Name: Dave Remembers Bruce McCall | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-05-10T23:41:39.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Dave Remembers Bruce McCall | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-10. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Dave Remembers Bruce McCall | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-10. Transcript available.

Hi, I'm Barbara Gaines. This is our friend Dave. Hi, how are you? Mary's not
here. Where is Mary?
She's on assignment. That's right. She's on assignment. I have a theory because
it's show
business and I don't know that show business theories apply to life generally.
This is my
theory. One of your programs that I happen to catch and by the way, you know, I
can't stay up
this late. Sure. But you were talking about Brian Teta and how you were
thinking of bringing him
over to produce your show, which is in desperate need of production. Yeah, I
think it was you talking
about it, but yeah. I can't recall. Right. But it's like, is it too late for
CPR? You know, you go to
the funeral and it's an open casket. Is it too late for, oh, I guess that's
kind of like your show
in the best sense of the expression. But anyway, here's what I'm saying. Here's
what I suspicion
is that Brian Teta, he got wind of us talking, you talking about hiring him
over here. Then he started
watching the Barbara Gaines show. He saw Mary. He liked what he saw, which is
maybe the only thing
you like what you see when you watch this program. Right. And then no offense
to you, by the way,
you do a great, you do a great job. Why would I take offense? Yeah. So here's
my theory. Brian
saw Mary, heard his name, watched the show, saw Mary and has called her up and
is probably right
this very minute auditioning Mary for a position on The View. Do I have proof?
No. Have I been in
show business all my life? Yes. So it's a, it's a strong possibility. I think
so. Wow. Yeah. Well,
we look forward to seeing Mary on The View. Well, no, then you lose a valuable
part of your own show.
You're not some, no, then you engage in litigation and sue Brian for every
nickel he's worth.
Oh, I am so supportive of my, of my people. Well, look, let's just wait and see.
Let's see if we,
if I'm right about any of this. I could, I could be delirious. All right. Oh,
then you could get,
oh, maybe we arrange a trade. Right. Yes. We get whoopee. Right. Oh, this is
brilliant. Brilliant,
Walter. Nice going, Walter. All right. Yeah. Uh, anyway, speaking of family and
things, we,
we lost a kind of a family. Well, this is very important to me. Very important
to people who know
things about comedy in particular, uh, Bruce McCall, uh, passed away, not sure
of the man's age,
but it was very sad in his eighties. Uh, we knew his daughter, Amanda, who
worked with us on one of
our shows, Amanda McCall and knew of his wife, Polly and knew of the three of
them as, as family.
And adjunct to that, I always thought that Bruce McCall represented something
very rarefied in
the world of comedy and art and writing. Years ago, I came to know him because
of National Lampoon
published, um, uh, a Sunday supplement from the Dacron, Ohio, um, newspaper.
And it was as funny
and as tightly funny and as smart and crisp a parody as I've ever seen. And
then it was later
republished in a book that he did that I dearly love called Zany Afternoons.
Yeah, we love that book.
Oh my God. Uh, it was one of two books that my son took with him to college was
Zany Afternoons
and the other Adam Resnick's book, uh, Will Not Attend. Both great. And those,
those two books are,
I think maybe singularly, if you can have two books representing a single
impression,
will make you laugh out loud. And if you don't appreciate Bruce McCall and also,
uh, Adam Resnick,
luckily Adam did not pass away. Although check. No, I, I, I've seen him
recently. Oh yeah, did you really?
How's he doing? Good. Okay. Uh, anyway, those two books represent to me kind of
a, a North star
of comedy. So it was a great loss. And he, he did several books, uh, Zany Afternoons,
uh, Marvel Town,
uh, all foreign countries look like meat. I'm butchering the title. Something
like that. And then,
then this one here, which, uh, was, was always a great thrill for me and a bit
of an embarrassment.
And here's the embarrassment, uh, Bruce McCall and David Letterman. And, and it
was through Amanda
that I suggested this idea that, uh, wealthy people were buying up, uh,
wilderness land and
turning it into peculiar hobbies for themselves. Uh, she took it to her father
and her father liked the
idea of putting out a book like this. And I knew I was not going to really
participate beyond that.
And, and I didn't accept that, uh, Amanda would bring in drawings that her
father had done.
And I loved it because I got to see the drawings and they smelled of tobacco,
cigar smoke, because he,
when he was working on the book, he was still smoking cigars in their apartment.
And I found
that, uh, one of many delightful aspects of it. But the reason that I kind of
forced this issue was
I just wanted another Bruce McCall book because, uh, they're nothing but fun.
You know, he was on the
show a few times and he, uh, uh, I think that the word taciturn, uh, uncomfortably
taciturn. And he's somewhere in that
between taciturn and uncomfortable and, and I in awe of the guy. So it looked
like, uh, we were at a workshop for
beginning ventriloquists like the dummy wasn't right. And the guy operating the
dummy wasn't right.
Uh, but they're hilarious because it was me in those days, neither of us really
belonged on television. But anyway,
uh, that's the reason for this. And, uh, if, if there were ever a second
printing, I think I'd have my name
taken off of there, but I, I love the association with, uh, Amanda and, uh, at
arm's length working
with her father. And we were, we were nominated for a Thurber prize, Bruce and
I. Oh, do you know who
you didn't win? No, we didn't. I forget who won, but the person who won, you
had to get up and give a
little, uh, synopsis of your work. And, uh, the, the person who won, it was
like a sales pitch and it
was eloquent and it was motivating and it was laughing and fun. And, and then
Bruce gets up and
uh, here we go. And then you got a thing and that's all we got. And then he
sits down and we were all
what happened? And by the way, here's the other thing, the New Yorker magazine,
uh, as you may know,
they were in such trouble financially. And by the way, from this point on, none
of this is true. I'm just
making this up because I like, I like how this sounds. Yeah. Uh, the New Yorker
magazine almost
went out of business and financially in great trouble. And then Bruce McCall
came along and
started illustrating covers for the magazine. And I think he did 50, maybe not
an exaggeration. And
then they, uh, they became so successful, the New Yorker that they were
purchased by Reader's Digest.
Oh, he brought them back. Yes. And from that point on to today, uh, they're
still, I think still purchased,
uh, or Sports Illustrated bought them. And, but it was thanks to Bruce McCall
that they are still in
business today. All right. Thanks for, for watching. And, uh, we'll see you
soon. We'll see you Labor Day.
Right. I would like these lights always to follow me around. Oh, brighter than
you. Are the lights
always here? These? Yeah. Yeah. Huh.