Name: Staff Favorite Moments: Zoe Friedman | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-05-03T14:55:50.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Staff Favorite Moments: Zoe Friedman | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-05-03. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Staff Favorite Moments: Zoe Friedman | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-05-03. Transcript available.

I'm Zoe Friedman. I worked at the David Letterman Show both late night and late
show from the years 1992 to 2000 and I was an intern in 1986 and 87. So I was
talent receptionist, talent assistant, talent coordinator, talent producer for
11 fun years. Some of my favorite segments were with Demi Moore and Bruce
Willis. They were married at the time and they always were willing to do some
wild
fun you know talked about viral these days moments. So for this segment for
Demi Moore she was about seven months pregnant and we decided to get a
pregnant body double to do a round off backhand string backflip I think it was
as her entrance into the show. It was cut beautifully you couldn't tell it was
Demi
and you know the magic of television. But what happened after the show aired is
I
got a phone call from a very angry mother-in-law Demi Moore. She yelled at
me for making her daughter-in-law do wild gymnastics while seven months
pregnant.
How dare you do that to my granddaughter? What are you doing? How did why would
you
make her do that? That's terrible and I was like it wasn't her it was a body
double I swear. And you are you know I'm concerned because you shouldn't really
be
on a television show you should be someplace relaxing. But I'm doing this for
you Dave.
I appreciate it I know that but you're making me a little nervous. No but don't
worry I do
everything. Are you kidding me?
I mean no they used to say I said to women oh you know you gotta go. Take it
easy yeah get on
your back. You can do I do everything.
I work out. I work out. What kind of working out can you do?
I everything biking hiking whatever running you know you gotta take it easy. Be
careful yeah.
I took up a little gymnastics. No no you didn't. Sure. Gymnastics?
Yeah a little bit. No you're kidding me. No no.
You can't do gymnastics when you're nine months pregnant. No no I did
gymnastics when I was a kid so I
picked up a class and I'm working with someone. I don't believe this. I've been
learning some great tricks.
I don't believe this. Would you like to see some? Yes I would.
Now be careful. Don't do anything stupid. Okay so maybe if I just have to get a
little
running start. All right. And maybe if they could just. Oh get ready. Move back
a little bit. Look out.
Oh my goodness. A little music for me. Be very very careful. All right. Okay
here we go. All right.
Look at that. What a lovely outfit. Thanks Dave. Okay. Okay. Don't you need any
talc or anything? No no. I'm also. Okay.
Demi Moore ladies and gentlemen. Oh my god. Here we go. Oh geez. What is.
What a lovely outfit. My god I never. I never would have believed it. Are you
all right?
Yeah. Wow. Good heavens. That was very nice. I think I just need to sit down
for a second.
You're okay. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I hope you're wearing comfortable shoes.
As I said I was an intern in 1986 and I had the opportunity to be part of a
stupid human trick.
One of my favorite segments of all time. I love the stupid pet and stupid human
tricks. And I was so
excited when the coordinator of the stupid human tricks asked me a measly
intern to help her out with
one of these human tricks. I was like okay. So I get to rehearsal and it's this
guy James Brewer I think
his name is. And his stupid trick was to jump rope with over 300 pounds on his
back. They weigh about 300 pounds.
Total. This is Sue. I'm not going to tell you which one weighs more. Nice to
see you.
Zoey how are you? Come on up. Well you know Sue and Zoey don't you? Now I need
your help too. Soon as I get
soon as I get this young lady up there I want you to pull the chair out of the
way. Can you do that?
All right. Now what are you going to do? You're going to jump rope with people
on your back?
Yeah. All right. Are you? Okay, now wait a minute. Hold on tight.
Yeah. Get that feet back there. All right. Now when the other one gets on, move
that chair out of the way
quickly. Okay. Do you want a drum roll or anything? Oh no, that's all right.
Now they're not glued together either.
Oh my God. If this, oh my God. Oh!
I get down. I climb off the chair and I was so nervous and I didn't know what
to do. I literally
just made a beeline and went backstage because I had no, I was so uncomfortable.
I didn't know what
I was supposed to do. Little did I know till later when I saw the show that
Dave was putting out his hand
to shake my hand and it looked like I totally blew him off.
Unbelievable. You know, take whatever you want. You can have the show, you can
have my clothes,
you can have Paul in the band, you get everything. I've never seen anything
quite like that.
One of my focuses at the show in the talent department was to book and produce
the stand of
comedians. We did a week of network debuts. So what that means is that comedians
who have never been
on television before get their network debut, which is at a time, a huge deal.
The, the spot on Carson,
the spot on Letterman could launch careers. I had booked a comedian named Jim Gaffigan
and Jim Gaffigan,
who I was a big fan of, and Jim was great to work with a lovely human being.
Jim had an amazing set.
And I get a call from Rob Burnett, the executive producer and said, I'd like to
see you up in the
office. And I didn't really understand what was going on. I didn't get called
up a lot. And they brought
me up with the gym's manager and said that we want to sign Jim for a
development deal with World by Pants
and do a show around him. I mean, I felt like I was in show business at that
moment and it was life
changing for Jim. You know, I think he was on the show many a times, obviously
after that. And one of
the top stand up comedians to this day. My favorite food is Mexican food. I
actually used to be a waiter
in a Mexican restaurant in Indiana. I know you're impressed. Mexican food's
great, but it's essentially
all the same ingredients. So as a waiter, you'd always have to deal with these
stupid questions.
You know, people would be like, what is nachos? Nachos? It's tortilla with
cheese, meat, or vegetables.
Ah, well then what is a burrito? Tortilla with cheese, meat, or vegetables.
Then what is a tostada? Tortilla with cheese, meat, or vegetables.
Then what is-- look, it's all the same!
Mexican food is great, but it is all the same, you know? It's almost a
conspiracy.
It's almost like they had a meeting 200 years ago in Mexico and one guy stood
up,
he was like, "Hey look, the reason I got everyone here is pretty simple. I
figured we could rename
this one entree seven times and sell it to the North Americans." The French
said it was a good idea.
"Now, uh, who's in on it?" And then one guy in the back stood up and goes, "Wouldn't
that be dishonest?"
"Well, if you keep your mouth shut, we'll name one of the entrees after you.
What's your name?"
"My name's Chimichanga."
One fun thing about being at the show is Dave used staff members for various
sketches and remotes.
One day on my desk landed a piece of paper asking if anybody on the staff
wanted a tattoo. I think
I'm the only staff member that said yes. So I got picked to get a tattoo and I
can tell you I picked
the right spot, the right tattoo. I have no regrets. I have a story that I can
tell to my grandkids.
And my one tattoo, my one and only, I could say Dave Letterman took me to get a
tattoo. And he did.
There's Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer. It's a bunny. Now, what would be so wrong
with a bunny?
Look, a tick. You'd have people swatting at your ankle day and night. That'd be
endless fun.
What about just a simple Dave? Too bad you couldn't help this guy with his
posture.
Do you do any work? Do you do chiropractic adjustments? Now, here's a good
looking guy,
with or without a tattoo. Huh? Am I right? Jesus, look at the on that guy.
Look at that, I got drunk one time, I got to go on. Let's go for this.
It's on another face. Okay, you got it. Yeah, yeah.
Just take the edge off. All right. Go ahead and finish it up.
All right. Are you all right?
Let me know. The stench is unbelievable.
This is sort of like what we did when mom wanted her mustache removed.
Same kind of deal. We had to get her full of malt liquor, too.
Right here. Here we go.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Nice job.
Zoe Friedman and her tattoo, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Okay.