J Ryan

once again to the letterman podcast my name as always is mike chisholm i am delighted to be here uh doing this um you know if this were a football game i would say this i have moved down the field a hell of a lot more than i ever expected to and it is so much fun uh moving towards the end zone of life that life being celebrating the body of work the unprecedented greatest body of broadcasting work in history from david letterman and company and we have people that are running alongside us it is the greatest coolest thing in the world to be doing this for for me uh i'm the the support that we're getting is is is phenomenal and i'm just just really happy to be here um this is a different episode you may notice already from the quality of the video that this is a bit of a different episode it is it's a very very cool unprecedented at this point episode of the letterman podcast and it should be because uh we talk all the time about this community that is being built this letterman podcast community um that is including all sorts of other entities out there that started before long before the letterman podcast actually began um many times when people get together you know i hear i was talking i was around a pool yesterday um talking to a business owner and he was talking about how he and his competitor locally ended up getting together and not putting their businesses together but but but joining forces in ways and both of their businesses have never been healthier and we talked about the idea of collaboration versus competition and how collaboration will always win especially when you have two parties who are really willing to collaborate the behind the scenes of the letterman podcast and community and communities out there there's a lot of collaboration going on and in fact i would even submit that the letterman podcast would not have started if it wasn't for that collaboration so this is going to be a bit of a different episode because guess what i'm in the letterman podcast studio as it stands right now however the production of this program has everything to do with something going on in uh in in just outside hollywood california right now are you confused it won't be for very long there's a gentleman out there by the name of jay ryan he and his wife nicole in their home have something called the late night playset the late night playset is in my opinion the most unique can something be the most unique i don't know but if you're gonna look at things that are completely unique and put them all on a list i would put this one near the top it is the most unique broadcasting studio i've ever seen not only because they've taken a section of their apartment and turned it into a late night playset okay but it includes in my opinion two of the greatest broadcasting artifacts that have ever been used in broadcasting over decades and that is of course uh david letterman's desk from the late show and david letterman's original uh microphone the microphone that he brought over from nbc to cbs there's a lot of history there um a big part the epicenter of that history of that microphone outside of you know par and allen and carson and letterman who have used that microphone the epicenter of that lore is a guy by the name of j ryan jay ryan happens to be one of those collaborators that i'm talking about and he has taken time out of his day and his production schedule because he does cars and comedy um a podcast or it's not even a podcast it's a show on the internet it's tv on the internet that i get to be a part of twice a week every week and he has taken time out of all the things that he is doing if you know his story with he and his wife too they are very very busy with all sorts of things um including being advocates for ms which she has he's taken time out of his day to be on the letterman podcast today and not only to do that but to run production because he's giving us what we are moving towards when it comes to potential of technical uh ability our studio is okay it's passable what this guy has is incredible finally these worlds colliding the letterman podcast cars and comedy the late night playset jay thank you very much for taking time to be on the letterman podcast today finally wow that was awesome thank you so much mike uh it's very weird i'm over here on the other side it's weird to uh it's weird it's weird all around but i'm grateful that you asked me i'm so impressed with what you've been able to do so far with the letterman podcast this was an idea when we originally talked about it now you are executing it all over the place um i am grateful to be asked i'm grateful to be here and uh tell me where you want to go well we're going to do we're going to do a bit of a studio tour in a second i can't i can't tease the fact that you've got those two legendary art artifacts of broadcasting without showing them we're going to do it we're going to there oh there it is right there that's a tease everybody look at that look at that um we're going to do a tour here in a minute um i just am really grateful that you're in my life i uh candy and i love you and nicole and and and we're so grateful that you're in our lives as friends as as as collaborators iron sharpens iron uh uh you do that for us all the time we would hope that we can do that for you as well so this is this is cool um the idea of two hosts being on one show two hosts one show ladies and gentlemen uh that's always an interesting idea is it weird for you right now to be sitting there in the in the co-pilot seat going what the hell yeah i'm not controlling things i'm having a situation where i don't know where to look i get where the guests are i mean there is a red light over there but i understand what the guests are always talking about now where it's a little bit different so i might make some adjustments based on this experience well okay and let's before we go any further because as far as i'm concerned um we've already got a bunch of folks in the letterman podcast community that watch both shows but we haven't really talked about both shows officially yet so let's let's start there um you guys have recently rebranded was the show was late night playset so yeah i would even go to the studio yeah i wouldn't even call it a rebrand i would just say that it's more of uh i don't know i mean do we even want to talk about it we're in the late night place at the late night playset was the name of the show because we didn't really know what else to call it and we wanted to be as letterman as possible without trading on the letterman name hint no but that was a genuine concern of mine for a long time and um given my history uh which you know with perhaps getting a little too close in the past um so you know that was always a concern of mine so you know late night playset sort of made sense for us the only problem with that is nobody knows what the [ __ ] that is if you know our story or what we're doing it's great but if you're like a marketer or a pr person which we ended up talking to some professional marketers and pr people and they were like nobody knows what it is and you have to explain it and if you have to explain it you've already lost them and the blah blah blah they're like what is your show we're like well it's i don't know cars and comedy they're like boom there's your show cars in comedy so we have just sort of started calling it cars and comedy i mean is it a trademark is it a thing no but it sort of sounds like cars and coffee which is already a known thing so yes i guess you're right we're going through some sort of a transition but as you know there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes so i have a feeling all of this will be thrown away soon for something new that involves everything and more yeah and i think it's probably a good idea that that's where we stop with that other than the fact that saying that a bunch of us um aspirations which also include grand aspirations uh but it's a little too early to talk about that you know the the cupcakes just went in the oven yeah in some respects i go johnny carson on this one more to come folks more to come more to come on this subject lots more and this is this is one of the reasons why you are somebody that i look up to in in morticom that's exactly right summed up perfectly um so that being said uh this is where i feel i'm a big music guy and and there was a time in the 90s when indie music and alternative music and these terms that didn't really exist suddenly came to the forefront of what good music was indie rock and indie things i feel like right now when it comes to broadcasting uh the whole letterman of it all um i feel a little bit like you and and me and and rusty and some of these other people that are out there and other people that are gonna join up with us i feel like we're a bunch of indie bands that are touring around and um and getting there's a ground swell happening and then something really cool might happen and that's where nirvana and pearl jam and soundgarden and all these groups kind of suddenly showed up out of the indy into the spotlight of sorts i feel like that's happening with us right now well i mean i was never a guy for nirvana but i take your point they didn't do for me what they did for a lot of people i think i was from a different generation but but i take your point i sure love dave grohl a lot yeah well there you go oh there you go yeah like well okay so there there you are and you're right you're right i mean there's a lot of stuff that came out of that uh big bang i get you i get your point but but i think you're right and but i don't think it has anything to do with us i mean we're all doing what we're doing which is fun and we're all you always say you live in your dream job or whatever like we're all having this little sort of fantasy life uh you know in the world of podcasts but the truth is i think that letterman is still big and relevant i think i think it has more to do with um the the the temperature of the culture at the moment i feel like we're in the right place at the right time we're just doing what we've always been doing but like it might actually mature into something now because of i think the temperature of the world and the fact that while dave's gone he's not really gone and in a weird way he's actually the voice we're all looking for and i don't mean we the fans i mean we the people so yes sorry to get so you're not i said i wouldn't drive this thing i'll shut up what do you want to know you're not driving and you're not we're we're like we're like the one of those crazy cars that you watch down the street uh the the driving school cars that have the two steering wheels like yeah okay two steering wheels is great what we need is two brake pedals that's the problem that's exactly right um okay so let's talk a little bit about cars and comedy you shoot twice a week um i think that the uh i think the name of the show in its incur incarnation of cars and comedy hits it on the nose like you said um when do you shoot what is it how can people uh tune in let's do that first oh thank you thank you it's uh we're live at five that's got a familiar ring to it we are live at five every uh tuesday and thursday uh and it's 5 p.m in the pacific uh so that's 8 o'clock on you for our eastern friends and um we're we are live we're it's real live that's funny because almost all the guests when we're booking them many of them watch the show regularly and it's just like the number one question you get asked if you work at saturday night live is and dave used to make a joke about it so did paul is when do they tape that show is it really live and it's like it's such a it's such a hard uh thing for people to grab so we're live at five and it's uh it's really live at five and people are always asking us when do you tape that show sorry terrible story it's not it's not and it also alludes uh to the fact that you've got broadcasting history chops and i'm saying broadcast history anytime somebody worked with late night with conan o'brien especially in the early years you did and i was there for that live and saturday night live at any time any time in the last 40 some odd years which you did uh your stories again as we say on the podcast your stories have stories so there's a little bit of teasing right there uh about where you've come from and we'll we'll get into some of maybe some of that today um the last thing folks that you have to worry about when jay and mike get together is a lack of words we will be able to talk about things and spend as much time as uh as as time allows for us to speak there's always content when it comes to jane mike getting together were you always this way mike were you always that way because i wasn't i was an insanely quiet i was sort of brought up to you know in the children to be seen not heard type of generation i was like sort of brought up by my grandparents generation for one reason or another and so i didn't it wasn't until starting this damn show that it was like i even began to formulate my thoughts and words in a way where i f whatever you're calling uh you're i guess you're right you know what no you're just plain old right but for me it didn't happen until i started doing this were you always this way yeah no uh for for me it was um now certainly since i started my podcast you know my men's mental health podcast is what really honed it um the exuberance was always there um for the example with you and i i always call you from a ghostbusters standpoint i always call you venkman and i'm ray stance um i was always race dance i was always the one who you know if my parents had friends over i'd be the one trying to entertain them and and running doing funny things i'd do the worm in front of them at seven years old and they'd all laugh and clap and i'd be like yes job well done um so so so but learning to hone it to articulate and for me to listen those are skills that had to be really nuanced because i was kind of all over the place [ __ ] energy and um but we're live at five uh cars and comedy so if you search on the youtubes you're live on the youtubes you also have a cool uh this is folks again this is not a podcast i don't look at cars and comedy as a podcast at all it is a sh it's tv on the internet have you ever seen a podcast video books like this this guy's nuts yeah he's got a full working television production facility in his house and this is exactly where we talk about life goals these are the life goals of the letterman podcast here and not just because of the artifacts that's not what i'm talking about my wife and i guested on this show about six weeks ago and and it is the full-on tv show experience including the energy that comes with it and the energy in there is so exquisite because of the artifacts and things like that but it's way way way more than that um i just i want to talk about that in a second but we'll get to that when we do the tour um if people want to find you on youtube cars and comedy right but you also have the instagram which is going on on the show at the same time you guys go instagram live and so you're getting multi-dimensions of uh enthusiasts who watch the show live and then you put it on youtube afterwards in my opinion this is a broadcast that is including all of the you know other than maybe you know twitch and streaming and things like that which which is also out there you guys are really broadening the net for the viewing experience um do you know that you're kind of ahead of your time when it comes to this show compared to every other talk show out there yes that was obviously our intention to be ahead of our time um no but you know we had you and i had this conversation the other day um and it was a weird there was a weird parallel in the way uh you know late night came to be there were a lot of parameters set on the production staff of late night to uh to not be like other things not be like the carson show not be like traditional talk shows so it ended up becoming this antithesis of the talk show which sort of redefined the talk show so that now every talk show is like that the weirdest way dave used to say one day all talk shows will be like this and man oh man could he have not been more right uh i mean that is so true um so when we started doing this well do you even know why we started doing this i mean we didn't start doing this talk about this this happened over time this has evolved yes we my wife has multiple sclerosis and she used to be a high-powered publicist in this uh town in comedy specifically so she used to work with everybody she used to represent chris rock and um you know everybody from the apatow crew and she worked with freaking everybody steve carell um you know wilfero all all of the names that you know in comedy today she at some point has worked with and um when she got ms she couldn't do that anymore she was on the road four weeks a year and then she couldn't walk you know i mean it's like can't do it so we were trying to figure out what the hell we could do and we were thinking i pushed i was trying to push her to do a podcast i had this whole letterman story in the back of my head but it was like this repressed memory that like i would have to i would if i didn't start doing the show i would have had to been so therapized to get it out it was so deeply buried if that makes sense mike um but with all of that uh it was supposed to be her podcast and uh so we just started doing it together with amazon microphones at the dining room table you know like any couple starts and one thing led to another and it has morphed into this over time um but while it was a podcast that wasn't it was i guess it was never a podcast because we always did video i always had multi cameras i always had lights i was always i'm a creature of television i learned how to make television i was obsessed with making television that's why i was into dave dave pulled the cameras back dave the dave show pulled the cameras back so that how gurney i should tribute how gurney so that we could see how television was made and then i lived close enough and my aunt was friends with paul shaffer i told you she got his tickets to go down to the show and then i saw it all in person and it was like what blew my mind open everything was so small everything was you know at different angles than you thought it would be it could never possibly fit in the space but it does uh all of this crazy magic and so the long answer to your question is all i've ever done in my creative professional life is that all i've ever done is these little movie magic amazing uh scenes and dioramas and moments and experiences as you like to say and i mean that even in my production career as well because it's you know you turn uh i wasn't the production designer for a lot of the things that i worked on but um produced i i was actually producer but uh it was my ideas that they then took so we would turn insane hangers and and buildings into like downtown manhattan exterior basketball court at night with real skyline and cars and trees and absolutely crazy things so doing a podcast with a couple microphones at the dining room table did not stimulate me for very long so this was we sort of then began doing and and every podcast person said you're doing it wrong you're doing literally everything wrong you're not doing anything right supposed to do this this this and this and your podcast will be a success look at your guests look at your content and we were like yeah but then what it just hate our lives while we do it like that didn't do it we wanted to do something else and we morphed into this over time 10 minutes on we morphed into this i'm sorry you're right we're very long-winded this is what we need to hear no no this is what that's exactly right this happened over time you know we had the microphone right but then we didn't have the desk and chairs we decided as i came through my catharsis of doing this whole thing of oh my gosh you got to get the thing back to david letterman and whatever uh when we decided to try to get the microphone back to david letterman uh the museum that had this desk and chairs contacted us looking to make a new home for them so like it's sort of weird how it all came together and then when they arrived it looked ridiculous we were so excited because we did this little podcast in our dining room and then we're gonna get the real david letterman desk and chairs and it was so stupid looking in here it was worse than cramer's apartment and the merv griffin said it was so much worth so we had to we had to create this crazy environment around it which seems nuts but it's the only thing that makes the stuff we're actually sitting at makes sense yep so yeah it morphed i and kovid was uh i don't know if it was friend or foe to this space but we definitely blew out of one room and sort of into another um during cobit and here we are but everyone seems to love it now they finally seem to get what we're doing which is kind of neat i i do feel like we were a little bit ahead of our time in that way in that everybody said we were nuts and now nobody thinks we are because everyone else is doing some version of it yes i mean i think about some of the people's reactions when they first walk in there and and and i uh the pat okay so the first thing i'm going to talk about is jay is alluding to a whole bunch of uh things that would be considered a prequel to this episode and that's what we're going to do uh jay actually appeared on my my men's mental wellness podcast he cast and he told the entire story about how he got david letterman's microphone um what that did to him the therapy that he's talking about here uh and and what the plans are for the future with that microphone how we're gonna try and get it back to him and how you know all of that he talked about all that we're gonna link that episode into the letterman podcast so the past we're going to talk about that you've set that up perfectly now we're talking the present as to where things are at and i will say this uh then we're going to do a commercial then i want to get you behind the desk um can i ask you a question please yes what's in the box ah i hate to be all brad pitt here but what's in the box come on that's going to be part of the commercial oh i see okay okay all right that's going to be part of the commercial and you and i are going to do this together i've been curious the whole time though okay awesome there you go uh hopefully our viewers and uh well our listeners wouldn't even know hey listeners guess what there's a box on the desk we're gonna open this box together uh the viewers might have seen it and uh you know looked at it for a moment yes there is a box here it's from the hello deli we're going oh hello deli in a moment you and i are very cool absolutely um but i will say this when you guys expanded into that room and all the things i don't know at what point this happened but um and those who have been to the ed sullivan theater those who have been to 30 rock for any a number of the productions that happened there maybe not maury but uh other every other production there um there's an energy when you walk into these spaces in these studios for clarification purposes maury was never shot at 30 rock never never never never ironically was shot in the connecticut studios in stanford connecticut but never 30 rock donohue yes rosie yes but no morey i thought there was a thing where they were gonna one of the things that pissed dave off before he left yeah i i heard about that too that they wanted to rent the studio space out during the day to maury povich i think that was in one of the books and it's probably true uh but maury povich to my knowledge never ever ever broadcast out of 30 rock and i would it would hurt my soul if he ever did yeah you're the father terrible news and by the way i should i should also mention that i used to work for maury povich when he produced a show for dick wolfe called arrest and trial so i i actually know the man i have shot craps with maury povich in vegas that's a true story at the caesars with with with jim burroughs with james burns jimmy jimmy this is jay ryan he worked on a wrestling trial he showed me how to shoot craps with my buddy rigney it's a crazy story oh my gosh all right sorry sorry uh no don't be are you kidding me don't be sorry this is jazz um so so there's an energy though when you walk into these places those who have walked into the ed sullivan theater i've talked about it uh irene talked about people talk about the energy the energy when you walk onto the late night playset i have seen seasoned hollywood producers uh movers and shakers you know nile evans who work with works with nick cannon you know and oh that was the best response ever mal walks onto the set and he's like he's laughing like a child i need one of these yeah and it's because you guys built that uh evolved it whatever with so much love and intention and and when candy and i walked onto that set well there's a video floating around of of me you know just giggling too like my wife who who um i would say tolerates this part of me it's more than tolerant she supports me and everything but there's a level where i'm talking about it where it just turns into okay i tolerate this because this is the man i love and this is the man i married um my wife she walks onto the late night playset and she starts to nearly tear up you guys have captured the energy uh and the magic of walking into the ed sullivan theater walking into fallon studio whatever you guys have captured that magic with that set and and i can't wait to talk more about it but before we do that this episode of the letterman podcast has been brought to you by in part by our good friends at the hello deli rupert g and the hello deli in new york city isn't this cool how cool is that we're doing a commercial for the hello deli right now well it's just funny and ironic because i mean you know back in the day dave was helping the hello deli every time he put rupert on tv you know i mean rupert got paid for that plus obviously all the promotion um so i mean it was a really nice kindness that that that dave was doing for for the neighborhood and rupert in particular and i think it's so cool that now rupert is now paying that back by sponsoring your show where we're basically you're paying homage to dave i just think that the full circle here is so stinking cool it is and we're hoping for a few more of those full circle moments um the gratefulness that rupert i i don't think i'm telling tales out of school uh by saying the gratefulness that rupert feels for dave and company and and i say that because there's so many layers to it there's the the biggest layer that you just talked about uh you know the comedy pieces all the times things were shot in the deli thousands of times uh you know but then there's also the staff who come by the deli every day that the deli literally sits inside uh the building of the ed sullivan theater you know and and it's right beside the stage door right near the stage doors um and and for years decades the staff and and getting to know and um and rupert is just so he's like god took the word kind and turned into a man he's just so kind and the gratefulness he feels uh for that we're hopefully going to have him on to talk about that he he doesn't like being on camera so much no but we do have a few things planned uh we've asked rupert in the past too and he won't do it but i will tell you this he i've never had a single conversation with them to what you're saying i've never had a single conversation with that man where he doesn't somehow work in what a great man david letterman is not just for broadcasting but for america every single time he works that in so that being said um i'll do the little pitch and then we're gonna open the special box here because this box is from the hello deli and uh well you know what i'm gonna open the box now it's mostly it's mostly opened you know but it's not so we're gonna break the seal here i don't know what's in here exactly i have a feeling because of its dimensions um now the first thing i'm gonna say that if you buy something from the hello deli it's going to be expertly packed you look at that um it's it's expertly packed and so you know oh look at this so has your late show with david letterman shirt seen better days and you need to replace it did you know that one of the only places on earth that you can buy a licensed and if you're going to buy you buy license let's support the big man right um the only place you can buy licensed late show with david letterman materials are at the hello deli in new york city hello dashdeli.com look at that thank you very much rupert we appreciate that my late show t-shirt actually has seen better day so this is perfect um but i have hey i have the light one and the dark one and they both i both were purchased from the hello deli but they both need replacing so i will definitely wait wait wait wait what the oh here i am sorry how many times has rupert sat at that desk and spoken into that microphone not as many as times as you think with the microphone because there was a little switcharoo that happened but no but but he was on so much in the beginning sitting in those chairs for sure for sure absolutely um hey speaking of the dark one do they have just gray no they got the navy blue as well i love it hello daily.com oh my goodness what else do they have hats they got hats oh i didn't know they still had the hats i'm gonna get some hats there you go how many times do we see production crew wearing these hats you know um here i have a question can i ask you a question while you're opening that please do well when does this whole thing come full circle and when does hello deli start selling letterman podcast merchandise uh more to come okay fair enough there's two hosts folks two hosts two hosts one show we're doing this and then finally uh i think iconic this is a very cool moment that's gonna happen right here and it's gonna relate back to jay so has your late show mug broken did you need to replace your late show mug look at that you can do that at the hello deli hello dash deli dot com the dash is for the dash of love rupert puts in every sandwich um so we are quick oh that's important uh in front of my microphone this is the this is the truth in every single letterman podcast that we have done there are a pile of pencils they're right in front of the microphone right in front of the computer here uh there are some historically significant pencils every single one of them this of course is the one double eraser late show pencil that i have um i love it i play with it all the time while i'm doing these podcasts both hecast and the letterman podcast we've got some actual late show pencils as well that are sharpened and ready to roll i've got four of those now here's some really cool here's something really cool not a lot of people have this one here says it's tonight's show on it i don't know if you can see that or not oh hilarious you're hilarious and that's from the late night playset those are two pencils from the late night playset that i uh i managed to uh uh liberate well now did you explain why i mean when when we when we first first started i i love gary shandling so much and i sort of always channeled gary schandling a bit in my life and and i've met him a handful of times but so the it's tonight show was sort of a variation on the you know gary shandling it's uh it's gary shandling show i'm very glad you brought that up because we're both uh gigantic gary shandling fans you and i um when i came over to the late night playset you also gave me a very very cool gift and i want to highlight that gift you know you can't see it but on the end of this gray pencil oh i forgot about that there is a cbs logo there it is right there if you look at the stark white and redness of my head right in the middle of it you see a little black mark on that pencil and that is a cbs logo jay gave me this now would you mind saying the significance of this pencil no the though you're holding i'm holding the last ones that i have and you're holding uh the these were uh when they when the show first moved to cbs like when this desk was new these are the pencils that went with this desk and they're actually from the show and they didn't have a name yet when they first moved here that's why the jackets were ed sullivan theater instead of late show and so the pencils were cbs and they were gray at first at nothing but there was a lot of stuff where things weren't supposed to look like nbc so even though everything was sort of built the same way they sort of changed the colors on things like that so whatever the first couple of years you'll notice it's almost like a non-compete or something like that in a contract you're like all right well but for 18 months you can't do anything like you used to do you know um so weird ways but anyway these are the last ones i have left and i just grabbed one out and gave it to you because i figured you would like it yeah uh love it and now uh completing the the evolution of this part of the evolution of the studio my pencils have a have a home and it's in an official late show with david letterman mug sent to me directly by rupert g now would you like something sent by rupert g please head on over to hello delhi.com and he will hook you up the pricing is uh pre-inflation pricing too i can't believe the pricing that he's selling these things for as well i and i'm not even that's not even a shill come on down folks pre-inflation pricing everything must go thank you get yourself a paul shafer while you're there okay the paul shaffer sandwich which happens to be my favorite uh yeah more to come when it comes to this stuff like there's cool stuff happening um we've got something really funny planned uh to integrate rupert into the into our show a little bit at his comfort level until he actually does come on here and and and talk about the gratefulness that he feels for dave and company which is uh it cannot be measured it's so uh it's so robust now another question since i'm i'm co-hosting um you say great you say gratefulness what is your reason for that versus gratitude is it the same thing or are they different because i like grateful it's a little splashier than just gratitude which hashtag gratitude i mean it whenever i say it but like it sounds a little trendy sometimes but gratefulness i don't know it's got a nice ring to it yeah i mean the gratitude he feels versus the gratefulness that he feels is it the same to me to me one's a little more emotional than the other and i don't know that much it might be automatic poetically maybe uh gratefulness just feels more emotional whereas gratitude is like no the the gratitude i feel it's a little more logical or straight laced i don't know that's just my initial answer to that great yeah um speaking of gratefulness you've moved over to the desk that is fantastic it's like you know how to segue or something it's like you're a professional or something which you are uh seemed like there was time to transition so i took it now i talked in the intro about life goals um we are you know now that we're over a dozen episodes into this and things seem to really be snowballing and growing we're talking about what our uh studio renovation is going to look like we're going to document that because there's some other side projects that are happening we've got one of the bridges we've showed that uh about a week ago one of the bridges from dave seth showed up you actually went the next step further and identified which bridge it is oh sure which bridge which bridge is it again do you want to get it so people can see it i'm i'm going to grab it right now oh i see uh yeah no nearest i can tell someone else identified it first but i agreed with their assessment some somebody online when you posted it originally and i agreed with their assessment though uh and then especially when you actually had it there in person because you could see the color of it and all uh it's the verrazano bridge which is uh is basically the gateway into manhattan into new york harbor yeah for sure there it is the verizon and now that would have been so far back on the skyline simply because of the size of it those bridges you know you remember we don't want to get into this too much but you remember i was the first one other than crew i was the first one in america to see and play with those bridges because that was the night i was whatever in the theater they're huge i mean huge the the big ones are probably five feet taller than i am and i'm six foot tall six two uh and then the ones behind dave were so long and big and they were deep because there were cars on on them and everything um the fact that that this one can fit in your house means it must have been pretty far back but it seems to be made the same way you know so it's all the same style and everything there's it's not lesser because it's smaller in my mind i love this one because this one was actually located behind dave's monologue spot like when you watch dave doing the monologue or the opening marks whatever you want to call them uh i think by that point i think everyone did call it a monologue you could see it behind his uh if you're looking over his right shoulder you could see it um and it was it's it's got lights on the top and the bottom we're gonna we're gonna uh get those lights all working again yeah and it's been it was saved the day uh you know um the 21st of of may 2015 uh this was rescued it would have been in the dumpster with uh the rest we call that d-day right dumpster day it was dumpster day yeah and uh so i'm really grateful that not only can we give it a home uh but that we can actually you know take some of the uh the energy that's stored in this thing and use it uh for something very positive letterman related and uh and then some so hang on but also also i mean you know we're trying to be sort of like this uh you've talked about the community before but one of the things we're trying to do is not necessarily collect them all in one place but collect and identify where the location of all these artifacts are still existing many people have things in their collection uh from that dumpster day or otherwise there's people from stuff from the old nbc show there's the wonderful james commissar from the commissar collection who has almost the whole old late-night set um you know he done it that you you you're so smart he donated that beautiful uh david letterman uh uh print by who was it by uh danny so we're in we're gonna auction that thing off and and and one of you are gonna get a chance to own it um we are trying to identify where all these pieces have gone or where they are and sort of make a little bit of a i don't know a record or a registry or something like that uh museum for lack of a better term and the fact that you have one makes our job so much easier i agree i agree and and and and uh the delight that i have in having it and then also the inspiration because i am not this is where i want to get into uh do you did you bring your drawings oh no they're in the other room but i can go get them okay okay so i'll let you go get them and i'll talk about this a little bit um so so one of the things that i love when it comes to um i spoke earlier about the idea of uh collaboration versus uh competition and when we collaborate on things one of the the beautiful byproducts of that is you take people who have certain strengths uh that are other people's weaknesses and you have other people who have certain strengths um that are other people's weaknesses you put them all together and you have a well more well-rounded uh viewpoint vantage skill set whatever you want to call it jay has and i'm not making this up or being hyperbolas as i say this he has one of the most unique viewpoints when it comes to i don't even know if i want to call it fandom or appreciation appreciation maybe might be the way to go whereas he i think autism takes the visual i mean it's definitely spectrum uh for sure i didn't even leave the desk while you were talking because i realized i have some of these loaded up in the uh oh okay how old were you when you drew that now for those who are viewing um or who are on the audio uh jay just put up a picture of a very well i think those are pencil crayons uh yeah it was like colored pencils it looks like it was drawn in pen but then filled in colored pencils so that's in the studio was it eight h no h six six a this would have been 6a this was this was some version of 6a that i came up with in my mind because it was so much smaller than i thought it would be so then i kind of drew it even smaller than it really was um but yeah but that's uh i mean every detail there uh i don't know middle school to high school probably freshman sophomore somewhere in that name and then if you look at this over here after you move to this was i think dated 95 um that's the stuff we're sitting at right now yes it is that's exactly right and i mean but you're right about the detail the stuff in the window is ridiculous and it's all correct and i didn't look at a picture for any of this stuff all of any picture i've ever drawn has never been from uh uh source material it's just from my brain i'll tell you this jay um many of the in the letterman enthusiasts that i've met over the years um when we congregate and start talking about anything behind the scenes it usually goes to um you know the executive producers you know burnett or morty or barbara things like that or the writers you know um um you know steve o'donnell or or steve young or spangle squared or some of these other people uh my obsessions light elsewhere you went the other way you went you went down the path uh that that of of that i don't really see kathleen anchors not necessarily a name people would would jump to unless they think about like the the the bookmobile or the like uh the the mobile librarian the the awesomeness that she did the on-air stuff uh now you had a very different appreciation of kathleen anchors i did i did because i had a personal relationship with her um i she's so special to me that i can't explain why at this point in my life that i still get emotional talking about it i used to call her all the time this stuff is so uh uh you know this is such a focused drawing on all this stuff because i used to call her um you know i called this nbc switchboard and eventually got to late night and eventually got the art department and eventually got her you know i didn't know who to call but eventually i got her number and then man i wore it out and i would say well how did you do this or how did you do that and what did you make this out of and where did you get this and and and she was always so insanely nice i mean like unbelievably so i asked her where she got this microphone and she's like oh dear that's so easy to replicate and i was like what what do you mean it's like we've had to do it she goes here's what you do this is literally what she told me on the phone i'm i'm a sophomore in high school she goes here's what to do you get a racquetball or a tennis ball ken and you cut one of the balls in half and you glue them all together and then you just get some tape and some paint and you can do it dear you can do it yourself she goes we've had to do it on our own show where they had to replicate it for bits or whatever i had so many conversations like that with kathleen anchors um i don't know if you said it or not she was the emmy-winning production designer of late night and uh and and the late show um and lots of other shows she she did the rosie o'donnell show that i did work on um which i loved that environment so much because it was sort of like a little a little bit like dave's late night um but she was just incredibly kind and sweet and generous with uh this crazy little high school kid who would call her and obsessed i called her over the the break after nbc the summer break from between nbc and cbs and i was like well what happened with everything where is the microphone she goes oh dear i'm sure that's under lock and key and i was like what does lock and key mean and she's like oh who's locks who's keys tell me oh my god i mean really really just this obsessed kid but she took the time and she was so nice and um and it wasn't so stupid it wasn't until like way later that i kind of knew and put together you know i was a kid right so like the pieces didn't just fit together like they do as an adult so i don't i don't know that i either ever saw the bookmobile or the ticket lady or whatever at first it's like my relationship with her started on the phone before i saw her on tv so then when i saw what she looked like and everything else it was just it was so weird it was everything was weird about it and then you know later on when i spent some time a little bit of time at the late show i got to meet her and she was really nice but anyway r.i.p kathleen anchor she passed away gosh 20 years ago now i think it was 2002.

yeah we're not going to stop talking about her uh yes um by the way she was old school too she was like old school she like wouldn't take any [ __ ] and she and she was just really really old school with the way she did things like everything was just hand drawn and you know a lot of art um i'm pretty sure on giller's channel he's got the the bookmobile on there so if you want to see who we're talking about please again not until the show is over you know but once the show is over if you're writing your notes of what to do when the show is over it's go over to uh to the youtubes and either on the official channel or on giller's channel find the bookmobile and and and you'll see who we're talking about here uh that on from an on-air standpoint but again you having this special dynamic with her i i i don't know that there would have been another a lot of other high school kids uh reaching out to her and i think she must have gotten a real kick out of that i mean you might be right about that but like is it also maybe that i you know i got to her i mean like i don't i don't know how it all worked you know i mean i tried to call everybody i called every department for every damn thing but somehow because of i guess you're right no i guess you're right because of my artistic no i was just drawn to her yeah maybe it was yeah maybe it was special because i was never like an art school student or anything like that i just always took a liking to production design i guess i don't know sure i don't know it's with you all it was about the environment the dave show the you know what i was attracted to we've talked about this before but like dave is so good obviously i don't want to ever take away anything like obviously he's the driving force but what i was attracted to was the show it was the environment i was a little kid who came from a a weird background a weird a weird family dynamic and so i attached to things very very easily like sesame street mr rogers the muppet show like all of these things were very very inspiring and uh inspirational and um and influential with who i became i mean this microphone on dave's desk was familiar to me because it looked like kermit the frog's microphone on sesame street news so when i was like oh here's an adult in human form doing sort of a he's taught and he's talking directly to me like a mr rogers or a muppet instead of talking at me trying to sell me something or whatever right uh the authentic little kid in me really imprinted on that and attached to it and um so it's always been uh the environment i guess sorry i've been spinning all around here that's the thing about you you're so good about letting people just go they just go i'm enjoying that on some of your podcasts but anyway i loved the whole environment it was that it was that it was that land of make-believe it was that little world and so that's that's that's that's what that's what i uh tried to recreate here i love the idea of the mr rogers connection because even the uh the background with the buildings you think about the opening to mr rogers and how uh you know it was that was what it was about as well you know the the the context there i agree did you make that connection before we spoke about it or because i'm wondering if other people are make those connections or if it's just me well mr rogers was my favorite broadcaster growing up now again i didn't attract to i didn't attract to uh the production side the way that you do which again is one of the things that's so beautiful about you is that you attracted to that part and that's the complementary part um so i didn't necessarily put those two things together with the buildings and the different uh connections that way even the music when you think about it you know paul's musical flourishes the little piano flourishes that he would put in afterwards uh to accent his words and things like that a lot of similarities there for sure and they weren't put in afterwards that's the nice thing it was all done live just like dave and paul it was one entity one energy all synergized and working together to create this thing that we hadn't seen before yeah um and in many ways i've said that you know there might have been a few batons in the middle but my my appreciation of broadcasting baton was passed definitely from from mr rogers to david letterman at some point there might have been a couple in the middle but um but honestly you share that yeah yeah and a lot of us do uh you and i are definitely not the first to talk about that of guys in our age group uh who have made that connection the cool thing is we're creating a community around it where we can all talk about that together and have some of these realizations and and which will lead to us knowing ourselves a little bit better i love that um now that being said with kathleen anchors because this is really um you know we've had all sorts of people from the show uh who have already you know reached out or been on the show already who are going to be in the future kathleen like you said um you know rest in peace um i am really grateful that we have somebody because i don't know who else would be jay who's gonna come on here to the letterman podcast and talk about her so we can talk about her as much as you want to talk about her wow that's a really interesting point i hadn't really thought about i would love to be that person well that's kind of what we were talking about when we were talking you know with the letterman podcast you're creating this archive of information and then we talked about well you know there's the alma mater at the david letterman at ball state and the david letterman learning center but it's not really an archive for physical materials it's more like an archive for ideas and and and and learning um so the fact that we we the fact that i was even inspired to make that connection i don't know i think you're making me realize things in real time here and maybe um maybe it's cooler than i thought but i appreciate it well we didn't do a pre-interview folks uh jay and i never do the only thing i said to him last night was uh have your drawings on hand and i forgot no no but no you had them loaded up it's perfect it's perfect uh do you have any pictures of you doing your high school show loaded up i'm sure i do well i mean i'm sure they're in here let's see um okay oh you know what i uh while i do while i do here's me at conan in the early years looking through the old window that was the very very first generation of conan that would have been like 94.

i was uh what a tall order i can't wait to talk to him about taking over for dave and and and like late night was you know unprecedented at that point having someone take over um wow the energy that you felt in there i mean and you and i can go deep on that you know the the every 13-week commitment and all the [ __ ] no no no no no worse than that no no no i mean you must have read the books it was way worse than that when we were there when i was there we were getting it was as small as being picked up week to week because i was on the nbc side i was on the production crew side uh in the audio department so we got different info than the staff on the show got and i didn't really make these connections of how separated it was until much much later um i i always kind of thought i worked on conan and i worked on saturn live well really i worked for nbc in these you know sort of specialized departments um but either way it was it was bad we were getting picked up week to week and people were like [ __ ] depressed and they're trying to put on a show pretending that they're not it was a very very tumultuous time and everybody at nbc like all of the crew all of the old school guys that worked on letterman and par and all the shows before in the same uh geographical location in the same studio they were all like nope nope it's just not like we're just it's yeah they've seen this before they've been yeah somebody said uh rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic it was like yep okay all right okay and obviously conan proved them all wrong which was awesome but it was not the magical place that i think you might think it was where they came in with all the ideas and changed television it was whew it was not that well the whimsy that comes with nostalgia uh it cannot be understated and and you know we're talking about this right now and you think about pressures or things that we feel real time right now whereas five years from now especially when we all in our community have our way and and the things happen that we aspire or or think are gonna happen we're gonna look back to these moments where things are pressurized a little bit uh and and we're gonna look at that with with a little bit of whimsy and nostalgia uh like we are with with with conan right now because it did change it did um uh you know he is a legend now and and that legend um was brought about because of those times but during those times you're like [ __ ] these times i don't want these times at all this is not what the human experience is supposed to be like but it is that hardening of the diamond uh in that in that coal you weren't there you and i've never talked about this um obviously uh the lore or the whimsical nostalgia uh says that the the night that things started turning for conan was when dave showed up and and i think he did a walk-on first and then maybe a first appearance something like that i think it was the other way it was the other way around i think but yeah okay i know exactly what you're talking about yeah you know how did you get this show well you know there was a there was a get your own talk show contest i came in fourth i love that line it's a great great joke um were you there the night dave showed up no no i wish i wish um in fact i watched that night for sure um yeah there were i mean there were two that i recall one he was a a guest where they promoted it and it was going to be a big deal and he was on and uh you know they had him throw a pencil through the window and all that stuff i think it's the one you're talking about but then there was another one and i'm pretty sure it happened afterwards where joan collins was gonna was a guest on conan and if you remember the old days of joan collins and letterman she was always on live at five across the hall she would do that show no problem but she wouldn't do late night so they would always send someone across the hall and eventually got crazy with a security one it's a funny compilation i think don's put up as well uh but she was sitting on she was at the in the chair up at conan and so dave came through the yellow they were yellow at that point but the old blue doors from his studio and and just sort of walks up on the set and sits down you know moves andy over and sits down on the couch and you know starts uh basically harassing joan collins uh and that i recall uh making an even bigger splash but i think see for me for me the show changed after i left it was after andy left that's when i think conan found his voice and and began his own show i think they were always kind of like we don't know what we're doing i don't know until they sort of got there even though the stuff they were doing was good boy did you ask me about conor why am i talking about conan holy crap no no that's that's all good no we're just [ __ ] it's just jazz buddy we're good i love this because he's the host normally and so he's like crap where are we going next don't worry buddy i got it yeah well i couldn't remember what you asked me or why i was talking at all no no no i asked if you were there the night that dave came on conan show no no no no no no no um and how in fact i think i told you this i was i should have been so excited to work on conan in 6a like this is my dream location geographic location in the world i'm on the sixth floor of the nbc building um it was so different it was intentionally different they wanted to be anti-day they changed everything the stage space the audience space they changed every single thing painted every surface so that it was different yeah and then and then i you know go in there the first time i think it was in the audience the first time i was in there when it was different but i just it was so strange and then when i worked there it was like the all i every day i just wished i could have been there when it was what i wanted it to be instead of this other thing yeah the thing that wasn't working at the time another experience of the human condition is is exactly what you're talking about here this is exactly what i wanted but it's not quite exactly what i wanted but i can't go back i can't jump into delorean and go back in time and and make that happen and but also remember for me it was insanely young and early i was undeveloped as a human being i was i was i was working at 30 rock the senior year of high school with my internship and going to night school at night so it was a very very strange relationship to be so talking to these hard hard adults like these hard old-school guys still smoking thoughts and stuff and like and then meanwhile like i don't know how to do my homework yeah that was a weird weird i guess it formed a pretty unique person but it was a weird experience before we get back to dave uh this is sort of dave related did you ever see the pickle um i you mean the one that was that supposedly i don't think i did i don't think i did okay if you did you wouldn't have known what it was no but wasn't it wasn't it a big oversized like inflated pickle or something yeah i think that's what it is yes a stuffed pickle or an inflated one but yeah anyway i remember dave left it in the office for conan yeah something like that something like that or the writer the head writers did it or or something but apparently it has made its way down through all the incarnations of late night and seth has it now apparently dave and conan have a weird thing where you know dave does a lot of those gift things those gift gags and they're kind of supposed to be between the giver and the recipient but somehow conan always makes it public and then it becomes a thing and then dave's like you know what i mean like the horse thing is what comes to mind and he's like well i don't know why he kept the horse he wasn't supposed to keep the horse i mean for god's sake he decided okay but i know why he kept the horse if if i would have been kimmel who received the box of ties there's another public gifting that that that happened letterman when he retired sent all of his ties to jimmy kimmel apparently legendarily um if i'm the recipient i'm looking at that come on this is from david [ __ ] letterman i'm keeping this and and dave's like it's a joke like it's and the example he uses is uh he's going to a wedding give somebody a set of snow tires and wrap them up individually that's a great gift you know love that um but yeah it has come out publicly and and and and little things like this though are the things the crumbs or the tidbits that folks who are enthusiasts of this stuff eat up love to hear oh give me more of those crumbs please you know i want to make a meal out of those crumbs it's such a um it's such a rich thing that comes from normal things that are just a little bit funny or a little bit off it's it's it's i love that and we're celebrating right now yeah a little bit funny and a little bit off for sure a little bit off but so are we all um now that being said uh you know we're almost an hour in i knew that you and i were gonna go between an hour and and 90 minutes in the first one and i love this already because we have gone exactly this is a letterman podcast talking about kathleen anchors um and and what you've built there um do you want the photos that you asked for before i'm not trying to you got them you got them yeah they got a bunch of kids there was a bunch of different variants i mean we you know i mean it started something like this in the in the studio in high school that's that's interviewing that's you in high school yeah and that and that's i'm interviewing two girls from up with people fantastic people coming into our town and dave used to make fun of him so i was like hey get him on the show put him on the show and now look at the background yeah i did all that but based on what kathleen anchors told me how to do it i can only dream to have that in my studio right now and i'm a grown-ass man with with with uh friends who own construction companies like and i could i can only imagine that like [ __ ] dude it's all cardboard and christmas lights you just have to know how to do it and that's what i asked her and she told me you know what i mean that's that's the the education i got was me calling kathleen anchors and asking her how to replicate all this silly stuff uh so that was the first one and by the way shout out to susan grabel who was the theater uh person at the at the uh high school who you know helped me too with you know making stuff and whatever uh now what microphone are you using okay look at that one there you go there oh there's what we're talking about yeah there's a little [ __ ] huh look at that little [ __ ] yeah but with the j he's folks he's he's a teenager and he has the wherewithal to wear just uh the suit jacket and still keep the jeans on look at that guy yeah um that's that's a weekend update appearance in the first place now let's talk about that microphone is that the microphone that ended up on dave's desk for 10 years it is these all these all are uh this is the closest this is probably the latest photo i mean the latest version it i had i had to have it chromed because you know i used my allowance i think i told you the story i used like so many years worth of christmas money whatever it was like 600 i don't know to buy this microphone i had to find it first and then i bought it but it wasn't the right color so i'd have it chromed and i had the piece made in the back whatever so after all of that work it looked as close to dave's as i could here and that's what it ended up looking like when i when i gave it to dave so that's the mic that ended up on dave's desk okay and and again for that story we're gonna send you back to that episode of he cast which we will uh put up in comments i'm gonna actually put it up on our youtube channel as well so you will see that the the story of that but it's just hanging out i got i got your t's for you right here if you want your teas okay this was the original david letterman microphone one night this happened once you get her started by god there's no stopping her i've noticed two problems with the new set what well one this microphone is higher than it needs to be now what's that well it's because the other microphone the one that's been on the desk for two and a half years here and thirteen and a half years at nbc last night that was stolen you're kidding now that was stolen so so we had to replace it with this other new and it occurs to me that we stole that microphone from nbc so if you want to find out that story and more tune into the tune into uh we are going to link it somehow oh yeah we're going to link it um the your episode of heat cast where you go through the whole thing it's a phenomenal story and and so after that went missing i ended up giving you get the story yeah yeah that's right so you ended up trading microphones with david letterman at his house uh not trading microphones you giving your microphone which he then took and used on the set for 10 years um and and uh crazy a phenomenal story and it's not over yet uh you know where we're we'll we can talk an entire episode and and and tribute the fact after you give this one back to dave or or whatever that however it's going to turn out um and i do believe that there's going to be a ps to this whole thing it's going to be awesome um but that being said um that 16 year old 17 year old in those pictures um i just identified so sorry sorry sorry that's okay because i was trying to go back to the pictures and that's what happened um so here's one thing you know comedy ladies and gentlemen here's something put together by the great don giller this was done by the don the great don giller he sent these to me going oh now i get it so you get me in the top left there with my high school microphone you get dave in the top right with the original microphone then you get dave in the bottom left with the replacement microphone after it went missing and then bottom right the replacement microphone that i gave him on his desk isn't that weird no it's fantastic so top left and bottom right are actually the same it's just been chromed and you know changed a little bit yeah and and that just shows your attention to detail and and i just appreciate it so much um you you again we appreciated the bits and and i say we we all appreciate including you but so many of us just gravitated to the content you gravitated to the detailing behind and and and that is so evident when you walk onto the playset right now i i'm i'm i'm in awe of what it is that you guys have built and thank you for the inspiration to give us a bit of a guide as we change our studio as we get our bridge uh integrated somehow and and and the pictures of of stuff and and even the mugs and the pencils and and all these things that were um that we're doing here on this show uh you know kathleen inspired you jay and i know you deflect [ __ ] the way that dave does too i swear to god you inspire me in in what it is that i'm doing here um you've totally made me think bigger about how i can turn the letterman podcast studio you know if it's you know uh the podcast network north you know into that living museum that we talk about a little bit and then put our own mark on to it you inspire me man the way that kathleen inspired you so thank you for that oh [ __ ] oh no i'm just kidding i'm just he's gone ladies and gentlemen you're being too nice and you're right i can't take it i know you can't i know you can't um but it was important that we talk about kathleen today um on this episode i appreciate you giving us a tour of of of what you have there i i just that microphone is so important to me too um i have a version of that tattooed i've got a tattoo on my back that's like 21 of my favorite things and one of those favorite things is that microphone yeah yeah i had that i mean it was apparently i'm not the only one that uh that had some sort of an imprint on it but it's crazy isn't it yeah it's amazing uh and when i came in and saw it live i was speechless like it is it's seeing an artifact um you know and we've talked about the history of that microphone you know we're gonna we're gonna link up our version or not our version but canvases in my appearance on uh on cars and comedy back then it was the the just the late night playset which is the geographic area but cars and comedy takes place in the late night playset and now stop selling it so hard it's all going to change anyway well that's true it's all just a transition we're just all we're doing is making people more aware of what we do our reaction to that uh to seeing that microphone for the first time is is around and and it is it's it's awe-inspiring for a select few of us um i'm glad we're getting all this select few of us together it feels really cool watching this ecosystem kind of assemble itself into a weather pattern don't you think uh yeah i wouldn't put it maybe necessarily quite like that but sure i mean i i you know anything that we're all drawn to this so if there's other people who are and we all get to share it then there's more for us to enjoy uh obviously i think that's a very good thing yeah i i again i what i said in the beginning i really believe to be true it's not so much of us i think we're just sort of settling into the right place in the right time i i think it's the temperature i think it's the timing i think it's you know the back to the future theory of the every 30 years things repeat kind of thing um you know i think it's a lot of that going on i think i think it's just and dave didn't go away that's the thing dave didn't just disappear right off to the sunset the fact that he's still current and active um and because the body of work is so immense and so dense i think that uh the the folks like us who have always enjoyed it are continuing to enjoy it but like back to the future ghostbusters and so many other things these kids friends on netflix you pick one uh the kids are then seeing the youtube clips that the dons put up or that um the actual letterman channel is putting up now and they are going oh what's that because when we were like that's not the letterman we knew that's that's not the old guy at the desk you know and that's what they think of as letterman holy crap i mean if that's all he was ever that's all i knew him as i probably wouldn't have imprinted either it was like oh that's just it's the end of this long ride that i wasn't a part of but we're on the long we're along for the ride we have been it seems like the ride might be starting over is what i guess i'm trying to say yes yeah and i hate being again this is hard relax you're overthinking it you're great um this is this is this is already been an awesome episode and we are going to kind of turn it towards the end but you know obviously just the beginning um you know it's very clear i think to our viewers and listeners okay so these connections that are happening are also growing networks and and and and networks upon networks that we're gonna just put together and we'll intertwine with each other it's it's fantastic and and if we're trying to be the thing we're gonna fail this thing is bigger than us but if we're just kind of like along for the ride it's going to be a great ride that's what i feel yeah well and it already is it already is a great ride and and uh i'm grateful um and and and again and the grateful the gratitude and gratefulness that i feel both both sides of the brain was a legitimate question i wasn't trying to give you [ __ ] it was a legitimate question it's funny that's a legitimate callback that's a legitimate callback to that question i love it in preparation for this show i did i watched two things one was your daniel kellison interview god is that good i have told you off here that we've been trying to get him here since we started this show he was one of the first people i ever wanted to get here because of all of his connections with norm and and and all of the things he's done yeah i'm so impressed that you got him that was so good i loved it and then for the balance i ended up watching some of gary shanlen ling on early leno like when leno first took over for johnny oh your shows are so bad it's it's it's the only thing that's making me feel better about this experience because you know jay steps on every punch line that gary tries to do and it's just instead of a host guest situation it becomes like it's more of a you know jay didn't know how to do that job in the beginning no matter how many times he guest hosted right because he was still guest hosting johnny's show so i had to do it that way once it was jay's show he didn't know what the [ __ ] he was doing and i'm watching these commercials i mean these clips now and it's like it reminds me of myself for the first three years of this show and i hate to compare myself to jay leno but it ain't easy it's not easy and watching gary i'm telling you i'm gonna send you some of these clips afterwards because it was two different appearances his first and maybe his second but gary chandling and leno it's it's it's hilariously awful and awfully hilarious um well you said something that is uh universal i think to any host who has a guest on that is trying to be funny there is no feeling for a host for me anyway personally maybe maybe i'm being too broad so i'll just i'll make it personal there is no worse feeling in the world than stepping on a guest's punchline it's awful so you've done it oh god the the times that i have done it are just uh you know thank goodness i cut my teeth through he cast which isn't necessarily a a funny podcast it's a mental wellness podcast but there have been guests who have come on i've had stand-ups on i've had filmmakers on who are talking about stand-ups that they've filmed and they're they're they're they're talking about the joke and you think they hit the punch line and you start to go somewhere with it and they go whoa hold on a second i'm not oh god that feeling of awkwardness inside when they do that um and i browbeat myself afterwards it's it's i can't wait stepping on people's oh i just did it to you i'm sorry no no not at all i i hate stepping on people's punch lines is all i was going to say no i i it's hard with the zoom um i can't wait to send these to you because it happens so many times it's ridiculous because they're fighting for the line it's like they're playing best joke beat the joke um but they're on air it's the tonight show now like what are we doing what do you want what do you what what's going on and he would jay would take every opportunity possible to insult gary in some way be it age or you know gray in his hair whatever it happens to be uh and it was and even when the other guest is out like another guest gary gary's moving down the couch it's so weird and awkward and i'm just kind of grateful that i don't have that comic gene in me again you and kelly were talking about this and should i should i say on this show that should i remind people that the people asked for jay leno on our show i for years i said i want to have dave before leno everyone was like but you could get leno again leno because he's so big in the car community and we talk about the cars a lot so they were like you know whatever and then one night on the show live we did a who do you want to see and it was all and the number one person was jaylen so i was like all right guys if you want him i'm pretty sure we can get him and then four weeks later he did it so it wasn't for me that one wasn't for me that was pure softball out of me i'm saying this on the letterman podcast don't watch that show and think oh cause i say so many things i'm like you're such a nice guy jay leno oh yeah i think that was me you didn't really hide in the closet did you i think that was really not in the closet did you but when i was like you're such a such a nice guy jayla i think that was me channeling uh what's helen kushnick in the movie you know talking to him it was a weird experience having him in the studio here it was very very strange i have two reactions it's my least favorite show we've ever done oh that is so that's fascinating right there that you'd say that um oh i'll tell you i have two reasons not necessarily because of jay leno but it's my least favorite uh result there's ever been no i i hear you um two things that i would like to say you know when you talk about shandling and leno's botched interviews if you want to call it botched um yeah no okay if if there was a moment they were trying to recreate the moment that you're describing is when lena would show up on late night because that wasn't just when dave and jay would do their back and forth on late night which by the way the deck is stacked because it's all it's a different show it's not the tonight show and when a comic comes on or a stand-up comedian comes on and there's panel that's happening when dave and jay would go back and forth you could tell it was also okay we got this panel and we got this and you're going to use some of your stand up as your we're we're talking but then instead of just setting the volleyball for him to spike it it would be spiked back and they would insert little lines in there and it became a completely different thing now that's a high wire act um if if if jay and gary were trying to do that um not the easiest thing in the world and perhaps we're seeing two things that were similar but completely opposite again i feel like we have a different read on the situation and i will refer you back to your own episode with daniel kellison and i feel like he's the one who has the the thumb on the pulse of this thing um jay leno just wanted to compete he just wanted to co that's he was the same on both of those shows the reference you made is excellent because him on letterman is exactly what he was doing but dave in the chair in the past you know he he would he could play back this is yes if if dave were doing that to jay it would be an awkward uh it would be an awkward interview you know what i mean so this is jay the new host of the tonight show at the desk being this way yes with a guest who he should be treating better no matter what and then if gary flung it to him maybe he flings about i don't know but uh i see what you're saying i again say that i feel like um the history here is very deep uh i played extreme softball with jay leno when he was here because i was hoping i am hoping that we'll have him back uh and i intend to be a little bit you know whatever um so yeah no i i think i think daniel's got the personality right on this one and i and i and there were a number of things he said that i share and agree with at my core well and this is the second reaction that i have uh to what you said i would love to see daniel kellison in the chair beside you and you guys talk about this i think that would be a fascinating segment of cars and comedy um and then you guys could move on to you know the past or the future or whatever but i would love to see you guys talk about that that to me is uh take my money even though it's a free show uh that's that's that's that's must-see internet tv as far as i'm concerned yeah i i i mean in a heartbeat here you know he's already welcome we would love to have him i reached out even just recently after you told me he was gonna do your show and i haven't heard back yet but i did i did reach out uh i would love that simply so we could have an honest conversation about it um the truth is the jay leno show the first half of it i hate i mean i hate with a passion i mean it's so uncomfortable for me to watch because it's not i'm not me i'm like i'm somebody i couldn't it was a weird it was a weird thing and then somehow when we were wrapping it up and like sort of like at a time and he was like oh any more questions and then i was like well wait a second i mean you're jay leno i mean i've known you my whole life i can can i just can we just do this because you know in the beginning he was like son what are we going to talk about he was like kind of concerned you know so what are we going to talk about whatever and then and then at the end he was kind of giving me a little bit of freedom so you you know what happened i put the damn card down and it just became this yep and uh i think the second half of that interview at the very least is interesting because i do feel like we go a couple places maybe he hasn't gone before but overall i felt like even when pushed he still gave the same you know i mean he's good at what he does he knows what he's doing he knows what he's doing he he was number one for a reason um it's not any reason i would want to be number one but um but you know it was important to him i think daniel was right i think he likes to compete anyway sorry and meanwhile i still like him as a person because he's very nice to us he he came here he came to our little condo in los angeles right by universal studios and came here and sat in the letterman chairs to do this little thing so ah i don't know i told him i told him when i invited him the first time i go listen so i've been wanting asking for a while but like it's weird for a couple of reasons and i said we use the old letterman because i don't think that'd be weird at all me and dave you know everybody made a big day i was like i got the same answer he would have given the lady buying a newspaper or entertainment tonight you know what i mean yeah so i don't know he knows what he's doing uh well i i'm glad you went into this too i wasn't i wasn't gonna push it in that direction uh i certainly didn't mean to sorry oh no no no i'm glad you did i'm glad you did because i wasn't sure how comfortable you'd be talking in here and i don't want him to think that i'm leno's like little buddy yeah can i think maybe that's why i said it uh you know what uh this is gonna be the last question i ask you and then and then we'll uh we'll sign off and we'll just say more to come on everything else and and uh you can see me by the way uh two nights a week helping out uh the production of cars and comedy live at five tuesdays and thursdays and and lots more of this lots more of this every week if you want it um but that's not just us we have we actually we have great guests too i mean we it's not just us doing this on the show we have fantastic oh my god absolutely um and good ones coming up like lots of good stuff coming up um and yeah it's gonna be repeat week it's gonna if you like the letterman podcast and you liked all the guests you saw on it tune in to late night plays that next week for what do we got tom driessen and we've got uh uh eddie's coming up again eddie brown everybody you've already had so great um and then we can go back and forth and play ping pong with that i love it but i'm gonna ask you this one question about jay leno would you say that car community jay leno is the real jay leno or is very different than performer jay leno what's the question do i think they're different i don't think i don't think they're different i don't think jay leno is different i think jay leno is exactly the same i think i think uh i think i think that's one of the problems i think i think um i don't know what i don't know exactly what you mean do i think the car jayla was different than the tv late night competing jay leno no okay i i as a viewer watch jay leno's garage and it feels a lot more comfortable than the tonight show even though the monologue on the tonight show was a honed machine or whatever no i'm i'm i'm taking that question and showing where it the mechanics of the question i look at those two shows and say okay that to me seems almost like two different guys here's the natural guy that is doing exactly what he wants to be doing exactly what he's called to be doing when i watch jay leno's garage um and i was just curious if in life because you know him from the car community it's not like you you know you didn't work for the tonight show you didn't do any of the stuff that you've done in broadcasting or tv with him you know him on the tonight show when i worked first we moved out here oh there you go yeah yeah sorry um but but i'm just curious if that car community j is different from other js i think here may be the difference uh when you say car community j i associate it with my friend jay leno that we see out and about and we sit and you know like sit at a table and and and break bread we'll shoot shoot the [ __ ] or whatever yeah uh with other people present um you know what i mean like if you're talking about the jay leno who's on the jay leno garage show that all has to do with the production of that show you know i mean sure the tonight show had 200 people working on it and crazy energy everything you were talking about this studio and the band and all that energy and you know it's got to be like this and ratings and all that none of that is existent on the jay leno uh youtube or cnbc show he just is at home in his garage several blocks from where i'm sitting right now um where he spends all day every day except when he's out driving the cars um and so it's like a matt he's doing a version of what we're doing you know what i mean like it's like he he goes to his little workshop every day and he they they turn the stuff on and what are we i mean it's all scheduled like a real tv show but there's none of that crazy we're doing a live broadcast five shows a week right it's just a different environment so for the energy to be different i mean i think i don't know how the energy could or would be the same um as far as where he's more comfortable he's clearly way more knowledgeable and interested in talking about cars than movie stars for sure and i i i'm sure i've heard him say that yeah well i mean not that i'm interested in watching a ton of jay leno other than him and dave because that was legendary stuff to me and i still every time we're together that's what we talk about because that's the only thing i'm interested in talking about every single time it comes up i'm like you know you're [ __ ] never better than we're all every time i see it literally this is this is the goddamn shoot every time i see him i go so what's your beef what's my beef and he'll usually you know say something and it gets it just gets us going into material and then just kind of talking and shooting the [ __ ] um he's not anybody i would have ever chosen to know given the situation but right where we are and everything i also can't be like [ __ ] jay leno he [ __ ] over letterman and then conan and then you don't even know about like yeah do i feel that way yeah kind of but i also get perspective in people and i can see the type of person he is and i think that is the type of person he is kellison's got it right he's not going to change so like what do you do i know him so what sorry yeah exactly okay he's not my favorite person in the world but i'm grateful to him for spending he's been very nice to us yep i uh yeah thanks for opening up about that that's awesome i didn't expect this to go uh this deep into this today i thought that would be a separate episode to be perfectly frank and we've kind of taken i never thought about a couple of cool things we got well there you go um you're welcome uh you're a good host mike chisholm i tell you get people to open up [ __ ] let's let's let's finish off uh uh i can't believe this what's this gonna be listed at the kathleen anchors jay leno episode of the letterman podcast it's gonna be the kathleen anchors episode with uh we also talk about jay leno a little bit uh and i want to finish with kathleen anchors i i do because i think it's very important you didn't know that i was thinking there's really not a lot of other records that's the thing about you said about dave still being around and why we need to do this now is because a lot of the people are still around sadly some of them aren't there was a pivotal moment in the in the in the history of this show when alan calter passed away and i i was i mentioned it to a couple people this week including a couple letterman people and how disappointed my heart was on a professional level never mind the personal thing i love big red so much but when he passed away on the professional level it's like [ __ ] we missed the opportunity to talk to him and and and to and to let him reflect on this stuff kathleen anchors doesn't have that but she has you and and i i think that that that that's well no like like seriously who is this i'll be her advocate and i'll i mean yes i i think she was fantastic but i i mean that woman won emmys for her work i mean you know i'm i'm some guy who built a studio in his dining room you know although and we should say this too i'm pretty sure we're the only podcast not a podcast in the world with an emmy-winning set right like i can't imagine another one having an emmy winning set this is the set from the late show with david letterman that won the the production design emmy that year 95.

i say i say we proclaim that fact and uh you know we make t-shirts in the whole nine yards and say that everyone else prove us wrong but i think we're right i think you're right on that perfect yeah perfect perfect um we're going to keep saying it until somebody tells us different no absolutely and again that is the attention to detail you put into this that is what you're inspiring me to do as we evolve this part of the network um and and i'm just so grateful to be doing this with you to be running as fast as i can in the direction that i'm running while you're going in the direction that you can as fast as you can uh that you're going and it's very very awesome so thank you for being my brother from another mother in this thank you for inspiring me you make me want to be better you have taught me a measure of things that you don't even realize that you've taught me never never mind the stuff that you know you've taught me uh i just want to say thank you for being in my life thank you for being my friend and i'm very excited where we're going with this oh you know i don't take praise well all right i just turned on the bubbles for you because i don't take oh my gosh yeah it came with the desk came with a button for the bubbles and we got some clear dude i tell you about the smoke is the smoke working again or the smoke oh look at i see a little bit why don't you mention that the smoke is and isn't working it's blowing like crazy but it seems to be blowing through all the vents instead of out the thing so we got a new smoke machine but maybe we need another one he's got smoke blowing on his crotch ladies and gentlemen um coming up from somewhere uh this is fun like you know okay take the praise aside um are you having fun with what it is that we're doing here uh yeah i mean i i haven't i don't wouldn't say i enjoyed myself today here but uh um uh in general yeah this is this is a crazy thing uh was it reggie watts who said it when he came first he goes you're just like a like a model railroader but like with a different subject matter and i was like that's like the best that's the best it's just a model train set right it's just a it's an adult toy kit with a bunch of uh switches and buttons and things to press i mean we didn't even get all the stuff dave used to have come on um yeah so i don't know i guess when it comes to that how could you not have fun right how could you know yeah wow it's it's it's fun with heart because you put so much heart into it in the details and we're just scratching the surface on uh everything that we're doing together and and and i'm just so excited about it um shocker mike's excited about something yeah yeah i i can't why don't you guys wait why don't you get enthusiastic about something mister uh we've done 90 minutes i'm gonna go out of here not because i want to but because uh everything says that we have to i got a date with my granddaughter um you've got uh nicole there please give nicole our love and um you know we just adore her and you guys and uh everything's sitting right here yeah yeah and on tuesday at five o'clock she'll be there again um who's the guest this week uh we've got this guest this week who is it let's see um i don't remember what order oh you know what i got it right on the card here from the other day that's hilarious uh next week sean bishop uh writer director um does animation work but he also built the ghostbusters car with me and the time machine back to the future time machine with me he's going to be back for part two of his live and at five on tuesday and then on thursday we have misha mansur from the band periphery uh very well known in the music industry and chris rosales who is chris has a camera they are both car people as well and we are they will have a show soon i don't want to say too much but we're going to be talking about them so good stuff okay we'll get this episode out uh before tuesday so that the plug will be real so that's good and how are you going to do that after that wait how are you going to do that i thought your show aired on friday how how come we're all stepping on each other's air dates here how are we doing that no no no we're we're gonna put it this is gonna be a bonus episode that we get out as soon as i uh produce it and get it i'm putting this one right so do you hear what i'm saying you keep doing all these bonus episodes now we're all stepping on each other day your day's friday i thought friday is the normal letterman podcast there will be a letterman podcast out every friday if we have something to say about it but as we get more material in the can we will release those bonus episodes out uh periodically usually i think the bonus episode will come out on monday but so this isn't so we're not doing the letterman podcast uh we are this is a letterman podcast this is um i think this will be number 13.

so how will it come out so it'll come out next friday if we choose to do that or i could release it as a bonus episode i don't it could be a bonus i don't care i'm just trying to i'm trying to get you to stick to a schedule and i'm trying to figure out what it is but you know i don't care what it is uh thank you for having me thank you thank you thank you jay i appreciate you so much thank you for being on here um that is another episode of the letterman podcast however it is uh released and you the viewer uh listener will know that um i'm very grateful for everything that's going on here please like please share please subscribe in whatever order you want please leave a positive comment and please watch cars and comedy as well uh be a part of the community that we're growing wherever you see yourself settling uh please be a part of this community join us uh in the race uh towards whatever it is we're running towards we're so happy to have you here uh kathleen anchors thank you for inspiring us um this has been another episode of the letterman podcast that guy is jay ryan my name is mike chism thank you and good night