Here's Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon on Letterman last night, and at the top of the interview, he tells a story about filming a small part in Groundhog Day as a teenager and being convinced that Bill Murray hates him. It's not the best Bill Murray story, but any Bill Murray story is better than no Bill Murray story.
Here's Louis C.K. on Letterman last night to promote his new HBO stand-up hour, Louis C.K.: Oh My God, which premieres a week from Saturday on April 13th. Letterman got down to brass tacks and asked C.K. about an episode of Louie last season that ended with him screaming, "Fuck you, Letterman!" at the Ed Sullivan Theater from the street, and the two managed to work the misunderstanding out.
Longtime Conan writer Brian Kiley had an impressive weekend in the late night world. First, on Friday, he had a strong standup set on Letterman (above). Then, last night, he went on Conan to read what fellow Conan writer Deon Cole wrote about what Dr. Martin Luther King Day means to him, so that Deon Cole can take the day off (below). For all we know, Brian Kiley probably guest-hosted Last Call with Carson Daly this weekend too. There's just no way to be sure.
Here's NYC-based standup Carmen Lynch doing her first Letterman set Friday night. Lynch recently was the runner-up in The New York Times 2nd Annual Comedy Challenge and was a Last Comic Standing competitor in 2003. Clearly, participating in all of these weird standup contests has turned her into a top-notch comedian and someone who can tell a mean mouthguard joke.
Brian Williams went on The Late Show with David Letterman to discuss the election last night, and Letterman had a go at Karl Rove for his Fox News temper tantrum. It was a nice chance for Letterman to show off the perfect Karl Rove impression Letterman's been hiding from us all these years.
"Some comedians just say funny things and some comedians say things funny, but you say things." – Steve Martin to David Letterman.
Enjoy this 13-minute clip of Bill Cosby on Letterman, which includes a tight five minutes of sit-down stand-up and the legendary comedian proving he's still got his Cosby Show opening credits moves by dancing for half his allotted time to the Harlem Globetrotters theme.
Here's David Letterman being pretty weird towards Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein during an appearance on his show Friday night, obsessively trying to get them to admit to dating each other, even though they're totally not. This is apparently the first platonic friendship between a man and a woman Letterman has ever seen.
Here's comedian Myq Kaplan performing his second stand-up set on Letterman Friday night (his first was last year). In his "tight five," Kaplan discusses the Wright Brothers, tattoos, pick-up lines, and grammar. Even if you don't like standup comedy, Kaplan's jokes about fighting and his fear of confrontation should make you feel better about not being as much of a wimp as he is.
Hurricane Sandy caused Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel (who picked the wrong week to bring his show to Brooklyn) to cancel their shows last night, but Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman stayed strong and did their shows anyway, without an audience. It turns out to be super fun and only a little unnerving. Here's Fallon's monologue, which announcer Steve Higgins points out he's doing as if he had an audience. If they're always this fun, late night hosts should try doing their shows for an empty room more often, even when the weather doesn't necessitate it.
More of Fallon's audience-free show, plus Letterman performing to an empty [...]
Here's Martin Short being as funny as ever on Letterman last night, singing a song about Carnival Cruise Lines to kick off his stint as the company's new singing and dancing spokesperson. This new John Mulaney/Martin Short sitcom can't come soon enough.
Last night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, which brought a longstanding joke feud between between Kimmel and Matt Damon to a head by having Damon hijack the show and host it himself, scored Kimmel's best audience in its new 11:35 timeslot yet. The show earned a 2.92 rating overall and a 1.23 rating with Adults 18-49, handily beating Leno (0.76) by 62% and Letterman (0.56) by 120%. The episode was such a big hit that ABC has opted to re-air it in primetime on Tuesday night at 10pm, replacing a rerun of some show called Body of Proof. The extra special episode of Kimmel featured Matt Damon welcoming [...]
It’s no secret that sometimes comedy is taken a bit too seriously. Comedy obsessives love not just the jokes, but the mechanics and emotions of the comedy world. There are a raft of comedy documentaries exploring comedy and comedians, but do they really have anything significant to add to the discussion? This series looks at comedy documentaries and whether they’re interesting, insightful, and possibly even…funny?
“I got into comedy for one reason and one reason only,” Steve Mazan explains at the beginning of Dying to do Letterman. “To live a dream I’ve had since I was 12 years old: to perform stand-up comedy on David Letterman’s show.”
So in [...]
Robin Williams stopped by David Letterman yesterday and told a story about taking an acting class taught by Marlon Brando several years ago, which leads him into doing his Brando, Nicholson, and Walken impressions. Sure, they're like the three of the most common celebrity impressions ever, but Williams is still good at it. Also, I've never seen Robin Williams let a talk show host say so much during an interview. David Letterman gets out a double-digit amount of words, which is a record for anyone interviewing Robin Williams.
