Daniel Kellison

welcome to the letterman podcast as always i am mike chisholm and as always i'm excited to be here to talk about the body of work what i consider to be what many of us consider to be the greatest body of work in broadcasting history to talk about david letterman and company it wasn't just dave he helmed the ship of course but it was dave and company that did this and we are very excited i got a very special guest today i'm very i'm super excited about our guest today uh daniel kellison was um a segment producer or producer for the show for a long time has done a lot of very cool things since uh hopefully we can get a lot of the things i want to talk about today including some of the iconic moments he was part of uh uh i want to talk about norman mcdonald and of course uh his role with with with jack hole um and and kimmel and that stuff lots of cool things that we can talk about before we do i have to right now announce uh our very first sponsor i this is my very first time doing a sponsor obligation for the letterman podcast and i couldn't be more excited about it because uh the letterman broadcast is proudly brought to you in part by the hello deli the hello deli in new york city right in ed sullivan theater uh rupert and company um we're so excited that they are our very very very first sponsor uh hey listen did your late show mug break or do you have uh your late show t-shirt it's kind of seen better days did you know that one of the only places in the world you can get late show with david letterman merchandise is at the hello deli uh go to hello delhi.com you can see the store there he's got all sorts of late show merchandise at phenomenal pricing by the way also some rupert t-shirts very excited rupert and company you're gonna be seeing a lot more of him uh do some pretty neat things on the letterman podcast moving forward here but that's my sponsor obligation that's the first time now i'm done and uh i feel uh i don't feel cheap or used this feels right this is the thing to do i love it i'm so excited about this uh but now that we're done with that let's uh bring a guy who has been a producer or a part of some of david letterman's most iconic moments especially taking over the late show uh a lot of juice in those years a lot of energy in those years when he took over the late show and and and actually creating a franchise that could compete with the tonight show for the first time in history daniel was there daniel kellison thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be part of the letterman podcast today um very happy to be here thank you mike oh man um man not as happy as i am this is a very very cool thing um when did you start working for dave and company uh i was a college intern starting uh i was at nyu at the time and uh i guess it was 1988.

you started there in 88 and uh your tenure ended when 95 96 88 96 yeah um okay well what a time to show up at a show uh i don't know if there was a show that had more national attention especially for that really hot period there but you were there for i mean in my mind one of the most iconic moments in television history did you know that you were witnessing broadcasting and television history when you were there or were you two just too fresh out of school that you didn't know what was going on well you know letterman was uh then um my hero i mean it was sort of like the guy that i looked up to comedically and i think he was everybody every college kid in america's hero communicate and he was new and different and smart and funny and was more than happy to uh uh you know deflate the sort of uh people that were sort of inflated in their own self-value and um and we really we sort of in college especially we really looked up to him so um you know i i would at nyu always in the dramatic writing program and i wanted to be a playwright that was my goal and um and i realized that that was probably never gonna happen um that that was never gonna i was a bartender and uh i was drinking a lot as a bartender and i actually bartended my first two years i worked at letterman um oh wow but i realized that i needed to sort of figure out a real career path for myself and letterman be my hero i applied for an internship um this was in the nbc days uh was being an intern there at that point very similar to what it was like when he moved over to cbs or was it uh was it different were you an intern for nbc and you would be like a jack of all trades for different programs or were you no it was it was specifically for letterman and uh and and no it was a coveted job i knew that yeah and i was determined to get it and uh you know there were as there are still even today there were must-hires people who were sort of the children of executives and uh publicists and managers and movie stars and uh and um i knew that that was going to be a tough gig to get and once i got there i just sort of knew also there were i think there were 13 interns at the time um and a lot of them sort of acted like they belonged there which was sort of um i noticed that right away and i was just determined to get a job at the end of my internship or at least a job offer and there was another guy donna carey who was a intern with me there at the time and the two of us were just like okay we're just gonna everyone else is goofing off and acting like they belong there we're gonna sort of uh work our asses off and either the first ones in the morning and the last ones at night and you know um somebody pukes on the set we will run over with a towel like you know and we're not gonna pretend like we belong there so uh that's sort of how we both ended up getting job offers although the first internship ended and there were no job offers at all nobody left so um both of us applied for another internship which they didn't really do back then and uh we repeated our internships yeah and then donek ended up getting uh hired by ed hall who was doing the photos um at the time and um and i ended up uh being uh madeline and madeline suffer i worked with her and she sort of gave me my first she actually gave me my internship but then um i ended up being a researcher which in itself is one of the craziest stories of all time because um and i'll tell it to you if you want to hear it i don't know whether absolutely no of course are you kidding oh yeah with that setup you know one of the greatest stories of all time do you do no yeah we'd love to hear that one i mean on a personal level not a uh not one of the greatest stories for anybody else but not just from anyone but so what happened was that um i didn't get a job offer and there were no job openings there at all and the one opening that happened was a talent researcher job i was not an entry-level job most of the entry-level jobs were sort of answering telephones and so forth um and and i'd been removed from phones um i wasn't allowed to answer the phones as an intern and so uh uh i had made a joke i guess do you know shecky richard checkman who's a friend very well so anyway uh he had a phone call one day and they asked he was in and i said uh i'll shack and he didn't like that and uh so i was uh sort of like removed from phones i i love checking now we're great friends but at the time like there was like people did not like interns to begin with and as i said a lot of people act like they belong there right and i tried not to do that but i i sort of had that moment of uh weakness and um anyway i was removed so the research position was um was coveted it was everyone sort of saw that it was an entry level to producing and um it was a big deal and there were i think morty told me later like over a hundred submissions to be uh research um a researcher and um so that friday this is before the internet and everything they told you who we're gonna have to do a profile on and we all have to do profiles over the weekend and get them in and um the profile that they gave us was sammy davis jr so i like bee lined to the new york public library got out his three autobiographies yep which are really no yes i can they're all like 800 pages it was ridiculous so uh got them all went home and just started devouring them in the course of reading those um he mentioned being the uh the best man at linda lovelace's wedding who was you know the big porn actress of the time um and so i uh remembered hearing that she had her own autobiography and i was like i wonder whether sammy's in this and i went to like in the west village where i lived there was sort of a wicked witchcraft um gay woman's store yep and i went in and got her uh her autobiography was there i read it and the stuff in it was um really disturbing about stan davis jr and uh and and hugh hefner and all these other people and uh i sort of so i was like well how do i present this in here uh so that because letterman you know he likes the humor to be above the belt sure so i sort of i sort of said well i'm putting this in his background this stuff i discovered in research and i did it sort of as delicately as i could and um and i i kind of had a feeling that i would be the only one who had that information yeah i knew morty morty would also like it probably so at the end of the the process morty told me you know he's like of all his submissions yours was the best um but there's a guy at the today show who's been trying to get this job for five years and and i'm you know i we feel like we should give it to him yep i was you know devastated by that and sort of went home and and um and this has sort of been something i've tried to do my entire career which is sort of advocate for myself i guess a little bit absolutely you know i wrote a letter to morty and i sort of said them and go you know which would you rather have um you know an old tired researcher who's been doing it for years and never got ahead or somebody who's young and hungry who's gonna you know bust his ass for you and and i'll kill myself for this job and you know anything i can do you know i i really want this job right and it was a hail mary and uh morty called me yeah because my internship ended and i went back to bartending so morty called me you know 1 30 in the afternoon and i've been bartending that night till 5 o'clock in the morning new york varsity open till 4.

and he woke me up the the afternoon and he's like am i waking you up and i go yeah you are who is this kind of thing and uh like well i was going off your job and now i don't think i want to and i was like no please i want a job and he's like why are you still asleep it's like i'm still bartending and uh so uh he offered me the job and uh i got the job because of my uh lord sammy davis junior profile tenacity i love hearing that i'm a big personal development guy and uh and hearing that um the advocating for yourself could not uh endorse that statement enough there are so many of us that just don't do that and going that extra mile boy you can the opportunities in the doors that end up opening just for going that for putting that effort out to go that extra mile uh a great great example of that um but even today like you know when i had our company josh that we did with you know sarah silverman and tim and eric and reggie watson michael sarah and noah mcdonald and doug benson all these great comedians that we loved and there were so many opportunities and i remember we had like you know maybe a combination of 12 interns and pas and people like that and i called them into them at my office and i said you know i started like you i had this opportunity like yourself and um uh and you know there's an opportunity here and i want you to know that i'm i'm happy to look at anything you write or any ideas you have and come into my office and i met this and email me or whatever you wanted comfortable with and and it you know two people of of the 12 people ever really took me up on it and um i know and i don't blame them i think people get intimidated or daunted by these moments and you know can't advocate for themselves but i do feel like you know if you're willing to do it i don't know i mean the other thing that happened that was really important to me and why i feel obviously an obligation to this day to talk to people who are young and starting out and and i do it a couple times a week probably um and this will probably end up inviting more people to do it which is fine yeah add me to the list because i'm one of those people by the way and you're you doing this is doing this for me as well so the gratefulness that i feel for that is i don't i don't ever say no and and and there's one person responsible for that and there's another person you know which is steve o'donnell um and steve o'donnell when i was sort of a punk intern um i looked around and saw all these um people who were writers on the show and thought well i'm a dramatic writer i want to be a playwright i bet i bet i could figure this out and crack this nut and it was i it's a very arrogant thing to think i mean this was the these were the elite of the elite writers comedy at the time and steve donald was a head writer and i gave him my submission packet which i still have and it was [ __ ] terrible it was really bad and um uh and you know a lot of those writers not a lot but a few of them were not very friendly and steve o'donnell who had the most coveted job in late night television or in television yeah um you know and and has to produce a show every single day not this wasn't like you know chris rock did won the emmy every year and did like eight shows a year yep this is you know 200 shows a year and and and the quality never can lower whatever steve took my packet and he said i'm gonna take you to lunch no gain for steve o'donnell this at all a nice guy thing i didn't ask him to go to lunch he said i'm going to take lunch we went to sparrow he went through age by page with me my material and it was encouraging but also realistic yeah and i never forgot that kindness that he showed me and and it's been my privilege to work with steve on maybe six different shows since and and hire him since then from rosie o'donnell to bonnie hunt to noor mcdonald to the man show to jimmy kimmel live he has been an integral part of my career um and and and my life and uh is a guy that i love more than anyone and it's it all started with him showing me kindness at a really vulnerable time in my career so i think about it all the time well i i okay so the rate the way i got good at podcasting is i host a men's mental wellness podcast my wife is building a thing uh an app about men's mental wellness and she wants to she wants to change the world and and the way that i'm helping i'm staying out of her way but i also host the podcast for it and i'll tell you uh talking to all of these life coaches personal development gurus uh filmmakers athletes coaches all sorts of people uh uh gratefulness um and kindness are are the two silver bullets and and you talking about his kind of kindness is one of my favorite things in the whole world i love kindness and you talking about him and that act for you i've had a bunch of people give me kindness while i've been doing this you included in that list now um and then if you can if you can be aware of that kindness that happens to you if you can spread it great and then if you can spread the gratefulness and and you talking about this x amount of years later and what it led to i mean would you i mean how old were you when you were an intern i mean say it's 20 21 years old early early 20s 90s early 20s yeah say the statement to 22 year old daniel kellison that you are going to work on a bunch of projects in the future with steve o'donnell and be a peer with him like what would that kid have said like that is crazy what you just talked about that's amazing and and and that was it too i mean you know it was so um unnatural that i was there was not such a it was so not part of the plan and i wasn't a harvard guy and i got into nyu into the general studies program which was sort of the remedial part of nyu uh because my high school counselor knew somebody who worked there pretty much i got turned down from every college i applied to and and and honestly that i could um prosper at a place like that was beyond comprehension so that i took every opportunity i had to heart um and and and did everything i could to succeed and but i also ended up being that ended up sort of being my the beta principle my calling was interviewing people and and helping them come and tell stories in sort of an organic way that were funny and made them look good and made our hosts look good and um that was uh really i found that that was a skeleton i had so um and and and part of it i think part of it really was born from the fact that i i've never been um uncomfortable talking to anybody be presidents or pavarotti or you know anybody i've never been nervous about it it's just not in my thing and letterman was amongst those and i think a lot of people were really nervous talking to dave yeah and working with dave and um and anxious about whether he'd like something or not which we all wanted his approval but i don't think that i ever felt um uncomfortable and i think that that he i think the reason why i was able to prosper there with him is that that to some extent is that that it was easy to talk you know i never asked anything of the guy that was one thing you know and i just was happy i was so happy to be there so you know um and i think i also made things the things that i worked on you know went well and he trusted me you know and and so that was sort of how that worked also i think um i loved it i wish i could reword that but you get the gist of it no are you kidding me no no it was it was raw and real and i think i i think you wanted it perfectly uh also you two are very similar in the in the fact that you know um the whole reason i started this show was inspiration from dave i didn't have the moment that he had uh you know in the communications class where he realized oh i can i can do this i didn't ever have that moment until i was in my 40s and and and it was the idea that he uh self-professed c student you know again but but with that drive no you know what i'm gonna jump in my truck and drive from the midwest to california and i'm gonna i'm gonna crack that nut i don't wanna be a standout but i'll learn the discipline because i know it's necessary because the comedy store is how you get to you know at that point his goal the ultimate broadcasting position um look at same same thing like you guys are very similar in that regard uh from about i mean kimberle's the same way too kimmel's not a stand-up comedian and and you know he also was a broadcaster but he totally i mean he idolized dave yeah which is part of the reason why he and i became friends jimmy in the first place because i had that connection and uh and and but but you know he had a similar path he was not a stand-up comedian and and so that was an extra hurdle for jimmy kimmel to clear yeah it's the same thing and and sometimes learning those skills to have uh you know for the bigger goal um you know extremely important i i want to i we could get in the weeds on this like literally i could talk to you for hours about this i wanna i wanna uh make sure that we get to some of the uh the things that uh that people are gonna wanna talk about madonna yes we're gonna talk about madonna um uh but but other things as well now you get there for a while you're doing the research thing old school no internet people don't understand that part of it having to go to libraries having to figure things out make connections like that um you know there was an nbc library there was something called nexus lexus at the time and we paid for articles you know based on how many we want to pronounce and there was a limit to how many will let us print out yeah that's a different time than it is right now and and people can't even some people can't even fathom that that's the reason we're doing the show is to is to pass on that torch and to pass on that knowledge to people um so you're doing that for a few years uh did you stay as in the research department right until the end at nbc or had you already moved over to producing it i i think i got promoted so let's see um i was a researcher and i used to provide all this sort of segment material to the producers and that was uh you know mostly frank gannon and then um uh and then i was also booking i started booking some of the human interest guests and then some of the athletes um and then i booked a human interest guest and it was it was a big coup and uh from that they um and i wrote an intro the intros are such an important part for dave i wrote an intro that um ended up being i think the front page of new york news day the next day holy smokes and uh and they let me start producing some segments from there so wow um so what happened was there was a kid and and and again it's such a cool story i think is that um uh remember when and i don't know what year this was 91 maybe or 90 or 89 something dan quayle was the vice president uh where were maybe they were running for 1990 maybe he's 89 something like that okay and and uh he went to this chalkboard and and wrote the word potato yes kid what figueroa did and he wrote it correctly as a kid you know and and then dan quayle said no no no and walked up and wrote an e at the end of potato and it was a you know a national scandal now this kid um uh william figueroa he ended up um he everybody wanted to book him you know that was sort of the big booking in the big coup invitation we were going to station good morning america and uh i had um you know i used attack that i didn't invent but it was sort of like i'd heard legends of it before which is we did we delivered a pizza to his house and uh and in the pizza i put a note saying hey uh you know i'm a nice guy if you want to talk about this we'd love to have you on kind of thing and he agreed to do it and because i got him as the booking they let me write this segment um and so i wrote the segment for william figueroa and i wrote you know yesterday uh what did i write so yesterday um our next guest walked up to chalkboard the events that followed terrified a nation and and and um and so the cover the news day was terrifying a nation it was a picture of quail and the kid from uh you know thing but from that and that went really well they ended up letting me produce more and more segments and that's how i got my foot in the door of the producer there you know oh [ __ ] that is fantastic that's that's lore and that's the way i look at this anyway and many of the people who uh who are in our community already that's lore i i love that story um okay so yeah so so we're at the end of the run but you still had a few years as a segment producer at nbc yeah yeah i was i think i was talking about producers at nbc definitely because by the time we went over to cbs i was a sexual producer yeah um talk a little bit about okay so so at that time uh there's a couple historic moments that i just feel i need to ask you about you don't have to spend too much time on if you don't want to but at the end of the day you were there when when johnny came over from the up from the upfront meeting or whatever it was and basically announced that he's going to retire and then the kickoff to the craziness which had started behind the scenes before that of course that we've all read in in carter's books but uh but i mean that was kind of the the firing gun for the public in a lot of ways uh were you were you there that night um i was i was not at the upfront but i was there um you know on the show and and i think to this day you know um i was still mad when letterman did that doritos commercial with jay leno with oprah i mean i was like i i i i don't bear many grudges and it's funny jimmy kimmel and i both you know bear grudge against jay leno to this day because you know this was the show that he dreamed of having letterman and he was anointed by johnny carson and and he was the chosen one and what they did where they planted seeds that nbc wanted to get rid of johnny carson where johnny carson was humiliated uh this was his manager who did this and and that he uh retired and then and then he shamelessly sort of lobbied around the country um for that job and i don't know i don't think it was that special as special as it was today i think it was just jay wanting to um you know compete you know and uh i just i just thought it was the shittiest thing i've ever seen in my life and i i never i didn't buy into sort of like it's all you know it's fun and games you know it wasn't and uh no it certainly wasn't you know and uh so anyway i still have to say i mean adam carol i was you know part of jackal with me jim kimmel is great friends with jay leno and yeah just i can't ever quite get over that i don't think personally uh i i know what you're talking about the tribalism within the letterman community is still uh evident to this day and uh it's it's it's a it's it's one of the scars or or whatever you want to look at it uh character spots um in a story that that to me i think for me it's probably my number one uh story and entertainment both bill carter's books by the way let's throw this out to the audience if uh the late shift incredible book and then the war for late night which was the sequel that we all had to endure uh internationally it was you know it was so it was so compelling they just nbc decided to do it again um and and uh and and and but i mean i can go deep on this subject too and i and i have uh uh but the the idea though it was the better deal for dave to move over i mean he walked into the carson deal where with ownership um that'll never happen again where somebody gets to unless unless it's kanye or kim kardashian or something crazy no no other group is gonna own two hours on network primetime tv ever again i don't think uh he walked into the carson deal um and and and he wouldn't have had that if he would have taken over the tonight show and then uh i don't think that was i don't think that was the driving force i think if he if he's been able to take tonight's out he would have given up the ownership that he had total agreement total agreement but hindsight being 2020 now we look back and we go okay the ironic part about it is he did what no one could ever do and that was of course create a franchise that would compete with the tonight show in a major way you know talk about jay he's he his his standard and i mean i would talk to him mr leno i respect all that but i i mean his words of well i came in number one and i left number one you know no no not the point nobody had ever created a situation where you'd have to fall back to on number one it wasn't like that no one had ever competed much less you know and and that's the achievement that dave did and he changed everything at that point yeah yeah i agree i i uh wholeheartedly agree yeah and you were there for it you had a front seat for it like that's that's amazing to me and this is the beginning of your career at the end of your career you know how gurney's seen some [ __ ] speaking of how great i want to talk about how hal gurney yeah uh you know when you went over to the match show how gurney came with you right yeah i brought hal gurney over to the man show i mean jimmy kimmel was very excited to have anybody who was associated with letterman and how's another person who i've loved throughout my whole career and in fact you know here i'll tell you a story that i've never told before that you'll enjoy that hal um uh hal uh so i got asked to um executive produced bonnie hun's show and um and they'd had sort of a tumultuous year with telepictures uh and tell the pictures i'd worked for rose o'donnell and had been sort of uh i wouldn't say unceremoniously fired i would say ceremoniously fired from that show um and and uh and so i was surprised that he called me back and asked me to ep it and it came in and uh and it was really tough going and and the guy jim peritori who rest in peace is dead now um who really made my life difficult at rosie and then uh he was at bonnie with and so anyway um uh it was not going well with bonnie and they sort of told me more or less that they were you know planning on not picking the show up but they had another year on the contract and and wasn't good so i talked to bonnie and and rightfully she was unhappy with uh how that was all going i don't want to overshare on her behalf but um one of the things that we talked about was getting a director and and she asked do you think hal gurney would come in and direct how at this point was pretty much his full-time job was walking around ireland and scotland and um that's what he was doing and so i called hal and uh i thought this was sort of a a fool's folly i tried to talk him into and this is something that that you know i think i can be good at sometimes is talking people to doing things they don't want to do um and uh i said oh is there any world in which you would come in and and and direct bonnie's show i mean maybe even just for a month like let's get the ball rolling and he said i'll do it for a month here's what i need i'm gonna need this i'm gonna need a suite at the chateau marmont and i was like okay uh let me look into that and he goes and then he goes do you know this guy harvey levin by any chance they go rv11 i go is that the guy from tmz like yeah that's the guy from tmz um i also my other requirement is that i have a meeting with harvey levin and i go well how you're in luck because tell pictures it says our show they do tmz uh all right i thought that up for you do you mind me asking you know by the way this chateau marmot was 500 a night and that was something we could do so that was no problem sure do you mind me asking why um you want to meet harvey levin and he goes because i'm going to kill him i don't have much left uh much time left on this planet but i'm going to do the world of favor and take him out oh my god okay well let me see if i can uh make that happen for you how i i don't think that you know you don't think you're wrong here so uh yeah so how came out we've never met harvey levin to my knowledge but he came out and worked with us for a month so we've traded two or three emails back with hal uh in the last couple weeks here and and uh i hope he wouldn't mind me telling that story i don't think no god no no no i'm certainly won't i was gonna ask you if you would mind me calling that back to him when he and i finally connect that's what i was gonna ask for i think i think these kind of conversations with hal happen on the daily we had for like these funny conversations with people so i don't know whether he'll even remember it but hopefully he will oh that's great but i i swear it's true um that's fantastic okay so so um again another thing i will tell you is that we another thing will tell you is that we when we were the man show we we um we were in a restaurant and uh we wanted to have a picture of all of us but how yeah and we all decided to take our shirts off at the restaurant i thought that would be a funny picture as one does sure yeah at the fancy restaurant with our shirts off and we all took our shirts off and hal tells me that is his singular show business regret that he never took his shirt off we do i still have the picture and this is a great picture and it's actually funnier because it's turned off and everyone else has theirs off but there you go oh that is uh that's fantastic eat your heart out bert crusher happened way before then um man that's that's a fantastic story i i appreciate that so much hal was as far as i'm concerned uh he was a cast member you know director okay fine but character in the show uh no end and and he took you know here's the thing that he did that was was and maybe i'm saying the obvious but for people who don't know this he would take um a wall in the show and he would just take the camera and like shoot somebody not wearing the socks you know like and then it would break up the audience and it would bring it would give dave something to talk about kind of thing if someone was sucking as a guest that was a great thing to do you know or he cut away to somebody in the audience who's asleep or something you know like i mean he was really he was a big part of that show and he was the producer as well as a director and a creative writer as well yeah so i mean he was integral to that and he replaced them all absolutely okay so i write about it that you know um this moment here and and and how uh you know this moment happens and it's the greatest thing in the world because i can do an exchange with dave i made him [ __ ] laugh which is one of the greatest moments of my entire life but then he goes back comes out and immediately before he even starts the the opening remarks monologue before he starts the monologue you know calls back the conversation suddenly there's a shot of me in the audience laughing my ass off again uh and and and it made the show that was even though i made dave laugh that was the dream come true because hal in my opinion for those of us who are enthusiasts of letterman uh you know how badly did all of us want one of those moments where you could be the person in the audience that they cut to and that's how that did that that's how gurney that that made that happen yeah and then and the other thing you talking about too making dave laugh and sort of i mean that was really so important to me um uh getting things that made the audience laugh and creating moments that got people talking about the show that was you know that was what motivated me you know more than anything you know well [ __ ] dan uh i don't know if you're uh if you've been in hollywood or you're a professional and you just know how to segue but boy oh boy did you ever know how to segue let's talk about some of these moments that you were the guy uh okay so segment producer drew barrymore yeah okay madonna i don't know by the way the drew barrymore thing you know it's it's funny i uh i will preface it only by saying it was a different time and uh of course yes and you know and i think there's some context that's needed there because it wasn't just me um you know brow beating up a 19 year old innocent girl to flash david letterman yeah um it wasn't like that at all and and what had happened was um you know do you want me to tell that story are you going to go through a bunch oh no no no hey no please tell the story let's let's do it yeah absolutely uh okay so with drew you know there was this place in tribeca um and we i lived downtown new york called blue angel and um it was really a unique place in that it wasn't a strip club it was sort of a cabaret and then like parsons um art school students were like would take their clothes off in nuns outfits to frank zappa songs and dip candle locks on their naked bodies kind of things and then there would be cabaret acts and jokes and things like that yep and you know uh demi moore who was researching striptease this movie she was in and told me about it and i told letterman about it and i'd gone and uh and you know um yeah so anyway yep so i i think i can tell this story so i told so letterman one day i told him about it i'd been one night and it had been really like you know like being in paris and seeing something that you don't see anywhere else absolutely yep and i said i'm gonna go this friday and and if you want to come along you're welcome to now i meant that in sort of the way that that dave you know didn't go to the white house he never went anywhere but he lived down in a tribeca and so maybe he wasn't completely impossible and i think he was curious to see what the hell was going on in this place and so he said yeah sure i'll go with you and um i thought he was kidding and um he's lcd friday i'll meet you with the bar uh embassy bar i went to my buddy uh one of my great friends owned this bar and it was growing around the corner from his house so i went to the bar um on the off chance and he wasn't there and i left and um i knew i was like this was stupid of course i could do this and so um he said that he went to the bar and uh was swarmed by people because he never goes out anywhere it was dave lemon walked into a bar basically yeah and uh and then he said he's gonna be created and went home and at that point at that point he's the hottest celebrity in america period he's on time magazine he's on like he was he was gigantic to the gigantic at that point yeah and and uh and so um laurie diamond left messages on my answer machine going hey you know dave's looking for you but like it was before cell phone so anyway i went back in this this leads into the drew barrymore story a little bit so drew um is coming on the show and uh and what's interesting is the day before she comes on she goes to this place blue angel and drew being the free spirit that she is gets completely naked on the stage and um and has the time of her life and it's the front page of the new york post but nobody had cameras nobody had phone cameras it was just a big story and to her credit she didn't cancel the show because everyone wants to talk to her about this insane moment which takes all of her clothes at the strip club sure and i produced her before and she got on the phone with me and um this is before publicist listened on everything and she says dan it was the most liberating experience to my life i felt i've never felt freer i've never been you know never felt better my you know anything like that and uh uh i i loved every second of it and um i said i've been there it's a great thing i tried to get into this i tried to get dave to go one night he got like i tried to talk him into it he kind of half-heartedly sorry but he never made it and she's like oh my god he would love it and basically um you know talking about her you know and i go well it's his birthday maybe we could give him a little performance kind of thing uh of his own and she's like oh my and now that that's the part that's inappropriate on my part i should never have said anything even resembling that but she said today's lenses maybe but back then at that time let me just put the exclamation point on what you said were gen xers the gen x culture at that point there you think of the alternative culture and the music and all of these things like it was a very different time it was a time where people felt liberated by this stuff and that was sort of the impetus so she said do you think he would like something like that i was like are you kidding he doesn't get out he would love something like that just like well how could we ever do that i mean you know it would be really fun to do so um i said well you know truthfully if you flashed him you know you're back with the audience somebody else would sing and she's like okay i'm not sure i want to do this but let me think about it i got to be working on my courage and but it would be really fun and why don't you just you can't tell anybody you can't tell dave you can't tell anyone um it's gonna have to be their prize and not only is it gonna be a surprise um you know but i might not do it you know sure so just tell paul to be ready with some vampy music for me if i need it yeah okay i told paul then i go and see morty and morty was uh such a chicken [ __ ] at this moment i've been wanting to say that forever was morty mortified i'm already mortified yeah no so what happened was i said to morty i go you know i got this thing where where you know you can't tell dave and you can't tell anybody but like i know dave i mean dave is you know pretty you know he doesn't like this kind of stuff and like i knew i wasn't gonna lose my job because i i figured you know i was okay with that stuff and i said what do you think and he goes it's your call and i go it's not my call you're thinking bruiser it's your calling goes your call danny he walks away from me like [ __ ] [ __ ] so i was like okay great so uh i was like [ __ ] it let's try it out i saw drew went through the segment with her and said they're ready to go if you want to do it and that's how it happened you know i i use this analogy all the time carson's big band dave's rock and roll that's a very rock and roll moment i love that i i [ __ ] love that i love that uh that you guys were uh you were so cool like that's the other thing like drew i talked about this you know kind of alternative nation at the time and the gen xers and where they were coming from drew was like the head of that movement to have drew on there you were just you were and and then her to do that and make this moment that everybody talked about and it's talking about 30 some odd years later we're still talking about it now that's a terrible thing because when you do a show like that where you're doing a new show every single day those things you know i've seen with jimmy kimmel i've seen him with dave i've seen with a lot of people they don't remember if guests have been on the show in the past sometimes absolutely it's like that it is it is full throttle and and then you come up for air and you're like wait what just happened 25 years this went by yeah so well that's the reason that's the reason this show exists by the way because as far as i'm concerned again not to sound bite it but the greatest body of broadcasting work in history period and most of it got thrown away and the next day and thrown away and the next day and thrown away and the next day and i'm sitting here you know 30 years later going hold on this is what makes up my dna we're going to pick some of those moments back up again and the and the the big moments of course that's what we're talking about here hopefully we get you back on another time we can talk about some of the smaller moments that people don't know but to talk about the cool thing and again being conscious of your time because i do want to get to peter o'toole because i love that story but um but uh madonna and i mean okay so drew barrymore happens madonna's after that right yeah so with madonna you have to understand she is the biggest star in the world at that point best friend also fought her every single evening for david letterman for jokes and because she keeps doing dumb [ __ ] and funny dumb [ __ ] and uh and it's really it's you know there's an endless amount of jokes about her to the point she talked about she brought a clip did you help her get assemble the clip that she bought that night yes i did because so here's what happened so um uh so yes she i think at a certain point realizes that she needs to probably go on the show um because it's every night and uh um she has a publicist a manager at the time um i can't remember it's terrible i can't remember her name she was chairs manager too um okay yeah it's bad i can't remember anyway um she calls up and uh and we start talking about the possibility of coming on yeah and so she goes okay i want you to talk to madonna about this so i get on the phone so dave is apprehensive about this and rightfully so rightfully so yes and and and um and i say well let me talk with her and see how this goes and so i told her i said i have an idea of of how to have a segment that will make you look good that'll be funny that dave will be comfortable with and you'll be comfortable with and we can defuse some of this stuff a little bit too and the idea was she can come on and basically say you know i've seen all the jokes you've been making about me and um and and dave will sort of say i've i've been making jokes about you or whatever he says you know like i'm not that i don't know what i'm talking about and then you say well i brought some clips and you say and there will be three pieces of tape and put him on the spot and let him sort of answer each one of them let him be dave yeah yeah right so um she likes that idea so she agrees to the booking and uh i go to dave and the night of the show and i'm like i actually think this is gonna go okay i think this is gonna be fine and um so uh he goes okay i go there's three pieces of videotape she's gonna call for um we'll be in and out and then whatever else happens is fine um i go up to her dressing room and she's with a famous makeup guy kevin a coin and um and they appear to be stoned but i don't want to say anything i've never met her before you mentioned indo on the show sorry i'll get to that too yes okay so anyway yeah no no so i i i so i they appear to be something's going on okay so i go uh i'm daniel and she goes and she puts it right and she goes suck my dick and then i go what like i'm sort of smiling like i'm not did she just stay suck my dick and i go uh okay and she goes suck my dick and i'm like in that moment i was like oh [ __ ] i don't i think i'm in trouble and i think there's a different agenda going on here maybe so i started like i started like my you know radar goes off and i'm like oh boy this could not this might not go well i really at that exact moment and so i tell her that three pieces of videotape and she's like that's too much for me to remember and i'm like it's not really too much so three pieces of video you just call from one one at a time kind of thing and she's like um uh and she says um you know well we had a little endo and i go endo and i didn't know what the [ __ ] i mean i saw pop and i didn't know i didn't know what endo or indo or what the [ __ ] was sure and then she and kevin started laughing and i'm like oh [ __ ] she's stoned so like it was like it was like and i was like how do you get [ __ ] stoned in this like you know it's gonna be a seminal moment in television right and if you're nervous smoking pot is not the [ __ ] thing to do right like that's not it think of them i mean whatever but you're almost like you know you go in and she's like can i swear on this show and i go well it'll bleep you but i guess you can swear kind of thing so i did tell her she could swear you know and that's all she did she went out there and she tried to give letterman her panties and she had a [ __ ] agenda she didn't call up with the clips and letterman was not happy at all oh i've heard he was and i was really so here's the thing it was two things i was frustrated because i sort of presented it to dave in a way that everything is going to be great and it [ __ ] was not great yeah at the same time i knew this was seminal television no matter what happened absolutely you know famous or infamous people were going to be talking about it right famous or infamous right and the other part of the other part of this was that that doesn't get talked about is that she would leave you wouldn't get off the set the poor damn counting crows the poor count right counting crows were making their national television debut that yes yes and we've already bumped i think we bumped somebody else in the middle but maybe not but anyway we were about to have to bump the county pros she wouldn't leave we kept trying to say goodbye to her on the air and morty said uh to me because i stood next to more to hear the segment get rid of her i'm like how am i supposed to get rid of her like you just gotta get rid of her because otherwise you're gonna have to bump the kind of crows so i went up to um her and uh and just sort of like hung out for a moment like awkwardly like a segment producer does and dave's for like not really talking to her and she starts in there and i was like waves the audience madonna and she waves like this and i put on my hand and she takes my hand and i lift her out of the chair and i go wave again and i and i like i i literally escort her off the stage holy and [ __ ] and there's a picture of that moment which i can send to you later if you want yeah because it's pleased me me pushing her because the cbs photographer took the picture of the moment me kind of escorting her on the stage and dave laughing his ass off because he's just someone like i'm dragging her off the stage the great picture um okay so uh time is slippery i i could talk to you about this forever um my very favorite my very first i got my kid coming in any second but amazing okay um my very favorite david letterman moment of all time and i've got a lot of them but people ask me what's your very favorite moment happened in that and that was when she was calling him soft and all these things and saying oh you've just gone soft and you've used to be really edgy and now you're not and he just looks at her with that smile and says i can spend that suspend that behavior tonight if you'd like that's my favorite david letterman whatever i i love that and that's you guys saying oh dave children's gonna do whatever she's gonna do dave's just gonna be dave that is uh when you know we didn't pre-interview this that is my very favorite moment of all time and that was you guys saying let's just let dave be dave no that was dave saying let dave be dave and jay was so the way i always viewed these notes um and and the pre-interviews that i did was that they were a safety net for dave in terms of if everything goes south he doesn't have anything to talk to me about they're there and frequently you know we'd be able to get some stuff that was interesting that he wanted to talk about but there were also times when he just you know went off and did it more times like with madonna where he couldn't go through what was in the segment and then that was sort of those were the moments where dave was out of his past i think and you know if you look at this sort of you know if i remember tv guide put together their sort of letterman goodbye their top 10 moments of dave as everybody did i remember also looking at them and thinking okay eight out of ten of these were unscripted eight out of ten of these were moments born out of spontaneous need and uh and then dave's wit and uh and uh so you know it's interesting we can all do what we do but really like you know you live and die by your host and uh and somebody who can be quick and and and funny like that so yeah well and then you guys are the team that that guy that genius relies on and that's a beautiful symbiotic relationship very quickly the next night i think chuck grodin comes on and i i mean again one of my favorite of all time now did you produce that segment because if you watch madonna go to giller's channel go to giller's channel we love the dawn oh the dons by the way told me to say uh he told me to call you kelly and say and say hi kelly and give you regards i'm thinking that he probably sent me into a trap for that so i'm going to say hey kelly dawn says hi there you go i don't think anyone's ever called me kelly but i'll take it okay so so so watch on dawn's channel watch uh or if they have it on on the official letterman channel watch them in one of those watch the madonna segment and then look for the charles grodin segment the next night because geniusly produced or just a couple of great minds who understood what to do he comes on and does some of the same hijinks and oh what am i supposed to do and all that was that you i don't remember i i think it might have been mary connolly and uh and you know but i don't remember it might have been me and mary together we do stuff together but i'll give all credit to mary connolly because mary connolly normally produced charles grodin um they love each other so gotcha i think it was mary well it was genius it was the perfect uh set spike continuation to the next day yeah um before we get to peter o'toole uh there's so much oh my god we haven't talked about any kimmel we haven't talked about anything i hope you come back all right i'll come back beautiful welcome back thank you sir thank you uh but i do want to talk about norm macdonald and i and i i call him norm macdonald because of because of of of not just being a canadian i've i've seen him for years and all that but but uh you know he toured around locally and and i just loved him so much as we had jeff altman on yesterday a stand-up stand up norm mcdonald a stand-up stand-up um yeah you when did you first meet norm and the fact that you got to work with him and then now we've gotten this netflix special that has just come out which dave you know was part of a panel and commented about it afterwards our hearts when it comes to norm um let's let's can we can we can we go there a little bit yeah of course um norm i i met as a stand-up comedian and in fact you know while he gives uh all credit to adam sandler for getting him on saturday night live um i called jim downey's office and talked to tara eli who um worked with jim and uh and and said you should see this guy i mean as a writer largely first yeah and um and then um and he done he was working roseanne i think also and uh but he wanted to work at snl and but he like i said he gives the credit to sandler which is fine so anyway he was uh but norm and i have known each other uh our entire careers really and both of us and um so when i'll tell you um a story about norm that i love i don't really i don't know i've told it or not but i'll tell you um which is that um when after i left letterman and i went to rosie o'donnell i was um on the sixth floor of nbc and i had this like unbelievable corner office you know for the christmas parties like you know overlooking the ring yeah the next floor and norm was on the eighth floor of the snl at the time and i and when rosie was starting i said like hey look there's an opportunity here for you to you know this show is wildly popular it's especially popular with women and um you know you should come on regularly because rosie loves you and um and but he continued to be making fact jokes about rosie to the point where rosie was like what the [ __ ] like what is with this guy in the fat joke so finally i go to norm and i'm like uh dude you gotta i mean i i'm not gonna tell you what to do not to do but i think there's an opportunity for you to go on uh the show and be a regular and rosie likes you and maybe just give the bad jokes you know i really if you ever know anything about norm which is he was such a contrarian that that anything you tell him to do he's going to do the opposite no matter what it is and it was too early for me to know that i was the oj jokes on weekend update right that's the oj jokes that we can update yeah it wouldn't stop then it cost him his job so he goes on conan o'brien's show the next night and he's talking about what a massive successful show rosie is he's never seen anything like it and it seems like it's going to be nice and uh and conan is like he's like conan's like it is it's incredible i've never seen anything like that either she's on the cover of newsweek all this stuff and and and and norm says even when i came in there one day there were flowers lined up all the hallway to her dressing room and phone goes yeah i know and norm goes i didn't know you could eat flowers and and that was that that was the end of norm ever being on rosie now and uh that was sort of like the moment where it all sort of uh came to a screeching halt and i was like i've tried i'm sorry yeah um yeah but norm norm and i had norm and i you know one of the great uh things i've done in my career was a show that barely got seen by anybody at the time which was the podcast that we did at jash um where we barely paid norm anything uh in the end we could pay him a little something which is great but uh but you know it my pitch norm then was like i don't think you've ever had a show where you've been able to be yourself and like be [ __ ] as funny as you are without somebody trying to censor you or tell you you can't do something or can't say something yeah and i want this to be that show because we're on the internet and it's the wild west you say whatever you want to say and i'm not going to censor you you can this is your and that appeal to norm and then that very first show of you if you watch it it's uh super dave and we purposely came up with the idea of super dave on that show because it was such a train wreck going into it i mean you put up a wall and then we had somebody at josh set dress it like an intern probably and they put clocks up everywhere they were like 11 o'clock and and everyone's like what is the [ __ ] clocks everywhere and i'm like leaving for super dave he's like no no you're right let's leave him for super dave so like the whole show is super damn thing about what the where am i what is going on what's going on it was like the funniest thing ever but so uh uh yeah i was um really happy uh to you know uh spend a lot of my career with norm um even as um you know challenging as he was to work with and he was certainly challenging anyone will tell you that uh but but i i knew he was a comedic genius and and that's sort of been my uh mo my entire career is you know and as much as you're able to hook your wagon to you know whoever you believe in in terms of their talent and and and you know you'll look good you know that's a good way to build a career so norma's part of that and uh yeah i uh i appreciate you you uh opening up about that uh i mean i hate to ask this question but i feel like i wouldn't be good at what i do if i didn't ask this question did you know he was sick no yeah just like by the way not only did i know he was not knowing he was sick i feel i feel badly now because you know he he he ended up we would now think or know that that he gained weight largely because of his i guess the steroids he was taking for the show and and everyone just thought he became a fat pig you know and he made the jokes that he was a fat pig now yeah and and to hide the cancer yeah on our podcast you come in with like a bucket of chicken and eat it you know immediately and and and i feel bad now because i was laughing my ass off thinking he was just eating a lot and gaining weight and uh and and he was really it was pretty ingenious yeah and it ended up being great comedy fodder um yeah but yeah that's what was going on in the pro wrestling world that's called uh living the gimmick and um he was living the gimmick i i i had a conversation a while back uh with with jimmy hart the mouth of the south um and and it was we had him up here for an event for a charity event and it was it was cool because uh i got to be kind of his handler um that was just my job was to take care of jimmy and all we did was talk about andy kaufman we i i said okay yeah we can talk wrestling great i please can we please talk about andy kaufman and and he was delight oh yeah mike we'll talk about any government no problem yeah oh i love him and and we went deep because he spent months with andy and the idea of living the gimmick like that norm bringing the fried chicken in and um you know trying to get this to keep the fact that he didn't have cancer he didn't want people to treat him different the ironic thing is people are treating him differently because of the the chicken and all that like it's genius and i mean he took it further which is that he would come in he would you come in he's like i've got to lose weight and you come in with this container of egg whites this disgusting container of egg whites and he poured him into a bowl and he microwaved him for like three minutes and it was gelatinous disgusting and then he just squeezed ketchup all over it and he just started eating it like it was a normal thing and uh and it was the most disgusting thing like it was and he get and he'd get it all over himself you know i was like oh this is terrible i would just keep eating it and then drink coca-cola with it and you're like what the hell is he doing you know but i that was him again living the gimmick as you said you know um as dave would say right now god bless norm mcdonald and uh and we just appreciate uh him so much um i i want to be uh conscious of your time uh can you take us home with peter o'toole sure and then uh then everything will be till the next time i can't thank you enough for this peter o'toole london right you guys taking the show to london so here's what happened with peter o'toole um you know he was a great guest he'd been on letterman any number of times and and uh he was always you know great but i mean it it becomes a challenge for a segment producer too when somebody comes on a hundred times there are only so many stories you can you know i mean you're really like you know ringing the washcloth there a little bit and um so you know there'd be times like guys like tom brokaw who had been and so you know i remember as a researcher calling yanking south dakota after reading his book trying to find new stories in the book when most of the stories were we've heard um and there was a big thing about repeating stories you didn't that was you didn't do that and even if they were talked about on other shows you couldn't repeat the story that was part of the goals too so yeah um i'd call yanked in south dakota and i found his school teacher and i found his neighbor and like they tell me stories and and tom was always like how did he find that out like you know it was sort of a cool thing for me so peter tool was a challenge so when i said the pewter tool on the phone and i had not produced it before somebody i don't think i'd ever produced them before because these shows for us in london are a big deal so here's what i'm thinking either you come out on a rope like in my favorite year like you make an entrance that way or you can come out of the camel like foreign being i don't know in the 60s at this point maybe late 60s um said uh i am not coming out on a rope and i most certainly will not be coming out on a camel and i said oh please these are such big shows for us it would mean so much and uh you know and and i was begging him and you know shamelessly begging him and he said i'll tell you what if you find in london a racing camel a real racing camel i'll do it but um short of that i'm not going to do it and i go okay that's fair i appreciate that watch mark my words i'm gonna find a racing camel i know the feeling i hear you yep so uh i am i uh uh you know we're in london i'm looking everywhere for a [ __ ] week i'm like i'm in a zoo camel i can't find anything um but i find this guy and he claims to have a racing camel i was like god damn it i knew like i was we were doggedly looking forever we found it so got very excited brought in the camel and uh and peter o'toole shows up at the studios um channel four studios and we have the elephant doors the garage doors that's where the camel is and i meet him at his car and i walk him to the loading dock and they go tada racing campbell and he goes and he like turns up his nose he goes that is not a racing camel that is a common zoo camel i'm like no that's the reason he's like no it is not like so like and uh i'm like oh no and i think i spent like five thousand dollars somebody to get this [ __ ] stupid camel there and then i had to get like approvals and a bunch of things and like oh please you still have to do it can you please come out on this like no i'm not coming out and i'm like i'm going to lose my job you have to make this entrance on this and and so he's like he felt bad for me i think and he agreed to sort of do it and he was sort of reluctant and um he goes okay well we'll try it on rehearsal kind of thing and um so then the part that that sort of cool add-on to the story was that we were doing stupid metrics that night and i was pissed at the guy who'd sold me on the idea that this was a racing camel and he was there with his camel yep i was pissed because i'd been [ __ ] had and spend all this money on it kind of thing and i was like okay well you know maybe this thing is salvageable does this camel do any tricks at all does it smile will it shake your hand does it wave its tail anything he's like nope sorry son doesn't do any of that sorry and the guys with who's with them says enjoys a bit of lager every now and then the camel does i go what he's like every now and then i go the camel drinks beer because yes i go great so i got a oil can a high in a can or something yeah like for peter o'toole and as he dismounts the camel after we do the reversal and everything he says i have a what you call a stupid pet trick and he opens it and we haven't done this with the camera also maybe the camera was like no camel takes the can holds up and chugs the whole thing and the audience goes crazy right it was on the cover of this magazine british lad magazine called loaded it was on the cover of the magazine the next month the council with the can um yeah it was like uh it was and then peter o'toole of course it just it it makes him it adds to the legend status of peter o'toole and then the and the camel rings the beer and it was a celebratory moment and it was a great moment for me as a producer as well larger than life moment um i'm probably forgetting a hundred details but but that's what i wrote um thank you for your time today uh we're again the only reason why i'm not reminiscing more is because i want to be very very uh conscious of your time that you will come back you said you'll come back thank you for that we finished the show when we have a a new guest on um by asking the same question so dave obviously you know you worship him the way that a lot of us do the reverence that uh we all have for him not that he'll ever know or care but it's it's it's there and uh and you know yeah i think i think i think if you keep doing this i think over time i think it'll yeah i think that it's a nice thing that you're doing oh wow i appreciate you saying that um it's uh no i'm doing my dream job i'm not getting paid for it i don't care i'm doing my dream job and and and this is the it's it doesn't feel like work which is what a dream job is supposed to feel like this is just amazing um we finished the show by talking about we celebrate the fact that dave has had so many different phases in his career and gone different places now he's doing the long long form kind of the tom schneider bit a little bit but then interjecting video and things like that making it really interesting for my next guest i'm a big fan of it um if there were three people that you would like to see dave feature on my next guest with david letterman who would those three people be daniel oh boy that that's that's a question i'm not prepared for and um off the cuff sometimes is best i don't know i'd love to watch him you know the people that i would i would like to see him with i don't think you would do anymore but i loved and missed and we don't live in the world today where it happens his ability to um take self-important people apart and i would love to watch him interview donald trump today um and i think he would do a really uh outrageously good job with that um is the guy that donald trump's so teflon coded you know it's really it's tough to permeate that so that would be one um i'd love to see him interview his son harry i think that would be endlessly fascinating that'd be awesome yeah i would love that too um and then who's the third person i would like to see him interview uh as you're thinking harry would be a really interesting answer because you you just mentioned being able to take somebody apart and and humanize them well what more a person could humanize dave than harry because that's that's dad and it's not it's not dave it's dad and and everything that dave talks about with their rapport and all that he talks about how harry can take a punch when it comes to jokes and things and that i i would love that is a phenomenal answer right there for number two i love that yeah maybe i'll just stop on number two sure um trump and harry okay i'm gonna ask this question then would you like to see him interview jay no okay there it is yep you know what here's the thing the same way that i didn't like seeing trump being on jimmy fallon i don't like the idea of humanizing people that don't deserve to be humanized and and and um jay was very conscious of what he did and uh and he did it like i'm a nice guy a big smile and i just never bought into it you know that's just me but but no i have no interest no that's not just you there's a lot of folks in the uh in the letterman community who feel exactly the same way and would probably go two or three steps stronger than that so you're not the you know i i understand which is why i ask the question um i think that that's a if there's a divisive question uh that that's probably within the letterman community that that would probably be it right and i don't know who else to have him interview because i think he's interviewed everybody he wants to interview i mean i'd love to i guess you know i really enjoyed like you know when he talks to cardi b because they're both sort of fish out of water i love those yeah i think those are really fun to watch uh and i love how he sort of handles that stuff and then by the way i think that that you know as i still think he's the greatest talk show host ever absolutely but um you know it is interesting that he continues to evolve as a as a talk show host you know i mean it's really because you think you can't get any better but really like it's it's it's fun watching uh the new show um i really enjoy it i really do i do too and uh i just appreciate again every phase uh that he has been through um you know from the morning show all the way up from from from from guesting on the tonight show all the way up uh it's very very nice uh i use the phrase all the time a fisherman can always recognize another fisherman i appreciate the fact that that that um we can talk about this and then we can take these thoughts and bring them out to uh a very large letterman community who is also very grateful that it's again i've said this many times i never thought that in 2022 i would say it's a good time to be a letterman fan but it is a really good time to be a letterman fan right now i even though you worked with him in forum went on to these big things that we'll talk about uh later on in other projects and stuff i love seeing that you still have this this reverence and adoration for him daniel thank you so much for taking time to be here and to open up a little bit get vulnerable and talk about that stuff i i it means the world to me that you do this thank you it's the pleasure's been mine and i appreciate it i appreciate that you're you know you know you like don yellow are sort of chronicling and sort of keeping you know uh you're helping keep the record so it's it's a nice thing wow i appreciate that uh from your lips to god's ears that's what we're gonna do hey there it is another episode of the letterman podcast uh we would just all we ask humbly uh not even humbly we'll do it abrasively i'll ask you abrasively please like this thing please subscribe to this thing please share this thing god damn it we're uh we got good things coming on uh rupert coming on here we just got uh one of the bridges what's that hello rupert for me also absolutely absolutely i will um yeah and uh we just got one of the bridges from the set we're gonna be building a new set in here for the for the the studio here it's uh lots of good things lots of good guests coming uh we are grateful to daniel uh four this has been another episode of the letterman podcast my name is mike chisholm thank you and good night bye overcoat and underpants