Bonus Episode! The Lettermanifesto!

welcome to the letterman podcast my name is mike chism thank you very much for taking time to be here today this is a very special broadcast because we are also live we're putting this out on the facebook live um in this current incarnation of the studio i uh i'm excited about what is coming for the future because this studio is actually just a starting point for us actually um we've got cooler things that are going to be in the background including a bridge that used to be uh on the late show with david letterman as part of our backdrop um we're going to have better lighting we're going to have better cameras and things like that and you know what we're gonna have better live it's cool that i can do the facebook live here but we're actually gonna incorporate twitch and streaming things like that um to be part of this thing and uh i don't know it's launch day it's launch day in the letterman podcast we've already got the first episode up on youtube uh on spotify on apple apparently on google and on amazon podcast but i have never heard of amazon and google podcast before but apparently we're there so um i'm very very excited about all of that the fact that we're doing it on 420 it's not a pot reference even though we do come from the west coast of british columbia bc bud all of that stuff um you know that's not what the 420 is about the 420 for me is seven years ago um the experience of a lifetime happened to me i got it sitting on the wall no not that way that way got to sit on the wall right behind me there that's david letterman making fun of me um immortalized a moment that was just incredible and that's what this podcast today is going to be all about today is going to be i don't know if we get the whole story done but we're going to go through um my letter manifesto and we're going to talk about why uh i'm hosting this podcast um how it's been integrated how david letterman and company have been integrated into my dna um the desire has always been there to do something like this um dave dave had a moment when he was young where he took a communications class and realized what he should be doing um i wish i would have taken that communications class when i was that age because i feel i would have known what i was doing i was supposed to be doing and that was to be a broadcaster it took me years and years and years now i'm 46 years old um i've admired many broadcasters dave of course being the top of the heap but um yeah hosting a podcast that focuses on him to me it's apropos um my dad was a huge fan of johnny carson um and and and johnny carson in my opinion um has been forgotten way too quickly um and alarmingly i i can't believe that um more people aren't as reverent about him and it's i know the world moves on well i appreciate that but the body of work that letterman and company did over 40 years ago is when it started uh heavens longer than 40 years ago the morning show was even more than that it just to me needs to be torches need to be passed uh there needs to be people to pat to pass them to um and those people who catch those torches need to carry them and then pass them themselves i truly believe in the transfer of knowledge i am inserting myself square into the place that will help to transfer the knowledge uh the experiences the fun stuff the comedy all of the things that david letterman and company brought to us all i always say david letterman company because dave wasn't alone with dave there was no fourth wall the staff the people in the show the audience were all a part of everything it was a community before a broadcast community before broadcast communities really existed in my opinion um and so i just feel this compulsion to do that i love the fact that i am not alone in that we've got lots of people um who want to catch that torch and carry it for a while before hopefully passing it on to someone else who will keep it going um i think about folks who worked for dave that i can mention um i think about people like arthur kelly i think about um you know glenn borders i think about um some of these people who have have reached out to me and and really encouraged me in in in following my passion uh someone called in an obsession earlier today it's not really an obsession this is just something i'm really passionate about i feel very strongly about and it's a huge interest for me and when i get into something i get into it big time um so yeah i think about uh people who are running alongside me um and jay will be very happy that i said that jay ryan j this the letter j j ryan if you haven't seen the late night playset yet go there check the late night play set out it's fantastic he has been nothing short of um when i talk encouraging encouraging just is not the word um you know he really nudged me to do this um and i think i i owe a huge amount of gratitude to him and to and to nicole into the late night playset and what they're doing um i think about other podcasts other letterman podcasts that are happening right now um you know wake the kids uh tell the neighbors uh rusty and mike i was on their show on monday this is the type of thing where we want to help build a letterman network a letterman podcast network a letterman carrying the torch network and there's a whole bunch of us that are doing it we're gonna do it and see what happens um this is a podcast that again we don't talk about anything salacious here it's positive it's celebrating the body of work and then um to the folks that are close to dave or used to work for dave uh that i'm not gonna mention their names um but have been in the background nudging me along oh one other guy his name's scott ryan he wrote the the the last days of letterman he's a guy who is um i'm very very grateful for the friendship that he and i have struck up and i'm uh so anyway yeah that's another guy but the people who have worked for dave or worked for dave and are in the background sharing this endeavor on i thank you for that as well thank you for i have imposter syndrome sometimes especially with this this is like i i said this the other day this is my dream job i'm giving myself my dream job i don't get paid for it i don't want to get paid for it um i shouldn't say i don't want to get paid for it i don't i don't mean to put that out there what i mean is it doesn't matter if i get paid for it this is my dream job and i'm doing it and i'm happy to have people coming along here doing this why 420 okay let's get to that now first and foremost i'm gonna have a tasty beverage i think the good people from kirkland and uh it's always important to enjoy a tasty beverage um a wise man once uh taught me that when he was in front of a camera oh hey there we go if you think i'm energetic before coffee holy crap are you in for a rude awakening after coffee um anyway 4 20.

seven years ago today that picture was taken that picture there not that one that one's different that picture was taken seven years ago today uh when we when my wife um nico father of my granddaughter and uh my buddy former business partner and friend kevin gallant who current friend former business partner um we were uh at the late show we were hoping for some magic and magic happened i've written it down to talk about it and i'm going to read that to you right now this is and maybe this is an occurrence that we do every year on the letterman podcast i don't know i just thought it'd be fun to do it now and record it and uh put it up as a podcast and go from there so this is the letter manifesto it's long um it's borderline entertaining it's uh way over the border when it comes to tedious for sure it's well detailed but it is an account of what happened when we went to new york a month before letterman retired from the late show and i'm going to read it to you right now and i will probably break to say one or two things here and there i might break because i get emotional it's a very emotional thing that happened and so that's what uh that's what we're gonna do today there's some comments i know it keeps going in and out i'm not sure why it keeps going in and out perhaps it's because it's all near the telephone with its 4g network that's not a 5g yet maybe maybe that's the key maybe i need the 5g but it's on the wi-fi and it's around a lot of technology around us here perhaps that technology is interfering with the cellular or wi-fi technology that's happening here i'm not certain but we're going to keep going anyway and see what happens without further ado here is probably part one of the letter manifesto my story with david letterman all right we ready bring it on is it time hopefully it's time and hopefully y'all are seeing this and by y'all i mean you know probably nobody but i'm okay with that i'm doing this with no outcome the man who wants nothing is invincible you always remember that the man who wants nothing is invincible and i'm doing this wanting nothing except for the enjoyment of the process all right i've decided to expand the retelling of my personal david letterman saga while these words you are reading right now are written in 2022 much of the content of this story was written back in 2020 when my family and i were guests in the city of vancouver british columbia while our then 18 month old granddaughter was kicking the crap out of cancer and we were all isolated indoors mostly due most days due to the emergence of the covid19 pandemic during that day both my wife and i decided to make the most of our downtime focus and forced upon us and write writing was something we always meant to get around to but we always had reasons or excuses for not doing it during those unprecedented months and the ones following we no longer had barriers our own minds created as to why we weren't writing so candace and i decided to write a book about the lessons we learned going through our difficult situation we did it for catharsis but also in hopes of helping to equip others with tools they can use when going through life's tough spots by sharing uh sorry by sharing the insights that we learned the book she changed me one ordeal two perspectives there it is right there huh see candy got a cover and i gotta cover both of the lessons that we learned during our time at bc children's hospital and they meet in the middle with our granddaughter coming home healed up and by the way she just had her two-year check she's all good they're calling her cancer-free now so yeah she's a four-year-old that knows how to kick some ass she starts mma next week um the book she changed me one ordeal two perspectives was successfully launched in the late autumn of 2021 and we got a chance to feel a sense of delightful achievement and that we successfully took a negative time in our lives and turned it into a positive i also got a chance to put a semicolon my favorite punctuation mark of all time in the title of our book and i was pretty damn pleased with myself about that as well sometimes it's the little things that bring me personal delight and make me the happiest if you're all curious about the project you can go to sheetchangeme.com for details during those months i had another experience i wanted to document the events surrounding my enthusiasm for david letterman my encounter with him a month before the late show ended in 2015 and how those events are still affecting my life to this day it felt good to finally get the story of one of my life's greatest highlights written down for me personally and for others to potentially enjoy it was raw fairly unorganized one man who read it responded by saying great story and well told but for god's sakes paragraphs man yet it did a better than good job of explaining the details of my adventure back in 2015 and some of the ripples that were still being felt in my life since that beautiful april in new york i've decided now that i'm a bodified published author i would go back to the body of what i had written and clean it up making it more accessible for public consumption and have it professionally edited at first i thought i might use the gal who edited our book but then suddenly the universe intervened and threw someone into my life who would be the perfect editor and collaborator for the project her name is irene hoffman and she contacted me out of the blue after reading the story in its original form my tale touched something in her and the emotions that came out as a result compelled her to reach out to me turns out irene has made a living as an english teacher for decades and one of those teachers who cares about her students and the written word with her whole heart she is she is one of those teachers she is also a big enthusiast of david letterman and company as i am having visited the show dozens of times she's also rupert's girlfriend more on that later donating her time and considerable efforts and skills we crafted the document which i coined my letter manifesto with the intent of updating it and making it more accessible to you the reader and you the viewer and thank god for that because in its raw form it was clearly in need of some work i would like to take a moment to thank her for the afternoons of going through the the document line by line with a red pen no less and trading stories about our experiences and fondness for the gigantic body of work dave was and is a part of that we hold so dear it's actually the reason one of the other reasons i decided to do the podcast is because a lot of us who went through this stuff are still talking about it to this day and we have no community where we can share it that's what the podcast is going to be that's one of the things podcast's going to be i also decided to write this snappy new introduction as well as an outroduction to expand the stor how the story is evolving even years after the fact i don't know why or how these words will be applied or where i will present them but i think also part of the point of my tale and the life lessons i have learned is that sometimes it's just fun to do things that bring joy reach out to someone new or step out and learn a skill without any discernible outcome like i said the man who wants nothing is invincible and sometimes these things that happen as a response to those actions can knock one's socks off as mine certainly have been over and over again for that matter so why not write about it right one never knows what might happen when he or she does i have learned that words have power both positive and negative these words are all positive to me as they recount the unfolding of a part of my life i hold very dear i will now exit the new content and allow the original text to grab the baton and continue the to progress its narrative however it will be edited making the original now a rough draft i promise now it will also have paragraphs not bad right not bad writing tasty beverage okay so we go back to march 2020 all right my granddaughter is in the midst of uh she's probably in round three of chemo she did four rounds um and uh covid has sprung up around us at this point and there's a lot of downtown that's that somebody tells you if somebody having yellow fever has cancer here's a here's a here's a here's a here's a hand cancer has lots of down time it's expensive and has lots of downtime um those are the those are two takeaways but the down time candy and i decided to do some things and i wrote this back in 2020.

here we go because my family and i are in isolation in a foreign city for a few months i have some time on my hands i have decided to recount the story that led to my two facebook profile pics which have not changed since 2016 realizing it will do three things one it will allow me to have the experience recounted and archived two it will allow me to share the story with like-minded people who i am sure will understand why it's so precious to me and uh three it will kill some time and we have lots of time right now first the profile picture yes that is my wife candace and i at david letterman's desk one month before he retired from the late show with david letterman in that pic i am pretending to interview her we have a version also where she is interviewing me and i'm just going to do a quick little whoop can you see that me and candy at dave's desk notice the salmon jacket notice the salmon jacket that uh that's gonna play a part as well for the folks listening to the audio of this hey go to youtube and watch it i don't know what to tell you i hope that um this little blurb is for the audio people for the people watching youtube they're just watching me talk right now audio people thank you very much for hanging in there we appreciate it i just showed a picture of me at david letterman's desk with my wife as for the cover photo the gorgeous black and white shot and that guy right there um that is dave of course on the left the gentleman on the right being laughed at by the entire audience that's me what's happening that pic well you got to read on to find out i actually have a better version of it and it's in plastic right now look at that that's dave talking to paul shaffer making fun of me the entire audience laughing at me and me sitting like a cheshire cat enjoying every second of david letterman using me as a comedy speed bag it is one of the greatest moments of my life one of the greatest moments ever i loved it so much i couldn't believe it happened and i can't believe it got immortalized and we're going to talk about that in this story and if you the viewer have an experience with the late show similar unique special to you in your way like mine is special to me in my way please reach out to me letterman podcast gmail.com because i think we should all get together and i think we should all trade stories trading stories is fun let's do that anyway as for the cover photo the gorgeous gorgeous black and white shot that is dave of course on the left the gentleman on the right being laughed at by the entire audience that's me what's happening in the pic well you got to read on to find out now this next sentence you're going to find this hard to believe but it is true i do not want to come across as a blagging bragging blowhard in telling this tale that is not my intention however this is real these are real words man this is me being uh this is me being very vulnerable here at this point however i am an enthusiastic guy and sometimes that enthusiastic positivity gets taken incorrectly as being arrogant which i am not i love celebrating life's amazing moments personally and sharing those amazing moments others experience as well this was a highlight of my life i have recounted the story on stage and i've been told i was mildly entertaining in doing so so i can only hope that you two get at least a slight smile while hearing this non-embellished story there's something else about this tale that could wet your appetite this story includes a non-politically correct joke dave told during that magical evening which those pics were snapped the joke contains a phrase i find so funny i still use it to this day and one i am not sure he's ever going to say in public again i hope he does though uh so hold on to your hot dogs kids my name is mike chisholm and this is it my david letterman story first some background as i write this i am 44 i'm 46 now i know right look fantastic uh i am 44 and i have been an admirer of dave since i was about nine years old when i first became aware of him to that point fred rogers had been my favorite broadcaster i always liked him more than sesame street i just i just yeah i gravitated to mr rogers i really like the way he communicated with us kids with maturity and respect while being edutaining at the same time there were other broadcasters i admired as well ron mclean host of hockey night in canada go ron he's been on my other podcast love that guy to this day um vince mcmahon of the then cartoonish world wrestling federation to name a few and lots of others love broadcasters for some reason i always gravitated my intrigue to broadcasters who communicated with me as if i were the only audience member in attendance had either self-reflective skills at that age that i do now i would have understood that these were indeed gifts i also possessed and probably would have been nurtured and pursued them somehow however that was not to be as i did not see it back then i believed i was destined to gravitate to david letterman was my favorite broadcaster of all time even in my pre-teen years my earliest memory of dave was around 1984 when i was nine years old i remember sleeping over at a friend's house staying up late flipping through the channels on tv probably looking for softcore porn as my friends were older and boobies were the elusive holy grail to them back then we for some reason landed on johnny carson the other guys didn't pay much attention as we were all playing text adventure games on my buddy's vic-20 computer adventure adventureland adventure adventure um carson who i was aware of because my father watched him ended that evening's offering of the tonight show and late night with david letterman started it was a much different talk show than the one that preceded it dave and company were unique to me i couldn't believe adults were acting this way they were silly zany even and i laughed my little ass off instantly i was hooked after that i did everything i could to watch dave whenever possible i come from a lower middle class family and growing up we only had one tv many nights i would wait to hear my dad finish carson and then head upstairs and i would make the daring move to get from my bed and sneak into the family room to watch dave i would keep the volume so low that i would have to sit a few inches in front of the old school tubed television i'm sure the radiation from the screen played some part in making me the odd human that i've since become sometimes i would fall asleep in front of the set and awaken to the national anthem playing or even the next morning before everyone else got up with the old school color bars being displayed remember those all in the name of dave an early memory of the show that stuck out uh to me was that one night dave's goons had set up an obstacle course of dinner plates stacked really high and then sent a remote control car through the obstacle course smashing all the dishes and making a mess as i got older became easier to watch it more frequently the vcr we eventually got was a valuable tool for me when dave's popularity really took off in the late shift fiasco happened i was in high school and was riveted by the entire saga johnny carson was pushed out to pasture and dave told nbc to shove it deciding to forge his own path and create a new franchise to serve his competition to the tonight show something that had never been done before i have many opinions about that and i'm going to be talking about that on the podcast with lots of people i'm excited about that i watched every night and happily follow followed dave to cbs and his new 11 30 time slot and considered everyone else in late night to be the enemy dave was my guy and into the comedy breaches i would faithfully follow him i could not get enough of the scene of late night television i read all the books and articles i could regarding the subject i would watch gary shanling's the larry sanders show as much as i could the whole thing just captivated me called out to me even even though i was in the west coast of canada geographically new york called out to me and i felt somehow vicariously i was a part of what was happening there that's why i'm doing the podcast i know i'm not alone in that a lot of people feel that way i was dreamt of seeing the show live the allure of new york was so exotic and appealing to me it was like i could feel the energy in the ed sullivan theater where dave taped the show through the screen staff members of letterman's production company worldwide pants were often highlighted on the air involved in various hijinks and i just wanted to be one of them god i wanted to be one of them in my 20s march my mid-20s march of 20 2004 to be exact i planned a trip to new york and successfully got tickets to finally see david letterman's late show in person jim carrey was on that night he was promoting a movie called internal mind eternal sunshine of the spotless mind it was delightful carrie shaved a small 16x9 strip on his scalp it was so cool he put his head forward here they shaved a spot here like a like a little widescreen part on his head they shaved that in his head and they broadcast the trailer for the movie right there on jim carrey's head i don't know if dons has put that out or not or if somebody's put a clip of that out but that's it's worth watching it's pretty funny after the show i stood on the dumpster outside and watched him leave the studio being all jim carrey silly one of the on-screen staff members featured on the show from time to time pat farmer love to pat farmer uh love to have him on the podcast holy smokes stagehand for the show as well as regular on-screen player pat was one of the guys who used to read oprah transcripts with kenny kenny unfortunately has since left and moved on to the next place but pat used to read oprah scripts with him and it was so funny watching two like blue collar guys with deep voices read oprah scripts saying things like you go girl and all that kind of stuff really really funny uh genius stuff pat farmer one of the stagehands uh yelled at me to get off the dumpster he was wearing one of the worldwide pants letterman jackets dave gave all his staff members that i voraciously coveted it was a really satisfying experience but of course i wanted more through the years i always tried to watch dave faithfully every night i could when the dvr came into fashion i was always assured i would have his show on demand sometimes leaving episodes on for months and months until the hard drive got full though i still enjoyed the creative sometimes bizarre antics and legendary comedy pieces presented on the show my favorite segment inevitably would end up being dave at his desk after the first commercial break just talking to camera and the audience is both in the theater and at home i have so many memories of segments and jokes and interviews and insights featuring my favorite broadcaster of all time i told my dad once that david letterman to me is what walter cronkite was to him it's the god's honest truth david letterman is the gen x walter cronkite he's got that cynical hilarious edge that my grunge-loving apathetic mistrusting generation appreciates so much i would see my favorite musicians like dave grohl and eddie better and the reverence they had for dave and it felt communal in 2014 when dave announced his retirement from the late show i made myself a promise i would go see him one more time of course i wanted more to meet him somehow or get some sort of keepsake from the show but i also knew how precise persnickety dave is towards praise or even his admirers for that matter i suppose it's part of his charm not just the self-deprecation in his humor but the fact that he has this combination of mega confidence and unworthiness all at the same time that seem to be just making him who he is it also meant it would be very difficult to get an autograph of any sort or any sort of personal memory that was okay seeing him would be enough i told myself but that was only to soothe my heart for i really wanted more something more personal what ended up actually happening still blows me away is my heart got what it wanted and then some and we've alluded to that already i've always been the guy who can actively manifest things we can talk about that later but yeah i've always always been able to uh to manifest stuff don't get me wrong i don't just wish things into existence i also put intention and actions towards what i am looking to do or achieve many times things work out even better than i hope i have dozens of examples of this i've been asked to speak at seminars and things like that about this it's weird but i just go with it because many times those events lead to other people getting a lot of enjoyment or a lot of fun usually when i manifest something other people are having a great time too and going holy cow i can't believe that just happened hard to explain but anyway um as plans for the trip started to formulate so do did my manifestations i would imagine having some sort of experience with dave getting a pic of me behind dave's desk was the first thing i coveted i had seen enough pictures online of chuckleheads behind that hallowed piece of furniture and i was reasonably confident i could actually be one of those chuckleheads what else could happen beyond that my wife and i knew we were traveling in april of 2015 as my company had arranged a corporate retreat in jamaica as west coasters whenever candy and i travel east we try to create multiple destinations because the distance of the trip from home so instead of doing a straight shot to the warmth of the caribbean why not stop over in a place like say new york on the way right we looked up information on how to get tickets for the late show we would need four my stepson and a good friend business associate were on the trip too and there was randomness involved as it was kind of a lottery as to who got tickets and we didn't exactly know when the show was taping or when it was dark so in mid-february i began the process shown online to get tickets and we didn't know exactly when uh sorry i just saw jay make a comment on there and it made me laugh so there's a little bit of uh behind the scenes magic for those who are viewing this on the youtube going what the hell did he just why did he just break my buddy jay broke me late night playset watch late night playset we're all all a big family that's going to do something really fun and we're doing something fun right now it's happening and i love it okay anyway so in mid february i began the process shown online to get tickets i filled out the form hit submit and hope for the best then began the waiting followed by more waiting the plane tickets were purchased the hotel was booked the belvedere near hell's kitchen for the potential sighting of marvel's daredevil and yet still more waiting by mid-march i began to get antsy visions of being in the standby lineup outside the ed sullivan theater knowing the show was going on inside began to form and that definitely was not something i needed to manifest decided to dig in go on the offense a bit i sent in another form then i got stressed that the instructions said to only submit once please surely i didn't mess up because of my exuberance did i would i be disqualified because i sent the request in twice i felt a tremendous push to act i went back online to search for accounts of people who had successfully achieved that what i was hoping for a real david letterman experience sparse at best there was a group of people who hosted a david letterman convention each year but i knew nobody in that group and wasn't sure how to penetrate it then something occurred to me a memory from the show itself most nights at the end of each episode of the late show the credits were a short roll and the worldwide pants logo would appear along with a random usually odd tagline more on that to come everybody keep watching the letterman podcast but sometimes the band would be allowed to play a longer set of credits and roll and with them at the end information on how to get tickets would appear i thought i remembered seeing a phone number i quickly went to my dvr found an episode with the number and i called it here's the weird part the part i attribute to cosmic messages from the universe i called the number i remember this i was in my office i'm gonna finish i've got a financial firm i was in my office at the time it's a cool office it's got lots of stuff had a bar and a couch and an arcade machine and all that cool stuff in it i'm in my office and i'm like screw it and i call the number this is real i am not embellishing anything here i called the number listened to the automated message instructing people how to submit entry for tickets for the show which by the way was the same process i had already done twice i let the message play then repeat itself then for reasons unknown i hit zero on my iphone keypad then a click then ringing on the other end instincts kicked in i can't do a new york accent i wish i could cbs how can i help you greeted me i recognize the new york accent on the other side of the phone i use my verbal cat-like reflexes to respond hi i need the ed sullivan theater please i don't know what possessed me to say this but couldn't even consider that because suddenly the voice on the other end said hold please and ringing was happening on the other side of the phone i was running on pure instinct and every single hair was standing up on my body i had goosebumps in places on my body no goosebumps should ever exist no drug could touch the high i was feeling during those fragile moments happy 420.

i was a mischievous child again no time to consider any of that because suddenly the words the late show how can i help you were spoken good afternoon i need someone in audience coordination please i said with the intention of sounding as sure and confident as batman realistically sounding squeaky like robin how i sounded did not matter because amazingly i was once again being transferred suddenly a voice was saying hello blank speaking i'm blanking out his name so i don't come across as disrespectful he was lovely he was cheerful and flamboyant and apparently as gay as a french trombone he set me at ease immediately hi blank my name is mike chisholm i'm from british columbia canada our trip is about a month out and our party still doesn't know what night we are coming to see the show since we are booking the trip around seeing dave one last time i was hoping we could get confirmation are you the one in charge of group bookings and is four considered a group i apologize we're just a little confused by the whole thing i played dumb is what i did on my feet pretty easy for me to do again we're like 45 seconds into this process and i have no idea where any of that came from no time for that though because blank responded immediately by saying oh i'm so sorry it's been crazy around here lately let me think what week are you here again confidence showing up for the very first time in the process i let him know the dates he said well we are dark the week before but the 20th will work can i get you in touch with you in a few days electricity course through my veins of course and i hope it's not a bother oh honey i'm happy to help you we will get you all set up hope emerged i don't think the call lasted three minutes but it might as well have been three hours i was spent i relayed the story to anyone who would listen excitement bursting from me a few days later no contact interesting then a few more hmm now that antsy feeling was back what do i do try it again i couldn't see another option so i went back to the well called the number on the recording hit zero right away this time and repeated the process this time i'm pretty sure the guy who answered the late show how can i help you is the guy who used to play mike singletary the san francisco 49ers coach on the show and would scream like a madman to dave after football games okay his name is arthur kelly much more on him later no time to find out though i had tickets to secure good morning could i speak with blank i said much with much less nervousness is the first time but still miles away from confident oh i'm sorry but blank isn't here anymore now those instincts had to kick in again and i would have to be good on the fly oh no i said with more truth than not uh we are coming from western canada for a show the week of april 20th and he was getting our group set up is there someone else i could talk to i tried to be sympathetic rather than an unsatisfied customer but who knows how it came out must've been all right though because he said oh i'm so sorry let me see who i can put you in touch with hope emerged again still in the game a gal came on the line and took my info i told her i was a big fan was bringing my family and wanted to give them the best experience ever she was empathetic to the situation and she said okay we will try and get you in on the 20th in a few days someone's going to call you back with a couple questions about the show would that be okay now i was confused but hey i was running on pure up to this point so i figured might as well just go with it i said sure and again started playing everyone's favorite the waiting game in the days i was waiting i would constantly imagine what the experience could be like i wasn't obsessed it was more whimsical i just felt it in my bones that something special perhaps even life-changing was going to happen mercifully i didn't have to wait long the call came in while i was in my vehicle with a buddy a few days later we were on a side street my phone rang while it was sitting in the cup holder i saw the new york area code nearly drove off the road in my haste to park i put it on speaker hello mike speaking i tried to say to be nonchalant most likely failing hi mike this is kevin from the late show was the reply i got here we go hi kevin i'm so sorry about this thanks for getting back to me this trip is a huge deal to us and i just want to make sure that we are good to go is the 20th a go for us i ask presumptively mike it sure is i have that there are four of you is that correct you bet i said my buddy who knew the entire saga because i wouldn't shut up about it for weeks just rolled his eyes and shook his head but then that universal magic happened again i just didn't know it at the time okay great hey listen it sounds like you're a pretty big fan he went on i've always by the way called myself an enthusiast i've heard dave talk about the word fan before and and and and fanatic and what all that means to him enthusiast is what i am i'm not a fanatic i just very much appreciate it all but i'm going to go with it because you know this is kevin from the late show saying that to me hey it sounds like you're a pretty big fan do you mind if i ask you a question or two i was puzzled uh although still jubilant knowing i was one step closer of course kevin and again thank you yes i am a massive fan playing to him there enthusiast and so happy to be seeing dave one last time i hope to get as close as possible and really let the experience sink into my memory banks forever i'm glad i have a couple questions about the show so as you may know the theater we run in has a deli beside it the hello deli yes i enthusiastically interrupted kevin laughed okay you know that one oh yeah we plan to see rupert the delhi's owner and frequent part of dave's show over the years more on him later uh if at all possible and more than once when we were there i said confidently almost insulted at the elementary nature of the question okay that's all he responded with a laugh i decided to press on because in my head this was the gatekeeper how right i would end up being kevin i totally thought i would have to answer things like paul is from thunder bay or dave's mother's name dorothy or some harder ones i am delighted that is all you were looking for i'm so grateful and excited which i was and just so you know we understand what you go after in an audience member we will dress sharp we will be excited and ready to laugh there was a pause i know i had given him food for thought mike we are very happy to have you here on the 20th here's what i need you to do when you arrive at the theater that day go straight to the front of the line and i need you and your three guests to tell the attendant you are on kevin's gold list okay bingo my buddy sitting beside me was beside himself shaking his head and laughing at what i was literally falling into kevin i could not be more grateful thanks man i said triumphantly as we hung up i sat there vibrating knowing i would see my broadcasting hero my best friend on tv one last time so close to the end it was bittersweet but way more sweet that day the anticipation was more than palpable and i knew it wouldn't hurt to be on kevin's gold list as the weeks got closer so too did the specificity god damn it i even practiced that word okay i'm going to sound it out phonetically as the weeks got closer so too did the sp siphisity of my manifesting i imagine the desk all the time i wanted that picture badly but i also the possibilities of what kevin's gold list might be i kept wondering of course i had delusions of grandeur that would come and go could it be a meet and greet no way not with dave uh-uh maybe we'd meet alan calter the late show announcer nah probably not front row yeah that's gotta be it it's gotta be it's gotta be a seating thing the days were as long as months leading up to the trip but my mind continued to race with possibilities we arrived in new york the wednesday before the show i love new york it's my favorite american city and i'm a giant la la kings fan giant l.a kings fan but i love new york oh my god i love that city you can feel it it's got a pulse new york is alive i love new york um it's my favorite american city the south the sounds mashed up cultures things to do places to see restaurants to eat at to me it's like a gigantic vancouver in many ways and i love vancouver as well the first night around 9pm after we checked in i insisted we take a walk by the ed sullivan theater i intended to see that marquee as many times as possible during that trip it was awe-inspiring to me every time we passed it and i have dozens of pictures from all sorts of angles a bunch of them i shared in the letterman podcast group if you're not on the letterman podcast facebook the letterman podcast facebook group jump in there um and you can see some of those pictures many if not most people simply don't understand the emotional nostalgic feelings that theater itself gave to me all the bumpers between commercials all the title credits from the late show it must have hundreds of thousands of visual impressions of that place rattling around inside my head from all those years i teared up more than once when we passed it 100 percent true yeah uh at that point we only knew that john travolta we knew that john travolta was gonna be the guest uh on the night of our broadcast not that i cared very much but okay that's cool i thought i remember back in the day when dave got all excited when pulp fiction came out and would talk about it on the show a lot but i really don't have a massive connection to travolta other than that my wife on the other hand was delighted as greece is one of her favorite movies of all time i have a confession for you the late or the letterman podcast audience it's a confession that i am i don't know if i'm proud of i'm it's a confession i'm indifferent to i've never seen greece i've eluded it my wife and i have tried to see it a couple of times in our marriage and she's like why haven't you said you know i haven't watched greece ever anyway um i watched greece too with that english fellow that was delightful that english fellow with catwoman oh that was awesome but i never watched greece please take time to enjoy a tasty beverage by the way which is i'm gonna do right now oh that's that's some coffee right there over the next couple days we did many new york things some touristy some things the locals enjoy lots of trendy places chinatown and a lot of eating at great restaurants um we went down to the village to visit the comedy cellar we looked at the lineup which at the seller can change any time as many big time comics routinely will walk in to work out new material bumping who was scheduled to perform in the process and we were excited about seeing a couple mid-level comics we recognized again that universal magic during our set three comics were bumped instead and zees and zari louis ck tuning up his monologue for snl in a few weeks which was hilarious uh it was about a pedophile and he nailed it oh my god he nailed it he nailed yeah i'm yeah it was it was really funny um and amy schumer all made unannounced appearances we went right up to the restaurant after uh and met aziz who was sitting at an adjacent table claire danes was there she sat right beside that was weird oh hey all right cool it was a great night the highlight was amy though for sure uh she was working off notes while she interlaced a few stories of filming what would end up being trainwreck which was in post-production she was sharp and very funny um yeah what a cool unexpected delight little did we know how that night would end up adding to the tapestry of our story the next day it was clothes shopping at this point you surely must be asking why in the blue hell am i giving all these details and probably reconsidering if i'm actually a blowhard or not well everything has to do with the climax of the story i promise that morning we passed the theater again so it's a saturday morning totally on purpose by the way on our way uh to that day's adventure and we noticed staff at the front entrance i was elated on a saturday no way dave would be here finally i could get my shot at dave's desk the staff were all in late show garb noticeably young probably mid-20s at most i uh i walked up to one of the fine this is a true not embellished okay i walked up to one of the fine young men and confidently asked hello i was wondering if you could help me make a dream come true my companions were mortified he was taken aback for sure but i was long practiced we were under the marquee and i pointed inside i said right behind those doors is dave's desk in a month it will be gone forever and so too my chance to have my picture taken behind it could we please make it happen it would be a dream come true he studied me and with genuine regret said i am sorry the studio is locked up while we're doing something what we're doing here is for the audience next week i think they were handing standby tickets but that was that particular detail eludes me oh i said okay we're at the show monday we're on kevin's gold list what can i do to make this happen vinnie he's running security monday he can make it happen i wish you luck he happily told me wonderful more information is always good later that day we went to century 21 down in the financial district now if you've never been to century 21 i will do my best to describe it it's like ross uh or winners in canada if you're canadian winners that's winners is ross in canada um but with super high-end designer clothes and it's five floors it's a shopper's paradise and we are shoppers by that point i already knew instinctively the only way i would have an encounter with dave uh was for him to select me to ask a question when he comes out and talks to the crowd before the show and i was pretty sure i was locked into the front row so my chances were better than they would than they would have been otherwise but i wanted to even up the odds even more i usually am the guy who wears a suit jacket with jeans a nice dress shirt and jordan style wise i have a financial business but i like dressing cool for the industry rather than a stuffy suit that day at century 21 i knew i wanted a special jacket for the show which i should have worn today by the way oh my god why didn't i wear that jacket today it's okay i'll wear it i'll wear it another time um i knew i wanted a special jacket for the show so i bought two a vibrant brew blue one the other salmon what salmon you ask pink but on the ready side yeah i wouldn't have known it either my wife had to tell me but it was perfect as i knew it would stand out if dave was scanning the crowd the chances of his seeing it were good the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun but for me i was only about 75 mental present mentally the anticipation was building in me and all i could think about was seeing dave i was rehearsing all sorts of scenarios in my head candy warned me not to set myself up for disappointment she knew how important this was to me and was worried that the experience would be tainted if something special didn't happen i heard her i considered her words but at that point my mind was convinced something special was going to happen and i couldn't really fathom anything else thankfully i never had to wonder because uh every single expectation i had was blown away on that faithful monday all right now i was gonna stop here but it isn't as late as i thought it would be i'm about halfway through here um now the next headline is monday april 20th 2015.

i feel like i should just continue and do the whole thing in one damn shot um and if i got to break it into two podcasts you know what i don't even need to break it into two podcasts i don't need to do that we can just go for it right you guys want to hear the story you want to hear the story because here it comes this is when the magic happens everything was the preparation for the magic like right now literally uh in 2022 right now i feel like including the starting of this podcast on this day is the preparation for some magic that's about to happen i feel that way right now um and we can talk about some of that stuff with some of the people that we're running alongside with um but uh oh you can do it all right all right you know what we're gonna do it um i feel like that magic is happening right now there's a whole bunch of things being put into place and that's what this story seven years ago was up until today up until seven years ago today uh let's do it monday april 20th 2015.

happy 4 20 in the past um i was gonna make it back to the future joke but i've decided not to um i could hardly sleep the night before and i woke early it was a great day in new york but i hardly cared we put it around in the a.m and i knew it would be going uh i knew we would be going to the show early much earlier than necessary but that was good that's what i'm going to be doing on may 7th by the way going to the show earlier than i need to be there uh huh may 7th i'm going to see dave i'm excited about that okay a nice slow build the video recorder in my head primed and ready to go the plan was to go to the hello deli for the third time that trip to eat my favorite sandwich is the paul shaffer buy some late show merch and talk to rupert i said that today in a post uh i dream of new york pizza uh halal boys street food and i dream of the pulse shaffer sandwich from the hello deli from rupert i dream about that to this day uh buy some late show merch and talk to rupert he remembered us when we came in now here's the thing about okay so here's the thing about rupert rupert is one of the kindest most gentle men i have ever met and has seemingly infinite patience for fans of the show while we were there rupert recounted the story of having the knife pulled on him back when he and dave used to do the remote comedy pieces where rupert would go out into the city wearing an earpiece and would say or do whatever dave save in a van told him to do he told another few stories as well i bought a long sleeve tee and a hoodie with the late show logo on them rupert's deli is one of the only places you can get letterman merch still is to this day actually uh and he actually set up a kiosk in the lobby of the theater when the show came to an end so he held on to our purchases that was great as we didn't have to carry them around while we were in the audience i remember he talked about how grateful he was i'm gonna have him on uh i've got a men's mental wellness podcast i'm gonna have him on there and we're gonna talk about how gratefulness we're gonna have a podcast that's based on around gratefulness with rupert it's gonna be great um he talked about how grateful he was grateful for dave and the show and he still feels that way by the way i don't think i'm telling tell's out of school rupert is kind and grateful he's such a good man and the paul shafer sandwich is amazing when i asked deeper things about dave he was sheepish i could tell how respectful he was of dave's privacy which i appreciated but would have loved to hear a story or two about the man behind the man he used words like life changing more than once while talking to us and the other customers who ask them questions what a class act i want to go back just to see rupert and have a paul shaffer sandwich but i digress and this is no time for digression because now it's time for the part of the story where we go find vinnie we left the hello deli and one around front for those who have never been to the ed sullivan theater under the marquee is where the audience enters but there is a side entrance that basically walks right onto the iconic stage set jay ryan knows a lot about this it's the entrance where the guests come in and go out when they arrive and apparently many of the staff as well it's also where the hello deli is along the same long wall uh we did exactly as we were told went right to the front the audience lineup was already quite long and declared we were on kevin's gold list we were immediately directed to a separate roped off area right at the front and it would be an hour or so before we would be let in so we could go get something to eat or come back if we wanted yeah right not that day laser focused i think the person then i asked if i could speak with vinnie i fully admit i asked with an intention that made the person assume i knew vinnie they said oh okay sure may i say who's asking tell him it's mike i said confidently the guy looked at me for a second then got on the radio and called to ask where vinnie was he came back and said that today vinnie isn't doing the front of the house and he would meet me around the side entrance i thanked him and then we were on our way i would be back soon when leaving the marquee entrance walking back down the side of the building i remember doing it with a speed and intensity like a corona virus and sensed crowd heading for the toilet paper kind of pace wrote it in 2020.

we were walking fast i straightened up and was calm and collected in my salmon suit jacket when the side door opened the man on the other side was by far the most stereotypical new yorker i have ever met who could be a mobster i swear to god he was cut right out of the godfather or perhaps one of fat tony's henchmen from the simpsons he had a pencil thin black mustache and slicked hair he kind of spoke like a mobster too and what can i do for you kind of way he was also clearly expecting to see someone he knew and did not know what to make of me i said to him vinnie hi the staff who were here on saturday did said we needed to talk to you my name is mike chism and i'm from the west coast of canada in a month this is all over and i will never have the opportunity to get my picture at dave's desk again i've been told you're the guy that can make it happen can we do it we are at the show tonight here is the cool part uh he didn't hesitate he was so slick can't do it tonight man i'm not the front of the house mike is i'm supposed to be but i got to do this other job instead mike's your man i thanked him very much and asked him how to talk to mike he let me go back to the marquee and find him there easy we have a spot save there at the very front of the line a very cool ps to this part of the story if you search bill murray's appearance on the 2012 uh december 6th episode of the late show you will see his appearance begin with an suv speeding up and murray being dragged out of the back with a hood over his head and thrown into the ed sullivan theater like he's a hostage one of the security thugs who brought him in was vinnie i spotted him in other clips in the show as well rad if anybody knows vinnie by the way in letterman world i would love to have him on the podcast we went back around front found the same coordinator from before i let him know what vinnie said uh he said to me oh great mike will be out here soon and if he's running the front of the house i was satisfied and relaxed a bit the four of us talked and waited nervously well actually it was kind of me who was more nervous my wife's stepson and buddy actually found the whole thing kind of funny i think they were amused that i was advancing as far as i was or at least in my own mind i was it was at that point we started talking to some of the other people who were selected in the lineup we were in there was a family from florida who were cool and a professor at an oregon college among others when i'm excited i'm a gregarious extrovert and can strike up conversations with strangers pretty well and we soon were we assumed we all started talking and sharing stories they were excited to hear about our trip uh we relayed the tale of the comedy seller one of the gals from florida said oh amy schumer is the second guest tonight awesome two schumer sightings in one trip before long a guy in a suit walked out he spoke with the coordinator and they both were looking at me he motioned me to come over to him and i was immediately struck that this was easily the most stereotypical new yorker who could have been a mobster i have ever seen sorry vinny he was bald gruff took no crap and talked like robert de niro in pretty much well everything any of his movies uh he spoke abruptly okay what's going on here i changed my approach slightly vinnie said you were the man who can make this happen it's done in a month man i need my pick behind dave's desk mike studied me for a second and said okay no promises but hang around after the show i was confused like what in my seat i asked as soon as i said that he said oh wait a minute you're at the show tonight yeah man we're on kevin's gold list i said proudly oh that guy he snickered oh yeah we'll get it done when everyone stands up and leaves you two stay put wait for me i cannot describe the feelings that flowed through me when he said that i was elated so happy i was went back in line completely satisfied i actually relaxed a little bit um and it wasn't that it was bad not relaxing it was just this electricity excitement but i actually did kind of go okay because we had it locked down we all talked more that nervous energy flowing through all of us me and oregon talked about our favorite letterman moments lots of back and forth and playful banter not too long after mike came out and actually posted himself right in front of us i couldn't not talk to him it was so fun just to hear his responses and his fantastic accent tough guy a real tough guy i told him about how we were how we were told vinnie was the guy and he snickered and said yeah he's got travolta duty tonight he pronounced it travolta yeah he's got travolta duty tonight in his accent and rolled his eyes at easy said it almost like it was a punishment who knows maybe it was i don't know oregon had to use the restroom so he asked and was granted access after a couple minutes he came out with a triumphant look on his face i just met alan calter in the bathroom immediately i was filled with righteous fury and jealousy god damn it i love big red but at the end of the day i ended up being happy for his good fortune and besides i had the desk shot to look forward to before long it was time for our crew to be let in mike gave candy and i a wink as we passed through the main doors which made me giggle that guy was awesome i should give you more warnings so y'all can enjoy a tasty beverage as i do this all right the process of filling the theater was a science a well-oiled machine the way it works is they file everyone in groups of a few dozen into the lobby then a young energetic audience coordinator lets people know the do's and don'ts of being an audience member it's really basic stuff the most noteworthy being be energetic and happy don't call out and above all no phones i miss the calling out remember on late night when when every once in a while like the audience is a little bit more edgy and and they would call out more and and there'd be almost yeah but at the end of the day two different shows the theater show had its own rhythm to it and they indoctrinated us as to uh to be a part of that rhythm it was it was really quite impressive how they had it down um the energetic and happy don't call above all else no phones our group got a more specific instruction it was very clear we were the first two rows because they focused on the q a portion questions to ask and not to ask one of the gals told us a question dave's dave loves is for advice of any sort or about how he enjoys being a parent dave loves talking about his son i had my questions ready in my head already weeks ago we were told then how to file in our group would be the first in so we needed to fill the lower seats directly in front of the stage the threat this the theater has three sections left center and right we came in on the right side uh it was their expectation we would fill the right section first and suddenly it started happening we were filing in oregon was right in front of me and a few people in front of him and suddenly whoa there's the set much bigger than it looks on tv i gasped as we filed down the aisle i was overcome with the joy of seeing the familiar place the theater assaults your senses right away yes it's as cold in there as everyone says but man the vibrancy of the colors of the background the bright lights the models of the new york landmarks the bridges bridges yeah um and of course the desk it brought forth a sense of childlike wonder being in there and we all felt it as we walked i was leading my crew i turned to candy and firmly said follow me had i followed the instructions of the coordinator i would have been in the front row stage right screw that actually stage left i guess no i think about it but on the right hand side uh screw that when i got to the bottom of the aisle i turned left hoping my crew would follow me i was walking along the stage of the show i watched faithfully for decades all across center stage i sat at the very end my wife beside me then our son nico and our friend kevin we are in the right in front of where dave does his monologue no one else sat with us for a bit as the rest of the audience followed the instructions properly no one said anything to us though and on the stage in charge of the house there was mike watching us with a smirk on his face the rest of the audience filed in i was playing with my phone trying to get it powered back on i needed a picture of this but then i stopped myself i did not want to mess up what promised what was promised to us after the show i felt like such a big shot sitting there taking everything in alan calder came out with a microphone and warmed us up a little bit uh with a few jokes the place was electric then he introduced paul and the cbs orchestra the world's most dangerous man uh i cannot stress enough how awesome it was hearing these guys and gals play in person it is a rock concert of acoustical perfection in that theater they played a couple full songs for us and we clapped and cheered in our seats as that happened stagehands and camera people came out and folks with clipboards running around todd the cue card boy came out and then it was time we all felt it i think it was then that alan calter brought out david letterman dave came bounding out in a shirt and tie with no jacket and energetically grabbed a hand mic he was lean and vera that microphone by the way was beat to hell it was just beat right up it was cool it was really neat seeing it there's a souvenir oh man that thing's that thing was awesome dave came bounding on a certain time with no jacket energetically grabbed a microphone he was lean and virile and looked like an athlete he started talking to us the audience i honestly can't remember what he said as i was fully intent in my focus waiting for him to open the floor for questions i do remember the audience being so crisp and so ready to laugh everyone was so happy to see him he looked fit and trim and full of energy and then the moment came does anyone have any questions he asked in his ah shucks midwestern tone i shot my hand up like a north korean rocket he immediately looked to his left there was oregon who also had his hand up yes sir what's your name what do you do the fury had returned but dave melted it so quick so razor sharp and now we come to the part i alluded to at the beginning of this yarn the joke that dave told i'm not sure he will ever tell in public again but i hope he does if you're still with me and if so what the heck is wrong with you all you guys especially what the heck is wrong with you guys on the facebook live if you're still with me holy cow um what the heck is wrong with you cleary i'm a bro i'm a blowhard who likes the sound of his own voice here comes the payoff dave asks oregon what his question is as he did i saw dave scan the audience i had my hand still half up like a teacher's pet waiting for the first student called on to give a wrong answer and i know dave saw me i even thought i wonder if he noticed my jacket do you have any advice for me oregon asked what a kiss up asking three questions or asking one of the questions that was fed to him by dave's minions without missing a beat dave said i have three pieces of advice for you number one always remember treat a lady like a and a like a lady the audience exploded with laughter i oh my god i still say that to my wife all the time remember you deleted like a and a like a lady it's not politically correct i get it but it hit our funny bones and it's it's always going to be in my head it's an old line it's actually a very old line um but coming out of dave's mouse at that mouth at that time in that place is totally unpredictable and the place lit right up a few days later i read an article saying that dave regretted telling a joke and i suppose i understand why as he didn't want to offend but just make people laugh which he did very much so and i have to tell you i thought it was just a spontaneous remark that was just fired from his subconscious hip like a sick shooter i still use the line to this day to my wife in the appropriate and sometimes inappropriate situations i do after the laughter died down he moved to his second piece of counsel imparting the sage advice that you will inevitably sneeze if you pull out one of your nose hairs lastly did he just look at me in my cocked arm again switching to the earnest osh shucks dave we all know and love he said you will live a good life if you are kind and treat people the way that you would like to be treated the place burst into applause at that not me though my hand was sky high please please please please please oh god i'm i'm already like god i didn't mean i'm i'm i'm sorry i'm getting emotional right now because then it happened looking right at me david letterman asked politely yes sir what is your name my name is mike chisholm sir hello mike where are you from i'm from kelowna british columbia canada oh that is beautiful country out there isn't it yes sir it's gorgeous god's country what do you do out there mike i'm a partner in a financial firm partner in a financial firm that's great how's business it's good dave thank you i'm very glad to hear that what's your question i have replayed that exchange in my head it must be hundreds maybe even thousands of times in my mind dave conducted a mini interview with me and no one will convince me otherwise i i it was just every time i think of the exchange i can still feel the adrenaline that course through me before i tell you my questions i got to preface them um i know they are dated and slightly bratty okay i know that um they came from a place of a devoted enthusiast swept up in the fervor of the show ending and the run-up to dave's finale request at the end was purely selfish if i ever have a chance to speak with dave again may 7th or even interview him the letterman podcast it will sound nothing like this i would rather just shoot the about life with him that being said here are the questions that i asked i have a and i was rehearsed i was ready to go i have a couple questions and a request the questions are will brian williams or jay leno be on any of your final broadcasts and the request is where do i get one of those worldwide pants jackets the staff all have i looked at rupert's deli and couldn't find any could you score me one now if you're a fan of dave's you might remember brian newscaster brian williams is one of the best guests during the later years of the late show he was hysterical at the time of dave's retirement williams was involved in a scandal to do with exaggerating some of his experiences and was off tv he exaggerated those experiences on the late show i really wanted to see him one last time um i also asked about jay leno i uh i had to ask about jay considering the two the history the two men had um at this point dave got exasperated with me um and he looked over at the band and exclaimed paul i thought canadians were supposed to be polite now this guy here is making demands and trying to run things right there and if you look at the rest of the audience if you look at the rest of the audience they're laughing that's that that that's it he is looking at paul talking the entire audience is laughing at me for the audio viewers i'm sorry are the audio listeners god audio viewers man it's like i'm not a professional or something um for the audio folk just watch the youtube or you can imagine the picture that i just held up paul i thought canadians were supposed to be polite now we got this guy here making demands and trying to run things the entire audience was laughing at me stagehands and people were still running around prepping for the show and at that moment i could have sworn someone took a picture he then brought out one of his staff nancy i think and asked her the status of the men in question he actually brought her out on stage okay let's figure this out nancy come out here i think it was nancy um and asked her about the men in question her response was that both men's representatives have been contacted and they would see then she left in fact she said there was an open invitation for for jay leno for the last week of the show they actually said that and it was on news afterwards um i'll post the news articles when i post this i'll post them in the comments because you can still find them on cnn like these questions actually got on the news then she left and dave came back to address me and to address me and in that faux absent-minded aw shucks kind of way he said okay yeah now what else were you asking lightning fast has started to talk but dave expertly did not let me say too many words he was in control yes sir the jacket was all i got out before he went off again suddenly exasperated again oh yes the jacket the jacket can you believe this guy the audience laughing he continued those jackets are something we give the staff because it's cold in here without hesitation came my crowning achievement i asked loud and clear and quick got an application to which i am proud to say it's happening again i made david letterman laugh it was just for a second but it only takes a second to create a lifelong memory and then just as fast he shot back come see me in a month the whole place still laughing he continued jackets jackets look at you that's a heck of a jacket you have on what color is that salmon i said my wife helped me pick it out salmon well there you go is that your wife there he said pointing beside me but also picking up tremendous palpable momentum all of a sudden yes sir that's my wife candace and nice to meet you janice let's go paul and suddenly the man kicked in letterman was gone and before you know it the opening credits appeared on the monitors and the show was starting i was in shock it was the most amazing sensation ever i made david letterman laugh unbelievably it still wasn't over not by a long shot the theme song to the late show played and everything was just like you see on tv those of you who are letterman fans might be able to guess what's coming up one of dave's signature moves is to incorporate an inside joke from the warm-up usually with a quip referring to an earlier pre-show exchange and then cutting to someone in the audience he's done it for years all the way back to i believe the morning show this can happen before he starts the monologue or during the show if and when the moment makes sense to those in attendance yeah you bet your asset happened here dave came out to thunderous applause and a standing ovation and the moment everything settled before he started his monologue dave opened up by saying sarcastically if you're really good we'll give you a jacket and bam the camera cut to me laughing in the audience with candy and nico and kevin beside me and the entire audience laughing with us or at us paul muttered salmon supporting dave's slightly irritably toned comment holy dave referenced our exchange on tv immortalize an ultimate dream come true take that oregon the show continued i won't recap much more except for one thing when it was amy schumer's turn to come out for her segment a little more of that universe magic happened after her first exchange with dave the four of us all looked at each other in amazement the entire segment other than a couple of dave dave's quips with schumer's performance we saw the previous friday at the comedy cellar he fed her the openings to nearly every joke and she nailed the punch lines we never would have known that had we not seen it with our own eyes dave is the master at giving guests the best chance to succeed and amy certainly did here what a what a cool easter egg one day i'm gonna have candy on the podcast she'll talk about that it was just amazing an entire stand-up little stand-up set that turned into an interview and we got to see it from both sides and that was just that was just that was damn cool there was a beautiful performance by band making their network television debut called the water boys and suddenly the show was over it was super tight man i believe the entire performance was like an hour and ten minutes the band played through all the commercials unlike other shows where the band plays leading into the break stops then plays a different part of the same song coming back from commercial um fallon only a couple times dave would talk mess up and say okay let's pick it up here and keep going he was so slick there's only a couple times you have to really watch he'd be talking about something in stutter go yeah okay let's start okay we'll take it from here and just start back again like it was so slick what a pro what a damn pro no not a pro the best a legend in his craft and then suddenly it was over dave gives us a final wave and the audience filed out like they were instructed at the beginning not us though we had different instructions courtesy of our favorite tough guy mike he took his spot center stage by the way if anybody out there knows mike send them our way please letterman podcast gmail.com he took a spot at center stage to make sure all was in order friends and family of the crew came out put their instruments aside probably 30 people began to populate the stage it was kind of chaotic when dave left on the stage um some are already taking pictures behind the desk after dave's chair was removed uh and a stool was put in its place before long mike gave candy and i a head nod and brought us up had some fun did you equipped as i literally bumped into paul shaffer and shook his hand with a quick hi paul i gave my phone to mike can our friends come up too no he said flatly in a harsh lovable new york accent i motioned him that we would like a picture of me interviewing candy and one of her interviewing me he rolled his eyes but with a smile and then it happened i was sitting behind david letterman's desk and thankfully i had the forethought to take a few seconds to really take a look at the view i looked the lights i looked at the set the rapidly emptying theater i looked at with presence of mind the view that dave saw every night for decades the podium paul's position with the band i was so grateful in that moment and i go back to it often snapped back into a reality with a quick come on i don't got all day we finished up and added the phone and mike handed the phone back to me i looked at him and said earnestly mike thank you so much check the picture to make sure it's good he commanded they're both perfect i want to hug you i'm so grateful get out of here he said him with a sideways smile and he shook my hand we went back into the lobby in shock i cannot believe that happened i remember saying we got our stuff from rupert who had it all bagged from ready for us and suddenly we're back on broadway in the drizzling rain again we went back around the corner to the stage entrance just in time to wave at felicia paul's amazing guitar player as she appeared to be walking home after work like any other day we chatted with the water boys who really impressed us with their performance that night they put their gear in the van at that point my memory goes blank i seriously cannot remember where we ate or what we did i have no clue uh that is until 11 35 back at the belvedere the four of us watched in the room excited to see our experience from a different perspective of course moments into the show came the zenith the highlight where sure enough the four of us were the subject of an insha inside joke dave shared with his global audience like i had seen hundreds of times before over the years what a keepsake what a thing what a souvenir but the story unbelievably isn't quite over afterward over the next couple of days i kept tabs on dave parts of the q a actually made cnn the parts about jay leno and brian williams and dave was mentioning of that classic line drew lady like a and a like a lady so funny um and the pre-show was spun as a sexy sexist joke i was deeply disappointed in the media that day actually as the context in those pieces were distorted from what actually happened the audience erupted in laughter with that line um and there were some pc groups that were trying to say it wasn't but anyway no it was funny it was so funny we continued on to jamaica and when we got home along with all other letterman fans we watched him night after night until the final show exactly one month after our episode when he rode off into the sunset the tributes to dave and each show leading up to the finale were heartfelt stirring and moving if you haven't read the book the last days of letterman yet i highly recommend it as it captures the perfect uh captures perfectly the magic of the final month more on that and its book author scott ryan later uh scott and i traded messages today we're we're friends now scott's gonna be on the podcast as soon as he can um he's got some twin peaks stuff he's doing right now he's really deep in the twin peaks community but the last days of letterman i highly recommend that book to anybody who's a letterman fan um scott ryanproductions.com or or fayettevillemafiamedia.com i think is what the last days of letterman get that book it's so good and we're going to have scott on here he's a friend of the show he's actually one of the guys that's nudged me to doing this a couple weeks after our show a dude in the audience actually got a worldwide pants jacket after trying the same move i did bastard dave even put it on the guy that was okay though because afterwards because although i'd have to wait for it i would get one of the best gifts of all one month to the day after we had our amazing experience david letterman retired from the late show a brand that did not exist before he arrived at cbs but one they would have forever after thanks to him it was very beautiful as a fan but also very sad after dave retired he kind of disappeared for a while every once in a while he would pop up somewhere a picture of him sporting a massive beard footage of him at the racetrack where his team the team he co-owned was racing he was also given a few awards but none of that happened at first i think i shared the same fear many who would fashion themselves admirers of david letterman had that he would perhaps pull a johnny carson and uh become as senator al franken uh wrongfully thankfully wrongfully predicted he would become an eccentric recluse and uh at first it kind of looked like that but i set a habit i set the habit every once in a while of going to google news typing in letterman in the search box just to see what would pop up mostly the search would return highlights of the previous 33 years along with random sightings but nothing really special in my eyes until one morning that is it was a beautiful sunday in early june of 2016.

candy and i were in bed we slept in when we awoke we stayed in bed there with our ipads having a lovely lazy sunday morning warmed by the sunbeams as they came through our bedroom and warmed up our bed it was quiet and serene that is until i scared the hell out of her by exclaiming holy near the top of my lungs and flinging my ipad in utter shock not an embellishment i was flabbergasted and i threw my ipad and i could not talk candy alarmed and desperate to find out what was the matter i just couldn't talk i just put into the ipad she picked it up and her eyes went wide at what she saw my browser was open to the new yorker and an article it had just published called without dave thinking too much about david letterman you can still find it i'll put it in the comments the picture accompanying it is something that still gives me goosebumps to this day and i'm gonna try really hard not to cry it's just my heart and has since become every single wallpaper on every single device i own it was a beautiful black and white high-resolution shot of the very moment david letterman was making fun of me to paul shaffer and the entire audience laughing at me dave had his head turned talking to paul the microphone in his hand alan calter and biff henderson are also laughing the entire audience or the audience including just a glimpse of my white beside me my stepson nico and my friend and colleague kevin and even oregon at the exact opposite end of the row and glasses laughing at me and the conversation i was having with david letterman turns out pulitzer prize winning photographer uh new york times photographer damon winter was on hand that day shooting picks for a piece the times was doing on dave for the run-up of retirement i've since reached out to damon and one day i'll get back to new york and he'll give me a high-res copy and sign it for me my dream is to get dave's signature on this sucker uh but i know it's next to impossible i'm still putting it out there though because hey stranger things have happened may 7th 27th may 7th no i didn't get my jacket but i did get something so much more and i'm grateful so very grateful to this day nearly five years later now it's seven years later and i'm even more grateful i'm certain dave would think it's silly which makes me smile i use the picture of my interviewing candy as my profile pic on many of my digital outlets and the damon winter shot is all my backgrounds and i don't see that changing anytime soon take that oregon peace love mike chisholm stuck in isolation march 2020 that was it that was the story i put up makes me emotional to read it even now man we're an hour and a half hope that's cool uh the outroduction is short and it leads up to this podcast and the formation this podcast so uh let's just finish it off if there's anybody still watching i don't know i don't know if this is entertaining or not uh but it's gonna go up on the youtube because well i've seen a lot of things on youtube that aren't entertaining so why not add to the pile anyway let's read the out reduction that was written in the last few weeks with rupert's girlfriend irene helping me proofread uh not too bad eh i read those words i wrote two years ago and they still make me smile i especially like the take that oregon ending and some of the folks who have braved reading the entire saga have commented the same so if the ending was so good and why feel the need to write an introduction well it turns out the story isn't over yet a bunch of stuff has happened since i released those words and i have told a few like-minded folks my story i suppose i owe mark zuckerberg a beer or kombucha or whatever the hell he drinks his platform led me not only to getting my jacket but three more as well facebook meta whatever you called now thank you but even more importantly the relationships that it's led to um way more important than the jackets i'm i'm a relationship guy um so i'm starting this podcast i wanna relationships with people who have stories like me out there and people who worked for the show his platform led me to not only getting my jacket but three more as well not to mention the relationships with a whole bunch of people who worked for dave wrote about dave or part of the late night late show machine and as the story is still in motion and the story is still in motion in ways i could have never predicted while we were at bc children's hospital having the pen the pandemic spread up around us i wrote those words to stay busy and take my mind off things once they were written i wasn't sure what to do with them coincidentally around that time randomly i say that facetiously as i flat out do not believe in coincidences i was invited to join a david letterman's fans group on facebook i'm uncertain to this day why the invite was extended to me facebook groups are not something i usually frequent um in an increasingly polarized world i see so many divisive argumentative bickering on the platform that i keep it at a solid arm's length in hopes of not becoming embroiled in such behavior life is too short for that kind of stuff for me but to each their own i'm not trying to judge anyone with that statement however i assume someone stumbled across my facebook photos and brought the group to my attention on the anniversary of that magical night in 2020 i decided to post the story in what became uh what could be the longest single post in facebook history despite its questionable grammar and lack of proper paragraphical structure i was tickled by the response from those who took the time to read it sorry i just appreciate i appreciate my friends uh being in a digital space surrounded by folks who fancy themselves as enthusiasts of dave i assume the story would resonate and it did what i wasn't prepared for were the responses from folks who had similar encounters obviously the experience i had was unique but i wasn't the only one who has had unique a unique experience with dave or his shows far from it in fact over the years thousands of folks have been touched in similar ways and my story was a lightning rod for folks who wanted to share their experiences as well it was the beginning of a communal experience that is healthy to this very day i would like to mention something else that is a big part of the aftermath of our typhoon time in vancouver my wife candice founded a men's mental wellness app called he changed it go to heat change it dot com check it out it's a place for men to go work on their wellness okay it's a place she and her team of talented developers are building for men to go to find resources of all sorts pertaining to living a better life in these increasingly complex unprecedented times not politically motivated but rather culturally to put it in a nutshell my wife doesn't like the world her boys are inheriting and doing something about it to bridge the gap she and her team are creating a support structure for men and hoping of affecting changes that make the world a better place for them trickling down for all she was well into the project before our sudden excursion to vancouver i want to point out that my granddaughter is nearly four now and happy and healthy and a force of nature but while we were away we weren't sure about the future of he we had always talked about the idea that if he changed it ever got off the ground i would host a podcast for it i even had a title he cast the official podcast of he changed it i envisioned talking to counselors life or performance coaches athletes filmmakers and more anyone with a story to tell that could lead me or that could lead to food for thought in hopes of creating an atmosphere for betterment of men out there who might be slightly silently struggling something that is happening in global proportions while never hosting a podcast i came to realize that i should have been a broadcaster and i wanted to take the opportunity to do it here not for money but for the experience and for wanting to help the cause while gaining the experience that my soul deeply yearned for from within it felt like my life's purpose when we got home in may of 2020 after being away from our home for nearly five months we got back to building he and the podcast was to become a reality sooner than later as the reality of having a show that was vitally important to the future of my family and and and well beyond came closer i knew i needed experience our youngest son had just struck out on his own as a videographer and he had and i had a bit of experience working with local television on a community program but i never hosted a show on my own before but it was really my heart's desire while all of this was happening the deepening of relationships with the folks in the letterman community was also happening and at a rapid pace it had gone far beyond other fans and was moving into meeting and chatting with people who used to work for the show or wrote books about it i'm a naturally curious person and even then a pretty good conversationalist so i came up with an idea what if i created a youtube show called tales from the late show and i just recorded interviews with some of these people i was meeting i could use it as practice for he cast and at the same time pick the brains of folks who were part of the show who gave me so much insight and joy for all those years remember arthur kelly the guy who answered the phone at the ed sullivan theater he was my first guest artie as i call him now uh was one of the folks i struck friendships with through one of the letterman groups i became a part of i already answered the phone on dave's floor and was an on-air personality on the late show for over 10 years he was so patient each time i would ask him questions and we talked quite a bit over the past couple years about a lot of things other than the late show i cringe when looking back at that first episode i had yet to get the hang of interviewing guests over the internet and i cut them off many times during our conversation i am honored and grateful to say the next christmas i received a box from new york in it was one of the worldwide pants jackets already received as a staff member for working for dave i became extremely emotional when i opened that box and realized what it was thankfully i've gotten much better at interviewing and i am now a very strong award-nominated podcaster i haven't won anything but that's okay um we've shot and released over 100 episodes of he cast and not a week goes by where i don't have someone reach out to me thanking me for the show and telling me how it's helped him or women as well uh saying how it's helped them relate to men in their life that's pretty cool feeling he he changed it.com if you ever want info on that while there's still no money in it we're a tech startup on the cusp of really blowing up in a good way it's still one of the most fulfilling endeavors i've ever been a part of but then this dave stuff just keeps happening in may of this year i'm traveling to los angeles to see dave do a gig for the netflix is a joke comedy festival i'm very excited to be in the same room with him again my mind is doing the same thing it was in 2015 exploring the possibilities imagining what is possible of course i am also taking action i will have a couple copies of the magical photo which hopefully i can get him to sign which i will display in the podcast studio i'll be wearing the same salmon jacket i wore on the show that night even though it's a little big for me now my goal is to meet him maybe shake his hand or settle for a fist bump in our new normal post pandemic dynamic the ultimate goal would be to interview him i suppose after considerable nudging from people including some who worked for the show i've decided to start the letterman podcast somebody has to do what they say i like the idea of it connecting with folks who were touched by dave and his shows people who worked for him people that are brushed with the show like i did or other enthusiasts keeping all of that wonderful content alive the poc the podcast will never focus on anything negative or salacious but instead celebrate one of the greatest broadcasting and entertainment institutions that has ever existed or that will ever exist the legacy has inspired countless others to do the same thing not just not as well i have a fierce instinctive desire to pass the torch of that legacy to others not for personal gain but to share all the smart clever thought-provoking and hysterical body of work that dave and company created to preserve it for the next generation and beyond it's real it's right from inside me what a thing i would love to tell dave that to thank him for chasing his dream because it made me chase my dream i'm excited about the possibilities of what is to come and grateful for what has passed until the next update take that oregon peace love mike chisholm april 20th 2022