Brad Gilmore Talks To The Nation With Booker T and Loves Late Night Television Past And Present

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 G in the hello Deli thank you very much for sponsoring our show rert it's my honor Mike welcome once again to the Letterman podcast my name is Mike Chisum all right today we got another broadcaster on we've had a few broadcasters on over the summer here last summer was the interns we had a bunch of interns on at the the intern summer series we uh uh affectionately called it uh this year some broadcasters have come on throughout the summer uh people who have been inspired by uh by by Dave because Dave again a broadcaster as opposed to a standup and um Brad Gilmore I'm really excited to have him on here now Brad Gilmore has a national ESPN Radio Show in the pro wrestling world with a guy by the name of Booker T who's one of the the biggest pro wrestling stars of all time and but it start there and we talk a little bit about how Brad got into broadcasting his love immediate love for all things late night how did that happen how did a guy who's you know my junior by quite a bit become a fan of Johnny Carson how did that happen and then of course this Affinity that he has for Dave I did his podcast a few months ago and um just Brad and I are brothers from another mother we really are we talk a lot there a lot of Letterman moments here we really dissect the Andy calman moment and late night together from a from sort of a a wrestling promoter uh wrestling Insider kind of uh Vantage Point that's really cool we talk about my next guest quite a bit uh in this episode um and then of course we talk about all the things that Brad is doing and and it I mean his his National show is incredible but also some of the other things he does he's the host of The Back to the Future podcast he has a Back to the Future book that you can get um at all the major book retailers uh and and and all of that is because of chasing things that that he loves and that's that's what we do here and we Inspire try and Inspire other people to do to do in their own Liv to try and Chase what you love and this is a great episode that just uh with with two guys who love this stuff who love dissecting this stuff and talking about this stuff that's what this is so um you can go to the boat Brad gilmore.com the boat not the goat the boat Brad gilmore.com you can look at everything that Brad is doing um his his podcast uh the collection of interviews with everybody you could think of um from the world of of of Pop Culture he just had a recent with Kevin Cosner which was incredible Gary Oldman um but then also uh you can tell how much this guy loves late night and all around late night because he's had people he's had Leno on he's had uh you know Joe topplin other people who have worked for Spike fiston other people who have worked for for for Letterman uh lots of really cool uh content with Brad Gilmore uh so let's just finish it there you're not here to you're not here to see or hear me let's face it um you're here to see Brad Gilmore the Letterman podcast proud to present my conversation with the boat Brad Gilmore okay Brad okay H I've wanted you on here three maybe four minutes after I finished coming on your show months and months and months ago uh talk about brothers from another mother oh my gosh um I just I'm so impressed one of the reasons I'm so impressed with you is because you're a guy that I see who who who who identified what you love and what you want and you have immersed yourself in all of these things and found ways to make it part of your professional life and and it's not just that you know suddenly oh yeah I love doing this and so now I'm I got a job with this that's not what it is it's it's the joy of the pursuit and watching you pursue the things that you love the way that you do is amazing you're a broadcaster's broadcaster but you're also somebody who is just so passionate about things uh you're a you're you're a fan of what you love you wear your heart on your sleeve you're so passionate Brad Gilmore thank you so much for taking time out of your insane scheduled to come on the Letterman podcast today hey look Mike I appreciate the invitation and and once I equally once I found out about this podcast I wanted to find a way to finagle my way of being a guest on it and now I have achieved that and also thank you for um you know you and I've been trying to get together to do this for a few weeks now and then we finally were able to figure it out and and I'm thankful for your patience with me um as you know you know this this business never stops no absolutely and and and again especially when you're grinding it out and you're going for it and you're you're you're uh you know there's a lot of people who listen to this who who who know exactly what we're talking about where they are uh trying to you know they're paying the bills as best they can you know providing for the household but then at the same time also trying to chase what it is that they love and and and try and create the Alchemy of these two things sometimes they don't coales sometimes they do and it's really cool again it's it's it's good knowing that you exist in this world man and we both we're both insanely busy guys but we have this uh kindred Spirit over things um I want to we've had some broadcasters on here over the summertime and and I mean you talk about how you finagle your way well you know what if you if if one were to go to the collection if one were to go to Brad Gilmore's uh works that he has had you want to see uh some interviews with some for former Letterman folk and people who have tangentially been connected to late night uh you know you know you know people like Joe topplin and Stu we're hoping to get him on here but also like Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno and some of these other people that you have interviewed you have interviewed some of your most of many of the Heroes that you had growing up the people that you really looked up to you've had conversations with these people and I've been trying to think of a parallel and the only parallel I can really think of is a guy like Jud appow Jud appow did exactly the same thing he had a a a high school radio show and he used that as a springboard to being able to talk to all of these people um that he looked up to in the standup comedy World um when did that start for you when did you know you want wanted to be a broadcaster and as you got into the the world of broadcasting when did you decide to kind of go out and say you know what I'm going to start Crossing some bucket list conversations off my list you know it's a great question um as far as when I I never had the inclination to be a broadcaster I I never wanted it I never thought about it now was I a fan of late night television and Dave and Jay and Johnny yeah from a very young age I was very attracted to the The Glitz and the glamour of late night and and the aura of those programs but for me I was playing in a band in Houston part of a group 2011 and we went to a local online radio station and we were interviewed and this is the first time I'd ever been interviewed by anybody and we do the interview and afterward the program director at this online station was like Hey you were really good on the air have you ever thought about you know doing this like doing radio or anything like that and I said oh no I haven't really thought about it um and then he and I started talking you know shout out to Jordan as his name and and and uh and ramsy we were talking and then all of a sudden a couple weeks later I have the Brad Gilmore show on this radio network um two hours every every Tuesday and that was when I first started because my one of my other passions is hip-hop I love hip-hop and um during kind of my formative years Houston had a really big boom of hip-hop we had guys who some of your audience might be familiar with but Paul Wall Chamillionaire Mike Jones Slim Thug uh to name a few and there's always Bun B and Pimp C and and the Ghetto boys go back way back in the day to wrap a lot records Scarface and brush Wick Bill and Willie D so I was like hey you know maybe I could use this if I'm lucky maybe I can use this show to interview some of my favorite Houston rappers that was my only goal and I remember getting you know guys like Slim Thug on and and things of that nature and I thought I had made it and then I'm sure as you've realized as it went on I I started to realize I really love this medium of talking to people and and this long form interview and getting to know somebody and and I would do no pre-interview um I would just sit there on air and let's just talk let's just see where this conversation goes Y and then it started to really become a passion of mine and then I saw a movie that really changed it for me I saw a film that made me go I want to do this more often not just two hours every Tuesday I want to do this as a career and that was Private Parts with Howard Stern absolutely when I saw that movie y it made me go I I want to do this more and that's where I started really become an admirer of the broadcaster that is Howard Stern and that is also where my interest went from purely entertainment and liking these entertainers to enjoying a great broadcaster and and it's actually funny because this is true that's when I really started to appreciate Dave more cuz I growing up I was a Jay guy I was very strongly a Jay guy I like The Tonight Show I like the franchise of it I like the name recognition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and as a as a young person I think Jay's comedy I understood more of than I understood Dave's and uh so as I started to grow as a broadcas yet Dave and Howard became those became my guys but that's how it started that is so cool and and okay so you this is one of the things that I love because I'm your senior I'm 48 years old at the time of this broadcast you're quite a bit younger than me and and and I and the one thing that I appreciate is you said it in at the very beginning and you said that the the franchise of The Tonight Show the fact that someone of your age uh appreciates that and you even mentioned you know the king you even mentioned Johnny Carson one of the reasons why the whole reason why I started the Letterman podcast was because I was um flabbergasted at the fact that a lot of folks you're and Below don't even know who Johnny Carson is anymore and we're talking about somebody who was the biggest star on the planet you know um um really he had an orbit of his own when it came to the world of entertainment and broadcasting and all of these things these cross-sections and and and and you know that um what got you into liking late night at such an early age and what got you into the idea of uh you know the bill Carter books and and and all of these things what was it that sparked that so I am the youngest of my family um the last child from my dad um I have two older brothers and an older sister um we're very far apart in age 23 years is the distance between me and my oldest brother which is quite a bit of time y um at the time of my birth he was old enough to be my dad and uh and I think and then my grandparents were older too so they were born in the teens and the 20s and I I I guess I was always trying to find that Touchstone of where we could cross path culturally with pop culture I like what are they into that maybe we can perhaps start to talk about so my grandfather used to be a channel called the tube and they would play things like I Dream of Genie and Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies and Mr Ed and it became tradition with him to sit and watch those shows after school and then I remember him talking about guys like Red Skelton and and some of these older comics and I said man they I so we would watch some of that and then somehow that came to Johnny Carson and and showing me the the Ed Ames uh Hatchet throw uh you know oh Ed I didn't know you were Jewish and those lines those classic Johnny jokes and and I remember very vividly my parents bought me I must have been 11 or 12 which is very odd for someone that age but they bought me a DVD set of 30 years of Johnny Carson it was just highlights from all his shows and and I remember watching those running those things incessantly and thinking that Johnny Carson was not only the coolest guy I'd ever seen the funniest guy I'd ever seen the smartest guy I'd ever seen and uh really idolizing him from a young age and and and and using that to talk to my parents and my brothers and my sister and my grandparents cuz they were all in the generation of Johnny they knew Johnny Carson they grew up watching Johnny Carson and by the time I was born I was born December of the same year that Johnny retired exactly so I never grew up in a year where he was on television I never experienced that to me it was always Jay and Dave and then Conan so yeah that it was the it was the way that I was able to to uh Bond and share a commonality with my elders and my own family that is such a beautiful sentiment and and and uh you're not alone uh you know describing the way that you did getting the the DVD set that is incredible um boy what a what a what a what a cool way to bridge the generation gap and and uh I I dig that that's so precious to me that is such a precious story um let's fast forward a little bit you get to the bre okay so so you you watch this stuff growing up um the Jay Dave Conan all of that stuff that was your formative years you're doing the Brad Gilmore show you know two hours a day uh how much did you lean on all of this Johnny Carson uh stuff that you had downloaded at such an early age all of the paying attention to what was going on in late night at the current time as you growing up um how much of that influenced what you did on the Brad Gilmore show so Johnny and uh Johnny especially INF influenced it a lot as a as in relation to the interview style what I noticed watching those tapes with Johnny was Johnny was the coolest guy in the room without overtly trying to be the coolest guy in the room yes he always wanted to set up the guests and and and speaking in wrestling Parlin he always wanted to put them over and let him get their stuff in right and I noticed that from him from an interviewer and and the fact that he was able to make a this was one that always stuck out to me he was able to make a moment with just looking around and it's something that I've realized I've stolen from him when somebody says something I just start to kind of look around like there's an audience there it a and that comes directly from Johnny and so I think that learning that from an interview perspective of being able to tee people up being able to get the good story out of it and not overstep them not overtalk them let them have the moment um is something that I learned from Johnny and then watching guys like uh Dave and and Conan Conan especially was somebody who I didn't realize had as much influence on me as I as I would come to recognize in the sense of he was comfortable being zany and silly and over the top and I realized I was comfortable being zany silly and over the top and and saying some things that might be outlandish or uh goofy in order to elicit a reaction and I was I was okay with doing that and even going back to being a member of the band and performing on stages I realized a lot of trying to get a reaction out of people so you know Conan would do the string dance or he would do you know the Hat thing or whatever I was trying these physical bits out I guess on stage just trying to entertain people not just having them listen to music by having them have an experience you know it's almost the difference between like a lead singer and a front man yes um I had this conversation with d Snider on my podcast about it and he doesn't like being referred to as a lead singer he likes being referred to as a front man because they are vastly different absolutely and um kind of controlling the crowd controlling the room um is something that I I kind of ALS so I think took in from not only some of my favorite musicians but also the late night guys uh I think that's a yeah without a doubt um now let's bring in some of the other things that you okay so so this is all happening for you you know that you have these passions and these things you also are extremely passionate again we're brothers from another mother when it comes to that when we get into something we get into it big time uh as this is happening technology is increasing and the idea of of of of podcasting now you already have professional uh chops at this point you know I didn't have that but but then I saw suddenly the ease showed up you know Letterman talked about this all the time you know early on saying you know it was very very difficult to get a television show when we got a television show now anybody can have a show and it's diluted to the point where even like I can have a show that's how much it's diluted and if I can have a show God help us all uh who knows where this Society is going if even people like me can have a show but you've got these professional chops and this other technology is growing you have a passion for was it back to the future was that the next kind of incarnation or was it pro wrestling because I want to get into both so yeah it was it was wrestling wrestling came wrestling was also the the other tertiary passion at the same time as music and late night y so it it was it was really a if you did a VIN diagram there's like three sections it was wrestling it was late night and it was hipop and those three things kind of you know clouded my mind if you will yeah and so yeah I started in the wrestling business um officially back in 2012 right around the time that you had your radio show and did you use them to springboard each other did you use them to springboard each other like did you talk about it on the radio show and then and then at the you know like did you use it to kind of blow them both up at the same time sort of sort of I used it as more the radio thing I used as more as a credential to get my foot in the door the story is um um I was big wrestling fan huge fan kind of grew up in the Attitude Era ruthless aggression fell out of it when I really was focused on stuff in high school like mainly music and the phoh sex were taking up a lot of my interest as it does for most young men around that time yep and um I'd fallen out of it but I I would kind of watch WrestleMania every year or what have you and I remember waking up one day on a Saturday morning I grabed my phone you know just to see like I do every morning who needed me in my slumber you know who was trying to reach out to me was I important enough for somebody to think of and so I'm looking through my uh Twitter timeline and I see something from WWE so I click on it I'm like I wonder what's going on in WWE and I'm scrolling through and they show something with Booker T and I'm like oh man Booker T Legend Love Booker T I wonder what Booker T is doing so just by happen stance I clicked on his profile scrolling through and I saw a tweet looking for commentators for my wrestling show email your resume to an email and I was like what the hell let me take a shot I didn't even have a resume at the time really I just sent an email saying oh you my name's Brad Gilmore I have the Brad Gilmore show on you know this radio station yada yada y I do this this and that sent it off didn't think about it three weeks later I got a phone call saying hey uh we got your resume this is Paul Cook from reality wrestling can you be down here tomorrow night Booker T wants to meet you and I said yeah absolutely so I remember going went down there Booker wasn't there he had to fly out and they said come back Thursday so I came back Thursday how big of a driver are we talking wait hour and a okay so so is it a long drive to get there uh no no I mean maybe like uh 35 minutes from where live okay so you're not driving across the state to get okay because Texas is a big place and so I'm trying to Texas is huge but but it just happened to it happened to be that right there okay it happened to be in Houston um you know where I'm born and bred and um I went to his office hour and a half I waited outside of his office door and then and I remember sitting there going is this a test they're going to see if I'm going to leave or whatever come to find out they just probably forgot I was out there and I come in and the first thing is I I walk in and I see a mountain of a man behind the desk yeah and I'm like oh my God this Booker T right in front of me and he sits down he's like so your name is Brad I said yeah he goes you're a good-look kid I said oh I I appreciate that book he goes I can use you and I'm like okay yeah yeah what you got and it so happened is I had gone in for an audition this is a part I skipped over for the commentator uh on that Tuesday when Booker wasn't there and I did horribly I uh couldn't remember the names of moves I didn't know what I was doing I tried to make a Donnie and Marie Osman joke which even at the time in 2012 was like not even anyone's cultural reference points oh yeah know your audience that's perfect that's perfect I even messed that joke up and um I remember clearly walking out and thinking that I had F like this is like the first real sense of failure like I failed yes like really bad crashed and burned yes and and then I got the call to come back on Thursday so I'm thinking okay maybe I didn't do as bad as I thought turns out their ring announcer got strep throat and they needed a replacement one-time replacement on Saturday yep can you do ring announcing and as you know Mike in entertainment you go yep sure did a thousand times and um and book goes okay I can use you be there at the show on on Thursday on Saturday here's the call time we'll see you then and then I remember going out there and doing the show and he was like Hey kid uh come back next month you know you're a new guy and I go all right and then we were Off to the Races and okay let's let's fast forward to the end of that because I don't know how much we've got so much that you and I can do and I mean you and I could do a full show together and never run out of material so do want to fast forward to the end let's talk about what that has evolved into and what you're doing now when it comes to that because that is such a beautiful story of a kid who just put his name out there just put himself out there a little bit and what has that turned into now yeah so now Booker um has also evolved into probably one of my closest friends on the planet which is crazy to say I talk to him every day of my life now and um we do a radio show together the Hall of Fame which uh recently uh we signed a national deal with ESPN the worldwide leader in sports you know uh the Walt Disney Company and um and we're doing a national show talking about wrestling Boxing and MMA who would have thought is that amazing isn't that amazing and and and how much fun do you have doing that show like does it feel like work even after all this grind all this time seeing him does it even feel like work at this point Mike I get to sit and talk to one of the most legendary wrestlers of his generation or any generation the most decorated WCW superstar in history um a world champion six times over a Hall of Famer two times over about a business and industry that I've grown up loving my entire life it does not feel like work one bit um it's a joy every single time and what's great about Booker is he um he's kind of the ultimate ham in a lot of ways he's so goofy he's so over the toop that I do get to play the straight man and I just te them up on stuff you know it's like I know it's like you know Dave I'm sure is like I got a hot guest here tonight I know they're going to crush it just throw things out there and see what it's almost like uh when Carson would have Rickles it's like we don't need to do anything let's just let him talk and I'll I'll guide it as much as I can I am so happy for you like when when I saw that that announce like I was happy for you when we first met and all that stuff and all the stuff you were doing and I and again a a fisherman can always recognize another fisherman cuz I'm going after what I what I love too trying to figure out a way to to to to to to make life that much more bright by doing the things that I just love right immersing myself in it and that is what you have done and when I saw that you guys signed that National deal I was just over the moon happy for both of you like that is just such a great platform to be on and there are all these other platforms now that WWE and UFC have become so huge and and and you know Endeavor owns them it's just this crazy crazy uh uh industry unto itself unto the into the entertainment industry all of these other huge media companies want to be involved in that and because youve put in the time and the effort and it wasn't a matter of getting paid it was for the for the for the beauty of it now you are part of that National stage and it's incredible to see that I'm so happy for you and I'm so happy that I get to say that to you like even on here and just congratulations on that man I'm I'm so I'm so proud of you and happy for you I really appreciate that Mike you know it's um it it is one of those I will say there's been a few moments in my life to this point um where you go is this you know the the impostor syndrome thing like is this actually a thing yep um that's happening and I and one of those recently was not even having the meetings with uh ESPN and everyone over there and I was so grateful for the team that's over there you know especially stash and and Liam and and everybody who's there um and Josh but also so when I got an email after everything was going through and it was a a system generated email and and it just said uh it just said uh hello Bradley Gilmore welcome to the Walt Disney Company I go what is the world right now what is going on you know and uh it's it's pretty pretty sweet man it's great and and so I'm I'm glad that we can talk about that and you and I one of the things we talked about uh you know when I was on your show too I mean I mean you go back the World of Wrestling and late night have a very interesting relationship and it's been very cool to watch over the years how uh how how pro wrestling would be used in my opinion one of the greatest ones and we talked about it like I mean you know we've got it immortalized here signed by Jerry himself you know these moments where you know the Andy Kaufman Jerry ller moment on Late Night with David Letterman um you know this is decades before you were born And yet when I come on your show it's one of the first things you want to talk about um because I think you and I both understand the world of professional wrestling and how big of a moment that was you know Hulk Hogan and doing all of his things in that time okay that's one thing but but the laer Kaufman thing on Late Night with David Letterman um and then there have been other moments as well in late night uh with pro wrestling it's an interesting uh relationship that the two have with each other it it is is an interesting crosssection and and to me if you go and watch even to this day um John Cena's been doing a lot of late night recently promoting things and uh the rock during his recent run on late night um what's great is you notice that wrestlers inherently are great guests because they know what this is they know it's a show at the beginning and the end of the day it's a show and on the Marquee it says entertainment you know and so they're going to go and they're going to give you that and they know what a crowd's like they know how to get a reaction from a crowd that's why he like John Cena doesn't mind going out on the Oscar stage but naked because he he gets what this is this is a show this is a game we're playing we're trying to make people laugh or say oh my gosh or El listen emotion and reaction and so yeah I think that late night guys have always been good and that's why the the the Kaufman and Jerry Lawler moment is so legendary because it's so pro wrestling like everything about it is pro wrestling it's such a Hey brother what if we did this tonight out there you know like hey you know oh the pop would be crazy like it's such a wrestling moment and to me whenever I do get to see those cross-sections even Jay Leno competing in WCW or the NWO taking over The Tonight Show at the peak of wrestling fandom and fervor in the late 90 90s they're always memorable to me not only because it's wrestling but because to me wrestling and I say this all the time is the ultimate in entertainment boot camp let me explain what I mean by that when you work as a part and a member of a wrestling television show a television show specifically you there are all these things that you have to learn as a performer on that show even as a broadcaster I'm a performer I'm a character in a lot of ways on a show I have to learn so much not only timing things out not knowing not only thinking I'm I have a live audience in front of me but I'm also talking to a television audience we also only have one take at this so you better know what you're going to do because there's no Second Chances buddy you just got to go out there and do it uh knowing where hard cameras are knowing what an on cam is um doing all these thing you know writing scripts and promos and and knowing how to get characters over and it's just so much that goes into wrestling uh and then you're doing all that and there's a live show going on at the same time in front of a studio audience for lack of a better term that you also have to entertain and you also have to make sure they're understanding what's going on and conveying emotions through physicality and not just verbal and and oh my gosh there's so much there so it doesn't shock me that wrestlers are always so good in other entertainment mediums whether it be you know John Cena Rock Batista who crossed over into movies even Hogan did movies for a while Jesse The Body Ventura did movies um it makes sense because you have all of this uh uh uh knowledge that you've ascertained through your given profession that makes you a really really good sharp and a utility player in other entertainment mediums movies especially yeah could not agree more uh and and to go back like like you know you say that that moment was so pro wrestling with c and Lawler and it was because I've talked to Guys Like Jerry Mulligan or people who were there uh who weren't in on it and most everybody wasn't in on it which is always it's always the best everybody in the pro wrestling backstage wants to be in on what's going on but when it comes down to it and same thing as a as a former wrestling promoter myself the best moments ever are the ones where as few people are in on it as possible is is is is what you want that's what you want because and and that moment there there were very few people in on it and and and to the point where to this day I have people with this show asking me okay okay okay let's go back to the caufman moment for a second who knew who didn't know what was the like I get that all the time from people because till to this day they blurred the line so well that um you know it was just it was magic and it was it was such a good moment and I Think About You Know The Rock's first appearance on on on on on Letterman the one thing I love about Dave is that he has he has an affinity for Old Time If Ever I do have the chance to talk to him um my goal is to talk to him about things that nobody's ever talked to him about I mean you know I think I've probably consumed every interview that he's ever done and I know the beaten path very very very well I want to go down other places one of the places I want to go down is Big Time wrestling because he would throw out references from old school wrestlers he would throw them out every once in a while and he would use the phrase big-time wrestling and and and and from back in the day um when The Rock was on his very first appearance he talked about how his dad was trained by whipper Billy Watson and and and and uh you know like listening to that lineage from that generation I would be very very curious to know his take on exactly the things that we're talking about here Dave was the master of I don't want any surprises on my show but don't worry I'm going to make it look like a surprise and the audience won't know if I'm being spontaneous or if it was planned and I don't know if there's anybody better in entertainment who was better at making that happen which is exactly what you're talking about when it comes to pro wrestling yes yes Letterman was really good at that and that's one of the things that there's a skill that you that he has but also one that you hone in on in the wrestling business of look I know the business we're going out there to do brother but I'm GNA make sure I'm gonna make it look good you know I'm G shine you up I'm gon get you over and um Dave was good at that and what's what's great though about the the wrestling back then and I hate to be one of those people that goes oh you know back in the day it was so much better but in this regard it is only for this reason Booker said this on the show one time and it makes a lot of sense he said you know I think we got a question would the Undertaker character work today in 2024 if he just started today right like in 2024 would it work and Booker goes yes it would work but the Undertaker can't be the Undertaker on Monday Night Raw and then on Thursday be a chef on Twitch right be you have to keep the character 100 % which taker was good at and one of the things they were great at back in the day especially like the business with caufman and Jerry and why you continue to get questions on it is because nobody was ever smartened up before or after yeah one of the great things that you can do in wrestling is work the locker room you know uh then when they think something really happened and they're all questioning it wait was that wait hold on now we had an instance and this is a uh a guy who I won't say who it is just for his just to keep the gimmick alive but we had somebody who was was uh we thought was injured at one of our recent shows we all were like oh man he's hurt he's hurt he's hurt and this is like not Beyond selling we're like okay something's wrong you know to where people were coming out to check on him and he was still oh my I'm oh my God you know and then he gets to the back he goes oh man that was a lot of fun out there and we're like you're not hurt he's like no I was just selling it for the people what are you talking about and and to me those are the best guys and I wish he wouldn't have told us I wish he would have gotten in the car driven home and made us call him the next day um but but that's that's what wrestlers used to do there's a legendary wrestler named The Sandman who was in the ECW promotion and some of your listeners might find this interesting there was an angle they were doing where he was blinded he was caned in one eye and he had a cigarette put in the other eye and he was completely blind and so for months they worked this angle to where he wouldn't even go go outside and let let himself be seen in Philadelphia he wouldn't go to the door his wife would answer the door you would never see him out of the gimmick so that when he did finally reveal that his sight had been restored everybody was shocked by it because they believed in something so silly and over the top and that what was great about Dave in that moment and in so many moments something that's silly and over the top he knew how to bring us into it and not only not only show it to us but make us feel like a part of it we all feel like even if I watch that clip today of Jerry and Andy and Dave I still feel like I'm in the room yes just by the way that Dave is saying and even even when he has the line of you know Mr Lawler's still here and some nights I wish Tom was still here and things like that and knowing but what's funny about the line is it was the exact right time to say it in the exact right delivery and it encapsulated what we just saw found a comedic spin on it oh was so genius what a great line absolutely and and uh and also I think you can say some of those words the iconic one but I think Tom is still here was the one that like deep cuts and and and inside jokes and and it just it's such a beautiful beautiful moment that to this day we're talking about and I think um you know it's funny what it did for pro wrestling but it also it's funny what it did for for for for for Dave and I mean how you would never see that a moment like that on The Tonight Show it just it it was it was so different for the time and and I just I feel like this is one of the key moments early on um in in in in the annuals of of of of David Letterman's Mythos that that really encapsulated who Dave was right up to the very end you know right up to stuff where where where he's with he's with uh Kim de Kardashian in my next guest and his phone is is is made out to look like like like the case is like a brick that covers half the Kim's looking at it confused and she's saying to him you can't act like I don't know how good of an actress Kim Kardashian is and I don't want to even comment on that but you can't act that like she's looking going this is not this this is not your phone right she's looking around like looking at producers and this is not your phone right like she's he still does that he still messes with people that way and blurs that line in such a beautiful way and it's still entertaining to this day and it was a Hallmark of his all the way back then um you're still following what Dave's doing obviously oh yeah of course of course I you know it's it's interesting too that see Dave his last year was what 15 2015 2015 yeah May 20th 2015 they signed off late show for the last time yeah Late Show for the last time and to me I feel like the legend of Letterman has grown more since then by kind of the randomness of his appearances on certain shows the my next guest needs to introduction obviously is is great and he's become bearded Letterman has become I just as iconic in look as Letterman from the 90s has with the curly hair and the and the glasses and the sneakers like Yep this look is just as iconic um maybe if not more so in some ways in his later run and it's it's nice because with Johnny when Johnny left Johnny left you didn't see Johnny you didn't hear from Johnny it's almost like in some ways and I'm I promise you I'm not veering into the political but it's almost like when presidents used to like leave office you would never hear from them again y like you didn't even know if they were you would have to ask yo is Jal Ford still alive yeah is he still alive exactly still alive oh he is oh okay okay you wouldn't know because you never saw them you never heard from them and that was like the Johnny approach and a lot of those old greats once they got off of Television you didn't hear from or see from them again y with the Advent of podcasts and streaming shows and things outside of regular network television it's a lot harder for these guy in social media obviously it's a lot harder for these guys to just disappear off the map and to me it's actually given this platform for a second run after the main thing that you're known for Jay you know continues to do stuff um mainly on television with you know uh what is it You Bet Your Life I think is the show game show thing and of course the garage and I mean I hope that Jen's gar yeah Jay Leno's garage I was really really sad to hear that NBC was ending that relationship but I mean to me that's just such a such a gimme of a show for everybody involved like that is just such a wonderful wonderful and I I'm not exactly sure where it's going to end up but yeah yeah doing things like that in the game shows and and and Conan what Conan has done holy smokes team Conan he he used his exit as a as a as as Rocket Fuel to build something else that's even bigger you look at what he's doing with Sirius and what team coko is doing uh a completely different deal even Craig Ferguson's back you know his podcast is great and doing doing the stuff that he's doing he's back on tour again you can go see Craig Ferguson live now you're right um and and and Dave that's another question I want to ask him I want to say okay you know very publicized a few months before Johnny passed away uh you know you you you had an experience with him on his yacht going up and down the Hudson great fantastic uh you know from a from a fan perspective or an Enthusiast perspective thinking of the idea of these two Titans um you know enjoying each other's company and and and um I'm I'm super curious Dave you know you saw Johnny after he left the spotlight was it intentional for you that you said I want to keep I want to keep working was it intentional saying H you know what I saw how Johnny was sad that he left I'm going to find a way that I can continually do it was that the uh the spark for I'm sure the answer it must be yes it has to be it's it's got to have an influence on it but it but but what I love about Dave in this last run that he's had is like I said One D one time it's you know media media week for the NBA and for a couple years for our local ESPN affiliate I covered the Rockets um so you know I knew media days and stuff and then just to watch the Brooklyn Nets media day and Dave Letterman is sitting there in the crowd of reporters asking Kevin Durant questions and trying to figure out I think it was like where do you get KD from or I think it was one of the questions something like that and just thinking this is a this is a great moment this is just a great moment who knows how many people are going to see this Dave obviously though understands the power of social media because he knew or at least I think that he knew this is getting clipped out you this is going to be passed around um everyone's going to see this and and why he did it I I don't even know really it's almost a Bill Murray moment in a lot of ways just showing up somewhere and having fun for himself perhaps as a basketball fan that he is and you know he's a hooer of course yep so I I don't know if that was his thing but I love seeing those things I just love seeing Dave oh look Dave's popping in on Inside the NBA with Chuck or Dave's doing this or doing that and he's he finds himself in more random places um than than he than he I guess when you see them on the late night like when you see a late night host on their show it wasn't you never saw them really outside of the medium unless they were doing like Larry King live or maybe a Charlie Rose interview at the time outside of those you didn't really see them uh outside of the show so it's always fun to see especially Dave outside of the show because he's still having fun and he's still as good as ever um in his skills as a interviewer and a broadcast absolutely and interviewer oh well I mean I no no question um uh you know Rick sheckman you know who who who was really he was the guy you know there he is right there immortalized here he's no longer with us but I mean he one of the things that he and I talked about um before I started this thing was our joy both of us our our shared Joy of just how how curious Dave is and the Curiosity that Dave has leads to phenomenal conversations with with people he's curious about you know and and and and and that's clearly the case when you're watching my next guest he's vastly curious about these different subjects that he has and you know is a guy who watched all of Tom SN he loved long form way back in the day before he started he loved the long form thing uh as an Enthusiast himself and now moving into that you know he has to go away from the zany things uh you know because of because of Age and and evolution things like that like you look at you know again the iconic people in any medium really at the end of I I watched Adam Sandler's new special the other day and I mean there was some definitely some of the old Adam Sandler there's no question that it was sprinkled in the old Adam Sandler like they're all going to laugh at you and all that the comedy albums that we loved in the in the in the 90s and and the goofy Adam Sandler there was a little bit of that there for sure but you look at this guy now who's you know in his in his late 50s and it's like okay you know he's evolved and and and Dave has certainly done the same thing but the ingredients that have made him him are certainly certainly there still um so so any of the my next guests uh that that that jump out to you is ones that have been interesting to you so a lot of them um I know a lot of people are talking about the John malany one um recently and it's very good and very powerful and nominated for an Emy and for for just cause because it should be um it was one of the Great Moments in the art of a conversation and and for it to be administered by Mr Letterman was no shock to me but I will say and I think we may have talked about this on on my show when I had you on a very interesting my next guest and you referenced it a second ago was the one with Kim Kardashian yeah because it turned my mind around on who I thought the Kardashian family was absolutely I thought especially Kim Kim especially I will go so far to say Mike I I'm going out on the limb and and I am I am sure that some people will hear this on your program and say this man needs to be removed immediately but I would go so far as to say post my next guest appearance of Kim Kardashian I am a Kim Kardashian fan me too I'm a fan for what she's doing what she stands for her unique place in entertainment culture and pop culture yep um a lot of people always make the joke of you know what is it that that the Kardashians do my my question to them was be what is it that Kim doesn't do at this point uh she's helping with prison Reformation getting out people for nonviolent related crimes who are overs sentenced uh trying to help people get off a death row who might be wrongfully convicted well first of all my hat tip to that one alone that makes me a fan for life alone um and then all the other things that she's doing uh in in you know reference to AR in U you know the periphery of those of those important things whether it be her clothing line and things like that I just found her wildly fascinating and um very vulnerable in the interview with Dave that made me go oh this isn't the caricature of a person that I that that I thought that I knew this is a real individual who has experienced real trauma and real things in her life and has lived the entirety of her life her family has in a spotlight so bright most of us will be blinded by it and Dave brought out the humanity in her and the um the realness of Kim Kardashian more than the name so that one stood out and and I know we both share an affinity and love for um Mr Charles Barkley yeah and uh who is also a once in a generation broadcaster by the way yep um an incredible incredible television Talent is Charles Barkley and so that's one that I I recently enjoyed as well but Kim Chuck and and John are the ones that come to mind well and that's cool you know you know the two the latter ones are are very recent ones as well which show that the like I think his I think my next guest already uh it got off to an amazing start right in season one like I go back to Jay-Z's episode incredible obviously uh President Obama's incredible and and and and uh you know Howard's up in between season one and season two they had the special episode where Jerry Seinfeld and and and Dave got to go like I just these are amazing moments and it's the infancy of the show but I really think the show is really hitting its stride now and the fact that you mentioned two of the the newest episodes here I could not agree more that to to just respond to something you said about Kim Kardashian David Letterman inspired empathy for Kim Kardashian from a group of people like you look at you and me um you know we're not the demo for Kim Kardashian we're just not and and and but to hear how impressive she is how much like a social media uh post from her is worth to to some of the other you know big big big big things that you just got to kind of be impressive with impressed with from a business standpoint I wasn't a huge Oprah fan but I could bow down to the supremacy of what Oprah was and in in in the industry and the the niche that she carved out for herself so the show certainly did that but as Dave talked to her about growing up her childhood the OJ thing like that was in like holy smokes inspiring empathy right there going okay you put yourself in that case in my in my experience the way you inspire empathy is you allow people to put themselves in the shoes of the person that you're talking to or talking with or about and if you could put yourself in those shoes and you realize okay so my mom and dad are like doing this about this person these people in our lives one of them whom is dead and and I'm a little girl growing up and okay so you see that you know going through some of the the the the the um you well we just say it the sex tape the the the things you know the the the the mistakes of Youth all of that to the robbery in Paris in Paris and and and it's like oh my gosh then talking about the things that she is doing to contribute positively to society holy smokes like he inspired his curiosity inspired empathy in a 48-year-old guy about somebody who is not the demo of this this person like that is a that is a tremendous achievement for a television show in my opinion in this day and age that is instant that is not long form you talk about counterculture my next guest is is is counterculture in many respects except for those of us who have fallen in love with podcasts and whatnot like there there's a huge movement of us that love the long form but it's not given any Love YouTube shorts Tik talk all these things that are there these are the things that are on the sound bites everything's a sound bite right oh we can build an angle off a sound bite but what it's long form you have to sit there and go through the whole thing and there's a hunger for that and Dave is tapping into that to this day in such an expert way and I and I hope that he inspires a shift toward that more from people um and there are a lot of podcast obviously like if you're on the YouTube Community there's a lot of podcasts like yours or or whomever who engage in long form conversations but I actually saw a quote from Winona Ryder recently during her press run for Beetlejuice Beetle juu um the the long awaited sequel yes and she said when she's talking to young people about movies not only is she surprised by what they haven't seen okay that's normal the generation prior hey yet you didn't see this well you got to go see it that's not that's not anything that's sticks out to me but she said their follow-up question is what gives her pause their follow-up question isn't what year was it made who's the star what's it about uh who's the director their follow-up question is how long is it yeah right and what a what a consequential and jacked up way of thinking yes of how long is it because if it's let's say over some predescribed time period that I think is acceptable in my head I'm not even going to indulge in it yeah you know if you say if you've never seen The Godfather and you're like oh it's two and a half hours that's going to turn an overwhelming majority of of the generation that succeeds mine off yeah and it's crazy to me yeah you know because there is Beauty in in those long form Stories being told cinematically but also long form conversations being had like the one you and I are engaging in and the ones that Dave definitely uh is able to elicit through his his you know expert interviewing aiman could not agree more um there's another part of Dave that I don't know that this part inspired you but there are echoes of it certainly that do one of the reasons that I decided to go out and become a podcast host and I did it in my 40s is because I thought about Dave in Indiana you know knowing that he likes broadcasting knowing that this is where he wants to see himself but knowing that he also wants something bigger and he took the chance and it wasn't just him it was people around him who helped him and and said to him okay go for it and and and but he a cover story I'm going to be a I'm going to tell people I'm going to go be a writer that it's more palpable for people to kind of digest um but he went out and chased a dream and and and I know that that's that's me doing this right now at some point for you you decided to go and do that you've talked about that a little bit I want to talk about your back to the future podcast a little bit because uh you know this is again labor of love and I just want to know the inspiration for that what inspired you to go chase that dream and and talk a little bit about that where can people find that as well first of all I love your shirt you can find it for you on all the streaming platforms uh that they have podcasts so that was we were entering 2015 which was a consequential year in the pantheon of Back to the Future it's where Marty and Doc traveled to and Back to the Future Part Two in the beginning of it and I it was the first year of that film that was depicted in that film which I was actually alive for and so I was like you know what would be fun is I'm doing this radio show let me see if I can do maybe a the the initial idea was let me do a six week Back to the Future retrospective leading up to the Future day or something like that that was the idea and so I started reaching out to people who were involved in the movie completely cold I had no credibility within the Back to the Future world I had very little knowledge of it other than what I you know digested from behind the scenes features and watching the movie and so I started reaching out to people and then all of a sudden I started getting a lot of yeses like uh Claudia Wells who's the original Jennifer Parker yeah I'll do your show Harry Waters who plays Marvin Barry was like I'll do your show uh the guy who takes over the mantle of George McFly Jeffrey Weissman was like yeah I'll do it um I'll talk about I'll talk to you the special effects supervisor wanted to talk about and at the same time I'm realizing someone else is writing a book about it cassine gain somebody's doing a documentary about it Jason Aaron and I started getting all these yeses and then I said well man I guess that these should also live somewhere other than just the air because I'll do this for six weeks and then it's not really connected to anything else yep and then I I looked and I'm like but I'm sure somebody has a Back to the Future podcast already and I looked and nobody had one and I said nobody has a Back to the Future podcast I guess I'll start it and then it was only supposed to be that one season of guests yep I'll do this for a little run it'll live out there forever and that's all I'll ever do with it and then I had so much fun doing it I said well let me do another one let me do like another maybe there's some other angles I can do and then that leads to couple seasons in I'm starting to talk to a book publisher about adapting the podcast as a book itself and I'm like what is going on here and then the day my book is released I happen to have an interview with Leah Thompson um from from there and then Chrisman Glover and then uh all these people start and then uh Christopher Lloyd yep and uh Bob Gail who's the co-creator Back to the Future John Fuller love who played Goldie Wilson um uh uh James tolken who played principal Strickland there all these people who started you know either one person would say yes or hey you should reach out to this person or this person or this person and um you know next thing I know I'm 10 seasons into this thing and we're still finding out new things about Back to the Future that I didn't know about and you know and I'm sure you you think of this like had I known now what I knew when I started I would have been a lot better when I started had I known now what I knew when I started doing the book the book would be so much better but you just have to live with these things because we're people and we evolve and but here's the echo though the echo is curiosity if you would have known all those things you wouldn't have had the pure almost childlike curiosity for it and that would have changed the energy of it at that point too though so it's almost like no it had to be that way so it could grow into what it's grown into right yeah and and to me that's why I called the book is actually called a it's not the history of Back to the Future it's not behind the scenes of Back to the Future it's a celebration of the greatest time travel story ever told because that's all this is I'm celebrating something that I love and I know other people have an affinity for and this is what comes to my head whenever I'm talking about these movies that's what comes out in the in the book itself and that was a whole another process and a whole another impostor syndrome of walking into a bookstore in Los Angeles California of Barnes & Noble and saying wait hold on that's my book on the Shelf what in the world is going on here I I felt that my wife and I wrote a book together and and and up in Canada here uh there's a place called chapters or indigo is now what it's called and the first time we saw our book sitting on the shelf it was like we couldn't couldn't believe it and the Imp I live in imposter syndrome every single day like I I I do and I and I my very best to to recognize it and go hold on a second no everybody is worthy to chase their dreams and when stuff doors start to open they're worthy to walk through them I I truly truly believe that right now um we're in the process and I don't know what it's going to turn into but we're in the process of of looking doing a documentary on Jack Rollins I don't know if you know very much about Jack but Jack was Dave's manager um early on Old Time Showbiz Showbiz guy discovered like he was the he was the blueprint for what a manager is there it didn't exist CA and William Morris and all that stuff that does not exist back in the day when he discovers Woody Allen and and and and nurtures Woody Allen and turns him into the so so I've become friends through this podcast become quite close with Hillary Rollins Jack's daughter and uh you know Steve Weiner uh who was you know the the writer for Letterman who discovered Calbert deor or about Bellman and and and and they knew Jack quite quite quite well and I'm hearing all these Jack Rollins stories he like man there should be a documentary on this guy and they're like yeah we need to make this happen and I'm in the process right now of talking to like after this and I'm not trying to name drop here I have a meeting at noon with Robert Morton to talk about because he loved Jack more than anything and and and and and I'm showing him the deck that we're gonna be pitching to and I don't even want to say who we're pitching it to but but that like I I shouldn't be in that meeting like I should not be the guy who's like I know exactly what you're talking about but at the same time this is why I wanted to talk to you because again you're one of these people that understands wait a second if go chase a dream with no outcome whatsoever except for getting to have the experience of talking to somebody about Back to the Future and and then you realize oh wait a second I can go through more doors and I can go through more doors and that led to another hallway that led to another door and suddenly you got a book at Barnes & Noble and if if we if this conversation could if one person hears this conversation and it allows them to give themselves permission to go out and Chase something it's worth it that's the way I see it because I'm talking to another guy who understands what I'm talk I've gotten so much joy from this thing that I can't even I I'm I'm done I could die tomorrow and it's like oh my gosh I've had so much joy I know I'm talking to a kindred spirit when it comes to that you chase these dreams and the universe just kind of goes okay and opens doors for you and makes it happen and I just feel like you're a kindered spirit when it comes to that and and it's not even so much yes the universe opens the doors and and I think you would agree with this the a lot of times you got to create the door yourself yes you know what I mean um you know they say you got to wait for opportunity to knock but for me I'm ringing doorbells ah there you go know I mean yep and I'm saying hey I'm here I'm here if you want to do something I'm here I'm at the doorstep invite me in for dinner because I'm ready to go Y and I think that that's what a lot of people sometimes don't realize now like I have you know if I step without my outside of myself I realize I've done some stuff that is pretty cool and people you know haven't done and then that's great and and I acknowledge that but I also know um and what excites me is that there's so much more to do that I want to do um I think it was Matthew MCC and we actually discussed this speech he was on not the name drop either but he was on my podcast and we we talked about his Oscar speech Y and his in his Oscar speech when he won for Dallas body Club he said he needs three things in life something to look up to something to look forward to and something to chase right and he said that somebody came to him one day and said who's your hero and he said I I don't know give me a second to think about it so he said a couple days later the guy comes back to him and says so who's your hero he said I figured it out here's my answer my hero is me in 10 years oh that a great yep and then the guy goes oh yeah and then Matthew mccon said yeah and in 10 years my hero then will be me 10 years from then knowing that I will never become my own hero I'm not ignorant enough or arrogant enough to think that I could be but it's the pursuit it's the chase of seeing that pie in the sky and trying to be it even here in the states we talk about the Constitution the Constitution says we work to make become a more perfect union knowing that we'll never achieve that promise yes we know that there's no such thing as perfection but we're working toward trying to get to there I'm going to always try to make it better and I'm always chasing myself and that's that's something that I think that everybody should do is be be uh be happy that you have that book on the Shelf in Canada or in Barnes & Noble um but also know like that's not where the mission ends no like that's that's a that's a side quest on the way to beating the final boss yes oh what a great analogy that's exactly right oh that's such a good analogy Brad I just oh yes I'm so glad I brought that up uh because and I wasn't sure I was going to because when it was Back to the Future it was an aut automatic layup did you talk to chrisen Glover about his moment on Letterman so I wanted to I really did I really did but I knew that I knew that he's probably asked that a thousand times oh yeah yeah and you know my interview style is a little bit different in just this in this case is especially if I have a shorter window yeah I always just try to get let me get you over let's shine you up let me hit you with your finish let's get over whatever you're promoting and then we'll move it on down the line I always want people to have a good experience and um and yeah crisen was was great well here's actually the funny thing about chrisen I'm doing the interview and then it's over the phone which is not my favorite thing but you know it happens yep I'm gonna take a Chrisman interview anyway and get it absolutely the phone actually hangs up in the middle of him answering a question his phone hung up and I'm like what what happened and I stared at my phone for it felt like 10 minutes maybe it was three and I'm like oh that's it I got two minutes into a Crispen interview and it's over then thankfully they called back and we we continue the interview but there's there's those moments that you always get nervous about and I still I had okay you finish that and I tell you about mine Co I was just gonna say I still get nervous before every single interview that I do yeah and every single interview I do I always am asking myself why am I doing this why am I putting myself through and it's almost probably a Dave like quality in this regard of what am I doing this for why am I putting myself through this pressure um of and and spending all this time to interview this person to talk to him for you know because to me even a 10-minute interview in my mind I've thought about it for like three or four hours in my mind you know cumulatively thinking about the path I want to go down thinking about interesting angles thinking about how to get them over as to use the wrestling term again and um still I get nervous for every interview was nervous especially because Chrisman glver I thought was going to be a difficult uh bull to Wrangle although he was great um I know exactly the moment you're talking about I had it I had it in early on like before episode 20 even of this thing it was with Steve O'Donnell who who to me it's like oh there's a few people in the Letterman Mythos that I like like real reverence like I bow and Steve's one of those people like um you know very short list of people on that list and Steve is one of them so I'm sitting there talking to one of the greatest comedy writers of all time and I'm thinking about all these angles that you're talking about you know will we have enough time for me to talk about Space Ghost because Space Ghost is amazing and and and and nor yeah and and nor McDonald and and all these things that that he was a part of outside of of of Letterman and then never mind all of the iconic things that he um you know created for that show as headwriter for late night in in its most um creative time and and and and really built the foundation you know there's this guy's an icon and and and and maybe halfway through the interview the power goes out and I'm just sitting there looking and the laptop batteries on so I can still kind of see myself and there's this look of so and thankfully like you said power came back on and Steve couldn't be more gracious I I I Adore this man um and and and I can I'm so grateful to call him a friend but he comes back on the show and then it starts it's like okay I guess that's a natural part one part two for the show but you can look you want to see Terror in a man you look at the very end of Steve oal part one where I didn't know what the hell I was doing I still don't know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to this but early on like there it is and it's captured and and those feelings of oh my God going through my head going what happened here what what's gonna happen did I mess up my relationship with Steve this is my only chance oh no what's you know they're going to take my computer away next week uh you know and and and I agree with you and again to bring it back to wrestling we've had some of the biggest uh stars in wrestling um part of invasion championship wrestling you know back the day and and four or five of them getting to know them because I was the promoter I got to know some of these people like including Mick uh Mick Foley these people they talk about they're in an indie show with 400 people we had 400 you know well for Mick we had about 800 people it was great but he's nervous before he comes out of the before he comes out he's Mick Foley are you kidding me like he's performed at WrestleMania is in front of tens of thousands of people and whatnot and we got 800 people here for a little Charity show in Colona British Columbia Canada nobody's ever going to know or see or whatever and he's nervous before he goes out raki same thing nervous before he goes Billy Gun same thing nervous before he goes out and these are some of the biggest stars that wrestling's ever seen and yet they still get those butterflies inside and I think it's that thing where um I've been told by people um in my men's mental uh Health podcast a psych a psychologist told me this that you have the same chemical Pathways in your brain and the same hormones and things that happen when you're nervous are the same ones as when you're excited and I think that that's a Gateway there because it's at the end of the day you are the man when it comes to this stuff you have so much experience and and and and and and gravitas at doing this you know how to read somebody you know how to pull you know how to move into different places if you have to to shine somebody up and make them really really good you're the man when it comes to this you're skilled you know how to ride the bike but you're still excited to ride the bike and and and it's so great to see after all these years that you're still so excited about this stuff and you're still like Matt says you're still chasing stuff what are some of the stuff you're chasing now Brad well one thing on your bike analogy yes I'm still excited to ride the bike full well knowing that in the middle of it I could crash the bike I could fall off the bike the bike might pop a tire and you know what's going to happen I I don't know and that's actually one of the great and I know you know he's going through his uh a crazy time in his life but to quote Vince McMahon yeah he used to say to Bruce Pritchard it can't go wrong if it's live right that's right and I I do adopt that philosophy of let's just see what happens but um as far as things I'm chasing look I do have things that I'm working on right now there's I'm probably working on more projects at this very moment in time than I ever have in a creative Endeavor in my life and spending more hours working on it and and spending a lot of time um dedicated to these things and I think what it comes down to is I think everybody in their life at one point they have this thing maybe it's a conversation over dinner maybe it's right before you go to bed maybe you're on the phone with a friend or you're somewhere out and about and you go man wouldn't it be fun if we blank right wouldn't it be fun if we did this man I would really love to do X now everyone has the intention of that of you know following through on those ideas but very few people do because people have lives they get bus things happen what have you maybe they don't have the knowledge know how or whatever MH my big thing in life is I don't want to U be the guy to sound cliche when he's 80 going man I I that was a really good idea and I never did it God that was a good idea damn I wish I would have tried that at the time y so right now I'm I'm working on completing that sentence wouldn't it be fun if blank and then doing it and completing the thought um and and so right now there's there's several things that I'm working on um be it related to wrestling and not being I literally got off the phone yesterday for a conversation on a project that I'm working on that I had no idea that I would ever want to do and then now I'm doing it and so I think that again I'm not where I want to be and who am I who am I to take advice from I'm nobody but I will say if I could give advice to anybody it's just do it man what's the Worst That Could Happen yep just do it see what happens and at the very least like if I put that back to the future book out and like I I'll tell you this the first two reviews on Amazon y first one was this is the greatest book I've ever read this is the review that's the title of it and it goes on about it five stars the literally the next review said one star this is a waste of paper that was that was the review and I bring that up not to shine a light on the negatives but to say you are Never As Good as they say you are you're never as bad as they say you are you're somewhere in between and at the very least you can look back and say I gave it my best shot and I did it and you can't take it away from me now and so that's and I think that that's Dave too right yep Dave is like I'm doing it he wasn't probably he self-professed I wasn't the best comedian I wasn't the best standup comic but I went up there and did it yeah right and that led to this and at the time he was on The Late Show it took a while or late night first it took a while before he really looked like looked to The Observer that he was comfortable and found a rhythm and found how not to be Johnny okay I don't have the orchestra I don't have the long monologue I have a band I have rock and roll okay what is counter how can I be different how can I find my own voice and things like the Jerry Lawler moment and the Andy cofman moment and all these things you he found his pathway through not knowing really what he was doing yes it's the the Thomas Edison is I I didn't try and fail a thousand times to make a light bulb I found a thousand ways how not to make a light bulb right and and to me Dave is is Dave and his legacy in late night is emblematic of that it's a great illustration of I'm going to continue to try things I'm gonna instead of talking to celebrities I'm going to talk to random people on the street you know instead of having a big uh uh skit like carac or or or paring president Ray and a a who's on first bit I'm just going to have pets come out and do stuff and hope something happens yeah you know um and to me that's the best part of being live that's that's a little bit of that the best part of being live that's a little bit of that there just go out there and see what happens I think I know how it's GNA go but who knows you know um you and I could do this all day I appreciate you so much let's let's uh we're gonna finish off with a little show and tell but um and and you mentioned the rock and roll band that's what that show Andel has to do with I believe uh but before we do let's talk about what are ways that people can find you now first off the collection is something where I would hardly recommend everybody uh all dozen or so of you that listen or watch this show if you would go find Brad Gilmore's The Collection find that thing on whatever your persuasion is uh when it comes to uh podcasting stuff and go and look through the list of people that he has talked to and it is an incredible list over the years um and there's a lot of folks who are are connected directly to this thing that we love uh which is late night uh but specifically to uh David Letterman and all the tangential connections there's a lot of that stuff but there's also a lot of other very very interesting um and every single one of the interviews are really good and I appreciate that very very much so that's the collection uh what else can people do to find you from wherever they are right now you know I mean the best easiest place is you go to the Brad gilmore.com thebo Brad gilmore.com um you'll find the stuff that Booker and I are doing he's not the goat he's the boat ladies and gentlemen the boat I am the boat um gilmore.com you you you will find you'll find everything that Booker and I are doing reality wrestling you'll find links to the book projects to The Back to the Future podcast to clud the movie podcast um to all the other things that I'm doing they're they're all located over there and and and I try to update that as much as possible yeah the collection we had a good run lately too man we had a really good run Tyres Gibson Jessica Alba Gary Oldman Kevin Cosner yep oh the Kevin cner one was so good oh hson y came on twice yep um so yeah we we're on a good pretty good little run lately so I do encourage people to check that out it's good stuff it's all really really good stuff um oh George Lopez was on and told a great Johnny story told a great Johnny Story the Lopez episode was fantastic and you actually went down the path and asked a couple of questions that I think people might have been uh a little bit a little bit precocious about asking him I I thought you did a really really J about Lopez tonight yeah we talked about Lopez Tonight sure did you really did and I I just uh because I mean you know when when people talk about Conan and all the stuff that happened with him in in in 29 2010 uh you know there's a guy that didn't get talked about as much and and kind of didn't not without the Fanfare uh you know there's no team George out as far as I know Team Coco is alive and well but team George you know he did a really good job talking about that I was I was very appre itive of of of the things he talked about during that and his attitude his his attitude and and the class that this guy has the hilarious class that this guy has is is is amazing yeah that was a really really good episode um could not agree more uh we got something here in the mail and uh it's got to be from the states because I believe it's bulletproof or Space Age it looks that way anyway um this came in the mail and so I'll precursor it because we're probably going to make a short we got Brad Gilmore uh broadcaster extraordinaire uh here and we're going to open this and I mean I'm having a hard time even figuring out how this thing was sealed and how to open it I did not bring a cutting device of any sort with me but I'm you got to have to you know use your sheer strength you are a a mass massive muscular individual uh the Canadian Powerhouse is my pro wrestling name oh okay I I agree with that when we had Steve Young on uh no it wasn't even Steve Young we had somebody else on and and one of the greatest writers ever we should have Steve on the collection because he's put out a whole bunch of really cool comedy uh music lately Steve Young would be a great guest for you as well and I think you'd have a lot of fun with him we got to make that connection but somebody somebody said to me he goes oh it was the name of pro wrestlers or whatever and I texted him midow and I said okay what would your pro wrestling name be and my guess was uh mighty Steve Young that's what I thought that's what I thought would be a good pro wrestling name for Steve Young he came back no no no it's going to be big mean Stevie I thought that was a good one as well I thought that was there all right mean Stevie so what do we have in this package here well we're looking we're looking right now and H it's really giving you a tough time I'll be honest with you this is a used drumstick from Anton fig right there that is a drumstick that I believe was used at Late Show with David Letterman and it's one on one of Anton's signature drumsticks says Anton fig right on the back and he's even got a two mic thanks Anton and so this is a look at that and you see the uh the abuse that that drumstick has taken Anton hits hard that is incredible Anton hit you find your way to find these great little pieces of memorabilia and that is one that that is so unique and look at that it's going right there on the desk right beside the pble head right beside the uh this was a Christmas gift that will Lee gave the entire staff uh one year they got a customize Paul chaer bobblehead so they call it the bobblehead and Will was nice enough to send that to me so we're going to put the stick right beside that uh on the set of the Letterman podcast thank you Anton we adore you we appreciate you so much yeah I love that I was a part of that moment well there you go Anton's amazing his episode dropped a few weeks ago and it was a really really great uh conversation that he and I had Anton zip Buddy Rich Jr Anton fig himself so there we go um Brad I just I can't thank you enough for coming on here today and uh and and making the time you and I both had to make time to make this happen because we are insanely busy but at the same time if there is any way and I'm throwing this out to the universe that we can do something together some way it's like butter I just I adore you I appreciate everything you're doing you're a light in this world thank you for being you and uh thank you so much for for taking time to be on the Letterman podcast today man well Mike thank you uh for having me um you know give my best to your misss and I hope that we can do this again sometime and we absolutely will appreciate you so much I'll do a really quick outro and then we'll say our goodbye privately um there we go everybody this is why we do the show we do the show because uh you know he talked about I loved listening to Brad talk about what uh the Back to the Future podcast was it's celebration that's exactly our tagline has been right from the start um you know Rick helped me develop this it's a celebration of the greatest body of broadcast work in history that of David Letterman and Company and talking to the company is fantastic talking to the people though who have been inspired by David lman and the company uh equally important as far as I'm concerned this has been another episode of the Letterman podcast oh wait we have one sponsor one sponsor only with the Letterman podcast that is hellodd deli.com Rupert may not own the deli anymore but he certainly owns hellodd deli.com head on to hellodd deli.com to get any and all official Late Show with David lman merchandise it's retro now it's almost 10 years godamn it since the uh the show uh went off the air mugs shirts all of that stuff you want some throwback stuff go to hello- dell.com the man himself rert G will pack the order with love and send it to you 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