Happenings on the Hudson

My recent trip to New York in a nutshell: traffic at LaGuardia, coffee in Harlem the next morning, Broadway that afternoon, dinner with Francesco Marciuliano that evening, the NBC/30 Rock tour on day two, the NHL Store (down the street on the Avenue of the Americas), missing brunch with an old improv classmate due to an address snafu, Don Giller (more on that in a second), catching an improv show at UCB Hell's Kitchen, brunch on day three, rescheduled coffee with aforementioned improv classmate (see WU #594), 90 minute subway ride to Coney Island, a Brooklyn Cyclones game, the Coney Island boardwalk, a 90 minute ride back to Harlem, and more traffic to LaGuardia. Over 80% of my trip was spent in Manhattan, but I hope to come back to NYC soon.

I sort of had an ulterior motive to visit New York. I've blogged on at least two occasions about David Letterman, and what a formative presence he was in my pursuit of a career in comedy. While on Broadway, I took a picture of the Ed Sullivan Theater, a reminder of a dream deferred. I was promised a trip to see a taping of Dave's show in 2007, and circumstances prevented that from ever happening. Afterwards, I had lunch around the corner at Hello Deli. I ordered the "Regis" (peppered chicken and Muenster on a baguette) and stalled a little after I polished off my sandwich. I eventually worked up the nerve to take a selfie with Rupert, then bought one of the few remaining LSDL t-shirts on the souvenir cabinet. Rupert and his partner couldn't have been more kind and patient, though I nearly had an anxiety attack from this minor celebrity encounter.

Which brings me to Don Giller. Known throughout the interwebs as "Donz," Mr. Giller is the unofficial video historian of David Letterman's first three shows. Since early 2015, Giller has been exhaustively remastering the recordings and converting decades-old Betamax and VHS tapes to DVD. Donz has also been integral in assembling the (at the moment, dormant) Late Night and Late Show episode guides on TV.com. We met at Donz' apartment on the Upper West Side and we discussed his vast collection for about 3 1/2 hours. It was a worthwhile and fascinating meeting with someone that I had been communicating with mostly by email since 2006.

Tentatively, I plan on visiting NYC again in Spring 2019. I only visited three boroughs and I hope to visit the other two soon enough. Having an AirBnb all the way up in Harlem curbed some of my sightseeing, and next time I intend to stay somewhere more central (i.e. Brooklyn). Comedy and jazz shows await. This last trip was funded with inheritance money, so finances will likely be the X-factor.

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