Really? Dave again?

Since I have very little to write about lately, I have to re-visit topics and dig deeper.

I promised that I would provide better detail on the Late Night with David Letterman experience, so whether you like this topic or not, here it is.

We were under strict orders to show up outside the studio by 2:00 pm or we would never, under no circumstances ever be allowed near Dave again. Being the orderly, timely Midwesterner that I am we were there about 20 minute early freezing our asses off. We stood in line and showed our “Government issued ID cards” more times than we did on the flight to get there. It was a super efficient operation, color coding, ID cards, single file lines, all handled by what appeared to be 20’somethings with WAY too much energy. I like Dave, but cheering for him and proving that I AM EXCITED 50 times was a bit much. Oh…by the way..plenty of people showed up AFTER 2:00 and it didn’t seem to be a problem. Eventually we were ushered into the theatre and another 20’something dude proceeded to scream at us for about 20 minutes about “the rules”. No gum, no hats, no WOO HOO noises, no whistling, no photography, no yelling out, the list went on and on. The last rule was, whatever Dave says you were to laugh at it like you thought it was the funniest thing you ever heard.  Laugh first and think about it on the way home was the admonishment. We went inside, I popped a piece of gum in my mouth, put my hat back on and took a couple of pictures of the stage just to test how diligent everyone was. They didn’t find it amusing. Here are the remaining highlights of the taping.

- Dave must hate his suit jacket. Every time they cut to commercial he whipped that thing off and dropped it to the floor. Of course there was someone there to pick it up, dust it off and get it ready to put back on.

- The band was killer and they played the entire time. When there wasn’t a guest or a monologue going, on the band was playing. I couldn’t figure out how the crew was getting anything done with it so loud.

- The cue card guy was a genius. This dude was writing cue cards on the fly the whole time. I could smell the smell of marker from my seat the whole show.

- The announcer dude has the cushiest job on the planet. He plopped himself in the chair near me, did a couple of Daaavid Letttermannnn!!!!’s and called it a day.

Once the show was over we got kicked out quick. Funny thing is they shut down the bathrooms so nobody dawdled on the way out. Good call. Oh and NO PHOTOGRAPHY!!! – The couple snapping souvenir photos on the way out must have arrived at 2:16 and missed that part.