re: Have any of you ever been in the audience of a late night talk show?

quote:

---

I went around 2007, and my experience was exactly like yours. We ordered tickets months in advance, got a call the day before asking us a trivia question about the show (the name of the Hello Deli), and were told to get there early. We were in the second row, middle section on the aisle.

Like you said, Paul and the CBS Orchestra were phenomenal and had the place rocking. However, it was definitely one of those late era "lazy" Letterman performances. I remember that the interns jacked everyone up prior to entering the ES theater (which was jaw-droppingly small), but I the warm up comic wasn't very funny, and Dave wasn't funny at all when he came out and addressed the crowd prior to the show, so that sort of took the air out of the crowd.

During the monologue and some of the pre-guest content, I remember looking over at the sides of the theater where all the interns were standing and one of them looking at me and mouthing "laugh."

I noticed, like you did, that during the breaks, Dave would remove his coat and either walk out of the theater altogether or talk only to his head writer. Jennifer Aniston was the guest and her spot spanned a commercial break, and I remember how weird it was that when they went to break Dave just got up and left without saying a word to her.

Definitely glad we did it, but it'll be our last time to get tickets to a talk show.

---

Amazing but you could probably speak to anyone who attended Letterman post 2000ish and their experience would be identical. Dave was probably the low light othe entire experience. He was just so lazy and mailing it in for for his last 15 yrs or so. I'm sure his heart surgery took a lot out of him, but how can you turn down 30+ million a year.


We also went to The Hello Deli and it was literally just Rupert standing behind the counter and no one else in the shop… just like they used to show, it was so surreal to be there and part of the whole experience.

I always wanted to see Ferguson too in person (before he really stopped giving a shite too around 2011.). He seemed so much more welcoming towards the audience, like you really were a character on his crazy show. But his studio was shite and in no way could compare to The Ed Sullivan Theater. The acoustics and visuals in that theater we're incredible. Amazing to think how much history is in that building.