...and After Your Local News...

I just spent the last hour looking for a link of last night's Stephanie @ The Olympics bit on David Letterman, with no luck. I used to really like the Stephanie segments, though the actual footage was pretty funny (Stephanie went around showing the non-english speaking locals her backpack that had wheels on it. "I'm on American Television," she'd say, and the locals would go "oohhh," as if that explained everything)...This is the kind of gal I can go for in a heartbeat: Goofy, a good sport, and willing to laugh at herself.

She's been on the spotlight for so long, though, that the initial innocent goofiness has worn off. I don't think anything will phaze Rupert Gee, though.

One of the better things about not having cable (not constantly sucking on the cathode teat, for one thing), is that I get to keep up with David Letterman, who is something of a personal hero to me.

And, after weirdly deflating for a number of years, I'm glad to see that he's become an ornery cuss again, with jabs taken at CBS executives, the station's programming, and the current presidential administration (despite being a rumored moderate conservative). If you haven't seen him dismantle Bill O'Reilly, get your self to google now.

Like Carson's fans before him, I've been with Letterman since the moderately early days in the 80s; enough to remember his picking on other unsuspecting women in NYC, most famously the woman who was a receptionist across the way from Rockerfeller center. He pestered her through several birthdays, promotions, engagements and marriage before he stopped.

I guess his is a benevolent lechery (at least, no one has sued him cough>Bob Barker!<cough), because there's been a few other targets before Stephanie came along. And, I'm sorry, but Beat The Clock (in which the participant, usually at Hello Deli, isn't given a task to beat the clock with, leading to 30 seconds of them staring at the camera and listening to frantic music) still kills me.

Letterman's still king in my book.

And you know, seeing as this entry has absolutely zero focus, Craig Ferguson is growing on me!

At first I didn't know what to make of the guy and his rambling opening monologue (after which I usually go to bed), but I've come to appreciate the friendly way he approaches the enterprise.

As opposed to Conan. People will argue that Conan's funnier, and I'll give them that, but the 60 minutes of shtick-n-mug-o-rama can get old for me. Besides, it's not the same without Andy Richter (who really deserves a much better career).

Which leaves us with Jimmy Kimmel, the lucky bastard currently involved with Sarah Silverman (need there be a diatribe about unworthy suitors?). I don't really watch his show, was never that big on The Man Show, and Crank Yankers always had a funny bit or two in every show. Beyond that, I can't really say much.

Oh, sorry, forgot about Carson Daly. Yup.

I'll tell you what I occasionally miss: Later with Bob Costas, back when he was NBC's baseball guru and still humble enough that his intelligence didn't get in the way of an entertaining interview. Because his background wasn't in comedy, he was one of the few talk show hosts, along with Johnny C., who wasn't afraid to laugh and laugh big. I still fondly recall the infamous two-part episode with him and Richard Lewis. Infamous, because Costas essentially spent the hour on the floor laughing hysterically. Lewis was killing with the segues, to use an old comedy term. Costas eventually asked that the episodes be edited or never shown again.

Shame that.
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In other news:

--Tonight I'm doing a staged reading, along with purplestine and Rob, that I directed, think good thoughts.

--Tomorrow night, I co-host Spaz 360, Seattle's own version of Dance 360, as MF Beige.

--This weekend I head out of town for another writer's weekend.

--Oh, and could someone go to JJ's blog and reassure him that potty training ain't the end of the world?

TTFN