hi my name is Walter Kim I worked on late night and late show from 1993 to 2015. I started off
in production and I ended up in the digital Department with my friend Jay Johnson I was
a huge fan of late night growing up there was one joke that I remember specifically uh it had to do
with the actress and model Grace Jones and it was just so random and so specific and I just remember
laughing and thinking I need to keep watching this show here is the search and see puzzle yes Paul
you'll know it can you find Grace Jones hidden among all these anvils irons and aircraft carriers
as an Asian person I remember always loving whenever Connie Chung was on the show you just
didn't see a lot of Asian people on TV let alone my favorite late night television show Dave and
her just had such great chemistry together special order shoe trees for Connie's husband Murray he
has problem feet David I can't have you papers Stop The Whining just don't whine please he won't
know how will he know oh he's never yeah like he stays up to see this pretty much goes as often as
food doesn't he all right gonna get a hot dog with Connie three of them with crop and mustard three
with Kraut mustard and relish and don't touch them don't touch them don't no no don't touch
them if I see you touching them the deal's off oh you touched it that one's no good I saw you
touch that one he touched that one construction workers drinking beer counting construction
workers drinking beer they're drunk then they're gonna go build buildings hey it's Connie Chung hey
he did that to Connie Chung I always loved it whenever Dave would call somebody during the
show whether it was how's the weather with Barbara Gaines or calling Meg Parson across
the street but one of my favorite bits that doesn't get a lot of attention is something
called how much gas is in Joe Frazier's car good is this smoking Joe Frazier yeah
this is Jay this is David Joe good how are you doing when was the last time you got
gas in the Cadillac uh Philippine uh this morning this morning did you fill it up yes
sir okay and to have you driven it since you filled it up oh it was New York okay here we
go Joe tell us now how much gas do you have in the tank of the caddy okay it should be full
yes Joe has in his tank it's full was he filling it as he was speaking no no
I don't know but see you see how much fun that's going to be after nine or ten months
one of my all-time favorite guests was Charles Grodin I loved it every time he
came on he had this big attitude like he was a movie star and Dave was just this little TV
star I was making a movie with candy Bergen candy candy well I work with her I can say
that I don't do you know her well I know she doesn't like being called candy well if you
you know her I've met her yes you haven't worked with her well in the sense of her being on the
show yes we've worked no but I may work with her no no we didn't put in a patio or anything
I love the anniversary shows they did one from an airplane they did it from Radio City
Music Hall but to me the best one was the late night baby anniversary show this was when they
had Bob Costas and Vince McMahon at two different Manhattan hospitals waiting for the first baby to
be born during the taping of the anniversary show I just remember Dave poking fun at Vince McMahon
and uh making fun of his tuxedo but right through this office the former head of Pediatrics has
decorated this office unbelievably in hopes that we will have a very very big birthday party here
so we're very much looking forward to this Hospital New York hospital being
the one deemed having of course the late night thing all right
probably not a bad idea to have some oxygen standing by for Vince
Vince I have a question for you also yes David is that your tuxedo uh no actually it's not okay
okay well
things are going better than ever it's a little no fact I used to appear in
the show open every night I was riding on the back of a fire truck and I was
the guy that ran under the Marquee at the end there's no real story here except for
the fact that these appearances help pay my rent for a few years
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and there was no bigger star than San Francisco
49ers quarterback Joe Montana we were going to do a week of shows in San Francisco and
Joe agreed to tape a remote with Dave where they spend the day together at one point uh
we're on the marina and Joe needs to throw a pass to Dave but they needed him to warm
up our director Jerry Foley who knew I was a big 49ers fan said hey Walter why don't you
go out and catch some passes I ran out there and I got to catch passes from the great Joe Montana
eyes
in high school like a lot of people I had a fake ID and the name I came up with was Eddie Lee Kuan
and I'm not exactly sure where that came from I think it might have been an oblique reference to
Eddie Van Halen but anyway all my friends mocked me for coming up with that name flash forward to
when I'm working on the show and I tell my friend Tom who's a writer on the show that I had a fake
ID and my name was Eddie Lee Kuan and he just thought that was ridiculous but one day he wrote a
skit for me and he needed a name for the character so he used my fake ID name but we do have enough
money to give a car away to one lucky audience member here tonight okay this is gonna be good
all right okay is there in the audience tonight a gentleman by the name of Eddie
Lee Kwan oh my God Eddie Lee I don't believe it there he is right there congratulations
I look at home
is that ugly every once in a while something that we created for digital would make it onto the show
one of these was an idea I had where celebrities would read Dave's squirrel jokes it is so hot I
see a squirrel in Central Park icing his nuts we got a bunch of celebrities to appear in this
including Ray Romano and sting and Tom Hanks and I remember when I was shooting Tom Hanks I
was holding the camera right about here and I saw Tom and he kind of looked at me he went like this
and he kept motioning up and I said what he's like just bring up the camera a little bit so I brought
it up a little higher and I just remember he said to me above the ears 10 pounds 10 years and
I still think about that every time I'm shooting somebody today in New York it was so hot so hot
so hot I saw a squirrel rubbing sunblock using barbecue tongs rubbing guacamole on his nuts voice
it was so hot in Central Park today I saw a squirrel rubbing sunblock on his nuts
now I know what Letterman feels like the show used a lot of staffers as extras but I'm a
terrible actor the one thing I did enjoy doing was this thing called who asked for it this is where
staffers would be in the audience and they'd ask Dave a question but you also had to come up with a
backstory you know where you lived what your job was because they would have fun trying to poke
holes in your story I'm a huge Oakland A's fan and I knew that they were in town to play the Yankees
but that they had an off day so I came up with this background that I was the assistant to the
equipment manager for the Oakland A's immediately after I said that you could tell that Dave just
rolled his eyes and he wasn't buying any of it but in my defense the next day I read in the paper
that the Oakland A's manager and one of their coaches were in the audience that night and they
were laughing about how a staffer was pretending to be the A's equipment manager yeah sir what is
your name please uh Peter Yoon hi Peter nice to see you where are you from Sunnyvale California
what do you do uh I'm actually an assistant to the equipment manager for the Oakland A's
no you're not
how are they how are they for the ace here we're in first place let me ask
you a question is Charlie Finley still own the ace
it's been gone for a while yeah okay what can I do for you Pete uh I was wondering shouldn't you
be with the team well we're here in New York oh you're here in New York we have an off day yeah
all right and your question what can I do for you
I was wondering if I could push one of the buttons in your control room Jerry
our friend is it Pete yeah Pete Yoon who works with the Oakland Athletics
is coming is coming into the control room to press a button go ahead Pete
take off it's right yeah it's right this way
over there in Kennedy give it a try yeah give it a try oh look at that wow I'm going to tell you
a story that Dave told me never to tell anybody we were shooting a piece where Dave goes over to
the Broadway show cats and interrupts them my job is to cue Dave so we went up onto the catwalk and
waited for the music to begin I don't know if you remember but Dave used to sing the theme from cats
and the kitties are sleeping so when we were there waiting for our cue and
we hear the Muse begin they start singing the theme from cats but this is the actual
theme from cats with the real lyrics and I'm not exactly Mr Broadway so I just
remember turning to Dave and going I always thought it was midnight and the kidneys are
sleeping and he just paused and he said never tell anyone what you just told me
touch me
hey hey knock it off
when we were going to do a week of shows in Los Angeles we would go out a few weeks earlier and
tape some remotes with Dave and Paul so one of these pieces was Dave and Paul spent the
day in Los Angeles so there are two things I remember about that one I got to operate
the angry Badger that attacks Dave and the other one featured a cameo by Johnny Carson
and when we were shooting this they needed somebody to cue Johnny in his car so Hal
Gurney the director said hey Walter why didn't you go down with Mr Carson and cue
him I introduced myself to Johnny and shook his hand and then I got to cue Johnny Carson
okay
well are out there
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so one of the coolest things that we got to work on in the digital Department was a day
in the life of Dave which aired on the very last late show this is where Jay Johnson and I followed
Dave around backstage in his dressing room in his office I remember we wanted to capture him
coming into work but he used to show up at like 6 a.m so we had to get up at 4 a.m to make sure
we were ready for him so we shot it and we edited it together and then a few days later he decided
that he wanted to reshoot it because he didn't like the Hat he was wearing so again we had to
get up at 4am and meet him and shoot him again and that's what made it into the final piece
social media oh you moved the damn glass I'm a huge YouTube fan so I was really excited when
they were going to do a week of our show on top of that my writer friend Tom wrote a skit for
Jay Johnson and myself I just remember being super excited that I was going to be able to
meet Bono and the edge Jay and I are waiting the elevator and then Bonnie on the edge come in and
they don't even look at us and they do their take and then they were gone the next day the
only comment I remember getting was I guess it was ugly plaid shirt day where the streets
this next clip didn't air on the show but it's something that I really like this took place
actually on the last day of the show that when we had the celebrity top 10 with Jerry Seinfeld and
Chris Rock and Julia Louis-Dreyfus I remember during rehearsal that Julia didn't like her
joke and requested a new one and at the time we were shooting some backstage footage and I just
happened to capture the moment where Julia and the writers came up with the perfect joke okay yeah
that's fun that's fun that's fun number four Julia Louis Dreyfus
thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale
the thing that I'm most proud of was something that I had originally created for digital but
when the producer saw it they thought it was good enough to air during the last couple weeks
of the show this was a montage of all the outdoor stuff that David done on Broadway and 53rd Street
I just thought it was so cool that I was able to contribute something to this show that I'd watched
my entire life and worked on for many years it was just an incredible way to end my run there
what a better place to hear what better time than now
oh yeah
stop us now
I have a question for you Larry is that your tux no it's not all right thank you
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