I couldn't have been more ecstatic last Friday night when a message from Jane, a Late Show with David Letterman staffer, appeared out of nowhere on my answering machine. On Monday morning, I found out that my online ticket request had paid off (my postal mail requests are still floating around CBS waiting to be tossed), and I was off to see Letterman on Wednesday with my friend Tom. We took the Amtrak to NYC and arrived at 53rd Street and Broadway at 2:30 pm. After a quick lunch at Joe G's, we started waiting in line at 2:45 pm. We were about 20 people back, and the third group to make it into the Ed Sullivan Theater lobby. I later found out that luck was definitely on our sides.
When entering the Late Show lobby at 3:20 pm, I acted excited as experienced Letterman fans had instructed me to be. It was not an act. I was genuinely the most excited person waiting in line. My friend and I were given blue dots on our tickets, which was confusing and troubling since I thought that red dots were the top prizes. I kept reminding myself that it would be wonderful to sit anywhere in the theater. As it turned out, blue was the lucky color of the night, and the next thing I knew I was sitting front row center. I found this very unique since I never see a female college student, like myself, sitting up front. I thought I was going to faint, but I kept my cool. Since we were the first people seated in the theater, I got to see the night's action before everyone else. Cue-card boy Tony Mendez walked by, and I cheerfully said "Tony," and he waved at me. As always, the CBS Orchestra was the best music in town. Wow, they're awesome. I wanted to get up and dance! Eddie Brill, the regular warm-up guy, was also funny and very nice to everyone.
Dave came out onto the freshly cleaned stage at about 5:25 pm to a standing ovation. He told a few jokes about the humid weather and then asked for a question from the audience. Anticipating his request, I shot my hand up into the chilled Ed Sullivan Theater air. Dave immediately called on me (it might have helped that he was standing right in front of me behind a camera). Dave peeked his head around the camera and seemed very sincere with his questions. I told him my name and where I was from. When hearing that I lived in Baltimore, he replied, "Ahhh, Charm City." Then I asked, "What are you going to do if that wuss Bush doesn't come on your show?" He didn't seem very confident that the Great Debate would happen, despite what he said later that evening on Campaign 2000. He also chatted about the fact that Gore and Lieberman were ready to come on the show to debate Bush. Then Dave asked if he had answered my question as to which I nodded. He didn't really answer it, but what was I going to say to Dave? At 5:30 pm on the dot, the big show began.
Sam Donaldson and Kid Rock were great guests! Kid Rock was standing right in front of me during his performance of "Wasting Time," which was intensely cool. I thought that the show went well, especially with announcer Alan's hilarious song. After the taping, Dave said his good-byes to the audience and walked off stage. The CBS pages (who turned out to be a good bunch of kids) immediately kicked everyone out of the theater. My friend and I were two of the last people out because we took out good 'ol time. Why can't they just let us sit back in our comfy chairs and reflect on the experience for a moment? Geez. On the way out, I told guitarist Felicia that she did an awesome job, and she thanked me.
The humid NYC air didn't feel as bad after being in the cold theater for an hour and a half. We stuck around with a lot of the crowd to see Kid Rock exit the building. While we were waiting for him to come out, Lea Thompson (of Caroline In The City fame and now Cabaret Broadway star) walked right through the crowd. She obviously wanted to be spotted (maybe not heckled by the waiting press), but kept walking briskly on her way. Finally, after Kid Rock's band piled into a white van, Kid Rock quickly got into a limo by himself. That's the life.
Then the strangest thing happened. Sam Donaldson, heading back to Washington DC, was on our train ride home. He turned out to be the most down-to-earth celebrity ever. I told him that I'm a future journalist, who's currently interning at Baltimore magazine. He could've said a lot of crap about journalists, but he simply replied, "It has been good to me." That was refreshing to hear from a veteran like himself. He also took some pictures with me. The entire train couldn't believe what a nice guy he was. Everyone was on their cell phones calling home with the news. It was very unreal, especially since I met actor Matthew Broderick's sister one the last times I was on Amtrak.
That's all for now. I saw Late Night with Conan O'Brien three weeks ago, but Dave topped him. I even made it on television during the ticket request information. It couldn't have been better.
~Annie~
Read Rolling Stone's antidote about this particular show here.