just living in the shadow

okay, so he did it nightly for, like a bazillion years…

…and had ten per list, where as i do this every other sunday (roughly) and only do six. in my defense, he has writers (and i don’t) and he was paid a shit-load more than me. but i’d be lying if i didn’t say letterman’s top ten lists inspired my sunday sixers; so, in honor of his last show that aired this week, here’s the sunday sixer appropriately titled:

six things about letterman i’m pretty fucking jealous of

da’ band – it’s odd…i like the band, i like a bunch of paul shaeffer’s work, but the bulk of his personality and schtick get on my nerves. that being said, it must have been a good gig because a lot of the members stayed forever. when i was back in my clubbing days i once ran into (and subsequently ran around with) will lee, the bass player in the band both on the late show and late night with david letterman, who was enjoying his hiatus time here since he’s from san antonio and all. nice guy, great bassist, and member of a great band.

calvert or larry – you’re call – he had regular players on the show that ran forever, including biff henderson, the aforementioned piano player, and chris elliott…but i was always a fan of calvert deforrest, who was known as “larry ‘bud’ melman”. you remember him, right? here he is as roy orbison:

what else do you need? sadly, he passed in 2007.

he knew how to handle a hot mess with grace – from jaquin to farah he was never fazed. i had lunch with the latter once (it was a table of eight, not just the two of us) at threadgill’s when she was in town and wanted to see one of the beer signs she modeled for back when she was in college here. not QUITE as much the hot mess as on his show, but pretty close…bet mr. phoenix is actually worse in person. any takers?

break stuff and get paid for it! – from blowing shit up to throwing cards through imaginary windows letterman was all about profressional-grade destruction. how can you not love that shit?

(a note – one of the drunken last letterman show watching notes i made for this simply said “gun on desk” so i’m assuming this is what i was referencing? i’ve had a gun on my desk before, so i don’t know why i’d be jealous of that…)

bfm – he had guest on more often, but nobody seemed as much fun for dave as the master of disater, bill fucking murray. he was on forty-five times by my count, and he was the first guest on “late night…” and the last “late show” non-musical guest. find montages on youtube…they’re fucking hilarious.

and finally…

dorothy mengering – you know her. it’s dave’s mom. she’s been on the show a few times, even co-hosting from the olympics back in the 1990’s. it’s been forever since she’s been on, and given her age (she was born five days BEFORE larry ‘bud’ melman) i figured she’d passed…but she hasn’t! so not only did he get to have his mom on his show (i never got to do that on radio) he’s also not even a dmc member! makes me doubly jealous!