Name: Fan Request: Philippe Petit's High-Wire Walk Over Broadway | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-04-21T15:12:09.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Fan Request: Philippe Petit's High-Wire Walk Over Broadway | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-21. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Fan Request: Philippe Petit's High-Wire Walk Over Broadway | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-21. Transcript available.

now listen to this i don't know if you saw when you were outside we got a thing
and it's been out
there all week and frankly it's driving me crazy because it's right outside my
window on broadway
and i come to work monday and there's this thing and i thought well you know
people are trying to
get me well i have that feeling i get that you know why i have that feeling why
because that's
what the voices in my head tell me people are trying to get you but here's the
thing can you
you turn on the camera in my office let's see the camera in my office okay that's
the thing you
looked at it's right across broadway and that's uh like a cable and it's 11
stories up 12 stories up
above broadway and uh so that's been out there all week and it's like a thing a
cable a high wire
stretched from that building across broadway right across there there it is
that's exactly what i'm
talking about right across broad look down and then that's broadway very high
up yeah and you say to
yourself well why why is that up there and and i you know my answer is well
people are trying to get me
yes that's look at this it's this guy right here do you remember i don't know
if you remember when
this happened were you in new york when this took place paul i remember this
man uh stretched a cable
between the towers of the world trade center and he walked across this was in
1974 and his name is
philippe patty right there yeah and tonight uh shortly he will be walking
across uh broadway
now right out really yes right outside the ed sullivan theater building
that's amazing
and when and when they when they did this the the world trade center had only
been open i think a few
months and the top the very top part of it they were still doing a bit of
construction and he and his
buddies uh sneaked up in there and they were able to rig it overnight they
stretched this cable by
shooting a bow and arrow with some fishing line yeah and tied tied to the arrow
with some fishing line
and then tied to the fishing line was a larger rope and tied to the rope was
the i guess the actual cable
and the guys on the other tower were then able to stretch the cable across
there and then when the
sun came up he started walking back and forth across this wire now what i don't
understand is that's a
much bigger undertaking down there than he's doing here but here they've been
setting this thing up
for like a week and a half outside my why is that i i don't know and and every
day there's guys out
there checking it there's they're always out there and they're making sure that
it's tight and they
got the wind indicators and it'll be an incline he's actually going up a little
bit he's walking
from the 12th floor of the 1700 broadway building to the 14th floor of the ed
sullivan theater building so
that's uh two stories uh up and uh departure point is 160 feet above the street
level arrival point is
184 feet above street level 120 feet across broadway philippe will be walking
on a seven eighth of an
inch diameter steel cable about the same size as a somebody's thumb well yeah i
guess so but it's a
it's a and last night i called him i mentioned that he was a daredevil well he's
he's not he's not a
daredevil although you would think for me if i did that i'd say you'd have you
to take a daredevil to do
but he's not a daredevil also he's not a stunt man okay he's an artiste of
course
and and what we're going to be watching is a piece of art yes a piece of uh a
kinetic
kinetic art yes exactly you took the words right out of my mouth not quite but
so so that's and he'll
be doing that later on in the program that'll be and and plus now it's raining
so at the last minute
if he feels like it's not right he won't do it and that'll be fine with us
because you know he and then
we'll get a daredevil to come in and he'll do it no that's that's all right
that's not right uh philippe
petit is uh 53 years old grew up in paris france i would have guessed yeah uh
major performances he uh
did an illegal walk at the notre dame cathedral this walk by the way is
completely legal this is legal yeah
the one he did at the world uh trade towers in 74 that was illegal illegal uh
sydney harbor bridge
illegal um louisiana superdome walk for opening of largest covered stadium i
would guess that was legal
eiffel tower doesn't say whether that was legal or not tokyo's yeah they've
been all over the world doing
this that's the uh the little uh apron over there on the 1700 broadway building
across the street from
us on broadway and uh that's uh philippe petit getting ready and he's going to
walk up that wire
to the ed sullivan theater building and i guess is he about ready to go i just
hope to god he crosses
with the light because it's dangerous enough you see what i'm saying all right
so i'm i'm going to introduce him and then i guess we just turn on the camera
and we watch him
make the his way across on that cable to our building our next guest is a world-renowned
high
wire artist and the author of this new book we've looked at it earlier this
evening entitled
to reach the clouds and it contains uh truly some majestic breathtaking photos
and now crossing a broadway on a steel cable more than a dozen stories up
please welcome philippe pitt
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
so
and
so
so
so
so
so
so
we'll see you
we'll see you
it was lovely wasn't it
everyone nice job how was it uh how was it for you was it difficult was it easy
was it fun all of
those things it was wet
but actually the rain is hiding the wind and the wind is the enemy of the wire
walker so in a
sense i was happy it was raining plus i'm a new yorker a little bit of rain
doesn't stop us
good for you now could could you have done that
could you have done that without the bar you need the bar for the balance you
know the balancing
pole is not what those little toys that balance by themselves is it's an
extension of your arm
we humans are too fragile to go of a volcano under the sea on a high wire so we
need an extension
of the arms but something else was helping me to cross and it's the wonderful
the beautiful music of thank you it was lovely he requested duke kellington for
that
we were talking about the uh the book earlier and i was surprised in uh looking
through the book
to learn and maybe i have this incorrectly but there is no existing film or
videotape of you
crossing the wire between the towers is that true well that's a cruel question
it was hurting me at the
time i wanted a live footage of at least my first crossing and somehow um my
friend who was a
photographer took a few snapshots when he took the 16 millimeter camera the
cops already were on both
towers so uh there is no record but somehow the poet that i am loves that i did
something incredible
people who were there remember and there is no proof
but you you do have a series of very very dramatic and majestic photographs of
the event in the book
it's a it's a lovely collection and quite an accomplishment that you look back
on now
yes yes it shows everybody that when you have a dream you should hold on to
that dream and you
should think that mountain can be moved and that the word impossible should be
erased from your vocabulary
i'm sure in your case it is yes now um
we're gonna we're gonna leave the cable up and tomorrow night i'm gonna try it
okay that's what we call a crash course in equilibrium but i see you as
somebody on the
title every night so you'll do very well well god bless you nice to have you
here it was a lovely
thing to see thank you very much philippe petite everybody we'll be right back