Inside Late Night With Mark Malkoff Ep 38: J Ryan

In March of 1996, Late Show with David Letterman returned from a short break with a brand new set–a beautiful bridge-filled cityscape that would see its host through the rest of his late-night career. But Letterman was distraught. While the show was away, his desk microphone (a carryover from his NBC days) had been stolen, and its ill-fitting replacement had him feeling off his game. 

This week on Inside Late Night, Mark Malkoff speaks with J Ryan, the then-grieving 18 year-old who stole Dave’s microphone and instantly regretted it. After watching Letterman’s televised response, Ryan was determined to make things right–or at least better. The story only gets wilder from there.

Years later, the same J Ryan found himself gifted with the original desk and chairs from Letterman’s Late Show, from which he now hosts his own podcast, Late Night Playset, where he’s talked cars and comedy with the likes of Jay Leno, Spike Feresten, Rainn Wilson, and many others.

Click the embed below to listen now, or find Inside Late Night on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Follow J Ryan on Instagram. Visit the Late Night Playset website at latenightplayset.com and follow the show on YouTube and Instagram.

Show Transcript:

 Mark Malkoff: J Ryan, thanks for being with us. 

J Ryan: Thank you, Mark Malkoff. It’s an honor to be here. 

So our lives we’ve intersected at least twice leading up to, I guess, did you know who I was through the Carson podcast? Was that how you knew who I was? 

I’ll tell you what, I actually, um, I don’t know that we’ve ever talked about this, it’s very funny. When The Story of Late Night came out on CNN, uh, you were a part of that. And I, I was, you know, of course I was consuming that content. Uh, and I go, that guy’s familiar. Why do I know that guy? And I can’t remember, I think I looked you up and then we were maybe already Facebook friends or something. And I was like, why do I know this guy? Why do I know this guy? He’s in my life from something. And I just can’t remember how or why, um, little did I know it’s when I scribbled it down so quickly in my notebook from when I was 20 years old, probably when, you know, talking to you on the phone. Um, it was weird to have to go down the mental, the pathways of how the hell do I know you? Um, I feel like it was, uh, it was around then I would say the story of late night, whenever that came out. But obviously I knew you a lot longer than that. 

Yes. We’re going to get, we’re going to get to, um, you in the background  I’m looking right now. You have Dave Letterman’s desk from CBS and you have, uh, chairs that they used on, on the NBC show. We will, we’ll, we’ll talk about, um, all of that and the microphone, how you, uh, got all of that, which is incredible, and you didn’t have to spend six figures. So the first time that our paths crossed, and this is amazing, this is the first time I ever went to see Letterman, and I was like, such a, I mean, I was so excited. I know the date, it was Friday, it was October 16th, 1992. Jeff Goldblum, I remember being in the lobby and him walking by, because it just never occurred to me because if you’re going to see like Carson or whatever, the guests don’t cross paths with the audience. Like it, it was just so, I still can’t believe it.

I remember this day as well because I was in that same lobby and I have to ask you, I was the first person in line that day, literally number one, because I had a field trip into the city that day and that we went and saw Luciano Pavarotti sing, uh, at the Met and then I got my mom to sign a permission slip that let me, let, had the school leave me in New York City. And then I then, at 14 years old, whatever it was, I was way too young to actually be in the audience. I walked down to NBC and I just started standing in line at like, one o’clock or something. Uh, maybe even earlier than that. So do you remember, were you like towards the front of the line? Shooting the sh*t in line. Cause no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

I was kind of in the middle of the line and I went with my friend, Chad Carr and our moms drove us. Um, I don’t, was I 16 at the time? I might’ve been, I think I was, might’ve been 16 and they drove us there and they didn’t have, wouldn’t have tickets for them. So they just did their thing. So it’s Chad and I in line. We see, um, Goldblum go by. 

He was dressed all in black with a black leather jacket. I totally remember. 

And it’s just like to have these like Wonka type, feel like tickets in my hand, NBC. So they take us up to the seventh floor. I remember Laurie Diamond going around to everybody, uh, that’s Dave’s assistant. And she would do that at the NBC show a lot. And 

She was Rose. That was the Rose character, right? 

That’s right. She would, she would identify her name as Rose, but, um, that is not her name. But I think Dave was calling her that at some, some point. 

Oh, that would make more sense. I always thought that was kind of like, if anybody ever called, she knew how to decide whether they were a fan or somebody on the inside, but you’re probably right. It was probably a Dave joke. 

She was very outgoing, uh, and, and pleasant to people. And, uh, she would just go and apologize that Dave feels bad that you have to wait in line. So then we get seated. I remember exactly where I was seated. Um, on, um, looking at the stage to the left and just like the excitement, I think the only thing that maybe trumps at that point in my life was going to see, um, a couple months earlier, see Saturday Night Live.

Oh, right upstairs. Yeah. 

It was like, that was like the, probably the, but to be there for Dave and then, um, the band comes out, Bill Scheft did the warmup. What stands out about that for you? I remember it like it was yesterday. 

There’s a couple things, one in that hallway before we even got, when Rose is doing the apology. Dave, it feels terrible that you have to wait so long in line. What I remember was the walls outside the seventh floor hallways rumbling from The Screaming Trees during their rehearsal. It was so insanely loud and then Paul and the band I think were rehearsing too, but it was. They somebody had been to the show before me in my world and they told me it was going to be loud. They’re like, I’ll bring earplugs. I was like, yeah, right, whatever. I’ve been in the studio before on the tour So I knew you know what it looked like I had never been there when it was alive with the energy and holy moly. You just walk in there and there was a crazy energy that had been cultivated before It was cultivated while we were sitting out there in line.

I agree. 

That’s what I remember. 

I agree. And then you walk in and I remember exactly what I was wearing. I remember just, um, being so excited out of my mind. And then  Dave did a warmup and like, they told us like when we were waiting on seven, if you have any questions for him and like, I had like the lamest question, but I’m like, I want to get Dave’s attention. And like, this is so ridiculous, but like my friend Chad Carr and I, we wanted to get on TV and they would do these cutaways sometimes, um, during Dave’s monologue. And then he would comment on them. And we had, um, Hershey kiss, kiss hats. Cause we’re from Hershey, Pennsylvania. And we had the aluminum foil.They’re like not aluminum foil, but the Hershey kiss hat. 

No, it’s not an alien, uh, hat. It’s like, it looked like a kiss with a little flag on top. 

Yeah. We went to Hershey high school, so I’m holding it in my hand. And, uh, Dave, he says, are there any questions? And he said, and I raised my hand, I said, the man with the aluminum foil hat. And at this point, I’m 16 years old. He’s like, where are you from? I said, Hershey, Pennsylvania. And he’s like, he says, Hershey, I do business with them. I know people from Hershey and I know what they’re like. So I’ll talk very slowly. Um, he’s like, is that for me? What is that? And then I told him and I give it, I stand up and I walked to him and he said, thank you for dressing up. And I’m in jeans and a sweatshirt, of course, um, standard Dave. And I shook his hand and then the music kicked in and it was like, I don’t know. It was just like. It was just the most incredible thing to witness. To first of all, even like shake the man’s hand and the Letterman meant so much to so many of us and my first experience like that to have any interaction with this guy.

That’s the dream, right? That’s the fan’s dream. You’re going to go, you’re going to sit in the audience. Somehow you’re going to get Dave’s attention. You’re going to have an interaction. Totally. 

And then the music kicks in, which is so loud. And from that point on. Vewer mail, I remember, um, everything. That Supermarket Sweep thing that they did. 

I remember, uh, the thing with. Uh, Tom Brokaw’s eyes. He was frying bacon with his eyes for something 

They were, what they would do is because if you weren’t at NBC, you could go on the different channels and watch, like, not rehearsal, but just kind of like, and I think if you had a satellite, you could too sometimes, which is so strange.

Yeah.

If you had a satellite dish. And yeah, they, they did that. 

You, so you said you were on the left side of the audience, looking at the stage?

Yes, I was on the left and I was like, yeah, so that’s where I was. It was a pretty good seat. 

I was on the right. I was on the right in the it’s so interesting that this was both of our first Letterman taping.

And it’s not a big studio. 

No, it was itty bitty. But what I had the same thought as you, like, oh, I’ll just somehow get Dave’s attention. But I got front row cause I was first in line front row and all the way against the wall, like right by the blue doors where, where it was, 

Wow, that’s a great seat. But yeah, for where Dave is standing, 

Well, it, it is kind of, but you’re almost, like, backstage over there.You can’t, you’re not really part of anything. And when Dave went out to go do that warmup, I was so far behind him. There was no, I would have had to be like, Hey, Dave! You were right in front of him. 

I was definitely in his eyeline. I’m to the left. And it was, Yeah, it was one of those things where I went back to Hershey and I’m like, no one’s gonna believe me. But, um, my friend Chad could back me up. 

Bill Scheft said also that was, uh, it was an anniversary show. It was like the 1700th show or something like that. 

It was. That’s absolutely right. And then what was the pumpkin? Because like they had the Chef Daniel, Daniel Boulou.

Daniel Boulou. No, but it wasn’t him. It was, Bobby Fl…  No, that was another. 

I don’t think it was. 

No, you’re  right. There was, but they did a cooking segment. And then at the end, this, one of the Screaming Trees picked up the pumpkin  and crashed it over another Screaming Trees’ head. 

Yeah, that was the goodnights. I don’t even know if that got on at the very end, but I thought that that was very.

Oh, that didn’t even make it to the show? 

I’m not really sure, but I remember that, that well, and I was like 

I was right there for everybody walking out with pumpkin in their long hair and everything. It was right in front of me. 

They teased the audience that we were gonna get something to eat and no one got anything that I’m aware of.But that’s, um, that’s okay. It’s not the cooking channel.

But like No, but you’re right. Even during the warm up, I go, I hope you’re hungry tonight because we also have celebrity chef so and so. You’re right. 

They had to pry me out of that studio, uh, after that tape and the NBC pages immediately. Um, they’re not, there’s no like, thank you for coming or anything. It’s just immediately. They’re just trying to get you out of, of that place. And this is, I feel so bad for my mom, but I will, I will defend myself. So that was the 16th and then I was able to get tickets for Tuesday, the 27th, which is like a week later to Letterman and I’m like, she’s like, why do you have to go again? I’m like, mom, you don’t understand. 

How did you do that? How did you get them so, how did you? 

You do the postcard system. You could only do one per person. So I would do like me and then all my friends, I would be, um, Oh, that’s Mark Malkoff, 

Oh that’s smart. That’s stupidly genius. 

Yeah. So I just would do that. So like my friends would get them and just hand them over to me. So I had no idea who he was at the time, of the significance, but it was Bill Hicks. It was, um, Kathie Lee Gifford, Bill Hicks. And that was October 27th, Tuesday. And, um, that was like. Some of the most surreal, most exciting moments of my life were in the 30 Rock lobby and a bunch of stuff happened while I was waiting in line that I just, to this day, I’m just like, you just never know who you’re going to see and interact with.

Really? 

Yeah. 

I was lucky enough to never spend that much time in the lobby. It was always kind of always upstairs. It was just that one day I remember where I waited all day, you know, after that field trip for the first Dave. And I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget sitting on that black marble floor. 

So then we talk on the phone, but we don’t know each other. This is like, um, six years later, I guess. 

It’s gotta be, it would have been 98 or 99 because I moved to LA in 99. 

That’s when I worked on the show. And so I get this phone call and I would set people up with tickets. We talked on the phone, and the only, and we didn’t. It didn’t even click to me. We knew each other. We met each other then like decades later and stuff, but it didn’t click to me. You were the one, but this is what happened. We were talking. And you mentioned that you had been a former intern on the show. You knew the whole layout. 

Wait, I didn’t call you though, right? Because that doesn’t make sense that I would call you. 

What happened is, and I’ll explain what happened is, we would send out a postcard, people would send a postcard to us, and then we would send out this thing where you have to call this phone number to get tickets, and they would call us, and I’d say, it’s a late show, and then I would say to you, I was like, I would make sure the address was right, and I’m like, we have some, um, just some questions. How often do you watch the show? And then we’d have to gauge their enthusiasm level like that. We wouldn’t, 

Oh, you’re qualified. You’re seeing if they’re doing what you used to do with your friends. 

We would do the trivia question. I was always, almost always like, well, cut hair color is the announcer or where where’s Paul from or something like that. But we would have to put that enter that data and they would try to get. Uh, you know, for each show, uh, you know, really, really big, rabid fans. And then people that may be, as Dave would say, late show viewers, you can’t call them fans. Um, but people that, um, yeah, so they would definitely, um, try to, uh, it was like this whole mastermind with the audience department.

But that makes sense why I would call back. But the funny thing, I don’t even know what that, anyway, keep going. 

We’re talking on the phone. I don’t even think at that point you told me you were an intern, but I think you did because you were telling me, are you on the eighth floor? Yeah. And it’s like, 

Oh, that’s creepy.What are you wearing? 

Telling me like where the whole like layout was and stuff. And like who the HR person who was the internship coordinator, who was like, right, literally like right next to our office and all those inside stuff. And I’m just like blown away. 

It all checks out. That’s all correct information.

But then this is the thing that you told me. And I was just like, wait, wait, wait, let’s just stop. And I was just, I’ll never forget it. You were  like you, Dave Letterman, he lost his microphone. Somebody took his microphone from his studio. And then you told me that you showed up to his place in Connecticut with a replacement mic. You knock on his door on the weekend. You give it to him. And he thanks you and gives you a Worldwide Pants jacket, which back then was like the, it was like, that was like, huge. 

It was the Late Show jacket. I still have it, obviously.  

Oh man, to get one of those things back then especially was like, oh goodness, that was like, unheard of.

I mean, it was like such a wish. I’m gonna grab it while you talk. 

We talk on the phone. And then after that, I ran into the, the, the woman, uh, who you was the internship coordinator, HR person. And then I described you and she told me that you were an imposter intern that you, and, and I wanna get your version of everything that happened. But how did this happen? I mean, this is incredible to me. And she’s like, don’t get him tickets. I’m like, I already did. I’m fine. He’s. 

Oh my god, that’s hilarious. You know, the funny thing is I never went and saw the show again there. So I think that those, I’ve done some serious thinking about this. There’s only one person I might’ve gotten tickets for and I may have actually not even gone to that taping. I think that those tickets were for somebody else. But, but I do remember all of that. And the, and the backstory is that because I didn’t have a normal intern jacket, I had the late show jacket that Dave asked me, everybody constantly were asking, how did you get that jacket? Why do you have that jacket? And then I would tell them the true story because I think I probably as a kid probably wanted to be found out. I probably was like, I didn’t get in trouble when I took the microphone and gave him mine and mine’s on the desk downstairs and now here I am over here. And, uh, but anyway, so yeah, when I, when that did all happen, you know, Dave gave me one of these suckers.

Amazing. And he just answers the door in Connecticut and you’re this guy. 

Well, I mean, that’s a long story. There was a lot of crazy coincidences that you couldn’t possibly plan. You would just, yes. 

New Canaan, because I, I just, I always knew the guy was like in New Canaan, that’s all I knew. 

Yeah, I don’t mind talking about this because he, that he’s not lived in that house for a long, long time and it doesn’t even look the same as it used to, but the funny thing is, and I never would have known this, because I didn’t see the early shows until much, much later, but when they were showing Dave’s house on the show, like when they were waiting for the cable man and all that stuff, that’s the real house.That was really Dave’s house. I’ve been there. 

So you recognized it from the show? 

No, no, no. I knew it. Everybody in town knew where Dave lived.

I mean, without making light of it, the cops were there a lot back then. In the night. 

Yeah. I mean, he had a, he had problems with the, uh, and plus just everyone in town kind of knew. I mean, it’s hard to describe now, but imagine the woods of new England where everything is pitch pitch black. There aren’t even street lights. And then you come upon one house on a windy road that is lit up like a football field, the entire thing from the trees down, it looked like, like the white house. Um, it was, it was obvious that that home was different for a reason. The security was insane. 

I was going to ask, so there aren’t, how do you get up to like, is there a gate or do you just like, how do you? 

Yeah, there was, there was, I mean, how much of this do you want to do? So, you know, I got, 

I want to know everything. This is the whole thing is, and then we’ll, we’ll get, there’s the fact that you have the set, right? And so I’ll connect with, I know, I know. So I want,  I want to know, I want the details. 

Well, you know, they were redoing the set in 1996 or whatever and my dad had just passed away two weeks prior and I had, I was living alone in this house in the woods, not far from Dave and I had a friend staying with me and we were, uh, and I was obsessed with all this stuff. I used to draw the desk, the microphone, the set in every way I would call Kathleen Ankers and I would, um, you know, like. For lack of a better term, interview her. I would pester her, bother her. Well, how did you do this? And how do you do that? And where do I find this? Oh dearly, this one’s very easy. And she was just like, lovely. And I could call her. And, uh, and she would take my call. And so I was obsessed with the new set. And quite frankly, I loved the old NBC set so much that when Dave moved to CBS and they were in the big theater, I never, I just, they didn’t capture the magic for me that was in, um, Studio 6A. So I was really curious to see if this new configure, whatever the heck, I was obsessed. And then the night when the new set’s gonna come out, um, they air a repeat. And my buddy and I are sitting there on the couch, like, waiting all day. I’m drawing pictures. I can’t, you know, what’s it going to be? Making my predictions, you know, because that’s what fans, super fans do back then. And, uh, and it didn’t come on. And like I said, my dad had just died, died, and I bought this used BMW for like 5,000. But I said, I’m going to go for a drive. And I did. I went for a drive and I needed gas. So I ended up having to go to the gas station. And that took me into another town because my town was closed and one thing led to another and I drove my ass down to New York City the whole time thinking, well, what if, you know, maybe they’re still working on it. Maybe I can get a sneak in there and take a peek, you know? And, uh, when I got down to New York City and rounded the corner on the 53rd Street, the dumpsters were there and nothing else. It was silent. It was silent in New York City. It was, it was so silent that as I got out of my car and I was gonna go take a peek and maybe dumpster dive to see if, you know, I can grab a bit of the old set or whatever as a memento Um, I hear a vacuum switch on. Like, that’s how quiet it was. And it was, it was one of the cleaning people inside the Ed Sullivan Theater. And the door that was inside, I know now to be the stage door, they weren’t marked back then there weren’t posters and all the different things from the paparazzi line that we know now back then it was just a brick wall and a bunch of unmarked doors. So I knocked on the door and nothing but I could hear the vacuum right on the other side of things. So I just knocked a little bit louder, door opened. I walked right past the guy and I just said, Oh, running late, huh? And I, it was a tiny little room with another door. It was the little security vestibule airlock, they call it, and I went into the next door. Just to get away from that guy, because I didn’t know what I would say. And I was on the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater. At like one, at like one in the morning.  So the door was open, or did he open it for you? Did you knock on the door and he opened it for you? I knocked once,  He, nothing. I knocked a little bit harder. And he opened it, and I literally, he opened it enough that I just said, Ah, running late, huh? Or, I don’t know, I said something like that, but you know, a wave and a, and I just went like I knew where I was going. 

Did you have your Letterman jacket on? Your, your late show jacket? 

That’s, no, because I didn’t have it yet.

Oh, you, of course you didn’t have it, so you 

But I think that I was probably My little outfit back then was very Dave like. You know, probably khaki pants with a t shirt You know what I mean? Like, I probably kind of looked like one of the interns or something. Uh, I don’t remember exactly what I was wearing. And that’s I think it was khakis and a t shirt. But regardless, so then, uh, So then, uh, I’m on the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater. And I did not. 

What year?

1996. This was March. Uh, we figured all the dates out. It was like the 25th or something like that. I can’t remember the dates, but it was whatever the Monday was. Oh, and it turned out Nicole had to put this together for me years later. I’m telling her the story 20 years later and she’s like, she looked up her at the book and she’s like, the Oscars were that night. And I was like, what? She’s like, they aired a rerun because the Oscars were that night. It was never going to be a show. You just didn’t know that. 

I was like, Oh, it worked out less security. 

Oh my God. But it’s so hilarious. It’s so hilarious. So anyway, you know, they’re saying, Oh, next week, next week, remember they did the show for in the lobby. The week prior while, um, while the set was being deconstructed and they were bringing new stuff in.So, like, they had been pushing this for weeks. So, like, you know, I had hit my boiling point. I wasn’t going to wait any longer. But anyway, so there I was. I was on, I was in the Ed Sullivan Theater, on the stage, looking at the back of a new desk and chairs. And I, I was right where the guests walk out. And I’m on the new set with the bridges. This was the night it switched from the buildings to the bridges that they carried to land. And I saw those bridges and all the little cars and played with them before anybody, before America saw them the next night. 

So you see the set and at this point when you were driving and you go on set, you just wanted to see the set, you in your head, you didn’t say I might swipe something.

No, not necessarily, but I knew that I was obsessed with the microphone. I, I drew it so many times and I did this little high school version of Dave’s show at my high school in Dave’s town. Um, that would, so the school would send tapes to the show and everything, and we were on the, you know, the front of the paper and, and, and things like that, so I don’t think I was totally unknown, but I wanted the show to be exactly like Dave’s as, as possible, so I, like, found the antique microphone, it took me, like, a year, and I found one, and it wasn’t the right color, so I had to have it chromed, and then the stand wasn’t right, so I had to have the little, the yoke piece made by a welder in Bethel, Connecticut, and so on and so forth. So I, for my high school show, I already had this version of his microphone at home, and I wanted to see the real one. And it wasn’t on the desk upstairs. In the new studio, in the new set and everything, everything that was there, the microphone was not. And as I explored, so when I first got in there, there were a couple cleaning people, just like the vestibule guy. And they were just kind of vacuuming in the audience, nobody on the stage. And one by one, those guys just left. So I started exploring the whole theater. Up in the balcony, behind the balcony, behind, like, in the old Ed Sullivan Theater balcony that’s now exposed, it wasn’t for Dave. And down the, you know, the spiral staircase, and uh, And I eventually found a staircase that went downstairs underneath the stage. And then I went down there and I found some hallways that went to a whole another part of the building. And I eventually found the control room. And keep in mind, I’m not touching or futzing with anything. Like I, in my mind, I’m going to work here one day. I think I was already interning. I was, yeah, I was definitely, I’d already interned the previous year at 30 Rock. So working on Conan and SNL and Rosie and stuff. Uh, and anyway, one of the rooms off the control room, one of the audio rooms had. I walked into this room, not expecting, I was just kind of mapping the areas. Oh, this room’s this, this is, oh, this is the videotape room, this special effects, sound effects. And then in this audio ish room, uh, on a cabinet, Like on a bench underneath the cabinet was a beat up old RCA 77 and I got closer to it thinking like that, that’s it, wait, that’s not it. Oh, it was all beat to hell. It was so freaking beat up. I was like this, there’s no way this could be it, but maybe it’s a backup, and I go, uh, but I think it is it. I don’t know. Very quickly, without any of proper thought, the kid in me took the thing apart, put it in my pockets, and I started walking out of the building. So that’s, that was how I stole David Letterman’s microphone. I literally, I traced my steps back, I literally went through the hallways, back the way I did, out the door, I came in, crossed the stage, and I got into my BMW. My used BMW. 

Where was it parked? Was it parked like right outside the theater? 

Right in front of the dumpsters. I literally pulled up in front of those doors and I backed it up to the dumpsters because I thought, oh, there’s nobody here. Maybe if there’s something I’ll just throw in the trunk real quick from the dumpster and leave, but I didn’t, I didn’t. Even know what it would be. I mean, you know what I mean? What am I gonna take a building that those things are like 12 feet tall? Like I didn’t I don’t know what I thought would be there, but I just thought maybe something so I backed it right up So I came out the door. I got in my car and I drove away with the thing still in my pockets I literally just drove away and I got around the corner to like towards the West Side Highway where I could, I took a right Maybe 12th Avenue, whatever it was, and I took a right there, and I just parked the car, and I turned the map light on, and I put the pieces on the, the chair, the, you know, the passenger seat, and I put them together,  now the map light is, like, lighting up David Letterman’s microphone in my car, and I just stole it, and I can’t even go, I realized the gravity, like, it’s setting, and now what just, It was all pure adrenaline when I was walking out of that. I was like, What? And when I got in the car and around the corner, this was the moment where I was like…Oh God, I get so uncomfortable even thinking about it right now. 

How many days after this is Dave then? Because I’ve seen the episode where he talks about the mic being stolen?

Okay, so then I drive home that night with the thing back to Connecticut and I wake my friend up who’s staying with me and he’s like yeah I get it you’re obsessed with that thing and I go uh uh and I ran into the other room and I got mine and now I’m coming back with both. And I’m like this and I’m like, huh? And he didn’t know I was going. I just said I was going for a drive. He had no idea I was going to go down to the theater and let alone have this experience. And and so then we he didn’t believe anything till I had the two. And I told him the whole story and I drew a picture of what the new set looks like and everything. And then it was a waiting game until 11. 35 the next night. And it was a, the longest day of my frickin life. To see what the hell happens, because I thought about, I thought about driving back. I didn’t really… I was terrified, I was so terrified, dude. I really, really was, because I thought, at the very least, I just ruined any chance I ever had of like working there for sure. 

They don’t know who you are though. So that night Dave talks about it on the show. 

The next night. Yeah. That’s so I took it on a Monday night, Tuesday night. He talks about it on the show and it was a big pomp and circumstance to the new set unveil. I mean, Martha Stewart was there to drill, drill the final screw and… There was a lot. It was all they talked about. 

What did they use for a substitute mic? Did they have a substitute mic? 

They bought another old RCA 77, but it was the same problems I had when I got mine. It wasn’t the right stand. It wasn’t, it wasn’t right. And Dave was visibly and audibly not happy with it.

He is one of those people, like creatures of habit, needed everything to be the same every night. Even from when he would You know, be up on 12 on the 12th floor coming down. I was told, you know, if it wasn’t Art or at the reception or whoever it was, he just needed consistency. And if something wasn’t there, it would throw him off. So then at what point then do you intern at the show? And how do you set that up? Is it a fake letter that you send into to the HR person? 

No, none of the above. None of the above. I, uh, well, first of all, I gotta, I gotta fix, I gotta finish the microphone thing because so he mentions on Tuesday that it’s not there. And then throughout the week, and he’s visibly, he’s visibly not really happy about it. Like you can tell. And then, um, throughout the rest of the week, they are writing comedy bits. About it. Uh, they have a kid dress kind of like I was that night come in and he’s the fan club president of the new set and he’s made it out of popsicle sticks and he, then he just kind of won’t, he comes in and he won’t leave. He’s just kind of standing around. Uh, they had Dana Carvey. He had a new show at the time, a famous new show at the time, his variety show. He came in and stole a piece of the new set for his show. There was a lot to it. And then Dave took to not sitting at the desk unless there was a guest there. Like he would deliver information from either sitting on the front of the desk, which we had never seen before, or like other places in the theater, just like the cameras have to find him. Oh, he’s standing over there now. And You know, I didn’t know any of this at the time, but I found out later that, you know, he was, he was not, he was at a great loss, is what I was told, when the microphone disappeared. So, then it became, we have to do something, what do we do now? Um, obviously the obvious choice was to return his somehow. We didn’t go that route. We hashed the old switcheroo idea, where I would return my microphone, uh, and just donate it to the show. Not return it, just give it to the show. I’ve been sending tapes for years, here’s a microphone, use it if you will. But then how do we get it there became the issue. Do you send it in a box? Do you show up? Do I bring it? Do I go to the Ed Sullivan Theater? If I go to the Ed Sullivan theater, I should probably bring the real one on and on and on. Couldn’t, couldn’t get to a solution. So I ended up driving to Dave’s house on the Saturday, the following Saturday. Stolen on a Monday. He announced it on Tuesday, visibly uncomfortable all week. Saturday morning, I decide I’m gonna drive to Dave’s. 

So you ring the buzzer, the doorbell, take me through everything, there’s a gate, how does this work? 

It’s very the house is only a couple miles from where I live, so it’s not a long drive, and I idd some loops to make this drive longer because I, there’s, you got, I got a buzz through to get the gate open and I’m thinking how, what am I going to say? Like, Hey Dave, I have your microphone. Well, not your microphone. Like how does it, so I can’t, and I don’t have anything. So eventually I just decided to drive and wing it like everything else. Like I can’t plan this out. I’ll just lather and whatever happens happens. When I pull up to the house and pull into the driveway and get to the little thing, I look in front of me and the gate is open. These are the coincidences I’m talking about, the guy vacuuming the carpet in a tiny little room, me getting there on a day when his gate is open, so I drive up the driveway. And I, back then, um, his house was set up to be very secure and the driveway drove behind the house to like a turnaround and there was another garage back there and it was, it was all to avoid what looked like the front of a house in the front garage, it was all moved to the back. So you’re driving through this gate, up his yard, behind his house, you’re now in the backyard, so I’m between his house and his pool and his tennis court, like from the GQ article. And I don’t know where to go now. I’ve never seen this part from the street. I don’t know what to do. And I, I then see why the gate was open. His pool was being filled. I don’t know how often that happens, but like, that’s a crazy coincidence in my mind. And I can’t tell where to go into his house, because there’s not like an obvious front door, everything’s sort of reconfigured. But he does have a screen porch. And my house had a screen porch, so I know that go into screen porch, then there’s the house. So I take a couple deep breaths and I take the microphone my microphone from my high school show off of my passenger seat of the same BMW and I’m now walking on his gravel driveway crunch crunch crunch towards this screen door, uh, screen porch is a couple steps up to the screen door, I knock on it I can see in the screen porch there’s no one there so I go into the screen porch now I’m in Dave’s screen porch which you’ve seen on the show again remind you it’s a finished room in his house there’s furniture and stuff and now I’m at the glass clear door to the house and I can see into his great room and his dining room and I can see into the kitchen and the staircase and like, so I knock on the glass, never been more nervous in my life and I see Dave come into view and he sees that I’m not the water guy, the pool guy, and he probably sees what I’m holding and he, he comes, walks through that room and he opens the glass door a little bit and he gives me a little tip of the, what can I do for you? Very discerning. What can I do for you? And I said, uh, Mr. Letterman, I want to donate this microphone to you. My name is, I do a show down at the high school. You know, like, total incoherent blabble. And he doesn’t even take it. He’s just like, well, I can’t take that. But he comes out to the porch at this point. Now we’re on the porch and we’re both having a conversation. It’s not like between the door. And, uh, on and on and on for probably another 30 seconds, and I said, it’s not yours, but it’s really, really close. I, you know, I graduated high school, so we don’t do the show anymore, but, you know, on and on. And I said, uh, I said that I had the thing made, so it’s, it’s, it’s really, really similar to, to what, you know, you had, and that’s the problem that’s bothering you right now. He takes it in his hands at that point. And like he took, it’s between us the whole time. And at that point he had it and he, he turns it around. He’s looking at the piece that I had made and he goes, well, it is close. It’s really close actually. And at this point I can tell, like, he’s figuring out how to accept my gift or to  call the cops. I, it’s 50 50, but he did end up taking it. He, he said, all right, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll accept this, but I got to get something for you, uh, you stay right there. Don’t go anywhere. Stay put. He said it like three times. I’m gonna go get something for you. Stay right there. Okay. Goes in the house, puts my microphone on his dining room table, goes up the stairs and out of view. I can’t believe this moment’s happening. I am convinced he’s calling the cops and I’m a little bit relieved. And he doesn’t do that. He comes back into view and he’s unwrapping this, which was the only thing in the world as a super fan back then, I wanted as much as the microphone. 

We all did. 

So color me, color me confused. I got David Letterman’s microphone. He now has mine and he gave me a Late Show jacket. I, and, and he, he unwrapped it and he said, uh, I wear an XL and we’re about the same size. So this ought to work for you. And he made me put it on, on the porch so that it, he saw that it fit. And he goes, well, there you go. And he sent me on my way out of his house, I got in my car and I drove around the thing and I went back down the driveway and I went back to the same friend and I was like, check this out. And then, um, that was Saturday and then the next Monday, he never said anything about it. From that day on my, uh, deal, my thing that I gave him was on his, on his desk until like they went to the modern microphone, you know, a decade later.

When do you then become an intern imposter? 

I was, I continued to send letters, just like you do, you know, to try to get an internship. And I never got, I would always get the form letter. I wasn’t in college was the problem. I went to like the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, and then my dad died. And then my life kind of got on, put on hold, and I couldn’t afford college. Like, there was a million things, right? And so I was, I kept trying, I would send the letter, and, and I would get the form letter back. And eventually, one day, and this is, again, pure coincidence, because it’s how my frickin unplanned Forrest Gump life goes. I was in the city, I might have been, let me think about this, why was I there that day? I think I was probably, so I was still freelancing at NBC, like those guys, uh, Joey Abig and Glenn Arbor from the audio department at Conan, ended up getting me into apprentice with their union. And, uh, they set me up with the hiring guy upstairs. Shout out to Joe Garofalo, um, on the seventh floor. Anyway, so I was still like, I was in their freelance system. So I would still go down to work sometimes, but I’m trying to think of why I was done early enough. What happened was I was in the Hello Deli and I was ordering a sandwich, just a guy. Now I was probably in, I was definitely in my Late Show jacket and Rupert, and there was a bunch of people around and Rupert says, and Rupert doesn’t know me. I’m not a Pantser, I just took the microphone. And I wasn’t one of those guys who hung out around the show. I wasn’t like outside the stage door, sign my thing or whatever. I wasn’t one of those guys. Um, so Rupert says, hi, are you the new intern? And all of the heads around went like this. They all, they all, that was all, all eyes on me. And I just said, yes, yes, I’m the new intern. The same way like Dave would have in a bit. And from that moment on, I was the new intern. We were now in, it was like Pee Wee Herman getting into Warner Brothers with Milton Berle’s joke at the end of the movie. Um, I, I went upstairs with them. They’re like, Oh, you’re going upstairs. We’re going upstairs. And I was like, yes, let me just get my sandwich. And I went upstairs with them and they intruded. Do you know Willis? This is Willis. Like, Oh, hi, Willis, the security guard at the desk. 

I know. I remember. 

And, uh, we went up the elevator and I just. Those guys were from the ticket office. I think my first day I think that’s where I was hanging out in where you were on that phone call and and whatever and from that day on, I was an intern for the next two or three weeks 

And then how did they find out you didn’t belong?

Well, so everybody who asked me about this jacket, I would tell them the truth Like, oh, well not that I took the microphone, but I, oh, I was the guy that gave Dave his microphone so he gave me this jacket and that’s how I got the jacket. Oh, that’s interesting. Oh, that’s how you got the internship. Oh, oh, oh, that’s why you’re different from the rest of us and we don’t know you. You’re a must hire, is what it probably seemed like now, but it was, um, it was like three weeks in, two or three weeks in, at least two full weeks. And we were walking out between, it must have been a third, was it Thursday where we would do two shows a night? 

Yeah, they did two shows on Thursday, eventually, yeah.

So there was a pizza party between the two shows, and we had set up for the pizza party, and we were going downstairs for something. And Willis the security guard said, hey J, because he knows me by name, hey, Janice wants to talk to you. Uh, you know, go see her or whatever. And we were, we were headed out the door. So I just said, Oh yeah, okay, when I go back up? Absolutely. And we all went out to do whatever we were doing. We were on a mission to do something and I can’t even remember what it was now, but I remember the, cause my, my face went white when he said that, I was like, J, the gig is up. And I, and I got in my car and I drove away and that was it. I got scared. Yeah. And you never, I never heard about it again. I never heard about it. I was like, they have my info. They’ll call me. I’ll be in trouble. None of that ever. Same thing with the microphone. 

Yeah, she mentioned, uh, she mentioned you, uh, to me and I, I was just like, wow, I can’t believe he pulled that off.

I wonder what would have happened if I had the guts at, I mean, at this age of my life, you know, I take things head on, but then I was like avoiding stuff and you know. Um, I wonder what would have happened. I wonder if they would have, you know, like, and again, I was working there. I wasn’t like, like I took the microphone that night, but I wasn’t, I wasn’t, I wasn’t getting my friend’s tickets. I wasn’t taking things home. I wasn’t doing any of that stuff. I was working there making copies and setting up pizza parties. Sending out tickets, stuffing envelopes. 

Not getting college credit as you’re supposed to as an intern, but hey. 

And not getting credit. 

What year, then, do you contact the Museum of Moving and Image here in Astoria where I live? Because they had the set. They donated the set. And you called originally just because you wanted to see if you could rent the desk. What year was that? 

You’re right about all this, but remember I couldn’t remember what the thing was for? Look, when we talked about it, I couldn’t remember what the event was for. And just last week, uh, a kid from my high school who was like the me 20 years later who ran my department and everything. He was out here and audited our show last week and he reminded me about it. He was like, how did you get this stuff? And I was like, well, we were going to rent it to do a thing. And it was a thing at my high school, whatever that, we were going to rent it for an event that I now know specifically exactly all the details for it. Cause I, I remember them and I contacted. I didn’t even know this thing was in existence and somebody online said it was and I, I just started chasing down. They said, send a message. I think it might’ve been Chris Albers. Was he a producer on the show? 

Chris was worked. Um, I think he just in the very beginning of CBS and then he went to Jon Stewart show and then, um, he went to Conan’s show.

Okay. I think it was him. I think, yes, then I think it was him, he said you should contact the museum, so I did. Um, they were very happy to help, um, I thought if they wouldn’t let us borrow it, maybe we could just get the measurements and kind of recreate it or whatever, they seemed happy to help. The thing ended up going away, which is, it never happened, which is why I couldn’t remember it. And so I sent them a message saying like, I’ll let you, I’ll reach out again if there’s like a more solid thing, and then, and I forgot about it. And we started and Nicole was sick and you know, we were starting this Porsche Life and Breakfast and you know, all of these other things and we started a podcast and then out of nowhere, I get a message from the museum saying, Hey, is there still any interest in the Letterman assets because we’ve already deaccessioned the pieces. And we’re looking to make, we need to make some room in our warehouse. Like we need to find a new home for this stuff. Is it you? And I, I called the lady back immediately. And I was like, what are we talking about here? Like I need to make a donation or like, how does it work? What’s going on? And she explains how it works and you know, it’s not like that. And we do need to transfer ownership and paperwork and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, like you just need to get an accredited mover and send a truck. And I was like. Okay, we didn’t even know what we would do with it. We didn’t know we would use it on the podcasts. That was obviously a possibility, but it all just kind of came together and it was right after we decided to do this thing where we wanted to see if we could, you know, get to Dave and see if you want to tell him the story, apologize, see if he wanted the microphone back, all that stuff. So it was weird. I was like, remember the movie, The Dark Crystal, like once the stolen shard goes back into the kingdom, everything kind of gets righted. So that was the first, and then, you know, the last time the microphone was on a David Letterman desk, it was that one in the lobby.  

So how do you transport to LA from New York?Just a moving van? Do you hire movers to get the desk? 

We did. We hired a professional company to do it. Yeah. A couple of companies. 

So, the movers go to the Museum of Moving Image and they just, a couple thousand miles, they just drive across country, and 

Yeah, I think it was two different companies. The people who picked it up, like, packed it to ship, you know, they, they took care of it, and then I think a shipping company, like, shipped it across country, because what arrived here is not the guys that picked it up in New York, you know what I mean? The white glove service, just a crate basically is what arrived. 

What was that like when you set it up for the first time? It must have just blown your mind that that is in your, I guess as a Late Show, Late Night viewer, that you have this. 

It was crazy, man. It was crazy. And none of us had seen it since 1996. Cause it’s just sort of been hermetically sealed at the museum. It wasn’t on display. I guess, apparently somebody said it was at one point for a short time in the nineties, but since then it had just been like in their warehouse. 

What year was that? Then did you get this, the set, the desk and the around what year?

Uh, it was like six years ago now. So like 19.  

Okay. So you have, you have all of this and then. You, you put on this show and you’ve had an amazing guests. Like you’ve had Jay Leno, Rainn Wilson, um, Late Night Playset. You had Reggie Watts, uh, Steve O’Donnell, former head writer. What is that like when someone like Jay, who like, I mean, that made his career to sit down. That that’s the actual chair from the NBC, right. For him to sit down where that like really got him. The Tonight Show got him the back end good with Carson and everything. Like what is it that people’s reactions, I mean, when they see the set and they see the desk. When I was, I was like a little kid when I got to come in. I was like, Oh, I can’t believe I’m sitting here. 

Yeah, that’s part of it. So, I mean, there is. There, I mean, I’m clearly scratching the itch for the little kid by doing all of this, right? But also, I mean, it didn’t start this way. When the desk and chairs arrived, like, we were doing a podcast in that room, but it was our dining room, so there was a dining room table and some mid century modern chairs, and it was very light and bright, and then the desk and chairs arrived, and we were trying to do some version of the same show in the same space, and it looked ridiculous, and it couldn’t be taken seriously. And you know, little by little, I kind of just added a little bit of TV element more and more set design, production design. And then when COVID hit, I just kind of went nuts and leaned into it and started ordering sh*t off Amazon. And I go, how 30 Rock can I make this plane? And then it became my own personal challenge.

And then I remember when I was a guest on your show, you had a green room and I’m just like, this is an incredible set and experience. Um, so how did you meet Jay Leno? Cause I know that you’re, you, you were just at the garage and you’ve known him and he’s been the guest on your show and it’s the car community, correct?Is that it? Or did you meet him through Nicole? 

That’s how I know him. That’s how I know him. I mean, I, when I first moved to LA, I PA’d on his show a couple of times cause I was a PA at NBC. Yeah. Car stuff is how I know him. I mean, Nicole was a big time Hollywood publicist, so she used to have people on his show all the time. So she has known him for years and years. In fact, we just found the first picture of them together from May 2000, which is crazy. 25 years ago. Um, And, uh, so she’s known him, you know, professionally through Tonight Show stuff forever, but I’m, I’m both. I’m the car guy and the late night guy. Uh, so we have a lot in common. It’s, I just did Mike Chisholm’s Letterman podcast. 

Yeah. Mike’s great. 

And it, it came up that, you know, I’m very conflicted with my friendship with Jay Leno because of my lifelong fandom, appreciation, viewership, whatever you want to call it, of Letterman’s art behind the desk. So I’m conflicted when it comes to my friendship and my show, um, but it is what it is.

So this car community, it’s, it’s Spike Feresten, it’s Leno, it’s Reggie, Reggie Watts. Is he part of it as well? I know that you’re friends with him. 

Yeah, he’s been, you know, when he was on the Late Late Show, he had more time to hang out with all of us. He had a full time job and you know that he had to be in town all the time. So he had more free time. Now that he’s back to being a full time professional comedian musician, he’s touring, he’s on the road, he’s working late, um, he’s still super, super into cars, but he’s not able to do as much stuff right now. Um, I see him being a huge success somehow and being able to, you know, get a little more free time back someday, so I hope he’ll be, um, around more, but he’s definitely hasn’t lost any of his interest in cars, that’s for sure.

And then how often is, was Seinfeld around? 

I don’t know. He lives in New York, so I think he comes out every once in a while. It’s probably work dependent. You know, I mean, he’s got kids in New York now. 

You would do the Malibu kitchen and he would show, he’d be there though with you, right? I mean, he would definitely do that when he was in town.

Yeah. I mean, I, I don’t know who started going there first. I mean, he’s known the owner there for a long time, the old, you know, the old place that was the, that’s all long gone. The new, the new place that they’re now is so great. It’s, it’s, I don’t want to say vastly superior, but like it’s clean and the food’s great and the service is wonderful. And it’s, it’s a little better set up to serve the amount of people that are there. But you’re right about it being a small community out here. Yeah, everybody’s there. I mean, those two are there, but so are some huge names in the car community. You may or may not know, I don’t know. But comedy names too, like Adam Ferrara, you know, he’ll show up, and um, Uh, I go there all the time with my comedy friends. I was there with Dan Levy and Chido Santino the other day, and uh, with their Porsches, they’re both Porsche guys too. Yeah, I don’t know. Malibu’s fun, cause it’s like a nice place that anybody can go, and like, celebrities don’t get bothered, and, ah, whatever. 

It’s amazing that you have this, and, your, your wife Nicole, everyone loved her so much, I mean, oh my goodness.

Thank you for that. Just those photos. 

Yeah. I’m so sorry. I mean, what a battle. I mean, what brave, brave woman. Um, yeah. Thanks. 

My  wife just died of MS a couple of months ago, so that’s what you’re referring to. Obviously she, um, she was a powerhouse man in every way. 

Beloved beyond and, um, such a, yeah, strong fixture and, um, yeah.

And she worked in comedy. She represented incredibly talented. Very, very successful people that you all know. 

Like Chris Rock, right, is one of them. 

I always go to him because he’s such a big name, but Jim Gaffigan and, I mean, the pictures in the room over here have people, Craig Robinson, Demetri Martin, um, yeah, I mean, Jonah Hill’s in there. Tons of people. She opened Superbad, so she worked with all of those kids, Jonah and Michael and, um, McLovin, his name I can never remember. And then she, like, shows movies like Sarah Marshall, like, she opened that, she worked with Russell Brand, uh, Jonah Hill and Jason Segel on that. So it’s, she was a powerhouse.She really, really was. 

Yeah, I feel blessed I got to meet her and, and do your, your show getting back to when you were working at 30 Rock. What are you doing legitimately when you were over at Saturday Night Live and Conan? What were you doing? And what are some stories that may be stand out from that time period?

I was, uh, officially speaking, once I was working on those shows, I think I was in the audio department. Uh, I would PA as well, but it was a little less official because they didn’t have, there wasn’t a box to check in their system for that. Uh, I think there eventually became one, uh, probably because of me. But, um, uh, audio stuff. So I would, like, put microphones on people. I would, uh, haul cable. Like, if there was a handheld mic or something like that, you need somebody to, you know, you see a guy with a coil of cable and it’s called a lace of cable, I learned because I had to learn to do it properly the NBC way. But I was there. I was there on the floor for all of those things, or, you know, in the room, in the studio for, for all of those things. So many Conans the first, the first year, really. And then when I would freelance, I’d go back, you know, I don’t know, I would say, probably until I moved to LA, probably until 99. I would still go back from time to time and work a day or two here or there. 

So you were at Conan tapings and then you did Saturday Night Live sometimes as well? 

Yeah, both, so that, that transfers to both, yeah. But Saturday Night Live was cool because um, you know, there’s so many things. The first year at Conan was a little rough.

Oh yes, I was in the audience. I remember looking at the empty seats around me. 

Yeah, and it was, and it was rough, energetically for those guys. I said this on, um, a number of occasions, but like it’s worth repeating. I give Conan and Andy, but Conan specifically so much credit for overcoming that time. People outside do not know. You hear the terrible stories about oh three month pickups and stuff like that I was there on the NBC crew side and I remember it being weekly pickups They were picked up by the week, and all of the old guys I was working with were there from the Letterman days and earlier and they were all like, this is just a waiting game. They were waiting for it to go away because it was going to. That was the feeling in the building. The fact that Conan and Andy kept coming in and, and the writers and everybody and, and doing solid material and solid work despite the audience and the rejection. Take the Leno and the Tonight Show and everything else that Connie went through is I, I give him so much credit for overcoming that first year.

I would see him cause I’d be camping out for tickets and he’d come out on a Friday or I’d see him in the lobby and he just looked like he lost the Super Bowl.

Yeah, it was every night 

Yeah, it was, it was, it was definitely tough and I, um, I met Robert that December. And we would talk and he just couldn’t believe anybody liked the show. I mean, I was like telling him bits I liked. Definitely. I guess Letterman when he came in in February or whatever, I think it was February or whatever it was that turned the tide slowly in that summer. I remember going to the show and people, um, the college students, definitely. It was like this different energy and getting it. But, um, yeah, yeah. It’s kind of amazing how, how all of that kind of, um, came together. 

So, so there’s the contrast of to, to your question. You asked about Saturday Night Live, but like Saturday Night Live, I was there for some epic stuff that is like memorable to this day I was in the room for, but the contrast was at down at Conan, it felt like we were putting out television that wasn’t even leaving the building, felt like we were making a show that no, was no, not being seen by anybody.

What, what are some memorable things that you were there for Saturday Night Live? 

Um, well, it was, it was. Gosh, would it have been 95? Oh, no, 94. Whatever it was, it was the last year of Sandler, Farley, Rock, before the year, uh, and I was there for the, at the transition too, when it became Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, uh, Nancy Walls, uh, David Koechner, All, like what we now know as our generation of Saturday Night Live. I was there for the changeover, which was pretty cool. I was nobody. I was a fly on the wall. Forgive the pun. 

Did you see anything? Does anything stand out or anything? 

All of it. All of it. The rehearsals for the stuff that did make air were hilarious. And then some of the, like, I think of, uh, the, one of the first, “Get Off the Shed.” I don’t remember what the bit was called, but. 

No, that was it. “Get Off the Shed.” The premiere, Mariel Hemingway was the first show. 

Correct. Mariel Hemingway. And, um, and none of that stuff played. It all played at rehearsal. It played at the dress and then it didn’t play at the live. And it was very, very strange because we were prepared for it. We were like, this is it. We got it. This will be the one time the new cast will totally not get out of the park. And the bit in the beginning with the French kissing all the girls and whatever, because she just kissed a girl in Roseanne or whatever. Um, I remember that, uh, Rosie O’Donnell. I’ve got a lot of memories from Rosie O’Donnell. Cause once I was on that show, I seemed to be on it for a little bit, but that’s interesting. I never really thought about that. 

That was an interesting, because she was so good on, on camera and beloved by the viewers. I know that it’s a lot of pressure for the host and behind the scenes. It could be, um, it was not always pleasant. What was your experience? 

I’m quoted it. Remember, did you read the article that came out like a year ago about. The Rosie O’Donnell show? 

No. 

I was quoted, I was quoted in it saying that, um, that Rosie liked me because she thought I was gay. Ha ha! Um, the, I was again on the, the, the hardcore, grunty, smokin tech side of the old NBC crew guys, right? The gritty, they didn’t even wash their hands, it was just kind of a weird. And they all had their opinions of The Rosie O’Donnell show and how it was going to go and whatever. And I think I said something to the effect of, I don’t know, she’s really nice to me or something like that. They said “It’s because she thinks you’re gay.” And I didn’t think much of it at the time. But then later on as life progressed, one, I realized they may have been right. But, um, I had an incredibly positive experience. My, my memories of being at The Rosie O’Donnell show were really, really good. And then in reading the article, it seemed like a lot of people didn’t necessarily feel that way. So I don’t know the part that you’re talking about. I mean, I’m sure personalities are involved, right? Always. 

I mean, it’s just, it’s tough. I mean, it was, the show was, um, doing so well, but it’s a lot, she went through a lot of directors and there was some creative stuff and it’s, it’s gonna happen. Um, to some extent, 

We’re going to have Daniel Kellison on, so I’m looking forward to talking to him about that. 

Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. Daniel. Definitely. He was there. I mean, as the producer. 

So he  was there when I was there and it felt like, oh, this feels like Letterman. Kathleen Ankers did the set, Daniel standing right over there at the podium. Like this just kind of feels had it had a tone production wise to the Dave show, the old late night show from, from sixth floor.

Yeah, and it was in Donahue’s old studio, which now is Seth Meyers. Is that 8G, I think? 

It is. And, um, and I’ve never seen the Seth Meyers version of it, but it was always Donahue when I was a kid. And then it was like Sports after. 

Yes. Yes. And, um, I have a feeling with that SNL, um, the 50th coming up, it’s all going to be used as overflow again. 

That’s what it was last time. 

Because that’s what I heard on the 40th, they used it as Overflow. It was tough. They have cast members and writers and featured players. Some of them that could, they didn’t have room in the studio and they. 

And they said that’s even with no plus ones. Like there, there are people that should have a seat in the, in the studio, in the overflow.

Now it’s 10 years later. So they’re going to have, maybe, I don’t know. 

It’s going to be a sh*t show. I can’t wait. I’m so excited. I’m happy for everybody involved. 

Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see how they pulled this off and what they, uh, do with it. 50 years is, is absolutely unbelievable. Would you go to the parties at all? The SNL, um, after parties, 

Everyone, everyone for years to actually, cause that’s one of those things, you know, you make the right friends and then you can keep going to the parties even after you don’t work there. So, um, even after I moved to L. A. in 99, I would come back and we would go to the parties. We would go to the tapings and hang out in the Green Room. Um, although our tickets were Green Room, we would usually end up finding our way to the Writer’s Room down the hall. 

Sure. No, I know exactly where the Green Room, the Green Room looks over the studio and then the Writer’s Room. If you just keep going, you pass Lorne’s office on the right and then 

Correct. Yes, exactly.

Yeah, I’ve been in the Writer’s Room for the show. 

So that’s, that’s like, like, and they have a window in there too. So it just, it’s the far side of the studio. 

And the curtain, for the live show and for dress, they usually, they put the curtain, um, they close the curtain normally, so you can’t. 

So that people can’t see in.

Yeah, but, yeah, during rehearsals and stuff, it’s, it’s open normally. Yeah, that’s amazing that you, um, were able to do all that. 

So I would go back even into the 2000s, we would go, we would go back, and the last time I saw a show, name drop, Chris Rock got us tickets, and it was uh, my friend Kali, and it was Rosario Dawson, I just found the picture the other day, like 2009 or 10 or something like that. That was the last time I was there for a show. 

I haven’t been to the show in ever. I mean, I just feel probably could push. I just, I just it’s so hard for people to get tickets on that show. 

Was SNL special to you? Was that a special one to you? Like late night ones? 

Oh, 100%. That was like more than anything that Um, go into that show and, um, yeah, be in there.

That’s another one where the energy in the room is amazing. 

Yeah, I get to be there. I feel very fortunate. I was there for, I get to see like Dana Carvey and then, um, Jan Hooks had come back. So I got to see her perform twice and then, um, you know, and then it was, it was Sandler and Farley and all of them and Norm and I was there for 

Norm too. That was the best part. I was there for Norm. 

Yeah. And then, um, and then Will Ferrell’s first year, which I remember very well and Cheri Oteri and Koechner and Walls and Brewer. 

So you were there during that same time? 

I was. I was. 

Yes. Would we have ever run into each other? 

It’s possible. 

Like on the floor?

I was not on the floor for those. I was actually, um, for some of the episodes I was down. It’s not there anymore, but it was where Don Pardo and Andy Murphy would hang out, which he was the, the token extra. And it was like, they show it sometimes on the show, but it was. Like where the coffee was back on eight, it was like, um, there’s a couch and there was a bench and there was like, kind of like craft service and that’s where, a couple of times.

Yeah, it was actually right out. So there’s the regular hallway with the checkered floor. And then there’s the kind of the crew hallway on the other side, which, sort of leads to the freight elevator. And that’s where like the quick changes are done and everything. And that’s where they used to shoot that stuff.

The dressing room and they have like that, that whole like vanity. 

Yeah. The mirror, the mirror set up for makeup. Yeah. 

Yes. That’s where I was for the show a couple of times. Um, uh, 

Oh, well, I mean, I would have been zooming past you when, in the days when I was a PA working. And then on the days when we were watching the show, we might’ve just chatted.

There is nothing cooler, I think, than being there and seeing the show, I thought. I just was, uh, yeah, no one can… complete awe. 

You mentioned the afterparties, it was actually at a Saturday Night Live afterparty that I decided to move to Los Angeles, it was May 15th, 1999, it was Sarah Michelle Gellar and the Backstreet Boys, I’ll never forget it because it’s not a show that I necessarily would have, you know, not a huge Backstreet Boy fan, but um, it was at that wrap and it was a season finale wrap party And it was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Seinfeld. I mean freaking everybody was there Seinfeld was there. I mean at our table was Macaulay Culkin and Jimmy Fallon was brand new he sneezed all over our pizza so he could eat it, like he pretended to you know cut spit on it 

No exaggeration because the end of the season wrap party is the one where everything’s free and it’s like, you know, 

It’s, it’s like a wedding.It’s basically like a wedding. 

That’s where all the, the really, I mean, there’s famous people normally most weeks and stuff, but that’s when like everybody kind of comes out. It’s like a huge, 

Yeah, Seth Green was at our table. 

It’s a huge deal. Um, what was the, what, so what exactly was it that, that hit you when you were there that you’re like, I have to, I’m going to move to LA. Like that, during that party, 

Talking to Seth Green, The Family Guy was brand new and it was very funny. 

Yeah. He’s a really nice guy. He was on my Carson podcast. He was so nice. So cool guy. 

Yeah, he is a cool guy and very smart and like he’s a smart business guy, too. He’s not just a funny actor guy, and he basically said to come to LA you’ll get work. I’m like, okay  Yeah, he was the rest is history 

That makes sense because he’s friends with Macaulay Culkin. If Culkin was there that they might have been. 

Oh, I didn’t make the connection. Macaulay was, we barely spoke to him because he was planted on his, did he just get married at that time? No, no. At that time, like there was, didn’t he get married young or there was some kind of relationship?

He did. Her name, I, I, I, my, my mind, sometimes. Her name was Rachel Minor, I believe. And 

That actually sounds familiar, but they were hot and heavy at the table. 

Yeah. I just, I just, sometimes the things get in my head and I can’t, um, like facts, people that listen to the podcast know that all the time. Um, but yeah.

Shout out to Danbury Tribe, by the way, from the East coast feed, because he was with me. That night at, at that taping and at that after party, he came with me and, uh, and he was like my best friend. He’s like, what do you mean you move in L. A.? And then for the next like month or two, I just became, he just kept calling me a d*ck. Like you’re a d*ck, you’re a d*ck if you move to L.A., you’re a d*ck. He’s a hardcore New Yorker. And he didn’t think I’d really do it. And then he drove me to the airport two months later. 

And here you are, uh, Late Night Playset. I’m glad it’s back. You were nice enough to invite me back on. So that’ll be a good time. 

I can’t wait. I can’t wait. 

I wish I was in Los Angeles to be able to be there in person. I did the one time and it was such a thrill to see the set. Let’s create a reason for you to come out here. I would like that. It’s I’ve been working on a project for the last couple of years and it just, it, it’s um, finally coming to.. it’s happening. So I have a little bit more time to, uh, to do things. So I would, I would love that.

So feel like you coming out here would be a logical place to promote it. Come out to the coast. We’ll have a few laughs. 

We’ll say I would love that. I will love, I will be promoting. I will be everyone that’s listening. I will be, um, very, very politely, but eagerly, uh, asking for your support. That’s coming up. That’s, uh, something, oh man, it’s been such a journey, but we’ll talk about that another time. But, um, yeah, thank you so much for being a guest. I’m really glad that we got. To talk about this and it’s for me, it was 

My embarrassing escapades as a child? 

Oh, I love it. I mean, the story, hearing your stories and stuff. And I have some, some, I have my own Saturday Night Live stories. A couple of them when I got into some little trouble, um, here and there. So, I mean… 

Oh, stay tuned to late night play set where we talk about Mark Malkoff and SNL. 

We’ll see. But, um, it was, um, it was a good time, but yeah, there’s definitely adventures and things.

Makes me feel a little better.

But I really, really appreciate this and, um, yeah, thanks for being a pal. 

Thank you for everything, Mark. You’ve been a supporter of ours from the beginning, which is always kind of amazing because you know, my whole life I’ve been looking in the window on this world. So to be ancillarily kind of part of it, even a little bit enough to be like a guest on your podcast, it’s a big deal for me still.So, um, it means a lot. So thanks to you and your audience. 

Oh, thanks. No, I really, really appreciate it. This was fun.