DaveCon 2002
What's the Deal with AFLers and Giant Trip Reports?
Helen's Huge, Massive, Big Honkin' Trip Report
by Helen P. Read
Part I: Introduction
DaveCon 2002 was my third trip to the Late Show with David Letterman with my friends from alt.fan.letterman as well as my third trip to New York City. Now, I've been a huge fan of David Letterman since the early days of Late Night, and have been hanging around AFL since the fall of 1993 (I didn't start posting until spring of 1994). Two years ago, I was invited to DaveCon 2000. It was a fantastic trip, full of wonderful, new experiences: arriving in the big city by myself, meeting AFLers in person for the first time, attending the show in person (!), seeing the beautiful sparkly set up close, seeing the beautiful sparkly Dave up close, hearing the band live, and even having the good fortune to meet and pose for pictures with some of the Late Show staff out on 53rd St. after the show. The day after that first show, I happened to meet Tony Mendez over at Lincoln Center, where I was waiting to take a tour. I'm normally not like this, but so help me, I cupped my hands and yelled out to Tony (who was a good distance away by then and walking quickly) that I watch the Tony Mendez Show every night. Well, that got his attention :-). He turned on a dime, grinning ear to ear, and walked over to talk to me for a few minutes and pose for a picture or two. I later sent pictures to Tony for him to autograph, and at one point (okay, I know exactly when it was, August 4, 2000) Tony read a viewer mail letter on the Tony Mendez Show, claiming it was signed Squeaky Fromme and Helen Read. (After reading the letter, Tony looks at Dave and asks "Who the hell is Helen Read?")
A year later, when we were planning DaveCon 2001 (which I didn't think could possibly top DaveCon 2000, the trip of a lifetime), I wrote Tony a letter telling him when we were coming, in the hopes that he would come outside and talk to us after the show, and pose for some pictures. Well, at the end of that second fantastic Late Show taping, when the pages normally kick you out of the theater immediately, Tony greeted me by name, called me up on the stage, and proceeded to give the entire AFL group a backstage tour. Needless to say, we were all in complete shock! I was pretty close to sensory overload, and in utter disbelief that I was onstage (and backstage) at the Ed Sullivan Theater. It really is amazing standing up on the stage where Dave does the show every night. Tony gave us a terrific tour of the theater, and along with Mike "Wahoo Gazette" McIntee, patiently took picture after picture of AFLers posing at Dave's desk, before sending us home with autographed cue cards for souvenirs.
Okay, so now I've had two incredible, wonderful trips to see Dave. DaveCon 2002 can't possibly be as wondrous and memorable as the first two trips, can it? Well, yes. Yes, it can. I remember it as though...
[cue harp music]
[rubs chin]
A couple of weeks before this year's DaveCon, I wrote a letter to Tony Mendez letting him know when we were coming and inviting him to join us for dinner after the show, across the street at Martini's. Meanwhile, Traci invited Mike McIntee to join us, and Brad invited Rupert "Hello Deli" Jee (I think Brad was also going to invite Al Chez, but I'm not sure what happened with that). Brad didn't expect Rupert to come, since dinner was not until several hours after the deli closes, but what the heck, it can't hurt to ask. We were going to the second Thursday taping, which runs from 7:00 until 8:00 p.m., and had dinner reservations for 8:30. Mike would probably have to go straight home to his family, but we thought that maybe, just maybe, we could talk Tony into coming to dinner with us. We really wanted to treat him to dinner as a way to thank him for giving us the grand tour last year. I wasn't expecting a reply from Tony, but a few days after I (snail) mailed Tony the letter (he doesn't get the e-mail), in the middle of the Tony Mendez Show, Tony tells Dave and Jude Brennan that he just found out that "a bunch of nuts who watch the TMS" are coming to New York. He urged us not to come :-), but that did not dissuade us.
Wednesday, June 19, the night before DaveCon 2002, I got home around 9 pm after playing in a community band concert. There was an e-mail waiting for me from Karen Lynch, asking if I had seen the Tony Mendez Show yet. Apparently Tony was sending us a message on the TMS. Unfortunately, my lousy dial-up connection was even worse than usual, and I couldn't get the TMS to load (I think we all know how painful that can be). I finally had to give up and try again later--I still had to pack for the big trip!
So after packing, I tried the TMS again, and after struggling with network timeout errors and stone age buffering rates, finally got the thing to load. And here's Tony, telling Dave that the Late Show was cancelled for the next day. He was very specific that the *second* show was cancelled--the one we were going to see--and not the first one. He went on to say that Martini's had been shut down by the board of health. All the while Dave keeps asking Tony what the heck he is talking about. This is very, very funny, and a definite sign that Tony has something planned for us. He all but gave us an RSVP.
By then it was after 11:00, and I really should have gone to bed (I have an early morning flight to catch). But I was too excited about the trip to go to sleep, so I stayed up and watched the Late Show (I normally tape it and watch the next day). So it's after 12:30 a.m. by the time I get to bed, with the alarm set for 4:30 a.m. I'm normally a very sound sleeper, but it was a fitful four hours. I kept waking up at irregular intervals anxiously wondering "Is it time yet?" At 4:25 or so I gave up and got out of bed. Time to go see Dave!
Helen Read
hpr@together.net