Nick Prueher Was Head Reseacher For Late Show, Cofounded The Found Footage Festival, And Pranked His Way To AGT

all right yall thought that I might be fibbing this is proof right now the Letterman podcast we have one sponsor one sponsor only but it is rert GM the hello Deli thank you very much for sponsoring our show rert it's my honor Mike welcome once again of the Letterman podcast my name is Mike Chisum okay we got Nick fwer on here today um Nick fwer is uh man what is Nick well first and foremost he was a researcher and head researcher and segment producer for Lio with David Letterman for years okay uh we're talking like 99 to 0405 is in that area and Nick uh so great that we have Nick on here to talk about that from Leo but he has gone on to do so many other cool things and I would say that he's a performance artist uh he and his uh comedy partner his partner who is known from from grade school they've been best friends for so long uh Joe picket and they founded and the reason when he left Letterman was they founded the found footage Festival if you know what I'm talking about you know and you get it and you're like holy cow that guy used to work for Letterman yeah Nick used to work for Letterman the found footage Festival is an incredible thing we go into it in the in in in the episode here today uh and but I mean lots of Letterman little Letterman stories here and there we're going to have Nick back on and we're going to get him to like he's got a whole pile of stories that we can we can go through uh but we talk about that we talk about the found footage Festival um Nick and Joe were the subject of a documentary a couple years ago called Chop and steel uh he appeared he's he and and Joe have appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and other other places as well uh to promote the things that they're doing so really really cool I mean I highly recommend that documentary especially if you enjoyed Dave back in the day doing mischievous things okay uh Nick and Joe have that mood that down to a to to a science that uh that sensibility they have it down to a science the things that they have done and and and we get into it here uh we talk about it through throughout the episode but I mean yeah they would get booked um on morning news shows as as as um fictional characters and the News didn't know that they were booking fictional characters it was quite amazing what they have done I highly recommend the documentary I highly recommend um this uh watching this conversation with myself and Nick PR um so grateful to have him on here and um yeah without further Ado Letterman podcast proud to present Letterman alumni an amazing comedic Talent founder of the co-founder of the found footage Festival Nick prer Nick I know I'm a little in how I communicate some times when especially when I'm excited uh this will be an episode where that happens a lot I am so excited to have you on here um uh chop and steel is one of my the favorite documentaries that I have watched uh in recent memory it's so good um I've got a lot of questions about that I do want to talk about the Richard Simmons thing today and we'll we we'll put made that part of our tribute episode to him um let's get going here kind of at the very beginning at what year did you start working for Late Show with David Letterman how long did it last um it was 1999 and I was there I think a little over four years so like to 99 through 2004 I believe and researcher and segment producer is is is basically the line share of what you did there correct yeah I was a researcher and then I got to be head researcher for most of my time there and then I think towards the tail end they made me a segment producer so it was all a little bit nebulous but um I realized how much work goes into crafting an interview segment on the show I really didn't know how you know how polished it was and how you know how if you just like leave a celebrity guest to do their own thing it it can be a really a big disaster you know like people in general are pretty boring especially actors they got nothing going on they're auditioning they're in trailers they're pretty boring people generally so to make them interesting for sevenes minutes and make it be good TV there's a lot that goes into that um and you being a researcher it's very interesting because you know I have a guy like Dan kellison on and and and back in the day you know no internet whatsoever no like he was going and looking at micro fish and things like that sometimes like really old school ways of figuring things out you're kind of in the in the sense where um you're still reading books on the subway of whoever the guest is coming on next week trying to figure out things like you're still doing a lot of that stuff but then you also had the internet as a tool as well and that kind of happened during your watch is that is that a fair statement yeah we had a very crude version of the program Lexus Nexus which is you know what lawyers would use and things like that but it it did have you know um archived text based articles from Publications like people and Playboy that you could search by keyword and so we had to get very good at like just text based commands about quotes with this you know before Google kind of streamlined being able to search well we would have to like you know I learned how to use this Librarians and lawyers tool to search to see that uh you know oh somebody was in Hawaii like you know a month ago all right let's ask him about that right and um it's very interesting the idea like you say of of how much goes into these things now that being said you also and this is where I want to get into the stuff that you've done since late show um like you and Joe remind me of the humor that I love so much from David Letterman like the things that you two do you can tell uh or it seems apparent to me anyway there is a gigantic influence from the actual culture of the show and what Dave did clearly before you uh you know showed up there you got to be a part of the machine and then when you left the expressive output that you you put out there is very Letterman esque um safe to say that's that's the case like I'm right about that right Joe and I were both big fans of of Letterman growing up we grew up in a small town in Wisconsin we felt the kinship with Dave being a midwesterner and um yeah I mean I just remember like getting a small black and white TV in my room when when my parents upgraded to a bigger one in the living room and that was a terrible idea because I got nothing done and would stay up way too late so uh but that's when I would stay up late and watch um Late Night with David Letterman in my room and be tired the next morning and uh but that was my priority was to watch that show and I loved all the experimentation and um you know I know Dave has credited a lot of that to Merill Marco but uh man just the interviews were funny and you know one of those shows you would watch for Dave rather than whoever was on the show you know it didn't matter you wanted to know what they was going to do with it and um uh so definitely I mean you know it's hard to pinpoint an influence like but for for sure we were fans and I think you know having sort of a dry sarcastic sense of humor is maybe an innately Midwestern thing I I think the antish show business bent too you know when you're on the outside looking in yep you you just kind of make fun of how silly it all is and uh so you know I think we've done that too we've tried to poke fun at uh media organizations and play around with the the notion of like serious Morning News and things things like that and of course we're mining VHS archives with our found footage Festival tour and comedy show and one of my jobs at The Late Show was to you know find old embarrassing commercials and episodes of celebrity bowling that Michael Douglas was on and high school productions of Greece I found that Richard Gear was on you know and then we would um show them during the show those become some some of the more memorable um contributions I got to do to the show was fine to dig up these old clips and you know I'm still doing that today isn't that interesting how that uh you know that part of it is still the through a through line that that continues I I I called Steve Young Steve Young I consider him a friend good friend friend I really really appreciate Steve Young I know I'm in uh I'm in the same company with you and and I asked him what are some things I should ask you about and Dave's Video Collection you know like like the idea I mean you're a researcher whatnot but I assume you're coming up with with W with stuff that that that gets on screen as well yeah occasionally you know like for the majority of my time there my my head was down and you know I'd be on vacation but having to pick up an US Weekly you know in the Bahamas to see you know what Jenna Elfman was up to so that because I knew she was on next week so a lot of it was that but yeah like there were some fun things where You' suggest an idea for a um a mockup of a book you know or something or um we would have on a guest who had a makeup line and I would work with the props Department to make whatever the makeup was edible um yes oh my God I love that y that was fun I remember when Toby Maguire was on for Spider-Man um I had the idea did a throw to a a clip of the movie talking about its special effects and everything and then I asked checky Rick sheckman do we have any giant spider attack footage that you know and he's like um what do you want how big how big of a spider are we talking about you know and an hour later he has three options of an old black and white monster movie and so we throw to that with Toby Maguire and not tell him you know and then uh that got a big reaction that kind of became a running gag then whenever there was is a big Special Effects movie we'd throw to a fake clip from it so those are some of the you know the more fun moments I remember probably the biggest feather in my cap was um Ellen degenerous was coming on and she had the germ of an idea for a bit she said that um I my my premise is I don't want to plug myself everybody does that so I'm going to plug other people's projects that I like and but she's like I need a big ending you know she's like uh I'm listening to Lenny Kravitz's new CD Dave holds up the CD y um here's what I'm reading and then the third beat I came up with is what if she's watching a lot of episodes of loveboat on Nick at KN but um in lie of uh having a clip I brought captain stubing and that was the idea I came up with and the producers liked it and so they called Gavin McLoud who was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard and they're like can you take can we charger you a flight to New York this afternoon God bless him he shows up and the next thing I know um I'm in the elevator going up to the dressing rooms with Gavin McLoud in full Captain regalia with a fresh tan from Martha's Vineyard and we're going over the segment where you know she she throws to him and the scrim Rises and there he is and all he does is salute scrim goes back down that's it but the dude flew from Massachusetts just to come and do that and uh man I was I was grateful that was a fun one well he gets it and and and and you know it's funny talking about the culture of the show we've talked to so many people who who uh and this topic has come up a lot I bet you it's one with you the fact that you're you know have this introverted kind of quiet uh disposition I'm sure served you in this because it's one of those things where you're trying to do the best job you can for the show uh that you love so much but you and and and people are a fan for the show but they're not allowed to be a fan for the show there's got to be that I call it the you know a little too cool for school kind of you have have that veneer on but at the same time it's like oh my God this is one of those Letterman moments and I got to be the engineer of it there must have been times where you were like just became hyper presentes going I I I can't believe this is my life right now yeah I mean I think there times a lot of them were where they' be like hey we need somebody to um we're g to pretend that for Pamplona we're doing the running of the cabs on 53rd Street can you go run in front of a cab like you're running you know I'm like okay sure I'll take time out I'll be here later tonight working on tomorrow but I'll go do that or like uh we're doing a game called how many people dressed as cats from Broadway can we fit into this storefront without telling them so next thing you know they're fitting you with a dance belt and wardrobe and you're and so those were the moments where you're like oh yeah I'm part of this thing um and then of course people in high school and parents are like you know I know him and he's on the TV you know like as if as if the behind the scenes stuff I did wasn't more involved or more important but you know so those were fun times where you got to act and be part of a a sketch and then yeah to come up with the bit that you knew would would go well and I think the more you're at the show and you more more you get the culture of it the more you could like think in that respect and you know so much stuff you came up with didn't get used but there are those like you know ones that you're especially proud of that they ended up doing well I want to talk to you about that too like I mean like again I've already kind of preas you to come back again so you you and I can go and dive into even more I have so many questions for you that are all linked together uh I'm going to go to the found footage Festival because again genius I've actually I've seen um you know it's just your stuff appears in in in in video feeds and things like that of of of mine I'm sure that you get that a lot because I mean what you and Joe have created over the last what is it 20 years are you 20 years almost yeah it's our 20th anniversary of our our touring comedy show found footage Festival right and uh I want to talk to you about that I one of the things that I've asked some of the pants people that are currently there and then obviously Shey before he before he passed the ton the tonnage of of of of material that that show that Late Show created that never made the air I mean it's huge and a lot of it is very very very good stuff that holds up that's just one of those things that just didn't get on for time if segment went too long or Dave decided he wanted to tell a personal story or whatever and then it gets vaulted it's archived um I'm certain that that must have crossed your mind have there been I know there's been a few different Letterman entries into the found footage Festival uh over time is that something that you've thought about more because there is a whole bunch of stuff that's just not hasn't been earthed yeah I mean okay so when the show closed up shop um uh Steve Young and Tom Foster reached out and said hey do you want you know we have all these VHS tapes from Dave's Video Collection the segment where Dave would show videos that mostly I think Steve and some of the other writers had collected and Y would just show like a a clip and I forgot that that was even a segment actually but I I was like um went back and watched the old ones and I was like oh for sure we will be the inheritors of Dave's Video Collection so I stopped by the offices on the last week of the show and grabbed uh boxes and boxes tapes from uh Steve and Tom and and Shey and Y um they're they're still in our office in Brooklyn and we gone through them in fact that year for our touring show we did a segment called Dave's Video Collection and it was all the some of the highlights from the dozens and dozens of tapes we we inherited and and one of the ones I remember getting that I I forgot about was I guess when the show went to CBS at a certain point the writers Sol elited all the CBS Affiliates around the country for their worst local commercials you know like the ones that you see during Jeopardy where the time was cheap and um usually for car dealerships or furniture stores and everybody has their local funny commercials and uh so there was an entire reel of them I don't even know if they showed them on the show but I had it about an hour and a half tape of them that I think Steve gave me and so we cut together the best from uh Dave's local commercials as well and showed them in our live show and that was a big hit um I just just the idea of the found footage Festival is so Whimsical to me because this is one of those things where I mean and and you and I are you know both gen xers uh you know things that are that are are are locked into our minds that we know that we saw when we were kids uh things that may have been put onto a VHS tape or or or something like that and then YouTube shows up you know 20 years later or whatever and you're starting to unearth these things and the Nostalgia that comes in uh you know along with the Curiosity along with the trivia stuff all of that stuff just kind of comes together um how's how's the festival going 20 years you guys looking at each other going yeah we're going to keep going with this thing we're going to keep touring around doing our Live Events we're going to keep making this thing happen how how's the festival going these days yeah it's pretty remarkable like we celebrated our 20th anniversary in April of the first show we did and and you know know it was um I was at late show and then in uh 2004 I quit to um work on a documentary called Dirty country which was my partner Joe and I found a cassette tape uh of a dirty country music singer who we were fascinated by this really talented songwriter but just wrote filthy country songs and we found it at a truck stop tracked him down and all this stuff was happening in his life and I kind of wanted to start doing my own thing so Jo quit his job I quit mine and we we started working on this documentary and they weren't giving out grants for movies about dirty country singers and so as we entered like year two or three of you know making the movie we realized we're gonna have to do some fundraising and we realized the only thing we really had a value we didn't have any collateral to get loans but we did have a pretty sizable VHS collection of tapes that made us laugh that we would show to friends you know on slow on dark weeks at The Late Show I would bring some of my videos from home and we'd watch them in the office and you know uh this was something I started in high school and just continued on so you know had about 1500 tapes in 2004 and decided to uh take them out of a living room and put them in the back of a theater in Manhattan and like you were saying I think it was the right time where people were ready to look at the VHS era and laugh you know and especially since these weren't movies these were like the tapes that weren't meant to be shown in public you know like exercise videos and and training tapes uh strangers home movies we'd find in camcorders you know uh yeah the things that slip through the cracks and and so it was fun to curate those pick out the funniest parts and then make a live comedy show that's like you know the shows a guided T through our VHS collection it's a new one each year we take it on the road do about a 100 shows and then wow lock ourselves in an office for three months put together the next show Take It On the Road so 20 years you have to realize like all of a sudden oh yeah I guess this is a career I mean we've been doing it fulltime for two decades I guess now you have to be like all right this isn't a hobby this is a thing we do to make a living um as meager as it is um but yeah it all started from that fascination with this uh ephemera um and the collection keeps growing we continue to find new things so there's still a lot of life left in the festival we um we have an office in Brooklyn with 13,000 tapes and I think we've only gone through 10% of them so we have a lot more work ahead of us uh now are there rules like does it have to be VHS could it be betamax could it be a VHS uh tape that was dubbed over to digital a while back so you do have the digital version of it are you are there rules to it or is it just a matter of no this is the right content and and it's funny and we're going to add it well see Mike this is why I love your podcast because you ask the tough questions um this is uh well the rule was well one it's got to be unintentionally funny the and the other thing is it has to be found physically in hand um okay so we don't take any internet videos we don't take any videos that have been digitized it has to be a physical piece of media that you have to blow the dust off of um and yeah it's I mean it's all VHS but we do occasionally find a DVD here and there or one of those old 3/4 inch Ematic tapes that we used to use at The Late Show yep um and uh so that that we feel like counts you know and and you know like I I was in Memphis at a thrift store and I found a a DVD for Elvis impersonators by an Elvis impersonator called how to sing like the king you know it's howto video about what glue to use on your sideburns and and like like I'm not gonna ignore that just because it's on a a DVD so yeah we we will make the exception I think vhs's it was so ubiquitous and so affordable and anybody with an inkling of an idea no matter how ill advised put one out in the you know from the Golden Age of like 88 to 98 basically and uh because of the ubiquity and the affordability that's why you ended up with so many weird esoteric tapes and uh actually um Rick sheckman who was you know the footage research at The Late Show um passed away uh earlier this year and um uh my friend Randy who used to work at the show is going through his uh you know things and he had an sizable VHS collection so I got first dibs and went down there and man that was fun and he had uh a lot of early like late show like the tech rehearsal when pen and Teller were on and exactly things like that so I have a whole box of um highlights from the Shey collection that I'm going through right now and digitizing and we're going to do something with I think for our next show Volume 11 we'll do like she's collection or something like that fantastic this is from his memorial um his his niece gave me that that's such a great photo yeah he's wearing cat Steven shirt and he's just yeah just yeah Shey was I immediately felt like he was a kindred spirit with you know collecting weird ass of his office was Museum just like my apartment is of you know various nostalgic Collectibles and odds and ends and he had that collector sensibility that um I OB have too and uh he was also somebody who if you just want needed to get away from your desk for a while you could go in and he would tell you stories about the show where they're flying from LA to New York and how drunk everybody was at the softball game when Dave used to drink and like he he had all the stories from the early days yep so I I loved picking ch's brain about that stuff oh I'm so glad that his name came up in this episode this makes me so happy to to to hear that are you and Don Giller connected at all have you ever connected with Don a little bit yeah yeah he's um I've asked him for certain things like I've I've posted some stories I've had from my Letterman days and I've been like am I remembering it right did David boran's just totally the bed in his interview and do an impression of Christopher Walkin CU I I remember that and I remember Dave not like giving him any leeway to recover from it and did that really happen or like I remembered when Craig kilborne was on and Dave started like feeling his the bicep thing his biceps you know and then Barbara Gaines was laughing really hard and I was like did that happen or was I am I making that up because I'm still confused about why that was and and so Don has this archive and would uh send me those tapes and also like skits I was in and things that I I didn't still have on tape he would uh provide those um recently so as we're recording this Richard Simmons died and uh I had a story about that and I remember um record you know we always had uh the live feed in our office on the 11th floor there and um often we would record the live feed if we weren't going to be there so we could see the rehearsal and how it was going stuff for um so we were recording the live feed of the show with Richard and uh I mean I'll tell the full story but there was a time where there was obscenities being yelled and yep I didn't know what was going to make it on air what was going to be bleeped and what wasn't I I recently found I have the raw footage on a VHS tape and you hear every word imaginable that that out of Dave's mouth that did not make it to air but uh but I but it's interesting to like because it was such a Breakneck Pace a lot of these things you just forget about or or am I remembering it the right way so to have somebody like Don or you know Walter and th those guys who have are the keepers of the archives it's been great to revisit some of that footage and find out yeah I think I remember that pretty close to accurately um I'm so glad that that that people like you are around to do this now now let's build the bridge here and go from all right so researcher for Late Show the sensibility the comic sensibility all that the skill set uh the idea of and I were you editing your own videos from tape to tape at this point as well like had you had you kind of gotten into into that part of it while you were still at the show yeah I mean I would you know you weren't allowed to touch the editing controls due to Union rules so you would be down there saying cut this cut this let's go to a closeup of that you'd sort of be directing the edits but couldn't actually but I I was an editor um I went to college for film making and so um yeah I i' been editing my own movies and and our VHS CP clips for um years at that point just for for friends and things like that and for fun um short films we made so I had I knew how to edit um and yeah we did start doing like tapeo tape AB rooll that's how I learned in college y um but then yeah I was able to buy a non your editing computer um while uh yeah I think while I was in uh Minneapolis before coming to New York so I traveled with that and was able to do my own my own editing at home would you ever make stuff and bring it in to entertain the folks at uh pants yeah I remember like yeah just showing you know the the other people in the research office we we we would have like during our dark weeks where we weren't taping we would have some downtime so we would have like a mini Film Festival of things I remember bringing in um Jack rebney the world's angriest RV salesman he's otherwise known as the Winnebago Man um if you haven't seen Winnebago Man look look it up for folks listening it's um we uh I worked as a PA on commercials in Minneapolis and you know you always share the stories of the worst shoots you were ever on when you're on a film shoot and I we met a camera assistant who told us about a shoot he was on in 1988 for Winnebago RVs it was a sales video but for for RV salesman here's how to highlight the features of the you know the mini winnie for 1989 for your potential customers and the guy they they got the hosted Jack rebney had a short fuse and a colorful way with words and he kept losing his cool during this two week shoot and luckily you know like I did for some Late Show stuff he kept they kept all the raw the crew kept the raw footage and so he handed that over to us we cut together our favorite angry TI raides and uh that became a big hit of our first touring show and yeah that was a something I brought into the late show and I feel like a lot of TV like before Late Show I was an intern at Mystery Science Theater 3000 in in miniapolis yep and um that was the same day too where we would have a dark week and like I remember Mike Nelson brought in the William Shatner science fiction Awards where he does Rocket Man yep and I had seen that one and then I was bringing in like this home shopping footage I'd found in college that was taped live off the air and showed them Jack rebney too and you know and then I remember I think Zoe fredman called us into the office one time because she found she got a copy of the um Pamela Anderson Tommy Lee video y um so watch that in my workplace that couldn't happen now uh but uh the oh and the uh South Park greeting card came around before they had a show the spirit of Christmas yeah those tape trading I you know we were part of this tape trading community in college and then I it feels like a lot of people on television were also part of that you know yes so if there was a news blooper reel that somebody made you know at an affiliate it would end up and get passed amongst TV people so yeah it all felt like a Continuum and and I mean you know you're just you're you're making me smile so big about shecky right now because I I miss him every single day like this show doesn't exist without shy shy was my you know he was my consiliary he that that was what we intentionally named him uh for the for for this thing and and and and again it's the same thing like we're into the same things except from different eras like we collect things that we love but just from different eras but they all link up Shey obviously the biggest one of the biggest film traders in the world and footage traders in the world like I mean he had a company around it all that but a copile and one with a point of view and I and I love that um the point of view with you and Joe you know again very Letterman esque in everything that you do but then in' 04 you quit your jobs and stuff and it's like okay we're going to turn this thing into a thing and now the performer part of you needs to kind of come out and yes you had done some of the some of the extra things you know being on staff for Letterman that kind of a thing um did you always know that you had the performer part of you and that was a muscles that you enjoyed to stretch did you always know that or was that something that just was built out of necessity yeah I mean I was uh given way too much positive reinforcement as a kid my parents were a little too supportive and so I was can do anything you can do exactly I know I had to come all had reality had to come crashing in but it it happened later than for most so um so yeah I was in all the plays in high school and then um right out of uh well during high school and in college I was in I wrote for the onion and then I was in Comedy Sports doing improv comedy which um so that was a you know I was getting paid in high school 200 bucks a night to do Friday Saturday nights do uh improv where you didn't have to really rehearse I just thought it was the greatest thing and um and then you know in uh college and then post College we we Joe my partner had found footage festival and I would do a lot of uh short films that we would act in and uh things like that so it's something I've always enjoyed doing and um the uh I kind of realized how much I missed it once we started doing you know a 100 shows a year and like performing it was kind of like oh yeah this is a a fun muscle to uh exercise again so I think you know like now that I'm 48 the travel part of the touring is a little more exhausting the that the novelty worn off but it's still really fun to do the whole reason we started doing footage Festival just to do a showand tell you know it's like I found this incredible piece of footage I can't wait to show it in a dark room with a bunch of other weirdos and that that keeps you coming back you know you're usually exhausted at the end of a tour and um that's kind of where I'm at right now we just finished up our volume 10 tour and uh so we'll take some time off but then I know I'm going to get itched to get back out there and you know I've already found some new footage that I'm just really I can't wait for people to see in a live setting so we we'll get back out and do it again oh that's fantastic and and I mean I've heard about some of these I I need to come out and see it I need to be a part and and and and patronize the the the event I want to make sure that I'm I become part of it and support it that way uh but I'm just listening to Steve talk about because I know Steve's opened a couple of times or he's done a couple of appearances on there I was so you know because I didn't know Steve that well at the show we would interact a little bit but um but everyone's just so busy you know just keeping their head above water there that there wasn't a lot of socializing but um he'd come to our our live shows before and then uh reached out um when he was looking to do something with the um uh the Broadway style albums for industrial musical industrial musical yeah I couldn't think of what he calls those but yeah and so we had him on our our YouTube show VCR party and he showed some highlights from the few videotape or you know filmed examples of that and uh we got to talk about the book and about the documentary and um yeah then he came and opened for us and built it into a full live show and was looking for like you know just kind of like how do you do it what are the good venues for this and you know over the 15 years we've been doing it at that point we developed contacts and knew like oh you got to go to The Loft Cinema and Tucson they'll love you there and and so you know we just I just provided him with some contacts and uh made some email introductions to those folks and um yeah it's been fun to see that show grow and get to know Steve better have you heard any of his uh latest musical offerings oh yeah I've been following all his songs on and uh yeah I mean what a creative talented guy and one of the few people who you know the Late Show almost broke me like it's such a pressure cooker and you know people talk about it with SNL or whatever where it's just like you know sometimes you're just not cut out for the Long Haul and it takes a certain personality to be able to like keep your sanity keep your personal life intact but also be able to deliver for the show you know and towards the end of my time at L show I just was feeling like sort of a shell of myself in terms of like personality and and just Creative Juice you know is all going into the show which is I I love the show I love Dave I don't regret that at all but I just kind of for me it was time to do my own thing and I always admired people like Stephen who could like sort of keep a level head in the middle of the chaos and be able to thrive um I want to go to chop and steel here and then uh and then we'll finish off here and then you're going to tell me that story that I can add to the other episode and we'll go go from there I appreciate it if that's okay yeah um okay so uh this documentary came comes out in is it 2022 2023 Cho and Ste 2023 last year yeah okay so so along the way as you're growing um this brand this this this unique one-of-a-kind I guess unique and one-of a kind of the same thing uh event um you know with the found found footage Festival these appearances start happening and as the appearances start to happen it seems to be the The Narrative is certainly on uh on on local morning news but I'm certain that there are other things that you would do this as well uh you and Joe started to Tinker a little bit with things and and move into the realm of Comedy into the realm of the stuff Dave would do back in the day with some of either his man on the street or he would send you know staff members to a certain place um certainly uh when you look at Steph clar's early stuff for Daily Show The Correspondents there you start to kind of move into these areas here where there's some trolling going on and it's some of the funniest stuff I've ever I've ever seen to the point where a documentary gets made about it you guys show up on America's Got Talent and all of those things I've got a couple of questions about this I want to talk about that you know the impishness or the the mischievousness of there but I thought it was a very interesting choice uh that you didn't mention your Letterman background in Cho and steel you didn't mention that there and I was curious if that was if that was a cut was that a conscious uh effort uh or or reason for that I don't think so I mean I'm sure I talked about it we were followed around for four years by the filmmaker uh steinar and you know we didn't make the movie it was his movie but we were the subjects of it and um so I'm sure I talked about Letterman I'm sure it came up it always does it was such an influence on me and um a huge part of my life and any any time I meet somebody new or talk I'm talking some to somebody at a bar or something a story will come up from the show and so I'm sure it came up but maybe just for whatever editorial reason they decided not to include it in the movie um but um yeah it you know Joe and I have known each other since we were 10 and um we have nothing left to talk about so but we are never more than three feet apart while you know so since high school we've been daring each other to you know be idiots in public you know and I think the key is and the thing that might separated from some other uh pranks or whatever you want to say is the joke is always kind of I mean we're the idiots right like we're the ones who mostly look stupid um in in the process and uh so yeah I mean Joe would uh pay me $15 to come in late to a college class on crutches and um just tell the guy got in a fight you know this is college we're talking about I'm paying to go to school there and and it it just became the series of things where we dare each other to say things while boarding a plane that would just deliberately waste people's time and and this is all this is not for camera it's not for anything and ALS and so in I think it was uh 2010 we were on the road and our buddy Mark had just gotten laid off from his job and we were uh we would bring friends on the road with us occasionally just to break things up and uh we said come on the road and um and he helped us uh or orchestrate this idea for um doing a local news appearance as somebody other than who we are like you know we'd been on the road for uh 10 11 years at that point and would go on to promote our found footage Festival gigs and we'd go on like wake up Sacramento and we'd get there at 6: in the morning show a couple funny clips and say hey come on out tonight to the Crest theater and come see us the way a comic would do a lot of standups would go and do these yeah and so we we did those for years and we hated it because you'd have to get up really early um and then we're like who's watching that show like Farmers like I didn't know who was up that early to watch one of these shows and um a lot of times they would get the name of our show wrong a couple times we'd show up and they forget we were coming and it was just uh so as an experiment we thought like what if we pitched fake characters and with our buddy Mark we said let's pitch a yo-yo expert who's for Earth Day promoting environmentalism through yo-yoing and then we would rehearse and come up with all the ways he could you know for one Mark couldn't yo-yo so we'd have to write ways around that because yoyo was in the shop getting greased so he would describe the tricks you know or he would you know get sidetracked and talk about a recent divorce and things like that and uh it made us laugh and this was not for any sort of we we were not expecting to show this during the show it was just for fun yeah to break things up on the road and then one of those blew up one are they like the news station it was just on their you know archived news things and somebody found it and then all a sudden we're getting emails from like Paul Rudd and Bill hater being like you know through the fake yo-yo website we'd set up that sponsored him and and so we thought all right maybe there's something here so you know we let that die down for a while and a few years later we pitched me as a celebrity chef uh who was pitching something called turbo gravy his cookbook for how to spruce up your leftovers after the holidays and it was just putting everything in a blender with skim milk you know and pouring it over corn or uh making it into a smoothie and um yeah and so that was a disaster too and and a lot of fun and uh so yeah maybe like four years ago maybe five now we decided let's push the boundaries of stupidity about as far as we can and we pitched Joe and I as a strong man Duo and if you're listening to this you probably can't tell but I'm not strong uh neither is Joe we're both somewhat atrophy doughy even and uh but you know you put on some zuba pants and do you know do some unimpressive Feats of Strength like breaking Twigs in half and stomping on Easter baskets we thought that's a segment so yeah we got booked on a dozen of these shows as chop and steel and we did three of them and then one of the news stations parent companies saw it and they sued Us in federal court I got a call from the New York Post saying you have a comment on your federal law stre and I was like huh yeah know I had no idea uh but sure enough yeah this company gray media sued us because I think they were embarrassed that they didn't the reporters didn't do their research or their Bookers didn't do any vetting and they booked these clear morons on the morning show and hey yes we you are the morons like like the the the news people that were there the way I see it is these poor news people are having to try and figure out a way around the landmines that you are constantly laying for them so they don't blow up and and and yes you know but but you guys are clearly the morons you two are like an American Hans and frons you you it was very clear that that that you know they were trying they being the newscasters or the interviewer or whoever were trying to make you know chicken Sal out of chicken and that was the funny part about it like well right and it also I think in the process and is it exposes the stupidity of these morning shows where there's a serious story about a plane crash but now it's like let's go see the yo-yo expert you know just like what are these shows they're ridiculous and so you know we like exposing that and of course we traffic in awkward videotape moments so all all this is is creating our own exactly that was the part that because the way that it the way that the uh the doc starts is extremely compelling because it's showing footage of YouTube in a deposition and and and you're like all right are these the character no these are not the this is real life and this is real life stuff that you have generated for yourself ironically that started Pro from promotion of the footage Festival that you have yeah you know it's so it's so delicious in in the irony and and in just it just layers in on itself and it's beautiful well that that was one fun thing is like everything actually becomes content in the show so when we realized there was something to these news appearances that people were enjoying we started showing the highlights in our live shows on on the road Road and then after the lawsuit ended I remember um having to sign all these documents and affidavits and all the stuff and our lawyer like check here sign here initial here oh check this box if you want the footage from your depositions and a little light bulb went off and I was like aha um you know it was like $700 but at that point it was like Hey you know that's gonna be worth it to watch us squirm like for once we're the subjects and we got to make fun of ourselves and how Terri we were being in this serious situation uh being badgered by lawyers for a full week just and it's so funny because the parts that you chose to show in the dock make it look like because it's so simple and it's it's ridiculous and and both of you have this amazing gift of being able to pause and it it's either a real pause legitimately or it is goddamn hilarious like it is so funny the way that he describes a man like yeah oh that was just Joe floundering he's like it's a a strong man you know because they're asking about the semantics of things and you're like well if I have to you know it's like the whole thing about um you know poking a frog like when you dissect it it it's like with a joke you can't explain it no so they're like you know um tell us about the Zim Zam yo-yo corporation like well it didn't exist and they would say things like did chop and steel have a performance in Lehigh Valley that weekend it would be like well they're not real but in their minds they did the fictional characters did have a you know and so you're just going in circles which is you know what I guess lawyers do but um so that wasn't we weren't trying to be funny in the depositions we were trying to be like like called you know it's like we got called into the principal's office yeah so we're deathly afraid uh for that whole week and so you know it was only in hindsight that we were able to laugh at it once we saw the footage back yeah it's it's fantastic um I could go you know there's going to be people who are very upset with me for uh not asking you more letman research your questions and I know you got a ton of them you got a topics and and and stories I know you got a ton of them we'll get you back on to talk about that I want to I want to talk about the Richard Simmons thing um but before we before we kind of get to that I'll shoot an outro and then we can do the Richard Simmons things uh short separate if that's okay we still got okay for time yeah yeah okay I appreciate it um there's one other thing I do want to ask you about I'm asking you real time here with the camera on have you heard of King of the Z's do you know what king of the Z's is I don't know that no okay King of the Z's and I mean I know we can find it on VHS but it has been digitized for convenience however um one of the OG writers for Letterman his name is Steve Wier and he had a partner uh named Carl tman uh they were writers on the first year actually he Steve is who got shecky the job there um good friends I've become good friends with him since since starting this uh there's two things that if if Steve were responsible for writing for Letterman that would probably be at the tippy top it would probably be these two number one is the glass breaking behind Dave that was an original viewer male joke that Steve wrote or Steve and Carl wrote wow um yeah and then and again he was there for 13 months whatever it was but that's one thing that was there the entire time the other thing was these two guys are the guys who brought Calbert to Forest to Letterman to Dave and Merrill's attention wow yes he was in their uh New York um NYU student film called King of the Z's okay and they said uh and they made up a they made up for the for the movie they made up a uh a production company um like the whole nine yards like they they they really went deep on this thing and Calvert's in the whole thing that sort of thing so Steve and I have been trying to figure out the best way like we want to do it here on the show somehow maybe we do a commentary over it maybe we do watch it and then something else yeah okay so there we go that would be fun I'm on board for that okay so anyway I'm just throwing that out there you hadn't heard of it this is a piece of found footage that in my mind everybody in the Letterman universe or a lot of people in the Letterman Universe the OG Letterman Universe would love this because it's how yeah so anyway we gotta watch this I mean we have Calvert's Couch Potato workout on VHS of course but uh don't know King of the Z's I'm excited to see it I'm a big Cal fan there we go so this is earlier on so you and I will talk off book about that um okay so that sounds great um how has your life changed since the documentary came out has it changed has there has there been any A Renewed Resurgence with the uh the the the festival is uh has life changed at all well we're seeing um more people show up to our live shows so I think it helped spread the word it's a pretty good primer on what we do because it's hard to describe I mean 20 years into it we call it the found footage Festival so people think it's a film festival and it's not it's just a 90minut comedy show with it with Clips in it so I mean we we got our work head out for us so uh the documentary does a good job of explaining that to people and uh and I think it shows um sort of the breadth of what we do a lot of people they only know the news appearances like they might only know chop and steel or the yo-yo guy or they might uh or some people might only know about found footage festival or or our YouTube show VCR party and not this this news side of it and certainly I don't think many people knew about our personal lives before uh but you know somebody follows you around for four years you do have to get pretty honest about things so um yeah I think uh it's uh I think it's just given people a fuller picture of what we do it's certainly um gotten the word out to people who didn't know anything about us before and we're like hey where have you been all my life so uh it's been fun you know I think Indie documentaries aren't what they once were where they could you know gets sold and open Sundance and all that stuff but uh people are finding it and it's a good little document of that time in our lives is there anything that you and or Joe wish would have gone in there that didn't get in there uh there was a oh yeah there was one time where I was playing the uh I have a 1978 McDonald's board game that's actually fun it was uh you're having to like make menus and then put in little marbles to show that you're the first to complete it and that was riveting footage didn't make the final cut so I have a I have a bone to pick with the the filmmaker on that one do you know Adam nef no I don't think so I gotta connect you to so Adam nef is probably oh man I don't even know if you call him the da Giller of because he is essentially he might be the Don Giller of game shows and he's awesome he's he's around our age he's just uh he's a he's a historian uh he's in the game show business as well but also is like an archist on now he has the most incredible collection of home game home game versions of these game show yeah okay so I'm watching you on this documentary going I need to connect you and Adam if you don't Adam don't know each other yet I feel like there's something very very cool there he's been on the show here and we talked about Dave's uh involvement in game shows and Morty and all those guys back in the day but anyway I'd like to connect you to about that um I appreciate you giving up your time here today you we're going to have you back I can't wait I would love to collaborate if there's ways I can collaborate with you guys I would certainly love to I feel like we're all Cut From the Same Cloth um and and and so I just want to say thank you very very much for taking time to come here today the Letterman podcast is one sponsor one sponsor only and that is hello- deli.com Rupert may not own the deli anymore but that's okay he still has hellodd deli.com the only place where you can buy Late Show with David Letterman official merchandise hats and mugs and shirts and all that crap get some for you get some for uh for people in your life it's vintage it's throwback it's uh do you have any rert stories Nick I assume you would well at one point they named a sandwich after me because I would call in every day and get a um peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat cut into four triangles and uh So eventually the other folks in the research Department were like you got to make this official so I do still have the laminated hello Deli sign that says the Nick PR and it's a peanut butter and jelly and H wheat cut into four triangles man fantastic wasn't my wasn't my Peak Health uh during my light show years but uh that s was pretty damn good rubert and Irene are uh are out of town right now but uh they watch all of these and anytime we mention uh the name I both of them both rubert and Irene freak out and they love it so so so much so uh he's gonna love recalling that that's gonna be great well yeah I I love going down to ruperts every day and and the it was at the going away party the retirement party and remember talking to rert and said he's going to do a lot of fishing in Florida and I was like God bless you you you've earned it so hope they're doing that and speaking of Late Show merchandise I got this at shey's place too I don't know if how well you can see it oh look at the Stein from The Anniversary Party yeah this is the anniversary party Stein and there's one other oh yeah there's just some other odds and ends the um let's see yeah this is the swizzle stick yep um commemorative swizzle stick from late night so um yeah and I got some some crew jackets and things from back in the day I have like I have all my old crew jackets and heart surgery T-shirts from back in the day but uh I didn't have any late night stuff so it was cool to go through she's collection there absolutely and it's funny I would talk to him about his jackets and and the late night one was one of the only ones he liked to wear still he loved to wear the old o OG one um it was held up well we'd get a pair of shoes every every year from Rob Bernett and uh those held up really well I would wear those to the ground and uh yeah it was fun i' I've held on to that merch it's all in a storage locker now but you know I'm nothing if not a hoarder uh well he you know what and that stuff again I'm a showand tell guy too again fisherman can always recognize another fisherman uh in the future if ever you want to do a a show and tell we just we had that with Jeremy Wier we did an episode with Jeremy Jeremy Wier not too long ago where he had this box and he knew everything that was in the box was was all letter and stuff like pencils that had gone to space and come back and all that but he hadn't opened them in years and so we did an entire episode where he just went through that box that would be fun it was it was a it was a really really fun episode and anytime somebody wants to do that uh let's do that okay I'm gonna I'm GNA finish this part off here and we'll do the other part in a second um thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to come on here today I can't wait to have you back Nick that would be super fun I was a very small Cog in the wheel of The Late Show but everybody's got stories everybody's got stories and and and and working as hard as they can to put something extremely valuable to so many people on you are a part of the fabric of this show thank you so much this has been another episode of the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisum coincidentally I am Mike Chisum thank you and good night overcoat and Underpants