Late Show Special effects with Glynn Borders

ready you're watching The Lettermen podcast with Mike chisen endorsed by the hello Deli yeah once again to the Letterman podcast my name is Mike Chisholm I am very excited about our uh our latest episode because I'm very excited about all our episodes it's one of the best times of my week when I get to do this uh to dive into the company of David Letterman and Company and um get some of these old anecdotes these stories so they don't get forgotten and this is a good episode for that uh this episode we have Glenn borders Glenn borders ended his run on The Late Show so he was there for 20 some odd years he tells us the whole story about how he started working uh with David Letterman and Company he finished up with the Late Show with David Letterman as the uh the head of special effects essentially he um when it came to any effects that were done on the show and a good portion of those were blowing things up not gonna lie no there were lots of things that uh that he did I I had mistakenly thought that he was in the props department at first as well because um of some of the things that he he uh he gimmicked up he gimmicked up Dave's vibrating desk uh there's a great story behind that um and and other things but no he was in the special effects Department um and and uh I just really appreciated talking to Glenn for a variety of reasons um we haven't had a lot of the Union guys on yet guys and gals who uh worked on the production side of the production because that was a an adventure and a a lot of very cool stories uh to themselves uh came from from that area we're going to be hopefully moving down that direction here uh over the next little while we've got a few guests uh from the production side of things that we're going to be having on hopefully uh culminating with Pat farmer coming up we we're going to have Pat on um and then Rick passed and then something else got it got in the way but we've been talking with Pat for a little while here um this episode with Glenn will really really wet the appetite for other members of the production staff to come on uh just I I just yeah I mean I appreciate Glenn so much uh and everything that he does he doesn't just talk about Letterman he talks about what he's doing outside of things as well he came from the theater uh side of things ended up kind of falling in this job fell into his lap and what a delight uh for him really really you could just feel the gratefulness in in the stories that he uh he talks about um that he feels for for for for this part of his life but um you know a theater producer in in his own right uh since leaving the Late Show with Stephen Colbert uh he moved over he was one of the few that actually moved over from The Late Show over to in a lot and a few of the production people did that um when when Dave retired from the Late Show uh he's directed some short films as well um and just I really appreciate the fact that Glenn has taken time to uh reminisce a little bit now this being said uh our fan base or our fan base gosh not fan base people who watch this show I'm not going to go so far as to say the show as fans people who watch this show uh are starting to increase and whatnot I'm getting a lot more correspondence from people I love it please keep the messages coming it's it's fantastic um I want to have Glenn back now as you learn about what it is that he did for the show put on the uh if if ever there are some moments that you remember that have to do with special effects something blowing up something uh maybe there being a prop gag of some sort a Man on Fire running through that kind of a thing if there are any moments that you remember about uh remember as we talk about these things uh write them down message them to me because I'm going to start compiling a list of some of these moments and the moment you refresh Glenn's memory about these things oh there's a behind the scenes story about every everything that he did and I love that I appreciate that so much about um the company of David Letterman company it's great and I'm going to stop talking right now we're gonna get right to it so without further Ado I think I say that too much another phenomenal episode I definitely say phenomenal too much uh of the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisholm featuring Glenn borders we were just talking about New York a little bit and uh and and you've been in your uh where you are right now I love that you set the computer up outside because um it's a it's a nice day in New York and and you've been in the place that you live in for 31 years and uh that's that's astounding and we were you and I were just talking about the changes you've seen in your neighborhood oh yeah it's crazy uh it's it's gone from like I was telling you uh uh mostly German neighborhood to I don't know neighborhood because all the you know New York was very Gothic that was one of the things that I loved about it when I moved here but now it's it's all the gothic buildings are going away and it's just like a bunch of Erector Sets remember those the Erectors absolutely that's what it looks like now New York looks like the Erector Set City and thin buildings like I am astounded at how they can take a very small lot and build a very tall building on top of that there that's happening a lot in New York it's the stupidest thing ever there used to be a in law against it I think it was called they were called sliver buildings remember that movie that Sharon Stone did called sliver yeah absolutely and and if I turn well if I turn the computer around that's the building I'm looking at the building that they shot it in no kidding it's oh God I hope my computer doesn't do anything weird but if I see that tall building yeah that's the Builder that they shot sliver the exteriors of it I'm sure they're gonna shoot it inside sure because I was sitting here watching it one day and I was sitting out there the TV was based at the window and I saw the building I went yeah weird it's weird but uh yeah so uh there was a law against sliver buildings for a long time but now all of a sudden they're going up all over the place they they look silly to me yeah you know I mean because you know we have faults in the seismic vaults in this city too even though we're on a big chunk of rock you know but yep still I mean the very first earthquake I ever felt was in New York and it wasn't a big it woke me up at six o'clock in the morning damn that train is loud wait a minute where's the train so yeah so it's it's a it's a dumb thing and I think that was the reason why a building had to have like a big base or something right but now you know they they they deregulated everything and allowed developers to do whatever they want to do and now you can see what when they get to do what they want to do they do ugly stuff yeah well Erectors that stuff like just very blocky and and and and yeah I I hear the character yeah I just love like you think about Ghostbusters like that building like the character on so many New York buildings is is what makes New York New York in to many people that gothic look yeah with New York that's why they call it Gotham City exactly Gotham City we're a rector set City well speaking of changes um I want to start with this because I know that you've got your late show mug with you I've got mine with me as well um I even have a late show uh one of these oh I appreciate that you wore that you know um so there's another change that's coming and that's uh Rupert just announced Rupert G just announced that the hello Deli is up for sale and and I mean you talk about yeah oh you didn't hear that yet no I saw them a couple of weeks ago I was in the neighborhood I just stopped by to say hello on a Friday and yeah um and uh someone was in there talking to them and then other people came in so I said well I'm just going to say hello so we didn't get a chance to to chat at all but I didn't know that so I better go buy and buy a couple more Late Show cups well that's that's just it and I mean you know the Letterman podcast says one sponsor one sponsor only that is the hello Deli Rupert in may we love them so much so grateful for them and uh I mean okay I'll do this part first yeah if you want to get the only place to get licensed Late Show with David Letterman merchandise is the hello Deli hellodashdaily.com you can get uh Letterman stuff you can get Rupert's stuff um all sorts of all sorts of great things and if you're in the area definitely make the pilgrimage because I mean you know I think we take for granted some of these things that we think are going to be around forever um and Rupert may have been there forever I I still maintain that on a day-to-day basis Rupert is probably one of the most selfied individuals in New York where people will go take selfies with him he is just so kind and uh you know that's coming to an end so so so if you want to have one last experience uh before they do sell it um I I've been assured that for another few months it looks like they're still gonna be there you know there will probably be some sort of a transition period when they do but um the times are a change in my man like they are just really uh you know and seeing Rupert and may um get to the finish line from a very very very um you know storied and very unique career um Rupert opened that store you know or that Deli a couple years before you guys showed up and I know just the ride has not stopped for him since then I mean 30 plus years wow um I love watching I was just there even a few months ago and it was really cool I know you're not there the way that you used to be there but I love watching the uh the union guys and gals hang out outside the theater and go over back to the deli and back and just it's just such a cool atmosphere there um did you just kind of frequent the deli quite a bit oh yeah of course I did I um you know the the stoop that's out there the stairs there's one set of stairs that was known as my office everyone called that my office so when I go back to visit every now and then you know I have to go sit on the stairs to take another selfie I've got selfies since I've been at the show and uh but yeah it was because they didn't give me an office I mean I got an office when Colbert got there but I didn't have an office with the Late Show people so I was always hanging out in the proper room or in the green room downstairs so if they needed me in warm weather it was only in a warm weather um then they knew where to find me and they'd come out where's Clinton he's in his office and you know they go out there and and then the uh the next group of people kind of resented me being in my office so I had to always go upstairs in my new office and it was so cold in there you know upstairs uh because I was I was up in the balcony right behind the balcony doors when you when you go in yeah and so there's a little door there a an accordion door I had the accordion office you know I'm the only one with an accordion office and um but it was super super super super cold and so I and then I didn't have a um they didn't give me Communications right away so I would sit outside so everybody knew where to find me but it's okay it was uh it was a great run in that space and every time I see those stairs I must go sit still understand and then just lean back you know like I'm in a new car um I love that you're making The Stereotype of the uh of the Union production guy uh you know you could just you just you just figure it in your mouth and you could be out of a uh I don't even know like The Simpsons used to make fun of that all the time I love I love that so much and I want to talk about that with you today because we haven't had um there's a huge uh I think there's a misconception with people sometimes about um you know how Productions work and and the roles that people have with Productions like this could be Dave's mug on his desk but this could also be a prop and depending on how things are uh identified you know there are very different rules for how things work and and and whatnot and a lot of people just don't realize that's how uh how how these things are and I want to talk to you about that um obviously we shot a different intro and whatnot but let's let's go back to the beginning you were you were the head of props for Letterman right no I was never had a prop that was always Pat farmer that was Pat and Pat farmer was the person that put the mugs on the get on the desk it had to be packed it had to be had I mean it had to be Pat's department but generally Pat did it personally for the first several years until he got trusted assistance you know that could that make sure everything was exactly the right way that you know the way they wanted it so that that would so that was that was a prop thing now I I eventually became the special effects director yes I I got there in electrics I was working on a show on Broadway I was working on my fair lady with Richard Chamberlain and one of the guys that worked at Letterman uh was also on that crew and um and and when we were finally closing a couple of days before he said uh you watch The Lettermen oh yeah I watched Dave all the time I've watched Dave since the the daytime show yeah you know I could get you in if you want to get in on sure they called me a week later and I and I was there for 21 years wow full day 22 all together with the Late Show but 21 days 21 years was Dave I mean it started off a lot of it was uh freelancing and part-time but I was there all the time you know when I first started I would easily say that I was there a good three days a week at First and might miss a week and then be there uh every day for two weeks and then miss a day and and ultimately the special effects director then Gene Gephardt uh started using me as his assistant when they started doing things where they needed an extra pair of hands as he used to I need an extra pair of hands and um and so I guess these were good enough and so he would call me in and and all of a sudden I became his assistant um and at the same time we had a guy that was at Ley show that went to NBC it became the special effects director there so I was at at both NBC and CBS being the assistant basically to the special effects director so I got to do SNL Conan Rosie O'Donnell uh all the concerts at the Today Show all the all the cooking effects and then in between those two jobs I got my pyro license because we did between the two we did a lot of uh a lot of pyro works and the all the inspector saw me and knew me and I got recommended good luck to take the test I took the test and then ultimately became the special effects director and Gene used to he used to joke with me all the time because you know it was it could be rough on the special effects director at times uh at at late show and he would always joke with me one day all of this is going to be yours you'll never give this up you'll never and then one day he went you know what this is yours I got another job I'm out of here and then for the next 10 12 years I was just something like that the special effects director so it fell out of the sky into my lap I love this there's so many things I want to ask you about that now now okay let's go back before I start asking you about some of the special effects we're going to get to the vibrating desk where you get to get Man on Fire we're gonna get to these things um but before I get to that again just to let our viewers and listeners understand how things work so you don't work directly for The Late Show you work for a union I worked through the union or through the union yeah and and the union basically you start doing this uh work it gets consistent you can work between different shows as long as your schedule will announce allows it and you can essentially work in Productions all over town when I was on a roll I would do early shows like either I would do the Today Show yeah or the early show at CBS every now and then Good Morning America and then go do um um either Rosie O'Donnell then go do Conan or then go do Letterman uh and then after that at night go do a Broadway show so I would do an early show early TV show late night TV show Broadway show and I would do that for weeks because the union allowed us to have as many gigs as we could have as long as they were part of our jurisdiction right and um and all the shows have sort of a we have an agreement that you can come and go as you want because even the department heads would go off and do Broadway shows and and replace themselves with their assistant which is how you know I got to be the guy uh Gene would go off and do other shows and even when I was at NBC that guy would go up and do other shows or take a long month-long vacation and I would fill in and you come back and you and your job's exactly the same No One's Gonna complain that you're not there or anything that's just the agreement and so that's that's the beauty of ayatsi local one I uh I appreciate you talking about this a little bit it's it's neat because with the pants crew or with the Letterman crew there's clearly this camaraderie and there's this family and they did a really good job of kind of segregating out their culture um in in so many ways but then like I I think about my boy Tom bolshevich shout out to Tom right now um I went and saw him uh in the in in the fall that that time I was talking about looking at your office looking at the guys hanging out he lives right over here there he is so glad they got to ring the bell very very love Tom so much um oh absolutely and it was cool because he he knew my wife and I were in town and we hung out with went over to see Rupert and all that kind of stuff and we talked to Bill Bill Palumbo oh my gosh Bill Palumbo and the stories that guy has um um oh Bill oh Bill oh man and and it's cool because there's this culture that the pants crew had but then you've got these Union guys and gals and this culture that these people have too and you have people who are walking down the street uh you know talking to them they're they're going to a different production afterwards they're uh you know the the the the Colbert people at this point uh are going to work on a different production and you all know each other even though these are quote unquote competing shows for different networks and things like that that doesn't exist with you guys it's just this kind of cool Brothers Sisterhood um with these Union guys and gals it's so cool to see that it's just our jurisdiction yeah we're allowed to work and our jurisdiction Wherever Whenever we want and and it's great um because you you know you it is a culture there's no doubt about it uh there's a Brotherhood Sisterhood um lots of friendships are made I mean I've made some of the greatest friends ever you know and it's not just our our Union I mean you also have um oh God what is what is the union um for for the cameras and the audio guys yeah I have a I have a set that you needed for so many years now I don't remember what it is but that's a completely different Union um the the the makeup people different Union you know so it's all these unions but we all we all work in harmony yes sort of sort of you're the first person on the show to kind of to kind of talk about this aspect of it and there's a lot of people who are removed from show business except for they're a viewer um and they have no idea these things are this is the case the one thing that I just appreciate so much about um you know Letterman's crew is that it you didn't you didn't have to work for pants to be part of the family and and I just I loved that it just it's it's uh I don't know if that's typical for all shows or not but it seems like um it seems like Letterman's group didn't segregate it didn't matter where you came from how you were part of the production if you were part of the production you were part of the family yeah I guess that's basically true I mean you know well there's always there's always nuance for sure now did you I want to talk about your Super Bowl appearance and things like that of course the the salsa night as well like I want to talk about all sorts of stuff I would never live that down okay well let's talk about that moment where Glenn was focused on on The Late Show um on on an on-camera capacity this would probably be the one right this is the when you guys were dropping stuff off the roof for Super Bowl right I was working for Pat Uh with with the uh prop Department that particular day and it well I think it was for the Super Bowl and we were dropping off chips and salsa off the roof and you know why couldn't I be on the chip crew you know just dump the chips over you know but no I was on the salsa crew and so we had this big uh eight by four sheet of of uh plywood three-quarter plywood that we had this big gigantic bowl of salsa that we spent 30 years emptying cans of salsa into the thing and um and we we had it on our shoulder we're waiting for the stage manager who was there to give us the you know the I think it was a bit more than likely it was Biff it might not have been well it could have been Biff I don't remember it could have been one of the assistant stage managers as well um and so um and and I think we had a monitor so we could see Dave as well and he's okay boys Let It Go or whatever and the chips go over and then we're we're we have the salsa here and we're lifted up in this the South inside the bolstered all over me it all of it just came out and just landed on me and then it went over and the guys on the roof just they I think many of them peed themselves because they were laughing so hard and I'm just covering my eyes my nose my mouth uh I was hearing salsa I mean salsa was everywhere and and I you know and having worked on TV shows forever and haven't watched Johnny Carson forever you know I just charted the camera gave a dead panic oh yeah no and and it's perfect it's perfect because you know your eyes must have been burning and whatnot all these things but no we got to get the shot we gotta we gotta we gotta put a coda on this we gotta make it happen and you the like you just not not impressed yeah I'm not impressed you know I I understood what it looked like as well so you know I I played along with it but yeah and it was funny I can't deny it that it wasn't funny you know I had that had it happen to anybody else I've laughed as well like you know but uh yeah I had I had salsa everywhere I don't I'm not as crazy about Salsas I used to be I was a related PTSD um were you okay so at this point you started Broadway somebody told you about the the Letterman gig okay you move over and you start doing some of this stuff as well vocationally but your heart clearly has always been you're a Broadway guy you love you love Broadway were you working on your own Productions or um you know other Broadway stuff making sure that you kind of kept your toe dipped in that pool as well during your Letterman run or during those years was Letterman kind of the predominant thing that you did but when I say it a lot of the sky into my lap it literally fell out of the sky into my lap I mean I I was I was never a tech guy let's see out theater Tech Guy it just wasn't my thing I was I was when I was in college and and doing some like early theater work I was I was an actor you know I was a writer active uh director type and uh I didn't want to do tech tech at all you couldn't get me to do Tech I would and we had some of the early theaters that I worked for my first professional theaters in Michigan you know you have to do especially if you were the young guys if you're the rookie I guess with the rookie rules you had to do a certain amount of tech per week like four hours something like that yeah I was too arrogant to do that it's like and so I would grab a hammer and people still tease me to this day I would grab a hammer and I'd walk around like like I was doing something with this like serious look on my face and I'd walk the stage left the stage right I hang out for a while go from stage right at the stage left come up the center go to the back of the house go back not doing a damn thing just walking around looking serious like I had a you know just a hammer in my hand and then I I left the forehead theater in Michigan and then I went to um the the Hartman theater Conservatory in Stamford Connecticut we had to do more four hours a week of tech well I did the same thing but then I found my way into teaching there was a community center there and then I started teaching theater and they said well if you're teaching theater in the community then that's a by that you know that makes sense then your excuse from doing Tech so I always did detect until I got to New York and um and I was doing shows uh and acting and whatnot but yeah you know the rent got a little expensive and uh and I found myself well looking for tech jobs and I got a tech job for Michelle um where I was directing up State and the Catskills and when we came back my my TD hooked me up with a few tech jobs and then the tech the phone kept ringing and cabone kept ringing and the phone kept ringing and all of a sudden it was like okay do I go to an audition today or do I take this gig and get paid on Thursday wow and so I just started doing more tech jobs and the more places that I did Tech the more people that I would meet that was working at another theater that was working at another theater that was working at another theater and eventually roundabout and then I was working for roundabout when they were off Broadway and then when they moved to Broadway I drove the truck so I literally drove I moved round about to Broadway and without me they would never be on Broadway damn it and figuratively and literally you moved roundabout and so when um when I started working with those guys up at the roundabout on Broadway the union guy said wait how much are they paying you are you getting Union rate or are you getting a neon Union rate I said I think I'm getting the nun right oh no we got to get through the Union right and then they started teaching me how to go and shape the hall how to get into the union and because of those guys all of a sudden now I'm a stagehand and I did not I want to be a stage head I really did not um but um fate said nope you're going to do this and you're going to do this for several years and it's going to be good to you you're going to end up with a pension when you retire you're gonna uh who knows you're gonna end up at Letterman you're gonna um end up in part of a great culture and a great family like you said and all these things and it just all kind of came together and um so when Dave retired and the next group came in Colbert came in I worked with them one year and I'd already had a show this my show the Dark Star from Harlem the spectacular Brides of Josephine Baker we did it before I started before I became a stagehand yes and um and so I had a problem with the producer back then 20 something years ago uh and uh so I had to sit on the show I sat on the contract because I didn't want him to have any any rights whatsoever so I had to sit on it for five years within that five years you know I was at Letterman I was at Broadway I was making so much money there was no way I could not do it and then within 10 years I'm the special effects director and there was no way I could leave then you know it's like I got the coolest job in New York where else could I blow things up is that Stunt Man on Fire and most importantly you know I put them out but you know you know where else could you do that it was just the coolest job in New York um my buddy Larry the ones down there with with his Gardener right now when I would come in on a freelance level he would always first thing he would say to me what are we blowing up today just by steam my face and me being there what are we blowing up today yeah uh that that it came the running joke if I was there we were blowing something up and I was just assisting at the time I wasn't I wasn't the guy um but I I remember papers going all over the place here um that you organically started learning all of these very you used word nuanced earlier these very nuanced part of of production the special effect uh director or or assistant or Department of a show like Dave's very different than the special effects of any other kind of is it similar to a Broadway show is it similar to like the special effects of Broadway versus Letterman are they sort of similar things because they are in a theater all the techniques are the same yeah it's only the scale is bigger but we'll blow things up on on light show we would you know we blow up thousand pound pumpkins on 53rd Street you know most of the time we would bring in a movie guy because they had black powder and we didn't necessarily we didn't keep black powder yes smaller explosives but nothing that big yeah so we would bring in a movie guy and we'd all assist the movie guy uh and and when we did anything else like blow uh I don't know anything smaller than yeah I would do that myself but it was all the only thing that was different was the scale you know uh setting a Man on Fire I mean you see that in movies that's exactly the same thing yeah you know fire is fire and the guy is covered in fire the guy is covered in fire I mean we didn't do a full burn we used to just did a back Burn yeah um but if if if they said okay we want to do a full burn well he's going to bring his suit we're going to light him up and you know it's the same thing and then we put him out the exact same way so so you know I could have worked movies um or you know but it would have been the same thing I would have just worked with a lot more guys who worked with a lot of bigger explosions yeah which would have been fun now yeah I've I've done things on Broadway um or leak essential which is kind of sort of like Broadway yeah I worked on Henry IV there and Henry with uh Kevin Klein Audra McDonald Ethan Hawke uh big time cast yeah and um there's a big battle scene at the end of the second act I believe it is the First Act a second I don't remember a long time ago yeah but if if this big battle scene and it was the beginning of artillery and Shakespeare was says it in the first line the artillery blah blah is like the 1300s and like wow so you have all these guys with shields and swords and screaming and hollering and and and and skirts and they're fighting and blowing up in the fireballs going off over here and fireballs going over there it was just crazy and night after night like replicated make this the same experience every night eight shows a week twice yeah twice on Saturday so there's Nuance to that as well I mean I mean the elements of random I I assume must have shown up in all of those numbers the the scale of the rule of large numbers must dictate that things must have gone awry when things like that were happening oh sure I mean you know because I had to have I had to have a point of view I had to be able to see the entire state from where I sat with my control panel and um and the stage managers in my ear my the stage manager cue number one uh prepare number one go number two Go number three go but if I see an actors in the way an actors in the way can't go now okay go to four go to Five come back okay can I go to four now go back to four whatever go back okay boom so that explosion still gets set off yeah but we just do it in a different order because sometimes actors are out of out of place you know uh I I remember one time Kevin Klein was where he wasn't supposed to be and that's how I got the job anyway the guy before me almost that got a client on fire and uh might not have been a good thing um and so they you know just before the show opened they brought me in but uh but yeah so you you have to have line of sight yeah but safety is is you know safe violence is what I call it when I was doing stunts a long time ago I was called we we exercised here is safe violence and the same thing was true with uh pyrotechnics safe violence you don't want anyone getting hurt you wanted to look as cool as possible but uh there's criteria like nobody's standing in the way yeah I had I had another rule nobody gets hurt on my watch and luckily it never happened I love hearing that um now to shift a similar uh topic to to Late Show I mean now you got the element of Dave and and and one of the things that I assume would have been Paramount to you and this would have been ingrained in you I'm again I'm assuming part of what Dave is is he likes when things are going to happen you know we talk about this Rupert one of the things that Rupert said was his biggest attribute was his hearing you know he he there there wasn't any pardon me's or I didn't hear you there he needed to be able to hear him the first time because Dave gets under Rhythm and he likes to roll and he likes to do things when you guys were a part of this a guy coming in on fire you guys blowing up something um if it didn't work if he hit the switch and it didn't work you know well now it's going to turn into something new because immediately this is where the the celebration of people like to say celebration of failure I don't know if it's that uh people like to make they just like to make fun of things but some folks who talk about late night and late show say that uh they like to celebrate failure and the moment a screw-up happens this is where the focal point of the show is gonna go I assume as a guy in your position you never wanted that to be the case ever you never wanted to create a new joke uh when something didn't work well you know that's great for comedians I had an active teacher that I always said when things go wrong is the best thing that can happen because it's fresh it's new yeah and you have to it's immediate you have to deal with it right now well the same thing is true in television but you kind of don't want it I remember one particular bit we did uh but but a comedian you know I had things go wrong with Dave I think so wrong with Rosie O'Donnell and and they're able to take it and run with it because the audience knows that something went wrong right No One Ever Knows if the lights go wrong No One Ever Knows if a property is out of place No One Ever Knows if the scenery is not absolutely correct but everybody knows if an effect doesn't work it's immediate because everything that the setup is there and if the payoff is not there everyone knows especially day and so one day we were doing a bit called remember we used to do the the um we had that German actor and it was always like German funds they were German more yeah oh absolutely yep yeah yeah so we were doing German work remember mark would drink water with his finger put his finger in the glass and the water would go down so we set that up so it's like okay we're doing German work Glenn you got any ideas like yeah I got an idea so I took a um they gave me a couple of Steins and nice hard plastic so I drilled a very tiny hole in it and then uh and then a bigger bit made a little bigger hole in it and then I took um oh god there was a certain putty that we used to use I can't I remember uh what it's called it's been so long anyways I put a a washer and some monofilament tied to the washer and I put that there and I stuck it to the bottle so that the now I got the amount of filament on the stuff the stuck stuff stuck the sticky stuff uh more tight that's what's called more tight more and uh a little on the nose isn't it yeah a little on the note how do you get that and so they gave me a like a little pedestal they had a hole in the top and they covered it so I put the um or did we make the whole I don't remember but it was a hole in the top so I put this guy on top of it and it's Hollow in the back and I ran the monofilament there and and they put it against the the drop and um and I put the monofilament there and all I had to do is just On Cue pull it that the stopper comes out the beer comes out yep worked in rehearsal beautifully cute cute uh that's great Glennie and I put a thing in there yeah that's fantastic what a genius what a genius on air yep with an audience with Dave the line broke and I'm holding the line in my hand and I can hear the direction the line broke what what and it's dribbling out sorry Jerry the work has got his finger in there and it's just dribbling and and it cuts today but Dave's got this Dave grin on his face and um I think it's the kill that is that it's you know to keep going because of time or whatever it's not working and he and he says something along the lines of oh that German work he really puts it away or something like that it was just very sarcastic but hilariously funny I could never uh duplicate that the delivery of that line yeah and and so um and of course you know when these things happen you can always go up to the store oh I'm so sorry I'm so sorry but the laughter that they got is just so huge because everyone knew something went wrong and the cleanup of it was just hilarious to me they don't care after that point it gave them the opportunity to be funny yeah exactly well and Dave again I mean we've talked about it so much on this show but it's it's very cool hearing it from all of the different perspectives of people uh who worked for the production the unanimous um you know sentiment is that whip smart the greatest broadcaster in history but also with the greatest wit and and and and thinking on his feet delivery of massive massive humor uh is David Letterman and that's that's the Ace in the Hole right there because he can make anything funny just by reacting to things the way that he does and and yeah now I wanna I wanna stay on this one for a second here because I want to give people the idea an idea of um what it was like to be there so you have this idea for a gag is it called a gag is that would that be with that okay whatever sure um so you're are you given this idea days in advance weeks in advance the day of when would you have kind of been given the the idea for this bit all of the above so sometimes they know a week ahead of time they want to do something or maybe a particular star is coming in like Bruce Willis is coming in we're going to do this with Bruce Willis right uh so I know a week I at a time to you know generally sometimes they they make it up on the spot the bath majority of the time I find out the day of and so no pressure you know yeah exactly you know but yeah the vast majority of the time was the day up and and even sometimes I remember though I think one of the last things we did with Bruce Willis was um uh a pyro thing that they came up with I think the day before okay or was it it could have been the same day but I think it was the day before but there were times where you know again like if they know someone's coming out like for example if kiss is coming on you know a week ahead of time the kiss is coming on and we're gonna have all of this pyro stuff coming into the building and we have to do all these things with it so um but the but the vast majority of the stuff is that day and they don't say um um we want uh for example remember the episode with days um uh the coffee like like uh like like um Old Faithful I feel like a geyser coffee geyser yeah yeah yeah coffee guys yeah I have that cup I kept that cup oh I love hearing that I love it I wish I'd have thought about it I would I would have I would have uh I would have brought it out next time next time no problem yeah absolutely so um yeah so it's the same same principle drilled into it put some stuff stuck stop your stuff into it stop you stuck more tight or or whatever it was I forgot it's been so long at this point I love it man and the hose goes to uh um a pump of some kind and yep comes out but that that was that day you know that they they well we want to do this geyser thing with Dave's cup well okay I think they told me maybe two hours before yep I and my favorite one was um when Robert Downey Jr came on for the first time for Iron Man and I knew they were going to want to do you know the flying shoes so that was the day of no one said to me you know can can you do this tomorrow they wanted it that day wow yeah and so um and I had to and and really like 90 minutes before the show and so no pressure you know it only had to work yeah and but it worked beautifully and the reason it's my favorite fact because Dave was prepared to hate it he was ready to he you know he got noted it was getting a little grumpy yeah I don't want to do that the writers kept coming up with stuff and you know like even with the vibrating death they just kept he kept putting it off and putting it off putting it off but this day's like all right you know it's the the desk the guests doing it so I had to put it on a shoe yeah I had to rig the show what are they called um for Iron Man when he flies what does he call it um repulsers Repulsor yeah yeah and so uh I had to make repulsive shoes yeah you got it going on here buddy Big Nerd here Glenn Big Nerd over here buddy see that great you see him up here that's actual gray matter it's beginning to seep up and come out um it's uh uh yeah so I so so they to the state the the artistic director the way it will come down the writers would write something they would get with the producers The Producers would call call the art director or they would do it in the meeting because I was never in the meeting so I don't know and then the art director would say this is what we need come to me so we were all hanging out uh in in the airlock chilling all the unions quite literally quite quite quite literally um and um and the art director goes through it he says I might have something for you and he keeps going and so I turned to the guys I went he wants uh the the Iron Man repulsing shoes that's what he wants anyway yeah and he comes back and they say how do you know I said because I I read Iron Man dude all my life when I was a kid I know what they want to do yep and he comes back and he said yeah we're gonna want uh um and for some reason it's not coming out of my mouth like repulsive shoes repulsing Repulsor shoes or whatever yeah no I I I used to be able to say it because I was thinking about it then sure um but anyway so when he came back he said we're going to want the repulsive shoes I'm gonna we're gonna send um a pair of Dave shoes down if you have any ideas I think I got an idea yeah so they sent me that Sue brings down a pair of Dave's shoes um really narrow shoes too as a matter of fact and uh oh there you go I'm just joking we'll talk to Sue home about that we're talking well Dr Dave speed about that uh so I I I took a fire extinguisher a little five pound fire extinguisher CO2 yeah and I applied uh a a modified a hose to it and taped it long enough and taped it to the shoe yeah and really hard that's what was coming off the heel of the shoe and I put it on the left shoe and I put it on the left shoe because my thinking was first they're not gonna let me talk to Dave about it because after after surgery I could never talk to him about anything I say shade is the way nope nope can't talk to babe so I said he's gonna want to use his right hand and he'll put his left foot up and I believe that that was like that was my thought yep and uh so um so I put it on the left shoe and I I put it under the desk so that when he sees it it makes sense for him to just put it on and do it right Frank one of the stage managers now the audience is beginning to load in yeah and I had I got I had the thing all hidden under the desk all day better to do is take it out put it on do the do the bit Frank one of the stage matters come on and say Glenn which which which uh which shoe that you use left to right I said the left left shoe watches the left shoe I said because Dave's right-handed put it on the right shoe are you serious yeah okay exactly I have to hide it you know I gotta get some Juve team and black wrap so the audience doesn't see what it is and I take it in the back I undo it I put it on the right shoe I bring it back I put it up under the desk all this is three-quarter filled and um yeah at about three quarter still now and you know how it is you've been there they're moving fast everyone's yes excited to be there absolutely they fill that house like that so now and it turns into a rock concert very quickly too like it yes absolutely and and and so then Biff comes down and say Glenn uh you got you have Dave's shoes in there I said yep which one did you put it on it's on the right shoe why'd you put it on the right shoe I said Frank told me to change I had it on the left shoe and Frank told me to put nope nope nope nope go put it on the left shoe because I guess when um I don't know Dave must have seen because you know the camera is always there yes and so he sees what's going on and I don't know if he saw it or not and like where I had it and had him change it or something but it anyway this is well put it on the left shoe he said you better hurry up because Dave's coming Dave's on his way down now the band is playing the band is playing you know it's it's moving really quickly now yep so now I have to take this thing cover it up again take it in the back remove it from the from the right shoe put and I'm using gappers tape it's just tape I mean it's really good sticky tape but that's the only thing that's holding the thing is to get together is tape now I'm moving really quickly and I can't put the kind of care yeah that I you know that I did when I was relaxed yeah exactly when you had it right the first time what I had when I had to write the first time and there was no pressure and so I'm doing this thing real fast and and of course there's gonna be pressure when he squeezes it will it pop loose and that was my fear and so I have the thing there and I put it under the time is up there's no more it's under there but we get to the bit have you seen have you I'm sure of course you've seen it where Dave pulled it I don't know if you have a talk show of your own but if you do you like to have things the same way every day so you you know just going to us you know another gear you have to worry about it you know just you go just through the show yeah I get out here and there's this and he takes out the rig with with the shoe with the hose with the CO2 fire extinguisher and the audience is laughing like what is that ridiculous piece of crap and they say you know what this is this is a joke about um uh Iron Man and how he creates a flying suit and he says um and he's holding the thing up and it holds it up and he squeezes it and it's it implies all over the place no and the audience is dying laughing and they said whoa he said I think if you put this on you could really fly he puts it on his left what he catches the thing with his right hand he puts his left foot up on the desk exactly I thought he would and they got the shot of the the stream forcing out of the heel of the shoe and he's doing this thing and the band starts playing Iron Man by Black Sabbath which I used to yeah when I was 17 years old I'm like this is so surreal Black Sabbath is playing and then Dave says I was wrong I was wrong I I'm so glad this was here oh right in the heart right in the heart I'm so glad he could have said great job Glenn yep no no but I'm so glad this was here and so it was all that craziness and so that's why it's my favorite because it was a crazy day to have to change it and you know it was I was just afraid that I did it so fast the last time that was gonna pop loose and see an embarrassment to the show an embarrassment to Dave and embarrassment to me you know but it held on and the the camera angle of that stream coming out of the hill was just fantastic so that that made up for all the years I was there when things didn't go right you know that was that was that was a great effect I will say let's all uh let's all do our yeah absolutely uh and there's so many of them like I want to get to the I want to get to the Montage in a second here because uh uh in the Montage there was a a section where it was just things blowing up very very quickly so I'll ask that in a second but right now we're gonna we're gonna call up to the the worldwide pants Gods hey Walter if you hear this it sounds like that segment needs to be put on the worldwide pants uh on the on the on the official Letterman channel that sounds like a well I mean because that's the that's the funny like that's the stuff I love so much and so many people love so much the the uh explaining of the joke and then the like the the breaking of the fourth wall you know they just recently had the the the the whole um Eagles uh bit where they they were talking about having a discussion whether we can play Eagle songs on the show or not and it was just like like that's in my opinion the best Letterman and the universal Letterman the stuff that was there from late night all the way up till now where it's like well a discussion and this is an actual show but let's actually dissect the show and make that the entertainment and that what you just described there was a perfect example of how there is no other show that would do that um and and to this day like it's just the breaking of the fourth wall was so fun but because you got your cake and you get to eat it too because he you saw the joke you saw the gag you saw it all but then you got Dave's dissection of it and I just love that that's a great example of that Glenn yeah it was you know when he probably freaks that thing out and it kind of exposes it oh my God now what's gonna happen he hates it you know and the last thing you want is for him to hate it you know and so for him to say I was wrong I'm so glad this was here oh man that felt good that felt really good um we're gonna get to the vibrating desk too because this is another one that wasn't just a day of it evolved into actually happening all week yeah but um that Montage so the very last Montage on the very last Late Show um masterfully done um hopefully we're gonna get Randy on here to talk about it and I mean oh if I could get Barbara to talk about that that would be fantastic that Montage what's that have you at the Barbara or Randy on before not on the show talk to them both privately um and and uh yeah Randy and I have a bond because we both are you know she was one of Richard's best friends and Rick is my my heart I I love Rick by the way I guess he would have rigged Rick up uh yippie Kaye shecky uh you know Bruce Willis shooting shecky in those squibs that probably would have been you right no that was that was uh that was Gene I was I was I assisted on that was okay yeah um but that Montage of course oh God I love doing squish did you love squibs squibs are fun they look like they'd be fun like I mean I assume you would have used them a lot in your career uh more so for uh for Letterman it's strange as that may sing I mean we did it we did it for uh Conan but Conan never used blood we use powder right so some reason just powder you know but uh um but Dave likes blood the more the better I mean blood was funny on that show yeah one of my favorite bleeding things was with Alan culture where he gets mauled by The Late Show bear and and I have him rigged up and and and and as the bear is is screaming you can see the blood coming out but when he lays on the ground the blood just spreads all over the entire thing and the audience is just dying laughing all the writers are laughing you know it it and then Dave comes down and offers him a Kleenex you know on tissue was funny on that show um and and so yeah so the things that that I would do in a movie I got to do on days yeah when Cobert came along he didn't do any of that stuff you know which made it like okay I could leave now I I love to do my show but uh but it wasn't as much fun because you know I just never knew what the the I think I might have said this the last time um my my former boss Gene and I our nickname for the writers and the producers were the Geniuses so uh it's like it was always fun to see what the Geniuses came up with on a given day um that Montage that I was talking about at the end of it near the end of it uh the Foo Fighters are playing it's live you know with this 500 and some odd shots that are coming through and then they had a section near the end of it which was just blowing up like that's all it was was that um I love the fact and I wanted to note that with you today is just the fact that it was such a part of the show that you know throwing things off the roof or blowing things up or whatever um that they actually put it in the last Montage on The Late Show and they actually gave it probably six or seven seconds which is in that uh in that montage is an eternity uh with with things blowing up the fireworks going off off the building and and all sorts of stuff um that must have been really gratifying to see that oh it really was it was it was a lot of fun my last credit was cool too so I I really enjoyed that as well the the with the the black and white shot of you uh like in the last credits of the last election yeah absolutely yeah yeah that was a cool shot I really appreciated that um with with the you know um because you know the the the fireworks on on the roof with the Gucci family did that because that was way out of what we did that's absolutely actual fireworks company to do that and that was early on in my um pyrotechnic licensing you know so that was a that was a really great um experience to do that yeah so to learn a lot in that one so there was a poster of the building that was out front and so it was my final credit they had me stand in front of that and and that was that was the background from my my final credit which was which was cool yeah that it's uh that's amazing um okay let's get to the vibrating desk because that's uh you found it the vibrating desk had a small little Saga in itself oh God yeah did you tell the vibrating desk story wow you you have me remembering these I hope my stories don't go all over the place but the re the reason my stories go all over the place because it went all over the place I mean and and that's what I love about this show the the about the Letterman podcast is is for whatever reason um so many of the people who come on as guests we have this thing as we start talking about things the floodgates open and the memories just show up I love this being a stream of conscious in the show because you know that we you know you and I didn't really prep anything for this one here the Iron Man story came out of nowhere like I love that um but the vibrating desk is one I definitely wanted to to highlight because the final product which many people probably remember like as I say vibrating desk is probably a lot of people who oh yeah okay but there is background like I love the story how it happened okay so again um so the art director comes to me and he says um they want Dave's desk to vibrate I said say what they they they want they want his desk the vibrate you know and the bit is is that he put the court there's a slot you know a change thing you put a quarter in it like the old school Hotel Beds like my old school Hotel Beds and I'm sure that one of the writers probably on the road somewhere stopped in a motel and they had one but oh this would be great I'll bet you a thousand dollars that's how I came up you know uh what did we do what do we had Dave's desk vibrate I think it was solid oak how do you how do you make a solid oak desk vibrate yeah so he says well uh the pop prop Department are making a uh a spring a spring uh bed to sit it on oh okay yeah so I started sending Ruth out who was our outside props person yeah uh because she you need something she goes out and she buys it you know or she rents it or whatever it is that you need something outside uh and uh and so I I told her I need a palm sander because I'm thinking if I put a palm sander because you know it vibration really really fast so I I um so I so I attached that to the scripture to the springs and I put a glass of water on on the uh the desk and hit the switch and you can see the water vibrating yeah caught down the producers and the writers and they went no we want the entire desk device foreign are you kidding me all right so I told Ruth okay Ruth how about a um a Sawzall I need two sawzalls I don't know where that came from it just popped into my brain okay so she goes that buys two songs off one of which I still have um awesome and so I I attached so I take of course I'm not going to use the blade so the um the the reciprocating tool on it I could put a put a pad on it some kind of way and then I put pads on the the spring so that it didn't you know make a pounding sound I want it to be nice and soft and so I turn it on and it was crazy as I put one on this side of the desk one on this on the inside of the desk and I attached them to and pointing down onto the springs and then I got a variac which you can adjust the wattage and speed it up or slow it down and I had and it was going the whole thing was going on crazy and then I kept turning it down and all of a sudden it hit a sweet spot and but per oh let me back up let me back up so I'm trying to make this thing work and it won't work it's all over the place and um it's lunch time everyone clears out and I call upstairs and I said I'm I'm working through lunch I have to figure this thing out okay fine so I'm working through lunch and now I'm getting teased by some of the some some of the guys on the crew yeah on various groups and and one guy rest his rest his soul Pete Pete was kind of ribbing me um because I couldn't make it work and I was like oh okay now I'm pissed and and so then I attach the variac to it and and uh and I don't know where this is coming from it just yeah popped into my brain yep and I slowed it down and all of a sudden hit The Sweet Spot and the whole thing started vibrating with this really cool sound and I hit turn the switch off and the whole thing turned off I turned the switch on perfect so I go out into the hall and there's Pete and I went it is is this Pete patovich yeah yeah no no no no no um tell him he's telling me okay yeah yeah great great Pete teller and uh fun guy good guy he's no longer with her um and so uh so Pizza you did you make it work I got to see this and it comes out there I hit the switch they hit the switch that's pretty cool that's pretty cool so lunch is over I'm cocky now you know because I'm getting it from I get it from Jerry every now and then too you know like uh so uh so I send word up to let let the Geniuses and everyone know I got a score so everybody comes down Jerry's there all the producers oh I love it writers are there I love it everybody from every crew is there everybody's there to watch me fail everyone loves to tea special effects no matter where you are if it doesn't work everyone teases special effects yeah so I hit the switch whoa that's pretty cool that's what it's like and so I I can't wait for this for Dave to see it and then do it on the show that night and Dave goes take it apart Dave wants to tell him I want to do it what so now I gotta take it all apart don't do it on the show that night the next thing the the produce the art direction is like uh but the vibrating desk back together they want you to do it again oh really okay so I put a thing back together again hit the switch it's working I got this thing down now you you can't throw me dude and uh Dave doesn't want to do it we went through eight days a whole week eight days before Dave decided to do it by that time the motors started slowing down so now I'm working with one yeah I'm no they're still working with two but they were thick the motors have slowed down quite a bit because they're working in a way that they're not supposed to be used you know right and so well and you had found a sweet spot in the first place like in the first place you had found that sweet spot and so adjustments start to happen it's no longer a sweet spot have I ever sent it to you I have the video of when it when it was oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you did yeah it it it was it was great it was perfect yeah no anyone so by the time Dave decides to do it it's shitty it's not working with the crap you know I hit this with young uh younger Young but it's on the spring so day starts and so he says and the intro was great we have something here that you know that's never been done on television yeah he built it up he built it up anything it probably will never be seen again you know and because he didn't want to do it in the first place yeah then he says um we have a vibrating desk hit it boys it was like like it was more like a drunk desk now and and so he's using now he's using his legs and he's moving the thing because it's on Spring and and you got the you got the Kyra at the bottom vibrating desk vibrating desk it was crappy it was so crappy and it was such a great effect I mean come on man make the whole damn desk vibrate if I hit the switch and it never got seen on National Television I have it in my phone actually you know what it's buried in my email somewhere send me that again and we'll throw it on at the end of this episode we'll throw that on as the way that we uh we finished this episode the vibrating desk in all its glory and if people can't see it they can hear younger Young um you know what you talk about the writers a little bit I just want to say one of my one of my personal Favorite Things Glenn is when you post sometimes on a throwback Thursday or whatever you'll post something online I uh so Steve Young uh loves Steve Young so much appreciate you buddy um you know he had his celebrity gum right which you know the piece of gum looking down on Celebrity you had a take on this too because there are so many times I don't know how many times it actually happened uh how many of these pictures you actually have uh but the idea when celebrities show up and they're about to go into the the stage door entrance and there's Glenn leaning up against the wall in the background as people are walking by going in there you could you could create a profile for that um we would just hang against the wall I mean it would be by myself a lot of times but you know a couple of times I have a couple of my my buddies with me and you know it was the fun part about it is you'd have the paparazzi going nuts taking pictures like nothing and there there we are ignoring it you know just hanging yep some glamorous movie stars doing her thing and we're like staring ahead you know you know like I see this every day no big deal I mean that was kind of my comment yeah um and it became it you know it became my shtick I guess you could say you know it was great and well it to me there's been a few things um this show has certainly um uh you know given you know patterns that show up you know some of the things that happen one of the things that I noticed with the culture of folks who worked on that show for a long time self-deprecation is one of them um another one of course is the the idea that and I mean the whole show is based on this so it makes sense that it would permeate down to everybody is that the idea of celebrity is something to be made fun of or not to be considered a huge deal and and like you know again we talk about checking again I'll talk about checking forever I miss him so much he's so important good guy good guy yeah it just you know I asked him I said okay so 32 years because he was there from the very beginning right to the very end I said okay who did you ever go and see like when you knew they were going to be on the show and he'd be like I didn't really care unless it was like a like like a famous Yankee then he was like okay all right there it is um you know and and you hanging out against the wall and again sometimes they'll surprise me I'll find somewhere like on the last um uh the last the last six weeks of course you know the run-up the paparazzi was was in extra full force uh but I mean I think I saw uh Jim Carrey I think I saw an old Jim Carrey uh clip and there's Glenn leaning up against the wall I guess I just love that it makes me smile every time um but I want to ask because I know that there were a few though where the Cool com collected up against the wall didn't give a Glenn wasn't there because a guest showed up now I know there's a few guests that did that for you uh what were some of the highlights of you know for you personally that's like holy crap I got a chance to see this or meet this person or or whatever what were some of those moments for you well I you know my phone is full of selfies with with different celebrities I mean you always knew who to take a shot with and who not to ask yeah because there are certain people that they just you could tell they didn't want to right but you didn't um you just didn't uh and one time I I asked um Eli Manning everyone in the second Super Bowl he even requested no one asking for an autograph or anything you know right and uh unlike unlike his brother his brother was always there you know yeah oh Peyton oh yeah I love the relationship with Peyton and Dave it's so good yeah Peyton Peyton's the cool guy well I I dug Peyton too but when when uh Eli was there and and I was hanging out in the hall downstairs and found effects of my buddy Gary and Eli was waiting to go into the bathroom there downstairs and I just took a shot you know hey and I just took the shot I didn't know I just took the shot well he told on me oh no okay uh I got rid of you know you shouldn't do that I said I just took a shot come on Peyton posed for it you know so but uh yeah but most people uh whenever I ask you know they would and there's certain people that I forgot I was because they engaged me in conversation so since I was talking to them yep um I forgot to ask for a shot one of my favorite things that happened backstage and I didn't get a shot of it because I was just so much a part of it yeah we had Snoop Dogg on the ocean and you could always tell with Snoop is there because you can smell it all over the building yeah nope oh I love Snoop Dogg yep nope lit up the joint literally literally special effects necessary no no no no no you know I remember one time I went out at the stage door when Snoop was there and I opened the door again this guy was walking down the street with his daughter and his daughter went daddy what's that smell but uh it was the dogfather of rap my dear the dog father so um so one day Snoop is there and so is Barry Sanders now I'm from Detroit you know very sadism of mine guy right there and um and so I'm I'm I was talking to Snoop backstage and then Barry came down and then snooze started talking I think um um oh God Russell Wilson was also there that day Jesus I was talking to Russell Wilson talking to Snoop and then uh I saw the door open and I saw Barry come through and those guys were talking so I just went over and started chatting to Barry's Barry I'm from Detroit man you broke my heart when you walked away Snoop over heard it and walked up and said you broke my heart too oh that's it was hilarious there was somewhere everybody backstage died laughing the way he said because he just left Russell he broke my eye too very funny so I didn't get any of those guys picture and I really wished I mean come on what a trio yeah oh yeah and I just it it slipped my head but the experience is still there and you're talking about it today which I which which I love um I know you got a bunch more of those I'm gonna get you to come back on the show at some point I gotta we'll actually frame it a little bit yeah this is just not shooting the bull and I appreciate that we can do that I got one more Late Show thing and then I want to talk about dark dark star and I want to talk about obstacle um okay and some of the other stuff that you do uh as well because I mean clearly um you know phases end but the the heart and the skill and the and the Artistry which you clearly clearly are uh doesn't and I want to talk about what you're doing since but there is one thing that we got to talk about Sir beforehand okay do you remember this do you remember what this is no I can't really see it okay that's the uh that is a they call it the hymnal it's the poem Twas the night at The Late Show and inside is a baggie I don't know if you can see that or not but that is the snow that is some of the snow's last performance yes yes I want to talk about I think I'm sure I have that in there yeah I have it I'm sure you do too yeah um I I I know how particularly proud you were of uh of this and we'll put up we'll put up some pictures uh in the Facebook group and all that but there's some of the snow Yeah from the very last performance uh Darlene loves last performance and and I mean you know that last year there were so many magical moments um at the very top of the list you know outside of the six weeks it may be the most important or the the biggest moment was the very last Christmas show or the culmination Christmas show uh with Darlene Love and her performance I think that was by far of all the years she's been on that was by far the biggest and it was the best performance yeah baby please come home and and uh this is the this is an actual asbestos from the final Christmas show is what was good um you were particularly proud of of making it snow in the theater that night can we talk a little bit about that I love let me tell you first of all I am not a Christmasy guy I I I never you don't like Pat farmer Pat farmer certainly is oh absolutely well everybody there was I mean I I would never say Merry Christmas to anyone unless they say it to me I was right you know I was I was raised correctly you know I I will say Merry Christmas back to you or or same to you it's a good one same to you I am not a Christmasy guy but I absolutely loved doing uh snow for darling love on the Christmas show I loved doing the Christmas show yeah it was it was iconic it was just great to watch on television let alone be a part of it and for many years they allowed me to be a part of this thing and uh as an assistant when I learned to do it from Gene yeah just to be a part of that and then to be the assistant making everything happen yeah it was so cool but then those 10 11 12 year whatever it was years that I was the guy I was just it was I was so proud to do this it was such a great effect for such a great song for such a great moment for such a great artist on such a great show it and to be a part of it it's just like wow man I can't believe I did that I I made it my own yeah I learned it from Gene but I made it my own um we would because you know we had the catwalk above the stage and we would order small wind machines and we would attach them to the catwalk on at first we would would just do it over facing the state I guess I'm in the middle of the stage I would have two two or two about two of them there it'll be me another person in G and then we had uh snow machines that stayed up all year long over the the front first front uh the first two rows of the audience so it raised so it snowed a little bit in the audience as well so uh so Gene would do that and my me and myself myself as someone else we would um we would do the two well I made it to a bigger thing I had two two swim machines on this side two win machines on that side to win machines on that side and the uh and the audience so I told them they said well we wanted bigger and better say well I need more guys I need more I need more pairs of hands and um so they never wanted to pay for extra guys and so I always thought if you want this thing to be epic you have to give me the guys I wanted so they get they started giving me six guys like myself seven people yeah and we made it snow so we had the wind machines and what we did we had we angled them up like a 45 degree angle and I taught everyone how to keep continuous snow going because if you grab a handful of snow and put it in front of the fan it will blow up and then drop down right hand at a time it'll there'll be a whole snow and then the stepper splits back into the snow and so I would teach everyone to grab it um a handful and while you're doing that you're grabbing another handful and you don't just toss it you want to do this so you're psycho oh okay yeah yeah yeah so that it's coming through your fingers and so you've got six guys up on the catwalk doing that from three different angles like so this so so that it comes out not because if you do this it's going to come out in clumps so you don't want clumps this here will break it up and the wind just blows it out of your hand it blows up and it drops down yep they always allowed me to take the cue on my own I didn't need a stage manager for that because I knew the song so well so they all all knew that the snow was going to happen yeah it's not supposed to happen because Glenn I'm a theater guy you know I'm a director you know I I I I know what a cue is I know when the queue is I don't always need to be queued so um and so I someone I start everyone knows to start when I start we have so much snow falling on that stage and but it was so beautiful because like I said with not no clumps at all because it will Clump together if you just just dump it out of your hand yep it's just this beautiful individual snowflakes falling from all over plus it was falling uh in the audience so if you were in the front row you had to snow on you but if you and Bros back of course you have the monitors that you're watching but then when you're looking at the stage you're looking through snow to see snow it was such a cool effect and on the last one I I had all my best guys there I I had the 18 crew and man did it look beautiful and and and even the to The Stills that they have taken uh with um the finale of the song and the darling that with her arms out and pause there you know conducting in the snow's falling so iconic so iconic I could not be more proud to have done that uh and to be a part of that I mean that lives in TV history it absolutely does I got goosebumps as you're as you were saying that I I Goosebumps all over um and I'm glad that uh oh it was so good and thanks to Maryland Sergeant by the way who's uh the one that sent me some of the actual snow and and the and the copy of the hymnal here that was a beautiful night um and and you talk about theater it never left you let's talk about Dark Star of Harlem um because you know this is a very I think a very important piece um you know and and railroaded with covid and all of that stuff uh Dark Star coming back uh we're postponed to next year uh I tried to raise a whole lot of money in one year I actually needed two years to do it so we're coming back as long as we're back next year that it's very important because uh 2025 will be it's called The Dark Star from Harlem the spectacular rise of Josephine Baker right and Josephine Baker is an icon if people don't know she is I say Google her the Google machine will never stop giving you material there it's just so much on a I have to take have to take a break you know uh because it's just so much I mean I that's it right yeah artificial intelligence yeah and it even needs a break there's so much material on Josephine Baker oh wow this is so much um so I I tell people Google her you know you'll find videos you'll find reading but anyway the year 2025 will be the 100th anniversary of her death no no the 50th anniversary of her death as well as the 100th anniversary of her arriving in Paris for the first time oh wow in the same year only Josephine Becker could make that happen own she's the only one that can pull that up a 50 magic and a 100th anniversary in the same year yeah there's so much today that's going on that went on 100 years ago uh in 1925 when she arrived in Paris they were just getting over the Spanish Flu pandemic okay um um the um oh God there's so many um parallels parallels yeah um when she when she went to Germany in 1925 she went to Berlin uh Adolf Hitler in the Browns Church tried to run her out of town you know they they've constantly called her uh uh all kinds of bad names and whatnot but berliners loved her she didn't know um and she she told them they called it immoral she says I'm not immoral I'm natural so they loved her so yeah so it's a it's a it's a fun show um it's a musical um see made well Picasso famous because he was she was one of his subjects as well as a lot of the other uh avant-gardis and surrealist uh Josephine made the the them doing the work of her just made them really really famous she was amused she was amused she was B views yeah um so it's a fun show and hopefully we'll we'll get it done in 24 and so that we can bring it back at 25 I'd like to take Paris I'd like to take it to London I would like to take it to Broadway um and I think all those things are possible because when we we won five Awards with it uh in 19 we got it here's the funny thing it's always a funny story here um so we did it in 2019.

and I didn't make a date yet because I'm still trying to raise money and it was my first time producing a musical and to do it off off Broadway it took about a hundred thousand dollars I never raised a hundred thousand dollars before in my life I didn't know what I was doing absolutely not I knew how to direct the show and have if someone else puts it up then you know I can take it from there and make the show happen but I certainly didn't know how to raise the money I break up I just like just just south of the hundred thousand dollars to put that show on so I didn't want to establish the date of the show until I had all the money right and so I go in um uh in the spring to to to to to to make the date and their life the book is full we we have nothing this year you have to do it next year I said no I got to do it this year they said the only thing we have an artist just canceled a Korean artist just canceled um the week of Thanksgiving except that's Thanksgiving nobody's going to be here I said it's Josephine Baker if I build it they will come oh and they say they say well well we can we'll give you more time in the spring it'll be better if you're doing in the spring I said no I want to do it this year we only have eight performances I'll take those eight performers are you sure yes I'm sure we took those a performances and and the week of no of um Thanksgiving yeah into the next week uh so it was two weeks and only eight performances we sold out every night uh we got a rave review in the Amsterdam news which also gave MJ a rave review Michael Jackson musical yeah um and we won five adelco Awards the following year now we got that we did that show from November to December and from from the end of uh November to the beginning of December yep when we closed had I not taken that show those those a performances it would have never happened yep because March the bottom of the world fell out yep and so we got it in Just In Time the time to win five like I said five adelco Awards including best musical yeah and we had we not done that we've not won those Awards so I don't know what made me stick to my guns um but I stuck to my guns on that and it's like I'm I'm doing this show and I have to do this show now so we really wanted to do it this year but we're falling short with money but I'm not worried about it because the year we want to get it up is really next year so that we have momentum going to 25 where we want to take it to Paris we want to take it to London and we want to get to Broadway so if we're doing it 24 that the tighter window for us to move to the to the next space right we've done it this year who knows if we would have been able to keep it all together and move right move to the next level you know and because we would have to keep it open for a year this way we just we open it in 24 and then we can move right into 25.

yeah and uh so I so when these things happen I always will Joseph means tapping me on my shoulder again this is the way you need to do it um but yeah I just I I just had to have those eight performances a lot of people would have said okay yeah I'll take it in the spring we'll open the whole season we'll have a big thing it would have never ever happened so um thank you when it does happen uh for New York please please please make me one of the top people uh first to know so I can play with my wife and I will literally travel across the continent to watch it you'll love it it's a great show Absolutely um I'm grateful uh that you got it that you got to make it happen that must have the feeling of the culmination of your career where you started where you moved into clearly the theme Here is the fact that you are learning new things always learning new things always open to new ideas going through some of these doors where you don't necessarily know where they're going to go all culminating and to come back full circle where you have this show that's so important um God Glenn that's really really cool that's a really cool story to hear this um you're also doing uh you're directing shorts as well I mean I don't know if obstacle is your first one or not but my second boy man the Artistry that you have and the tone that you have um you've got you've got a lot to say as an artist clearly thank you thank you yeah I obstacle I'm part of a theater organization called theater resources unlimited and they were doing their um fundraiser they have an annual fundraiser it is usually live and people dress up in a lot of Broadway performers and collaborate performers come in and and do numbers live numbers just like any award show or or whatever that you see on television uh but because of covet they were unable to do it right so that they they went to a whole Zoom thing and the first year um I I did a a short called uh out of order which I also love so we were all learning how to do these things and so Equity uh Actors Equity was the first Union that got on board right and they allowed us to use actors for just a small fee um to do these online plays a couple somebody did a musical and it didn't work because nobody knew how to do the whole Zoom thing and and synchronizing the music and whatnot was a very difficult thing there's a learning curve it's a new medium at that point my the first one I did and so so this this became their entertainment for the fundraiser they still had the fundraiser it was just done on zoom and so they had all these little basically plays shot on Zoom but my approach to them was always oh this is my opportunity to do a film a little short film and I'm going to approach it like a film instead of just taping a play right um so the first one I did was um like it's called out of order like I said and was three actresses but it was three women who were um remembering and experience and they were all separate two of them were the same person the older version and the younger version the older version was actually played by Billy eilish's mother no kidding probably Alex's mother was my actress it was an actress in my very first short she was the first actress we shot in my very first short no kidding yeah and she did a great job and so she was in there she shot her segment in Malibu another actor shot her segment in Connecticut and one of my sister's students shot her segment from Detroit and then we edited them together to make it seem like you know with just one one story but there were three separate things yeah the second one obstacle was as soon as and with both of them as soon as I read them I knew I had to do it when I read yeah I gotta do this story powerful yeah it's uh it's it's in the news I mean it deals as you know with um gun violence uh in this particular instance the arming of teachers yeah um and and a good guy with the gun that that that whole thing yeah and the premise is um a um driving a driving ed teacher is one of the designated teachers to carry yeah and so he does and uh and proud of because he's trained by the police he's really proud to be you know carrying and whatnot and then one day he's faced with one student holding a gun on another student and um and he accidentally shoots the wrong student and kills him and the entire play uh takes place in the police interrogation room yeah and it unfolds you don't know exactly you just know something happens in the very beginning and you know I assure you and you see all these kind of ways of cars on the freeway can he any and he and he um makes the correlation between uh a debt deadly weapons a gun is a deadly weapon which you never really never talk about until later but how driving a car is a deadly weapon yeah and um and what's the famous line in it the response uh uh uh I I uh sorry my weapon um you got me you got me um oh no no I don't remember uh uh um um uh uh be careful the weapon that you're welding the weapon that you're wielding yes be careful with the weapon that you're willingness yes so I personally said that about a car he said I tell them that's a two-ton is a two-ton gun uh two he has a two-done gun you're you're driving be careful with the weapon that you're wielding yes and then later on it really is about a weapon and willingness I was just about to go back to it because I it was the first thing that I sent to you after I watched it it was it was that line holy cow like it hits you like a ton of bricks when you see the double meaning no no respect the weapon you respect the weapon yes yeah and so that line it wasn't in there the second time he had it in the first time about the car so I said to the writer do you mind if I add this line later on yeah because it has it has to be the both and um and we just had and we had such a great actor Danny Bolero oh yeah he's amazing he's really really good he's really good and uh so um it turned out really well I thought I thought and um and so I entered it in several film festivals we were a finalist in the Swedish International Film Festival we were a finalist in the LA uh film Awards yeah and Danny won the best actor in an indie film from LA and so um so I'm applied to several others and so hopefully we'll get in More film festivals and we'll stack up a few Awards or at least if we don't stack up you know because I think Danny can get some more uh if we don't Stack Up awards at least if we could just be finalists yes several we'll do the little film that made a lot of noise well and it's a it's a message that I it's so beyond poignant it's so important it's it's it's uh a message that I think really needs to get out there um you know I don't know how we're gonna clean up the mess that we have uh you know on our continent when it comes to this stuff but talking about it is a good first step and and and everybody getting on the same page and identifying um you know with with universal feelings that come from this is is is Paramount this film does a phenomenal job of bringing it to a head and you being able to see a situation from all sorts of different angles um and and I just I it's very powerful I I'm so glad you showed it to me because it was kind of an accident that she showed it to me actually and I was I was really grateful that I got a chance to see it um so when that becomes available for everybody to kind of view publicly and whatnot you let me know and we'll make sure that we throw it out on our channels and anything that you do Glenn um I I now we said we were gonna go an hour We're far beyond that I appreciate take your time no problem this has been a lot of fun talking about this what I'm going to do is I'm going to get um because our our uh audience is starting to grow now and and now that they know that we have kind of the the special effects guy who was you know uh you know the Protege then became you know the head of the department here for Late Show uh there's gonna be a lot of people who will start throwing up moments and what I'm going to do is I'm going to start culminating these things the next time we have you on I'll ask you about some of these moments uh from from Late Show uh as we close this your first appearance on the Letterman podcast Glenn is there anything else that you wanted to uh to say before we close up the uh the old shop here uh go see Rupert yeah oh thank you let's finish off the way that we started absolutely go get a sandwich yes get a selfie and enjoy every sandwich um you know and we've been talking about him a lot uh we're gonna be talking about him more in an upcoming episode here but uh you know I mean I I've I've really started to embrace that as our world gets a little bit more chaotic and things happen and things happen in our lives personally boy Enjoy Every Sandwich is such a good base point to go back to um Glenn I appreciate the hell out of you thank you so much for taking time to come on this thing here man my pleasure awesome okay I'm gonna hit stop and then you and I can say goodbye uh privately okay okay everybody good night all right there you have it that was Glenn uh talking about his time on Letterman and Beyond and I just appreciated that conversation so much uh thank you Glenn for that reminder for anybody who enjoyed this episode please uh if you have any moments that you remember that had to do with some sort of a special effect on The Late Show uh please send that moment to me and I'll compile the list and we'll get Glenn back on here and he'll talk about this stuff once again I know we've talked about it a couple of times go to Rupert's right uh we just appreciate Rupert G of the hello Deli so very much in the uh in in the sponsorship and the endorsement of this show I just can't thank Rupert and may enough and and I hope things are going well for them as they uh uh prepare to move on to their next adventure so go to hellodashdaily.com if you want any Late Show with David Letterman stuff uh this has been another episode of the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisholm coincidentally I am Mike Chisholm thank you and good night