Name: Staff Favorite Moments: Music Coordinator Chris Schukei | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-06-20T15:01:31.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Staff Favorite Moments: Music Coordinator Chris Schukei | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-06-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Staff Favorite Moments: Music Coordinator Chris Schukei | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-06-20. Transcript available.

Hi, I'm Chris Shukeye. I worked with Paul Schaefer in the CBS Orchestra as
music coordinator from 1993 until 2003.
Continued on helping with American Federation of Music Contracts.
You could refer to me as the Mulholland and Berry of AFM payments.
I grew up in central Nebraska, which is not necessarily the media hotbed,
but luckily my parents were very attuned to great comedy and introduced me to
Dave at a very early age.
I remember having a particular episode that I literally had VHS'd and taken to
my high school
to try to get kids to watch, to try to spread the gospel of Dave.
A viewer mail joke asking how you know how old the show is.
Hal, do we have some videotape we can show Ed that will demonstrate what that
indicator is?
Oh yeah, watch closely here. This should answer the question for you.
Okay, so then Spiro Agnew turns to Martha Mitchell and he says,
Ah, why don't you take a nap?
Say hello to Paul Schaefer. Thanks. Hi, Paul.
Christmas at Late Show was unlike any place else.
And of course, it focused on the Darling Love performance.
Starting in late November, we would start to get choir members, string sections,
extra musicians.
It became, and rightfully so, this holiday tradition that obviously still
stands, that people remember.
It's fantastic television that brought you into the holidays.
They sing it down the hall, but it's not like a Ritz potato.
For a kid from central Nebraska who hadn't seen a lot of the world, the ability
to travel with the show was amazing.
San Francisco, I still think has one of the best Chiron quiz intro songs that
Paul ever did.
Wow. What was that?
That's San Francisco by the Village People.
Tom Hanks flew in on a private plane. Wednesday the guest was Dean King.
The memories I have of London were Chuck Berry needing to get paid in cash
before he would perform.
I don't think anybody had dollars on them there in London.
He was not going to budge.
We were scrambling to try to put that together.
By the way, Chuck the Queen would like her pants back.
A Van Morrison that might have had a few drinks before, being a little unwieldy
with our talent people.
One of the things that I enjoyed the most was you would get these great writers
pieces that would come on and they would ask Paul to write a song.
One of my favorites was a sort of sitcom that was called The Letterman Family.
Paul wrote this great song for that with great Will Lee vocals for it.
It makes me laugh every time I see it.
We're living and loving, loving and living, living and learning, learning and
giving.
We're giving and taking, taking and sharing, searching and finding, finding and
caring.
We're laughing and crying, crying and hoping, helping and trying.
We're wishing and dreaming, dreaming and teaching, working and striving,
striving and reaching.
All in the name of love.
Occasionally, Paul would be gone.
He did Blues Brothers 2000.
He would take some of the high holidays off too and we got into a nice mode
where we would bring Warren Zevon in to sub for him.
He felt like it was a great opportunity to show kind of his comedic side.
He always did want sandwiches ready to go when he got into the dressing room.
And, of course, on that last show, he mentions the line, enjoy every sandwich.
And I think he truly did when he was at Late Show.
When I first heard about this, I think that you were in touch with Paul's
assistant.
He actually had a conversation with him.
Yeah.
And he said it was the most bizarre thing, kind of the stunning revelation of
this.
But yet, Warren was making jokes just like that.
Now, how is that possible?
I'm not sure I could make jokes like that if I had had that info.
You think so?
I know you would.
Really?
Yeah.
Let me just say now, thank you for being here and thank you for everything.
Thank you.
Occasionally, we would do these remote pieces and it was going to be new for
spring.
Problem number one for new for spring was that morning it actually snowed.
And then one of the jokes was that there was a three-legged race.
And somehow, I was going to get tied up with Dave.
Well, you can imagine, that's the last thing Dave thought of when he got up in
the morning
was, I hope I can be tied together with Chris Shukeye.
You'll remember in the 90s, long-distance services were huge.
And Saving Private Ryan was a big, giant movie going on.
So, one of the writers had this idea to combine them and do this big theatrical
piece that
ultimately turns into a long-distance commercial.
We shot all day on Friday and it is pouring rain and it does not let up.
It was the wettest, the coldest, and how I escaped pneumonia in that shoot, I
will never know.
Oh, I know this war is just, but does it have to cost so dearly?
I know one way to save money.
What?
Just dial 10-10-4-5-6 for every long-distance call.
Is that right?
He's correct, sir.
With 10-10-4-5-6, you can save over 60% on your regular long-distance rates.
So that means?
That means the sooner you start using 10-10-4-5-6, the sooner you start saving
money.
Thanks, man.
Now let's go beat those Nazis!
You know, when you got appearance fees, there was a U-5, which meant you had
under five lines,
but the gold standard was principal, and the best opportunity to get that was
who asked for it.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, Don Fees.
Hi, Don Fees.
How do you spell that last name, Don?
F-E-E-S.
And where are you from?
Not a lot of them.
From Lawrence, Kansas.
Lawrence, Kansas.
Hey, the heartland.
That's the, uh, I believe it's the home of the University of Kansas, isn't it?
Jayhawks.
You go to school there?
Yeah, I'm a student.
All right, what do you study?
Um, I'm not really sure at this point, but...
Very undecided.
Uh, what can I do for you?
Well, I'm not going to be able to stay around for the whole show, and I was
wondering if you
could show me how it turns out.
Oh, sure, you want to see the rest of the show?
Hal, do me a favor.
This guy's got to leave going back to Lawrence, Kansas, or something.
Fast forward through the rest of the show, let him see what happens.
Okay, watch this.
Good, good question.
There we are.
That's Sinbad, right?
Yeah, we're chatting with Sinbad, having a nice time.
Now, here's Paul.
What?
Now, Paul grabs, oh, it's, it's, grabs him.
Wait a minute, let's...
Oh, my God!
Three.
That's tough.
I guess I'll get to see Sinbad, at least.
Yeah, that's right.
The bit with Jim coming out was he was going to celebrate New Year's big time.
I'm sort of standing there.
Jim comes and just pops me.
Luckily, he did do a fake, good, fake punch.
Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Yeah! Happy New Year! A lot of
times people would ask, well, where do you stand during the show going on?
And myself and Michael Ferranti, who also helped with the band, would be to the
side of the band so that we could be accessed very quickly if there were any
issues. So what I still get more than anybody seeing is the Chris Farley intro.
I'm going! I'm going!
I'm going!
I'm going!
I'm going!
I'm going!
I'm going!
But it turned out to be a great segment for me that ran throughout the entire
summer and gave me some wonderful appearance fees that helped with my wedding
cost.
Got any messages for me?
No.
Uh-huh.
Hey, Chris.
I know.
Hey, Alan.
Hi, Alan.
Oh, hi, Alan.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
When the CBS Orchestra did Jimmy Fallon last year, Jimmy talked about how Paul's
laugh
was an indicator that, oh, this is really funny.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Dave.
Oh hi Alan. When CBS Orchestra did Jimmy Fallon last year Jimmy talked about
how Paul's laugh
was an indicator that oh this is really funny. There are just so many times
where you hear him
laughing on the side and you just think oh well that is super funny. All right
let's start
time. If you press the silent alarm. Mr. Wizard. Get out of here. Get back in
the audience. Get back in
the audience where you belong. Why are you sneaking up here on me like that.
Paul often he had one of
if not the hardest job on television always. He could read Dave's mind almost
as well as anybody
could. And I think a great example of that was this band that came on and the
lead singer is
shimmying around and singing. Dave's loving that and he goes give me a little
more of that. Well
this band doesn't know what he's asking for. So Paul with just not even a
second hesitation
knows exactly what Dave wants and Paul gets down there and shimmies on the
ground just perfectly.
You know another area of course that Paul was genius was play ons for guests.
It became a game I think
across the world of hearing the song and trying to make the connection of what
it was with the guest.
Jeffrey Tambor known for Larry Sanders and the term hey now. Paul would play
the crowded house song.
Don't dream it's over that has the line. Hey now. Hey now. And then some guests
would come on. They had songs that they have done. Paul would know those songs
and play them during break. Will Smith was one of those. They'd give him a
And then he'd give you a mic and then he'd start rapping and do an entire show
for the audience.
Come on Scream! Come on Scream! Come on Scream!
Come on Scream!
Yeah the case. It started very organically where Paul just kind of came out of
the pit and was sort of singing this song and dropped to his knees and just
kind of for a show for the studio audience. Not even part of the actual show.
Dave was so charming and tickled by this that they thought well this is a great
song.
And let's do a cape. Paul committed to that drop to the stage floor. We needed
to get him some knee pads for that because the first couple times when he didn't
have those that was hurting him. He wanted to do a drop to the stage floor.
My favorite always would be as he was being led out by whatever celebrity, he
would sing their name. And it was funny to see then the reaction from each
celebrity as they stood there and held the cape.
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Lost in the will of the head!
Al Green was always amazing!
He could get this energy in the crowd!
He'd start hopping and getting that energy going!
And it was just a sight to behold!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Oh, you know what I mean!
Coming off of his guitar, you could just feel in the room!
It's almost impossible to articulate what that is when that would hit,
but boy, you just knew it because you felt it in your bones!
Can I help you?
Yeah, Kevin Kunreuther?
Yes?
I just flew all the way from New York City!
Yeah, I thought you were hanging from a ledge!
Oh, that... that letter was just a joke!
A joke!