Dave Con 2K

Here I am under the Late Show marquee.
(Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Dave Con 2000:
Big Honkin' Trip Report
by Helen P. Read

Introduction

I started watching Dave in the early days of Late Night (1982-1984), but could only watch occasionally at first since I had early morning classes and couldn't stay up that late. From 1984 - 1986 I had access to a VCR and watched almost every night; I was VCR-less again while in graduate school from 1986 until 1988, so I only watched occasionally during that period; then I finished my degree, got a job and my very own VCR, and have watched Late Night / Late Show with David Letterman every night for the last 12 years. (I watch the show on tape while I eat supper the next evening. What could be better than dinner with Dave?)

I stumbled upon AFL (alt.fan.letterman) quite by accident in late 1993. What I initially found was an archive of (then) recent AFL posts on a gopher server--remember those?--somewhere in the UK. I just barely missed the "Time of Troubles" on AFL (a nasty period in the summer of 1993, while the show was on hiatus during the switch from NBC to CBS). I poked around and figured out how to get to AFL directly (using vn on a unix host in those days), and lurked for many months (this was back when there was a real tradition of lurking for a long time before you post, so you don't jump in and make an idiot of yourself). I witnessed the historic arrival of Donz5 on the scene, and started posting to the AFL myself in approximately May or June of 1994.

This past winter, when Dave had his quintuple bypass surgery, I somehow found myself organizing the AFL American Heart Association donations. We AFLers contributed approximately $2500 to the AHA in tribute to Dave, and much to my surprise, I got CBS to pony up $5000. (See http://homepages.together.net/~hpr/dave/ for more info on this.)

So, obviously, I'm a huge fan of David Letterman, but in all this time I had never been to see the big show in person. The Dave Con 2000 marked my very first trip to New York City, my very first trip to see Dave, and my very first in-person meeting of other AFLers. I was a bit apprehensive about travelling to the big city by myself, but it turns out all of my worries were for naught: it is very easy to get around NYC, and I felt completely comfortable walking around or taking cabs by myself. In the three days I was there, I got to see Dave, meet fellow AFLers, and check out some museums and stuff. Needless to say, I had an absolute blast!

Since this is such a big honkin' trip report, I have split it up into three parts: Before, During, and After the show. Don't miss part 3; a lot of great stuff transpired after the show itself.

Helen Read
hpr@together.net

Dave Con 2000: Big Honkin' Trip Report by Helen P. Read

Introduction

Dave Con 2000:
Big Honkin' Trip Report
by Helen P. Read