh, there's Irene, you got a pair of glasses. You never got a You never got a medal, though, did you? I did not. The whole the whole clump went to the last person. Just a clump.

But um you were you were texting me and again because I'm on the outskirts of all of this technology stuff. I didn't know it was being live streamed and you were texting me and saying I can hear your cackle or I can hear you. I didn't say cackle. I said I can hear your laugh. And it made me so happy. And I said how how can Mike hear my laughing? And then I realized it was being streamed live. So it was it it was remarkable. First of all, I migrate to low-key personalities because I'm not. And um I told Steve early on after bathtubs and seeing it and I told him I will not tell him the total number of times I've seen it because I I'll chase him away as uh she's nuts. But um But I when we started communicating I said 15 years ago I would have never said a word to you. And he said why? I because you're smart. You're a graduate and um I'm never going to kind of be at that maybe even conversational level.

And I said but I'm too old now to care. So, and then then that broke the ice. Um, too old to to to be intimidated. Well, it was it was uh it was great to see the joy that you had. Put the glasses back on again, Irene. I was so happy. And it says um industrial musicals. Uh and then it says Steve Youngworld.com on the sides. And when he gave them to me, he said, "Um, you're now in the super fan club." I was so thrilled. I was so thrilled to have them. And, uh, his performance, his songs, and, you know, he he had on occasion sent me a few songs like he had has sent you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And of course, I love them immediately. And then he's got some on YouTube, which I told him, he said something to me like, "Well, you may hear something tonight that you've heard before." And I said, "Steve, I watch those your songs on YouTube over and over again." Yeah. Again, the number of times I've seen bathtubs is going to remain secret, but I don't mind. I laugh every single time and enjoy that.

He's a really good musician. I mean, for someone who said that somewhere along the line, maybe on your podcast about, you know, starting to take it seriously a little bit later and because he had already he he had played take taken lessons, but his performance and his style and his swagger and his um theatrical, you know, uh timing I was super impressed and and the audience was too and he had a full house.

I'm so glad to hear that. Yeah, that's the one thing with the live stream. I wasn't exactly sure how uh uh the big you couldn't tell the scale of the theater and what it was. It seemed like an art house. It just seemed like a a ve it seemed intimate, but whenever you know um people would applaud or laugh or whatever, it there was an audience there, but you just there was no scale to it. Um but I did hear your laugh. Okay. Um Irene, you're on you guys are on the iPhone. You and Rupert are on the iPhone right now. So you don't have the gallery view um of things. Um it's funny, you know, the idea of what people might think if you're talking about them behind their back and you don't know that they're uh even there. Steve Young, do you have anything to say about what Irene has just said about you? Uh I didn't hear all of it, but uh I came in a few minutes ago at Mike's invitation. And I I do want to stress that I have not hacked into the system as a hostile intruder. I was invited. Thank you for the uh glasses. They look great on you.

Uh yes. Uh Irene is full of uh lovely compliments and and uh it's been very heartwarming uh uh for for this group of people to uh give me the kind of encouragement that uh you know a guy who's of a certain age trying to do new things. It's uh I still have this combination of waspy reticence and feeling like I don't have any standing to get up in front of people and do music. Uh but yes, as I you know uh both of you know the song you're welcome Germans which uh got its public debut the other day and I realized after the show that that song contains a crystallized uh explanation of my life philosophy right now where I say uh yes I'm experimenting with hip-hop beats. I worry that I'm in way in over my head, but screw it, we're all just going to die anyway. And that is kind of what is propelling me now. Um, I want to I wanted to say something that uh first of all, there's a line in that song that early on Steve had sent me maybe in an initial little rundown of it.

And I told him that that line stuck with me so long and at my house I I gut laugh. Then I go to Greece and the and the church bells are ringing and I'm feeling a little guilty because they ring that's your alarm clock like get ready, get up, you're supposed to go and the whole the little village kind of you can see them walking past my house but I'm drinking my coffee instead on the veranda and while those bells are ringing I'm having my coffee and the line and to me I didn't know the words verbatim But it was I'm I've got a sympathy card that I'd like to send, but darn it, I only have muscle car stamps to choose from.

And the laughter, I mean, I'm the co cup in my hand almost spilled my coffee because that line sticks with me. And then when I told Steve that, he said, "You know, it's always a mystery me to me what resonates with a person to to laugh at something I might have written." Well, forget it. A sympathy card. you're gonna send it, but damn it, there's only our stance to choose from. It's so Irene, I got uh goosebumps as you just said that because um there was a moment and I forget if it was for it. It might have been when I was out for Sheckchis memorial where I was hanging out with Steve in his apartment and he played that song for me and I want to ask about because my memory of that song is different than the one that was performed. Like you've evolved that song, right, Steve?

I think I don't remember what version you heard, but I think it it by the time I was willing to let anyone hear it, I think it had solidified to pretty much the status in there could have been small changes in Okay. Okay. But I I remembered it a little bit less electronic if that makes any sense whatsoever. Uh but but that line the you realizing that feeling you're realizing that you only have the stamps with muscle cars on it. I was literally on my like Steve can vouch. I was on my side laughing on his couch. Like I was I was bent over laughing. That line there just nailed me. And it nailed me again watching you perform it. Um I was so so happy. I was so happy for you. I was so happy it was an ensemble. That was I wasn't expecting that part of it, Steve.

Like I I uh uh you guys were a troop with a U. You really were. you you um you all played so well together and it it felt like you had some people in your life who kind of gelled together to help you do this. Um the show was awesome. Your banter was awesome. Your uh everything about it was so good and I'm so curious as to how much of it was you kind of just being you and letting go that screw it, we're all going to die. I'm just going to let go. um in between the songs, all of that that kind of stuff versus how much of it was actually written and scripted and how much you uh was there any deviation from what you planned or was it pretty much uh you just kind of rolled with it? Very little improv there.

I wanted to uh go out giving myself every possible level of confidence, but I'd worked with this producer Reed Cavner on uh he he has various kinds of shows he produces and presents and I was a small part of something he had last year and uh the things have gone well when I've tried to help out at other people's events and the owner of that space said to me afterwards, "Oh, would you be interested in doing your own show sometime. And I said, "Well, the universe is calling my bluff. Apparently, I'm uh starting to accumulate such a pile of weird material, some of which is released, much of which is not, but I didn't know like how do you think about a show I I don't want to just get up in front of people and say, "Oh, here's another song.

Oh, here's another." and talking Reed eventually this idea emerged that I'm an alternate universe version of myself in which I'm the world's most successful iconic beloved superstar on the planet and got every award and during the show I win more and more awards to me it's kind of way a way of uh tongue andcheek commenting on the fact that I have never been uh motivated by awards or accolades or public uh status or any of that. I always found going to the Emmys puzzling after the first time I went and the novelty wore off. And so, uh, I consciously or subconsciously, I found that this was a way to be a weird alternate version of myself and do all the songs and bits that I want to do, but also have this shape to it and this this structure. And it this was a beta test and I've already talked to some friends who are knowledgeable about such things who've given me some notes about, oh, this was good. This part you might want to rethink.

I don't know what future it has, but to me it was just putting my toe in the water of a different kind of stream because I'm used to doing the industrial musical stuff. Have I talked for over an hour now? I'm sorry. This was No, but something that was lovely about even using that theme is that and you said it was scripted and rehearsed and and although I did overhear somebody say that you hadn't done the the two parts, rehearsed the two parts together.

I could have heard it incorrectly, but you're you went very fluidly from the one one piece to the next piece, the so the song. And Mike, I was hoping that you picked up on the wonderful AI spellings of it's okay if you have two two O's in Broadway or I can't, you know, again without seeing it. Uh it just that part was hysterical as well, but it seemed to glue the this whole idea along so that it wasn't Steve saying and now my for my next song Yeah. Oh, yeah. There was none of that. No, there was none of that. I I I loved um you the cool thing about it is you got to include It's so weird. like you say, the universe is calling your bluff and and and and making you kind of make something cohesive out of this. Watching the material that you've created, Steve, and it's so great to kind of be in the front row and watch the process of this happening. Um, you've got the shorts, you know, the the the and and and and and I'm curious about that part. The shorts that you do are so good. They're so good for social media. They're so good for like in today's day and age, it's, you know, the quick the quick joke that's funny.

Um, and then you go and do it in a live setting where you got the video playing behind you and you sync it up. Was that difficult? Was that difficult trying to recreate what you created in, you know, um, you know, you I assume you use iMovie or something like that, whatever it is that you use to put it all together. Doing it live is a different animal. Was that was that uh, was there a learning curve to that? A little bit. And I had to practice uh with Reed, the producer who had my laptop with the keynote presentation on it. So there are like 60 slides and you click to the next one and start the next video and all that. The uh trickiest one that actually required splitsecond timing was the Wordle song Dance Daddy where I had to exactly hit each line as each visual was coming up. This song is called Dance Daddy and it was inspired by some of the screenshots I've taken while working on the Wordle. I'm a dance daddy. Taking a Bliss blimp ride.

Yeah, I'm drunk funny and I'm tappid proud inside. I'm a dance daddy. Bulge bugle, play your tune. Yeah, I'm drunk, funny, feeling like a drunk prune. What uh we decided to do that worked out well was uh I played guitar live and I sang live, but there was a builtin rhythm track on the video that kept me locked on to the timing. And once I got used to that and rehearsed that for a while, I thought, okay, we'll be all right with that. But that that would have been very difficult otherwise. Well, I'm glad we're getting this out here right now because there's going to be a a a small but loud contingent of people who are going to start crying lip-syncing. It was lip-synced. And no, it was not lip-synced. He had a guide track, but that was all everybody. And there's really nothing else to say about it.

Please, you know, uh, you know, stop pelting us with the rocks and garbage. Mhm. It was not lip synced. Oh. There were some of the Nashville tracks that were the full fully produced Nashville musical magic but done karaoke style where my vocal was left off and I filled that in live and added some insignificant guitar. But as I said at one point in the presentation, those geniuses down there, they don't need me to help them play guitar. Uh I should not bring a guitar within 50 miles of Nashville. I I I I don't think that's true. But but Mike, are you noting um the man who's joining us and speaking and not this not this gentleman? Are you taking visual note of our Steve Young right now? Yeah. Why? What do you What do you to which are you referring? But yes, I am. The Steve Young sitting on a sofa comfortably. Uhhuh. And it looks like I'm wearing a conicle hat. No. Okay. Because supposed to go around your neck, Steve. Had to mess it up with the conicle cap because that man that's sitting on the sofa right now speaking to us. Uhhuh. That wasn't the man on stage. Well, okay. So, that's what I was going to ask. Irene alluded to it.

Actually, it might have been before you actually got on the call. Um, I I all my friends in the pro wrestling business, they they they talk about and I' I've got friends of every level of success from the from the indie of the indie all the way to the very, you know, very top. One of the things that seems to be um universal is the sentiment that when we get out to perform, when we go out in front of the curtain or or or uh out of the high school gymnasium, whatever the case may be, uh when we go to perform, we take who we are and we just turn it up to 11. And I'm super curious, Steve, like um you know, you might be one of the driest uh uh uh humans walking the planet when it comes to, you know, disposition and and and and and but your level of humor, of course, always up to 11 to become the performer. Was there a trick to it? Is it is it just that you've done it so often with the uh industrial musicals that it's already old hat or was this one different? Because it felt like it was different. It did feel like you turned it up. I'm curious as to what that was like for you in this experience. Yeah. Uh when I do the industrial musicals one man show, it really is me just turned up to a sort of larger vibration of onstage presence.

Yep. Which I've somehow come into. Uh I wouldn't have known how to do that, but it came. But for this show, the idea that I am the world's only recipient of the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, the Nobel, and the Tony, that unlocked something where I get to be modest and humble, but it's also a sort of slightly sickening, horrifying. He doesn't know how detached he is from reality anymore. He's talking about jetting around and going to Davos and being at the Met Gala and all this stuff like it's normal and about he's saying, "Oh, all my success. I know I've been very lucky. I just glided right to the top of of every realm of human creativity. I didn't have to try that hard. I don't know. Uh I guess some people aren't as lucky as me." it. There's something horrifying about that version of me where I get to be that oblivious and and just shrugging about, well, I I guess some people aren't as successful as me. I don't know. Too bad.

Wait, wait, wait. So, so you kind of jumped into a character from that base that from that I was trying to walk this line where sort of relatable like, oh, I came out of the Letterman show. I was almost 50. I didn't know what I was going to do and I had to reinvent myself. But then the alternate universe version of Yeah. just everything I tried turned to gold. Who knows why? Just like slightly creepy and maybe the material is good, but this Yeah, this alternate universe version of me, I still haven't quite figured out to what degree uh I'm likable. I think I'm genial, but I think there's also an undercurrent of I don't know something's wrong with the universe if this guy succeeded that well without trying very hard. Also a little pity. There's a little pity there, too. I think that uh that that shows up for the for for us empathetic folk, you know, oh no. Oh no, he really Oh. Oh. kind of. Yeah. I don't know if that's going to help. I was talking to somebody yesterday who said, "You don't want to evoke any pity. You're you got to be careful with that character." But I did not I didn't sense it that way at all. I did sense knowing Steve, the other Steve. Yeah. The real guy.

Um, I sense that he stepped into this character and was willing to to play it to the hilt of the Steve Young sensibility of still being kind of who he is low-key. Yeah. But to me, it felt like a character that made it comedic and then we were entertained with everything else. But I didn't I I was I I I was really rooting for this guy who won all these awards. Yeah, that's good to hear. But by the end, yeah, I wouldn't say I I look for pity anywhere. I I would say by the end, all right, I've done all this funny stuff, but then I say, you know, I love stuff that's a weird combination of funny and serious. And I do have the serious side. Then I do my serious song talk about, yes, even with my global fame and incredible wealth, I can have Dark Knights in the Soul and wrestle with it through songwriting. So, it's a a weird triangulation of me and an unreal version of me. And uh it will probably continue to need to be fine-tuned, but it was interesting and slightly encouraging and slightly horrifying to me how easily I slid into that character.

Yeah. Yeah. Both. Well, there's the Puliter Prize and the Puliter Prize. They're completely separate unrel. Mike, did you did you because again live streaming and all of this is like talking a foreign language, but you heard the last song, which I think Steve's going to promise me that I get to get the lyrics at least. Uh, did you hear that last song that he played? Oh, yeah. The whole thing. Well, I started crying. I I didn't film it, but Wow. I love that song. I love that song. That's a That's a real one. And as I said when I finished that song, oh just got real there for a minute, didn't it? Yeah. And I promised that it wouldn't happen again.

But Reed, who is the uh very wise producer, said, "Think about like what's going to be the thing that people really remember and take away after all this, cuz you're going to have this pile of different shapes and sizes and feelings and things, but what what's going to be something that people remember?" And I've I've remembered the the precept about screenwriting is people won't later remember what happened in your screenplay, but they'll remember how it made them feel. Yeah. And so I thought, well, maybe I got to play the the big card of the When I Say Hello song, which is outside of most of my uh output in terms of its uh emotional nakedness, but I thought, well, go out on that limb a little bit, see what happens. by the end of the show, if people have gotten used to you and liked you, maybe they'll go on that little limb with you. So, I decided to do that. But then it was time to stop and say, "All right, we're going to finish up now." Yeah. But it was so good. It was good.

And um you know, Rupert and I were heading outward on a tiny little intermission and um I look up and I I'm face to face with a a man standing and I said, "Bill Chef and he and he doesn't know who I am."

So, but luckily this one was near me and then Yeah, this one. He has a name. Irene, come on. His name is Rupert. Oh, no. Ask Mike what his name. She calls him root beer. And I find that endlessly uh uh sweet. I I I I will never get used to the idea that that the pet name for Rupert G is root beer from this. I love that so much. All right. So, root beer is standing there. So, okay, that got you the So, you so you had you ever talked to chef before, Irene? Um, no. What I did was when the writer strike way back, um I would follow it uh at I'd go to school like at 5:30 in the morning and I'd you know plug in and it was really writers kind of talking to each other a blo blog maybe I don't know but um I would still follow it. Well, but it was weird though cuz Bill started staring at Irene and he said, "You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" Yeah, you look familiar.

I said, "Bill," and he said, "You look, you know, quizzically, you look familiar." But I quickly told him about he had written an essay during the writer strike and it was really enlightening to me and probably instinctively why I became a school teacher and I really wanted to be go into art and I said now I'll really starve but as a an English teacher you know I'll make a teacher paycheck but but the thing is that when He talked about the reality and the toughness of of writing and getting into a a a a job that's lucrative enough that you can live. Um, I had to jump in like I always kind of do. Oh, wait. I want to say something. I want to say and so I wrote this letter and I started off by saying, you know, I took a government job um because I knew that I I felt like I could never go with the big boys, but also not knowing the reality of of what writers actually do go through to get anywhere.

And it it was a powerful essay that he wrote and I responded to it. But there was no one in the group who were outsiders. They were, you know, they'd sign their names. These these were all just writers writing. And I don't know who selected it, but I said, "Bill, they p because of your essay and my response to it, uh, they published it." And the one thing that might have uh triggered them because this these were a bunch of late show writers too. And I said um when I go to a show and I didn't say how many times I'd gone. I said when I go to a show I want to be entertained. I don't need to know what the lighting guy is doing or the sound guy is doing or what they're doing in the control room or what the writer the blue cards you know I really I just want to be entertained and I am when I go to the late show with David Letterman I want to be entertained and I am and it's because you're doing you're doing your jobs you're you're doing the job that A's off for me.

But anyway, it was much more eloquent and um I was really happy they they um they published it. And I You chef didn't get into that when you saw him the other day though. Very very briefly like uh Oh, cool. Yeah. like much less than what I just now said. And I said, "It was because of your letter or because of your what you had written that that and I" and he was he smiled happily. He introduced us to his niece and he spoke with uh Rupert and he did he did say he said, "Isn't it wonderful seeing watching Steve be Steve?" Oh, that's cool. You and Chef uh you and Chef had a had a pretty good dynamic when you were at the show. I don't want to spill any tea if there wasn't, but I I you and I have talked a little bit.

You you and Chef were pretty good pretty tight, right, Steve? Yeah. It was interesting over the years where he had come from a very different background, much more standup oriented. So, he had a different culture built in in a way. And I was always just the little nerdy backroom writer who didn't think he had any performing uh DNA in him. And then that slowly changed, but we often worked on the monologue together in tandem or whatever and uh sort of in that trench together got to know each other a little bit better. And uh yeah, it's interesting in the same way years after high school or college, who are your high school or college classmates that are your friends? Maybe not necessarily the same ones you knew at the time. And Bill Chef is somebody who I feel like I've become more friendly with over the past 10 years or so. And of course, I'm still friends with people like Lee and Joe and Jeremy and bunch of the writers.

But yeah, it's interesting who who uh who becomes a little more prominent over time just the way it shakes out. I I do want to say this. He did laugh when I said I said I I have been to the show multi many times. I said, "But what was really a treat was after commercial break, I'd always watch you off to the side doing Yep." And he laughed because Definitely. I probably should have mentioned something about Yeah. And I saw you picking raisins or chocolate. Oh, yeah. The raisin cookie thing. One of my favorite um Yeah. I I I love I love the dynamic of of different roles of people like like Irene, you're just talking about how, you know, the show comes up and there's all these different things that come together for it. Um, Steve, you're learning all of these different little things and and putting them together for one man show stuff and the performer in you is certainly uh coming to the forefront. It is so great to see.

I want to know how it felt after the show because the show was fantastic in it as it was whether or not it was you kind of you know beta like the use you using the word beta with that show is so interesting to me because to me it was pretty polished ready to go um and and I'm curious about the adjustments that you're that that that you're wanting to make and maybe you know that might not be the place to discuss that here because yeah there might be 20 20 things to adjust or polish or tighten or whatever but to me the big question is, does this have any legs beyond a few dozen of my friends? Because I know my friends are rooting for me and they want to, oh, they're going, "Oh, isn't that great how he's out there doing his stuff and oh, the songs are not bad." But people who have no idea who I am, why are they going to be induced to come to hear a guy they don't know play some songs they probably haven't heard?

Is is there enough critical mass there that wins over or somehow gets people into a venue? That is a huge question to me. And there's small tailwinds. Okay. Yes. Letterman Simpsons. Okay. That guy must be credible at some level, but do I want to leave my own apartment and spend money and go somewhere? We don't. I would I would not Uh-uh. I would not be rooting. So, um, vocally if I quietly felt like, yeah, he was he was pretty good. No, no, I would not because the reason I'm rooting so enthusiastically is because you're damn good. And I've been lucky that people along the way have helped me like my friend John Shane in in Nashville who got me set up with those incredible recording sessions and suddenly I have these shockingly legitimate recordings and he also got very interested in helping me with the German song and did the mix on that. So, there are things that but they're so eclectic and it can be a great thing to not stay in a lane, but it's also going to be hard to say, "Oh, you should come see this guy because he does 19 different things and he's not famous for any of them." But they're all they're all good if you bother to pay attention. I don't know.

It's I would I hope that uh this will continue to unfold in ways that I may not be able to predict. I'm right up uh right now here. I'm in in Connecticut and this evening I'm going to go to a songwriter open mic and try out some other things. So, I'm just going to try to keep that momentum going. I am interested in doing this, but yeah, how do you convince the world that uh this is worth paying attention to? I wish we It's the struggle of the artist. It's the it's that's that's just it. like the idea of taking art and commerce and putting them together is really uh a challenge and and and that's what I'm saying about all these different moving parts like like when you're a writer in a room and you just get to exercise that one gift all day um there's some certainty to that which is nice but if you look at the skill set that you are flexing or or using at that point I mean compared to what you're doing now there's so much more and and the thing I love about your show, Steve, is exactly what you just said. It is I I always I always liked when when Dave and Paul back in the day would invoke the phrase variety show. They I don't know if it was almost like there was an inside joke behind, oh, it was a great variety show or or whatever for whatever reason that uh that always tickled me.

But this here, it's it's totally apt like like the video piece that you that you you threw to of you talking to God and you being on hold and the the the Oh. Oh, God, I laughed. I laughed so hard that and it was such a nice um like the show didn't it wasn't a Weird Al show and don't get me wrong I appreciate how Weird Al when you go to one of his concerts he he he he crossed over that peak by having or huge costume changes and and all sorts of things to make the show not just here's another funny song here's another funny song here's another funny song he did a he does a really good job of that you did the same thing because you would switch mediums suddenly It would be um I forget her name, but the gal who did such a great version of of of My Bathroom. Uh you know, like that. Okay. You're getting all sorts of weird stimuli from that because it's a beautiful rendition of a of a very well-ritten song, but then you listen to the lyrics and you're like, "What? Wait, what?" Like, you're hearing all that, but you also just heard Steve do the Wordle song perfectly, I might add, perfectly synced. Um, and I think the guide track, the fact that you can do that, like if you can find ways to make it easier to go on the road and do those sorts of things, you'll be able to continue. It's it's a mixed media piece.

Um, because then you're throwing to this beautifully shot, uh, you know, conversation with you up in the mountains with God like, oh my gosh, that was such a a wonderful thing. Um, the intermission even with the escalator, the escalator with Oh, yeah. the outtakes from the uh from the escalator piece. I shot a lot of footage up there and it was so hard to decide what the the selects were. I I I didn't get that piece done for a long time because I was so overwhelmed by I have 75 clips that I want to put in and I I finally had to All right, here's I'm going to do a color-coded system of definitely, possibly, maybe. And finally it sorted began to sort itself out. But yeah, I had lots of other pretty good clips and I thought, "Oh, I know what I'll do with those that people can ignore it or half look at it or whatever." Put some of my other instrumental tracks on it at half volume. So look at it or don't go to the bathroom, go get a drink, whatever. It was so perfect. Like it was so perfect.

Like I was I was second late for it. And you're right, Mike. But but there was something else I want to kind of say. Oh, Mike, because you just mentioned um his being out in this gorgeous field and and talking to God and put on and then because he's irritated because this going to be with me for the today. Mind you, for the rest of the day, I'm going to be thinking and laughing. And he goes, "Oh Jesus, wait till we trans. Please wait for the trans." Yeah. Transferring call. It was such a good payoff. Arec experiencing significant weight times to speak with Jesus all day. It's going to be with me now. Yeah. So when was that shot? That was uh mountains of northern New Mexico in 2020 during the height of the pandemic when Dava Dava was whisant bathtubs over Broadway director and filmmaker said let's try to do something and so we shot two short films in New Mexico at that time both of them have been on the film festival circuit uh rattling around for several years won a lot of prizes at different film festivals I think brief survey on uh best comedy short at the Cleveland International Film Festival and maybe Sonoma. I don't remember a bunch of them, but uh yeah, that one and the other one were uh sort of happy experiences shot ultra lowbudget. Dava shot them with an iPhone 11 Pro. Wow.

just like a crew of three people and including me and we had another friend who was a drone operator and somebody else ran audio. But yeah, the star of the movie really is the mountains of New Mexico. It was incredible there. Beautiful. Yeah, I uh I love that piece. And again, you know, if if this show did anything, it was reveal a lane as to what a show would look like um for for for for you. And the idea of adding all of these things together, which is your brain, like let's let's face it, whether you're uh you think about the things that you would do for the show and it would be, you know, okay, this might be a desk piece of some sort, a visual aids, um is it an extra? Is it all of these all of these things that you got good at doing a variety of different things is is is very evident in the show. Were there other any um were there any other late show staffers uh or late night staffers who came to the show? Was it I know Chef was there.

Was there anybody else that was there for this one? Alex Bully uh writing colleague was there. It was nice to see him. Uh I know Jeremy Winer watched from New Jersey remotely. Me a very nice uh note afterwards about things that entertained him. Uh the the live stream is available well now it'll be video on demand ying through uh Sunday afternoon, April 6th. So, I hope a few more uh people might be uh encouraged to take a look at it before it goes away. But yeah, there's I reached out to a lot of my friends and said, "Hey, if you're not in town, we've got this option." And so, people are hopefully taking advantage of that. But to your point about the different lanes, the cut and paste movies was something I was doing before I was even involved with the Letterman Show decades ago.

Yeah. And then at one point I brought it to the show and it was almost a desk piece once and then it was set aside. But that feels like it could have been a Letterman piece. Also the escalator thing I can easily imagine. All right, let's turn on the camera over all night. We're going to be seeing things on an escalator. Pat Farmer, what do we have? Oh, we got a we got a head of lettuce, Dave. All right, let's take a look. I can easily imagine that being a runner in the Letterman show. Yes, very very much so. Um, the cut and paste. I was going to actually ask about that because it's funny you you resurrected it not that long ago on Facebook. You had you you you brought it up again and and uh people in my circle anyway. We were all Oh, yeah. And people were uh somebody said to me, he goes, "I'm pretty sure I saw that on Letterman." And I said, "I don't I don't know that I ever saw it. It's genius." the TV guide. This is the um for for for for the listeners um and and the viewers, this is taking two or three TV guide description lines and putting them all together to get this amazing piece of comedy uh and and and interactive. What a genius idea. Um making that part of the live show.

Literally making an interactive portion of the show where people could tables if they decided to get into it could do that together. That was a really smart idea. Uh, was that something that you came up with recently or was that something you always knew would be there? In talking with Reed about different ways to uh, keep different kinds of energy happening. Yes. Walk-ons from friends and some video and some music and and I want give things away and have questions to ask the audience like who knows this or who knows that and then give away some of the custom Steve Young Egon Cheetos. But, uh, we thought, "Oh, it'd be fun if we can get people to try making some of the cut and paste movies." So, I prepared the makings of five that I thought were pretty good and enlarge them so they wouldn't be the tiny head hurting little things I work with. And I thought, "Oh, I bet we'll get a couple of volunteers who will try them." And we did.

and uh my prep preparation generally guided them towards pretty much what I thought they would find. Although there were some variations, but yeah, that's one of the few things that completely evades my comedy damage because it is such a a a sweet for me combination of rigor and nonsense in the same way that I love the bad lip reading videos that are done with such care and precision and make such way off the grid nonsense that doesn't correspond to anything human beings would ever do or say. Uh, so that's one of my last refuges in my comedy damaged state. So, I love doing that project. It is addictive. It's maddening and it gives you a headache, but I sit if I put the things out and sit down and put together three or four. Okay, that's good. I'm going to stop. Oh, wait a minute. What's this one? That's a good beginning. I got to find something for that one. And then another two hours have passed. So, long stretches go by where I don't do it.

And then I plunge back in and go way deep again. Well, Michael, when you told me when you kept texting me and you said you were encouraging me like to get involved and I too scared, but what was really frustrating is when Steve genuinely was asking uh who who might know the name. I I know every freaking song. I can't remember the freaking titles.

Yeah. And I said, "For a package of Cheetos, who can name the title of my Nashville album?" And I thought, "Oh, there'll be half a dozen people yelling it out." There was quiet. And people sort of murmured like they weren't quite sure. They sort of remembered heart was in it or Yeah. And had goose that one a little bit. I was yelling it in my living room. Okay. Mike, I knew I knew them all, but I can't remember the titles. Sure. Oh, yeah. Otherwise, otherwise, you know me, I'd be going, "Hey." Yeah. Well, and at one point he said, "Okay, if there are any volunteers, and I just texted you immediately, get up there." Like, what are you doing? I wanted to be in that room so badly. Um, Rupert, yes. I'm gonna say this as respectfully as possible. Quiet. Um especially when Irene's in the room. Yeah, she does all the talking. That's that's fine with me. Um I know that uh every once in a while you get to go out and you get to see some of these these things that touched your life the way that they did. That show touched your life in such a major way. And then you know since everything has ended, you get to go out every once in a while and see these things. It must have been fun for you uh to go and see Steve do his thing and and and and and feel a little piece of that again. Uh I bet you a lot of feelings came up while you were watching that.

Okay. What what he just said it was a lot of fun for you to go to. Yeah. Now, that was the question, but I want you to expound afterward when a big group of us went across the street and how you felt about the people populating that that group, right? Felt about the the show to see Steve and then about how we walk. Your honor, leading the witness. I have to He's He's not No, no. He can't hear well. Well, I'm I'm doing different things. Yeah. Okay. Well, no, it it was a wonderful show. I thought I thought it was just going to be Steve, you know, standing up there alone and just singing the songs that which I've seen um a couple of times, but it so it was very refreshing when he had the comedy acts and he added, you know, he actually had a cast and and who performed with Stephen. It was really funny. And after the show, we did go we we did congregate at a bar. A group big group. Yeah. With his with his colleagues. And just and fans too. Yeah. Well, it was a lot of the cast was there but a lot of the fans of Yes.

And we got to them and you know a wonderful bunch of people. He loved them. And yeah, we we had some really good talks with them. when we left he just said I'm so impressed with the group of people one who was paying you know respects to Steve enthusiastically and two what cool seemingly cool people they were and so I said to Steve later I said Rupert's just really impressed with the folks he got to talk to and you know in a way it's a reflection of too. Yes, there you go. I hope I don't uh cause jerks to gravitate toward me. So, yeah, I think I've been lucky that a lot of really nice people have uh have joined in either to help me out on stage or in fact, not only did Irene come up from Florida and maybe she was coming anyway, I don't know, but she came from Florida. Okay. But another friend of mine, a terrific guy who I met about 10 years ago, came from Philadelphia and really surprised me because I knew Irene was there, but I did not know my friend Ali was coming. So, uh, amazing, uh, show of support from people. So, it was very sweet. And yes, hanging out after the show in a bar having a drink with Rupert. Uh, part of my mind thought if the Steve Young of 2015 could see what was happening in 2025, much of it would be confusing, but he would also say, "Well, this has got to be going great. Look, I'm hanging out and drinking with Rupert."

No, we just That crowd was a really nice crowd. And Rupert spoke for a long time with Ali who of course Mr. Quiet. Tell them what Ali told and what and and they did think very highly of Steve. What story did Ali tell you? Oh, he just I I was kind of surprised. He just knew everything about me. He even knew things about the Delhi. But what about Steve only talked to you? Oh, he met Steve, you know, briefly at at the elevator one day at the El Sullivan Theater and he just he he was just in awe of Steve. He had a good talk and Steve actually spent I I don't know if it was that day that he he spoke with him for three hours, but he he was just so grateful that Steve had the patience to to teach him, you know, the ropes of the trade in three hours. Yeah. In three hours. And he was he's just so grateful to Steve for what he's done for him. Well, he's uh whatever I offered him, he has repaid a hundfold at different points helping me out and showing up uh in unlikely places. So, uh, when you think of people like that and you and and you, Mike and Irene, I feel like if I'm going to step out and and do something, I better make sure that it's not halfassed because these people believe in me and I got to vindicate whatever they believe about me if I can.

Was not halfassed. Oh, yeah. No, not at all. It was It was uh Yeah. easily 7/8s asked. It was very impressive. It seemed to me and again, you know, willing suspension of disbelief. You go in there, you you know, you've got your ticket and you're already saying I I'm in. I'm, you know, whatever you throw at me. But I'm also kind of a sharp um you got to come back. Um Oh gosh. Okay. I I'm also I'm an observer. I'm I'm a visual. I I swear I did not see any freaking and it there was one tiny little glitch that happened and Steve just like, you know, butter dot right over it. Oh, the technical difficult. I could tell you a list of 25 things that oh I I hit one wrong note in this passage of this song or I I probably should have stood two feet over here instead or we should have uh done this a little faster or whatever. the the bones of it uh and and friends of mine who know about such things uh felt like okay definitely it's on its feet as the theater people say absolutely like like yeah um to me when you use the word beta like okay you probably I I I wouldn't be surprised at all to hear the idea that okay we're trying to figure this out and figure out you know exactly you know which buttons to push and which levers to pull at what times and all that sort of stuff to me watching what I watched.

Um, and I mean again, I wasn't in the room. It was the it was the live stream version of it, right? Yeah. There was that one little little technical piece that he did just kind of Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, a little bit of technical difficult. Okay, here we go. You know, feedback during a song. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Coming back from the intermission to get the uh new cut and paste movies plugged in or whatever. But yeah, these were minimal. so minimal. I have so many friends that I have watched workshop their projects and this is not this what what you presented was not that like it was not even a dress rehearsal or anything. No, what you presented to me was polished. This is a thing um already and it was it was a fantastic thing like I like I I I loved it. And you do have I mean um there's a quote that Oh man, I don't know if I'm okay. At some point somebody has told me a quote about you that Dave said about you and it was you having the voice of the show.

If there was somebody who had the voice of the show, it would be Steve Young. And I'm being a little ambiguous. I don't want to put out the quote and the circumstance and all that sort of stuff, but it was it was if there's one person who has the voice of the show, it's Steve Young. and and and your live show that you like to me all of the things that I love about Late Show other than Dave because I mean obviously Dave brought a lot to it as well but the show itself I loved the show itself and there were so many echoes of that show and what I loved about that show in your live performance like there was so much of it Steve and you do have that car charisma and that that performer presence. I just I loved it so much. It was so good. Um Darren Cox said to me, he goes, "Oh, I feel terrible." Like he just like me. We both of us wish that you know funds were unlimited and we could jump on a plane and go to New York and see these things uh you know live as they happen.

Um but he went and saw you again uh in I think he was in Indianapolis not too long ago do the industrial musical four weeks ago. Yeah. And he said the same thing.

He goes, "This guy is a star. like he's he's a guy who loves to present um you know material whatever it is and it's so good and I just want to watch it. I mean you've got a lot of people who feel that way about you man. So with a sorry Steve one second help me with the reference that with this beta thing because I missed it somewhere. A beta test is like like like Steve said the show was beta. A beta test is like like my wife's app right now, he changed it, is still technically in the beta phase even though hundreds of guys use it. It's still kind of in the beta phase before they like really um launch it in a different in a different way. Um a good example of that would have been like rehearsal shows of late show before uh anything actually aired. Those would kind of be a beta version of Did Steve say this early on in our Yeah, he said this is kind of a beta version of his show and to me it's way beyond that. But I I do understand though from your perspective all of the little tweaks that you're making and things like that.

Like I do get that. Um do you like do you like the idea of of of an ensemble, Steve? Like are you uh are these ensemble performers? Were they people that just doing a favor for you? They'd never really performed together before or they had not. Uh I don't uh Kirsty had had met Dave Adoot who had done a show at Caviat last year that we went to and they're all just sort of uh cool people with different uh acting, comedy, music uh talents. And I thought, well, I'll see if I can pull together a few people here. and Eevee is a great musical theater performer and so that worked out great. Uh if I were to say go to Los Angeles, I don't think I would fly all four of them out there. So I might have to pick up different people out there and press them into service. But uh to your point about the Letterman influence, I definitely after decades of being uh steeped in that personality and that comedy ethos, very aware that when I was on stage doing my show, there was a huge part of Lettermanesque DNA shining through there. I think there was also a little bit of Chris Elliot, the sort of uh uh improperly over overconfident glib show biz person. Yep.

Uh I also love all the like Christopher Guest, Michael McKon stuff. Absolutely. Uh I don't know if where that is in there, but yeah, different different streams flowing in there and with hopefully hopefully I get to have at least a little of my own personality in there. But yes, uh Letterman will be a huge unavoidable and very welcome component in that bloodstream. It's in your bloodstream. But I do want to lodge a protest because uh sometimes Steve and I and I I write him novels because I speak my text messages. So I'm just talking and that it comes out in print and right Apple actually asked me if if there was a problem and said that this this uh texter is sending too many words. Is there a problem? Oh my uh I'm now I'm upset. But that that interrupts my complaint and I'm really guess what? I don't know the novels are ever gonna All my friends already know if it comes from being it's going to be a freaking novel. But that's okay.

But and my one good friend John Lulius, he goes, "If you don't stop sending me these effing novels, um, call me, call me and talk to me." But I I'm protesting a little bit because I know that alpha, vita, gamma, delta in Greek, A, B, C, D. Right. Early in our exchanges, I told him that I'm too old to be intimidated now because he's smart and I'd be dumb. But but I said I be dumb is a great sentence. Anyway, I I be dumb and said but I have my pluses and they usually are in the B minus category. So when I heard beta somewhere and I didn't catch where it was in your conversation with Steve, I went that thief, he took he took my idea of be and and said beta and he's not beta.

I I'm beta and sometimes I'mma which is C. Um Steve is not beta. Okay, just so we clear that. And he stole that beta idea from me. I'm not kidding. Well, now it's a new idea. And now now we've got a new uh now we've got a new controversy. That's excellent feedback. We will we will note your complaint and uh thank you again for reaching out. I'm on hold. Um what happens to the uh this is a s silly little question. What happens to the ownership like the video in demand? Okay, it's on there till Sunday and then it goes away. What happens to that video at that point? Do you still have it for archive? I I will and maybe some excerpts of it could be put together into a sizzle reel to uh try to tempt, confused, distracted venues elsewhere. Uh a friend of mine who did watch from afar from LA the other day immediately was saying, "Oh, are you going to come to LA with this show?" And I said, "Oh, well, maybe, you know, uh, I have friends in LA.

I bet I could round up a few of them." Uh, and then she started giving me ideas for venues. So, who knows? Phase two could start happening, but I'm still trying to get past the idea that this is a vanity project, and yes, my friends who already know me and like me are entertained, but will it have any traction? Uh beyond that, I think it would take a skillful producer and an enthusiastic venue and uh a robust campaign of some sort to get people in the door who are not already my friends. There are people who do all of those things, Steve. Yes, I told him that.

Um I hope I see it's it's been a delight for me to watch this kind of blossom over the last, you know, three years. three years ago, we got connected, Steve. Um um and and and it's been really really fun to watch this um evolve. And it it's funny like like you know the idea that the universe calling your bluff uh very evident in the idea that you think this might be a vanity project when at the end of the day it feels like it's just been I always talk about you know kind of my life in a series of lily pads, you know, and I and I can put those lily pads to all sorts of different places including this show. I've done it with this show as well. Um, but the idea that you have all of these lily pads that have kind of come together and and and and um put all these things together, the idea that you haven't left the industrial musical stuff behind, but you've it's been a piece of this, you know, um the Lettermanesque. And again, I want to go back like your personality.

It's not your personal. You talk about I wish I hope I hope a little bit of my personality is in the show. your personality was in late show. That's the thing. Your personality shaped Late Show. It was actually, you know, but but the writer, and that's the that's the, you know, the the the confounding part about this whole thing. the writers many times, SNL talked about this a lot over the last few months as they've done their the SNL50 hoopla and and and extravaganza all around that have talked about the idea of the writer being um you know kind of the silent hero in the background but also sometimes the secondass citizen when when really it's them and their personality that is shaping the show like I honestly think that there is so much of your personality that was in late show um and it doesn't get it doesn't get talked about enough uh So, so your personality was very very very evident in your show as well. Um, because to me they're almost the same thing in in those regards.

I just want to be very very clear about that. Like your personality I think one of the reasons why I'm so I have so much affection for you is your personality is such that you're like a walking late show in so many ways with the stuff that the observances that you that you come up with like like I would have given anything to be in that bar. I I when when they announced it at the end of the show, okay, we're all going to and it was Was it an Irish bar that you went to? Is it Yeah, Donnie Brook apparently is go to hangout for caveat show people. I'm like, of course it is. There's no more McGee, but okay, we're gonna go to Donnie Brook.

Like, oh my god. Um, I wanted to be there so badly just because I love listening to your take on on on things. It's just it's that personality. Well, Mike also uh and Rupert had commented on it and he did say, "I'm glad Irene gets to talk because I prefer not." But we both uh we both recognized that Steve mingled with a lot of people whom I do not know, but you could tell that Steve was happy. A is that true? I Yeah. And people asked me in the couple of weeks leading up to the show, people who knew I was getting ready to do it, are you excited? And I said, well, in in my waspy way of low-key feeling, I will say I I've gotten confident enough in the material and my ability to do it that I think it won't be terrible.

And and and in truth, yes, sometimes I allowed myself to imagine like doing a song and doing a bit and doing a line and getting a big laugh and think you got to visualize that because once you have that in your mind is what you're aiming for, then your performance reaches toward it and you can get it. Mhm. So, I dare to believe uh and somebody asked me uh I guess it was Eevee uh after the show said, "Are you really proud?" And I said, "Well, you know, like the Wordle song says, my nature is that I can only be tepid proud inside." But then I said, "No, I'm proud." No, it went well. I I acknowledge that it went well. It was very fun and it was a great friendly room and everyone had, I think, just a good time. And I really this is one more lily pad or whatever.

It's a new I as uh as our friend Winston Churchill said, this is not the end or the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning. Oh, that's a low I love. We're going to finish the show right there. Um Rupert Irene, any last words that you want to say before I hit stop? And yes, one last thing. Yes. Um, I did fly up expressly for uh Steve's show. Um, he getting the drift that I'm a nervous Nelly, so I want to make sure that I'm prepared for the summer. And he the last preparation. Uh, Steve says, "Well, you know, it's only November. You have time. You have time." I said, "No, no, I have to start getting nervous now." But we came up um Rupert received a a a nice uh call, phone call, and um we realized that just about nine or 10 blocks, sorry, from here. Um this lovely product uh is on the shelf of a a lovely bakery. It wasn't a deli, it was a bakery. Uhhuh. Put it a little closer to the camera. That's the SAG peanut butter. Yes. Yes. I've been getting all sorts of questions about the SAG peanut butter. Let's do this. It's okay. Comes creamy, comes crunchy, it's quite organic.

It's SPF70, which is very important for the summer. It has SPF 70 in it. I would have never thought to mention it. I can't believe how his mind works. Okay. And um but we're thinking of concoctions because this one immediately said, "Oh, we can make the such and such." And I said, "Well, as long as I can make my Thai peanut butter thing with this because this will be great." But we were very happy because Walter and Nancy are uh it's handmade, you know. It's lovely. Yeah. Tastes great. Yeah. Maybe I can get a sponsorship for my show. There you go. Oh, get in line, sir. Um Zag Peanut Butter. Yeah. He's proud sponsor of the Barbara Gaines show. Oh, is it? Okay. Well, if I can get them in on my show and like between songs I just do just careful because when you do that it's not you can't squeeze. You shouldn't squeeze at all because No, the oil separates. I I'm fully aware. Yes. You got to stag peanut butter in the squeezable bottle. Make sure you don't squeeze at all. Um, where did you get it, Irene?

Owashers is this bakery. Uh, about 10 bucks. It's about 81st Street on Amsterdam Avenue or Washers. That's right. I've heard of them. Or washers. That's right. Or Washers. Okay. I think I need one for the set. I think I need to get one. Um, and it's it's it's uh the origin of the product. Um, just Nancy and Walter decided they loved peanut butter and I guess they went in their kitchen and uh kept kept, you know, tossing recipe around and they came up with it and they love peanut butter. Evidently, they were really angry one time and they just started smashing peanuts and then at the end they said, "Oh, this is interesting." And turns out there had already been other people inventing peanut butter and so they were a little late to that party, but they decided, well, I don't know, maybe we can still put it in a bottle, channel our our rage and anger into a productive cause. So, peanuts and salt. I looked at the ingredients on it. It is the classic basic. No sweeteners, no preservatives, all that. It's the good stuff. Oh, that is the good stuff. picked up on that when uh I handed him a bottle and immediately immediately and I'd already looked at it. He goes, "Oh, peanuts and salt."

It's almost as if Yeah, you can imagine how you don't need a giant uh industrial conglomerate to come up with this idea. It's It's the elemental peanut butter that uh if you're used to the stuff from the supermarket that's got sugar in it. This This is better. I like this kind better. Way better. Oh, yeah. Um yeah, growing up, we always used to have our peanut butter in the fridge because it was the the good stuff. Yeah, that's exactly right. I could not I couldn't I couldn't agree more. I can't wait to have a bottle of it. That's fantastic. Hey, thank you guys for taking some time out. We'll say our goodbye privately, but uh Steve, congratulations. Like really, man. Like we're so all of us who are pulling for you are pulling hard and uh I hope that that broader audience uh shows up in a way that gives you the confidence to keep doing what you're doing uh sooner than later. And I'm just I'm I'm really really grateful to be part of this uh this journey with you.

I'm really really happy for you, Steve. Thank you. And my feeling is if I am hit by a a falling piece of masonry next week, at least I'll have done this and people will know that oh yeah, he was doing new kinds of stuff. He wasn't just an oldies act. The same thing. So yeah, I'm just trying to uh do more, be more, try more. But Mike, thank you for the surprise of Steve because we we had we had no clue. Yeah. Really? You okay? You had no idea. I Okay. Actually, all right. Before we finish, um cuz you guys were like, "Okay, yeah, let's do a quick catch-up call." And yes, we'll get the camera, you can hit record and all that. You had no idea that I was going to pull Stephen at all. All right. Well, there you go. That's a little gift for you, Irene, and a little gift for you, Rupert, because I know how elated she's going to be for the rest of the day because of this. Oh, absolutely. Jesus. Transferring call all day long. But but the thing is that I had written you and said, "Oh crap."

Except that I didn't say the word crap. Okay language, but um I said my laptop and Rupert's laptop isn't are they're in Florida and his big massive computer does it's it's only for his stock market and Oh boy, Robert. And it has done. Get her done. and it has no it. And I said, "Now what do I do?" And you said, "I'll just send you the link. We'll do it on the phone." Oh, okay. So, wait. How do I do that? 20 minutes for me to figure that one out. It worked just fine, buddy. We're good. Um, I love y'all. Okay, so I'm going to end the show here and then I'll hit stop and then we'll really say goodbye and we'll really uh we'll really get out the dirt and the dish and stuff. That's the fun stuff. That's when we talk about the real stuff, everybody, when the camera's off. Uh, this has been another episode of the Letterman podcast. That is Irene Hoffman. That is Rupert G. That is Steve Young. My name is Mike Chisum. Thank you and good night. And now on the good old fictional country music show, here's Steve Young. Thank you for calling the claims hotline. Please enter your case number.

When she said we're finished, my heart was feeling pain. At least my devastation would mean financial gain. I opened up my desk drawer, took out my policy, but now my heart's been broken twice by her and the company. Well, I had broken heart insurance, but the company went broke. They got an avalanche of claims from a million lonely folk. Oh, I still do love her, but I know that ship is sailed. Now, both our relationship and my backup plan have failed. while we retrieve your information. Mutual Romantic gave me a good rate. I paid up all my premiums, never mailed them late. I wish I hadn't trusted big business or romance. Can't see how I'll ever give either one more chance. We are unable to process your claim at this time. Well, I got broken heart insurance, but the company can't pay. They still get a pile of claims every business day. My heart's broke. The company's broke. It's widespread misery financially, emotionally. We're all in bankruptcy.

We're sorry for your heartbreak. No further information is available.