hi my name is Sarah Connell and I worked at The Late Show for 12 years I started as an
intern in 2002 then I was a talent assistant a talent coordinator and a segment producer when
I started as an intern everything was brand new I had never had an internship before and
I remember seeing Biff Henderson with his headset and I couldn't believe he actually was the stage
manager I thought he was your character and I love that about the show that Dave would put
the staff and the crew in bits and I was lucky enough to be quite a few over the years I got
to do who asked for it which was always a fun one to do but the most nerve-wracking to do one who
asked for it that I did where the punchline was going to be Matt Damon and Matt Damon was sitting
in the audience the whole time and I knew I had to get it right who is your favorite actor oh uh
you know that's a pretty good question and I want to be careful here because I don't want to step
on anybody's toes but they always refer to this guy as as like the the current generation Jimmy
Stewart and he's a a double Academy Award winner and and a great guy he's been on the show many
times very very friendly very likable I'd have to go with Tom Hanks Tom Hanks thank you thank you
Kate so that was the most nerve-wracking anytime you had to do a bit with another celebrity I got
lucky enough to do a few of those I did one with Steve Martin can we trust someone who knows so
little about how government works do you even know when an incumbent is isn't that a type of squash
we simply can't afford to have this disgraceful man representing us I would like to say I'm
sorry for the fact that my penis is hanging out but in my defense I didn't know I would
be speaking from behind a plexiglass podium one time I played the daughter of Martin Short I had
to wear wedding dress and I remember we filmed it during a blizzard in February and they have
Paparazzi everyone everywhere and they're hiding in the trees and they're you know and and and they
won't leave us a-listers alone I'm sure that everyone's seen this this thing on the on uh
on TMZ where I lose it with a a Paparazzi no why won't you people leave me alone you damn Paparazzi
Pap Papa there people like you that killed Diana princess of England and left her boys alone you
camera toing [ __ ] leave us famous types alone different than you another favorite bit that he
would do on the show was putting characters in a business and just kind of waiting to see the
reaction of the managers which usually was not so positive the one I remember most is how many Sarah
Palin could fit into a Lens Crafters all right let's send in a Sarah Pala and see what happens
oh there she is right there yeah smart looking out she's very attractive woman isn't she okay there's
one this gu this man is looking for a flying saucer we we got to we're
going to I don't know what happened in there but I'm going to call a listen
I'm going to call the home office and if you hear anything you let me know because
this this can't go on you understand what I'm saying all right let's send in seven
more two 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 okay so we now have 16 Sarah Palin holy jeez look [Applause] at
but one of my favorites was doing a bit with Bruce Willis I got to be in a bit Called Bruce
Willis is a late show intern red or blue red or blue I don't know which one Red's the hot water
genius shy I'll never forget my first day as Talent assistant on the show my job was
to greet the guests during their time I would bring them to rehearsal I would if they needed
something in their dressing room I would get that my first guest was Courtney Love she was
very nice but just you know Rockstar Courtney Love she needed a very specific green nail
polish that I was running around all New York City trying to find but the thing I remember
most is she couldn't settle on what she wanted to wear and she looked at what I was wearing and
said I want to wear that I said okay and I went and I grabbed a late show t-shirt I put that on
I gave her the tank top she went to rehearsal halfway through the rehearsal she must have
seen herself in the Monitor and didn't like what she saw so she decided right then and there she
she did not want to wear that shirt and it came off the feed of the rehearsal would go to all the
offices in New York and all the offices in La so I just picture people working that day and
looking up from their computer and just seeing Courtney Love topless I do remember hours later
finding the tank top crumpled up in the corner of her dressing room and thinking if every day
is like this I don't think I'm cut out for Show Business Oh Danny Boy the pipes the pipes are
calling from Glenn to Glenn and down the mountain side oh Drew you've had it but I'll be [Music]
[Music] there thank you very much very sweet of you Dave we're going to lose our liquor license
in 2007 it was during the writer strike Dave was able to get an interm agreement to go back and do
shows but but the strike was still going on so we knew we'd have a hard time getting guests for a
bit and Dave had the idea to interview the staff I have never been more nervous for anything in
my life Dave had a beard at the time so that kind of helped he didn't really look like him and that
kind of set me at ease and he was so great and I got to make him laugh and that will forever
be the coolest thing that I will ever do what what did you have done to your teeth I to take
uh my wisdom teeth out so they gave me the gas and I didn't feel anything so I said I think I
need more gas and they said okay Johnny Casher I'm sorry Johnny Casher and cranked up the gas
I'm sorry is that a dental expression Johnny a c Johnny Cash her certainly a verb Johnny Cash
used as a verb yeah what could it mean now was this a recommendation from Courtney Love next
thing I hear is whoop she swallowed it and I had swallowed my wisdom too honest to God what
what is this Walmart where where you all all right let's see did we see something in the
[Applause] X-ray that's just remarkable that's
your wisdom tooth that's right is it still in there I don't think
so there was a period of time where Britney Spears was coming on the show a lot there was this one
time she came on the show and I was bringing her to her dressing room which required an
elevator ride and Paul Schaefer got on and he was chatting and he got off and said have a good show
and as the elevator doors closed Britney very confidently looked around at her Entourage and
said that's Dave's DJ just thought was a great way to describe Paul I'm in town and I'm such a huge
fan oh that's very nice of you to say God bless you thank you very much that means a lot to me no
I had to stop by oh that's very sweet of you she was down the hall I think taping her own special
right go ahead no I wasn't talking about you I was talking about will frell oh I see do do you do you
know where he is well he's he'll be over there in the in the Green Room good luck thank you very
much we had Amanda cyer on the show and during her pre-interview she told me that her dog Finn
can do a stupid human trick where he balances a hamburger on his head and will stay there
until she says go and then he'll eat it and it worked out amazing the dog did the trick
perfectly impress them impress them don't do anything I wouldn't do okay stop off off look
look at me look at me look at me keep doing it okay good [Music] CL as a segment producer you
can plan all you want for a segment but at the end of the day Dave's going to talk about what
he wants to talk about with guests and I remember this one particular time Sophia vergera came on
the show to promote Modern Family this is the height of Modern Family family but all Dave
wanted to talk to her about was Topography of Columbia where is barania barania is by the
Atlantic Ocean it's 2 hours uh and 15 minutes away from Miami so it's very close to Miami and
in the elevation what are we talking about it's very high in bot you know we have a beautiful H
topography so we have everything we of course we we eat rice beans delicious soups Meats Chicken
vegetables organic everything is organic do me a favor say say chicken for me one more time
cheeking and then another time we had Chris Hemsworth on the show and he was promoting Thor
big huge summer blockbuster and all Dave wanted to talk about with him was Australian geography
after those segments I started to think should I be asking guests more about topography in my
pre- inters place we lived was Philip Orland in in Victoria now when you said Philip Island where
where on the off the coast would that be uh coast of Victoria Ben AR and a half out of Melbourne
and there's like a half mile bridge and it's in what body of water uh Victoria off the coast of
Victoria yeah is it near the Indian Ocean uh I guess so I don't know what's yeah I should
look at a map or something is the Indian Ocean and you should have known that I should have
known that yeah so this was around I think 2009 and I was sitting in my office and I get a phone
call and what I hear back is a man screaming David Letterman doesn't know when to shut up
and he uh was upset about the things Dave was saying about Trump on air and he wanted Dave
to apologize and Donald starts as he want to do started shooting his mouth off and he was
saying things about President Obama I flat out called him a racist well he didn't think that
was funny I'm saying I would like him to be on the show because it's an element that we miss
especially now with a campaign a nearing fruition to have a a big Dopey puffy Donald Trump here I'm
saying it's possible that I was wrong that he's he's not a racist because we don't want to think
that of anyone yeah but he's just a dope how about that okay from the heart shortly after
that Seth Meers was on the show he had just hosted the White House correspondence dinner
and he had done some jokes about Trump and Trump was furious with him which reminded Dave in the
moment and he told the story oh and then he had a goon call up the office and and put this woman
Sarah Billington on the speaker phone and he screamed at her for 20 minutes and it was like
a bad threat let him no one to shut his mouth I'm so hopeful that he comes back on the show
because he used to be great fun and I think he is still great fun he's a delight he was an Absol not
a delight theight it turns out that man that called me screaming was Michael Cohen Trump's
former lawyer the ironic thing is now I work in 30 Rock and I see him in the hallways and he'll
pass me and he'll smile on his way to MSNBC and he has no idea that I am the girl he screamed at
over speaker phone all those years ago I think one of my most surreal days at the show was when
we filmed the Super Bowl commercial with Jay Leno and Oprah Jay Leno came in and it was my job to
sit in the conference room with him I seem to remember he arrived wearing a fake mustache and
a hat so that he wouldn't be recognized but yet he was wearing his denim on denim very
recognizable and then Oprah comes in and she gets off the elevator so Oprah shouting wants to know
everyone's name and I'll never forget when she left hours later she said goodbye to everybody
and called everybody by their name just total Oprah did not disappoint this is the worst Super
Bowl party ever now Dave be nice he's just saying that cuz I'm here you just saying that because I'm
here guests always wanted to come on the show and make a great impression on Dave and do something
big in their segment and Madonna was coming on she wanted to make an entrance and we actually
ended up having the New York Rangers there doing a top 10 list that night so the producers pitched
her the idea of having the New York Rangers carry her out on hockey sticks they asked me to stand in
for her in rehearsal which was nerve-wracking because I knew they were going to show this
tape to Madonna I did overhear her listening and watching the the footage and luckily she liked it
enough and looked way cooler than I would ever look obviously welcome to one the only Madonna
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] have you ever
ridden hockey players before Selena Gomez came on the show and and I was producing that segment and
at the time she had just broken up with Justin Bieber it was big news Dave wanted to find a
way into asking her so that he didn't make her uncomfortable and he didn't feel uncomfortable
Dave had recently been joking that he once made Justin Bieber Cry which is not true I
think Justin may have been a little upset once because Dave gave him a hard time about getting
too many tattoos or something but he did not make Justin cry but I knew Dave liked making
that joke so at the very last minute I said you could you could tell her you made Justin Bieber
cry and it was one of those moments where she looked great made Dave laugh they fist
bumped and it turned into a great moment now the last time he was on uh he and I got into
a conversation and I he said something and I said something and then he said something
and I said something like and I made him [Music] cry well then that makes two of
us w oh my god wow hey that good buddy that pretty
good I just remembered Sharon Osborne once fell asleep during
my pre- interiew and I felt really bad about my pre-interview skills after [Music] that