In April of 1995, when we were playing New York City for four weeks (Yahooo!!), our entire clown alley was hired to perform on the Late Show with David Letterman. Pictured above is the truck parked by the freight doors at the Ed Sullivan Theater, full of all our clown toys (juggling equipment, rolling globes, unicycles,etc.) that we'd be using for the evening. All I needed was a frying pan and me.
That's Lisa Simpson with the white, question mark curl and Benny Schultz next to her. On top of the truck stands Greg May, one of the best clowns the show had at the time.
We had about thirty seconds after David Letterman cued the band to come out running to do our thing. I did a variety of pratfalls and dove into the audience and ran amuck until we all had to go backstage until our next cue. That theater is teeny but they way it's shot gives it a huge appearance.
On the left and facing away is Arron Schettler and next to him is Mike Simpson.
The greenroom was way too small to accommodate eighteen clowns so before the show we waited in an rv that was parked outside the building. Just before air time we went inside the theater and took our places in the various nooks and crannies available to us. Four of us, including Chad Miller and I, were in this tiny, narrow room upstage stage left of Letterman's desk that had a small counter top with a coffee maker and a door that led directly onto the stage floor.
Michael Simpson waited next to this. It looks like rigging for drops and curtains.
That's me next to the scenery far upstage.
And of course, I had to have a picture with Larry "Bud" Melman before all was said and done. I didn't get a chance to take a picture with Paul Shaffer or David Letterman. We were instructed to stay away from David Letterman because we were told he didn't like clowns.
Chad Miller went right up to his desk during one of our moments on stage. Never tell a clown "don't do that" because he will. Luv you Chad! Personally I don't believe he doesn't like clowns because if your gonna have eighteen circus clowns all over the stage being themselves you'd better not have any problem with that.
That week the clowns each received a check for one hundred dollars for roughly a minute and half's time of work. I guess it was a little more if you consider the time we were setting up and then waited for the show to begin but really, that was the easiest hundred smackers I had ever made. We also got a copy of the show but I can't seem to find it. I was hoping to find something on Youtube but no such luck. Oh,well. I'll just keep looking.
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