Subject: My (Very Long, Very Late) Trip Report
From: finchhen@aol.com (Kathy)
Date: 01 Jul 2003 20:00:44 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.fan.letterman

Okay, so where should I start? Every year when I plan to go see Dave, I also
drop by my aunt's house to visit and since she's the closest one to Manhattan
(she lives in Brooklyn) it's very convenient for me. 

Now on Monday, I was very excited but also very nervous about meeting my fellow
AFLer's in the flesh for the first time. Truthfully, I didn't know what the
hell I was getting myself into. :) I arrived in Manhattan around 10AM and did a
little shopping, snacked on junkfood, and had a hotdog which left a strange
after-taste in my mouth (I'm lucky to be alive.) 

So anyway, walked down Times Square, down to 53rd and Broadway, looked at the
Late Show marquee and sighed, thinking to myself, "For once I don't have to
harrass a Late Show page in order to snag a ticket (Yes, hard to believe, even
thought I'm pretty shy in real life, I can become bold when I have
to...especially when it comes to all things Dave.)

I went to the Manhattan Chilli Company, asked where the Letterman group was;
they were upstairs--great. Walked up the stairs and saw this crazy group of
people. :) Renee and Traci were the first ones to greet me and welcome me into
the group; then they introduced me to Bill Lehecka, Boston Bill, and N.E. Ohio
Bob, and some other guys I can't remember. Then I sat down next to Helen and
one of the first things I asked her was how the Dave Tree was doing. "Not too
well" she said. Man, that's sad, but I kept reassuring myself that the Dave
tree has the strength of 10 trees. Maybe it's just going through its own
version of shingles now. 

Later on some more AFLer's arrived, like Marilyn with Cyber, Micah, Foxy with
her yummy pizzeles, Steve, Brady, Dake, Kathie, Cathy, Brad Hill and
KarenKelly, Carl with a mask, and of course the legendary Donz. (I know I'm
missing a lot more people; sorry about that.) What was most surprising to me is
how nice Don is in person. :) Actually, I don't think he's ever chewed me out
on the AFL either. Just a sweet, sweet guy, and he gave me one of his cd's too.
Before Donz came over to give me the cd, NE Ohio Bob, he gave me his copy, but
I gave it back to him; that's when Donz handed me another copy, and Bob gave
the cd back to Donz. I remember Bob telling me how much I look like his son's
girlfriend. :) Now, I was a little overwhelmed, quite in shock really, meeting
everyone in person since I'm so used to just talking to everyone behind a
screenname and a computer-quite a shock to my system. But then I talked to
Steve, and he was telling me that he's kinda shy too; so we talked for a bit. I
didn't feel left out at all; everyone treated me very nicely and overlooked my
shyness, and I appreciated that very much. :) 

Before we went next door, Renee handed each of us a paper saying we're part of
a group, "Late Show is pleased to have alt.fan.letterman as a part of our
audience..."something like that. I remember Traci giving out candy necklaces,
(how did that tradition come about anyway?) a DaveCon button, sugar-wax lips
from Pat Fleet, who unfortunately couldn't make it. Foxy also gave us each a
pizzele; they were pretty good; I've never had one before. 

Our group got online at 3 o'clock I think, had our tickets numbered, mine was
10. So after that was done, we had plenty of time to harrass some staffers. We
saw Pat Farmer, Bill DeLace, a blurr who was supposedly Tony Mendez, being
chased by Traci. Also Rupert. Some of the AFLer's went to talk to him and Pat
Farmer but I just observed. At 4:30 we got back online in numerical order
according to our tickets. Once inside the lobby, we got the pep talk--right
now, Dave is in the back listening to you, the audience, he feeds off of your
positive energy, etc. 

Meanwhile, I could feel the tension building up inside of me; it felt like an
eternity of waiting. But finally, we were let in. What a great feeling! It's
definitely worth the wait! 

Never fails, but everytime I always forget how cold it is in there. And I was
wearing a sleeveless shirt too. Plus, it was pretty cool outside to begin with.
But anyway, I wasn't letting my teeth-chattering, leg-shaking, and goosebumps
ruin my fun during the taping. I got to sit between NE Bob and Brady, to the
extreme left, left of the stage but in the front row (not counting the two
seats in the front, front) with a great view of all the band members minus Sid
McGinnis, who according to the Late Show rehearsal sheet, was judging a guitar
clinic in Buffalo--Eddie Martinez was subbing. 

Oh yeah, forgot about Eddie Brill, he comes out, does a few jokes, then
introduces the clips of Dave working at Taco Bell.  Did some jokes, and
introduced the band members, with Paul coming out last. Finally the Big Man
came out, talked for a minute, had time for one quick question before the
taping started. Micah was picked. I don't remember what the question was
exactly, but it was something about the 2000th show, dogs and ponies. Good
question, Micah! Although you did steal yet another chance away from Traci. Oh
well, at least it wasn't Bill Lehecka. :) Gee, I don't know what I'd say to
Dave if I had the chance; probably nothing, since I'd be in so much shock being
picked out of the crowd to begin with. 

So anyway, Dave goes backstage, puts on his jacket, comes out onstage, does his
monologue and desk chat. From what I understand, there were LOTS of other stuff
planned that never made it to air because Dave was chatting (which I'd much
rather have him do instead of seeing that other stuff.) For example, a
pre-tape-"Bill drops off Hillary in a low rider car with thumping bass;
stagehands modeling some of Hillary's hairstyles; Alan plea--Hillary--Secret
Service beats him up". 

Liked the TTL, Things Baseball Has Taught me, with a surprise walk-on by Roger
Clemens. 

First guest, Hill. Truthfully, my brain shut off at this point since I wasn't
interested in hearing any of her politics. I mostly just looked at the band
tinkering around until her segments were over. Long break, we get another entry
from Dwight the Troubled Teen which I couldn't even hear one word of. Coming
back from the break was music by Emmy Lou Harris. Even though it's not my type
of music, the song sounded pretty good live. Finally the sign-off, Dave comes
back out and thanks us all for coming and have a nice summer etc. 

Now before the taping was over, Traci told us all to stay in our seats until 
Tony sees us. Everyone else was being asked to leave asap. Some of our group
were in the middle row area while the rest of us were by the band. Finally Tony
invited us up onstage and he said hi to each of us and shook our hands. I
noticed there were like 4 other losers behind us who tried to weasel into our
group and Tony asked them if they've ever seen the Tony Mendez Show but they
obviously didn't know what the hell that was; you could just see the puzzled,
clueless looks on their faces. But Tony, being the gentleman that he is, seemed
like he wanted to invite them up to join us. Quick thinking on Helen and
Traci's part, they convinced Tony not to let them join in. So anyway, those
people left--FINALLY. 

Now I don't know about anyone else, but I was shaking like a leaf, out of
nervousness and from being freezing cold. It felt like I was in a dream. I
couldn't believe I was actually on the stage of the Ed Sullivan theater!! First
thing we did was take pictures behind Dave's desk. Tony invited all of those
who were new to the tour to get their pictures taken first and to also get a
cue card. I got the "SUMMER'S FINALLY HERE/SO WARM/SAW/UPS GUY PUTTING SUNBLOCK
ON HIS KNEES" joke. I remember us each saying our names in front of a camera
(don't know why I just said my stupid screenname, but then again, I was
nervous...can you blame me?) which would later be on the TMS. 

We got to see all the different rooms backstage, like the greenrooms, the
control room, the band area. Tony told us about the history of the Ed. We went
out to the lobby to take a group picture. We got lots of free snacks
too--cookies from the greenroom and a portion of the 2000th show cake. 

Before we knew it, the tour was over. We all thanked Tony for his time and
generosity with us. He'd meet up with us later for the after-party at McGee's.
Unfortunately I couldn't attend that because it was starting to get late and I
wanted to get back to my Aunt's house before it got completely dark. She lives
in the bad part of Brooklyn. Funny, I remember Dave saying before the taping
that if you've ridden the subway, then you've cheated death, haha. But
seriously, I felt bad I couldn't make it to the party so as soon as we all
exited the Ed, I said goodbye  and thanked Renee and Traci for setting this
whole thing up. I didn't get to say thanks to you before, Helen, but I thank
you for persuading Tony to give us another tour this year. Oh yeah, and thanks
for the bluecards, Donz! 

Back in my Aunt's apartment. My cousins (who are just kids) were allowed to
stay up late to watch the show with me. Actually, the whole family gathered
around to watch it. And my youngest cousin, he held up my cue-card and waited
for Dave to say the monologue joke. I also had a copy of the Top Ten List and
he read the entries as Roger Clemens echoed them. My cousin's, they got a kick
out of that. 

When I got back home last Tuesday, I immediately checked to see if the VCR
recorded the show, and thankfully it did! So now when they rerun it again in
about a week, I'll tape it onto another tape so I can have an extra copy in
case the other one should break, get chewed up, etc. It's good to be prepared! 

In conclusion, I'd like to thank everyone, and for Renee, Traci, Helen, Tony,
and others whose hard work made this happen. Thanks for letting me be a part of
your DaveCon group this year...I had a blast!  
  
(BTW, I have some pictures from the trip on my computer...if someone would be
kind enough to e-mail me and help me to put them on a website since I haven't a
clue on how to do that, I'd appreciate it...thanks.)