I just tuned into the fabulous new documentary on the 1992 Dream Team, the magical group of Olympic All-Stars led by Michael Jordan.  If you grew up as a kid in the 90s like I did, Michael Jordan was the closest thing to experiencing Babe Ruth.  It didn’t matter what team you were a fan of, watching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dominate basketball was a thrill right out of a comic book.  Jordan played with passion, creativity, and inspiration, and he came to represent the icon of American achievement, proudly setting the bar for success higher and higher.  The thing I like most about Michael was that he never shrank from the spotlight and never felt embarrassed to be who he was.  Many icons of sports and popular culture exude a bitterness and resentment in the face of overwhelming media attention and praise, but Michael embraced it and owned it.  Criticism did grow around Jordan, concerning the colossal commercialization of his name and likeness, but I always felt that criticism was a bit wrong headed. While it was certainly true that Michael lent his name to anyone with a big enough paycheck, he never pretended that it wasn’t anything other than enjoying the spoils of money and fame.  His appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman when he was then just a 23 years old emerging phenomenon, shows Michael constructing this public identity, which was a cross between a crass walking commercial, and, somehow, an unpretentious everyman burning with the universal desire to be great.  Letterman, also young and spry, does his part in helping create the myth and legend, and the clip below is just a lot of fun.

Amy Sedaris is one of the funniest comedic performers of all time.  I was going to say funniest female comedic performers, but I realized that’s just stupid.  Her talent shouldn’t be subjugated to some gender consignment.  She’s a performance genius, and if you’ve never seen “Strangers With Candy,” the mastermind show created by Amy, Paul Dinello, and Steven Colbert, do yourself a favor and track it down right now.  I’m pretty sure every episode is available for free on comedycentral.com.  Anyway, Amy does most of her performing these days on the Letterman show, as she became one of Letterman’s most frequent and favorite guests.  When she does Dave’s show, she is like a rocket of spirit, laughs, and quirky charm.  Every time she is on, she makes Dave and the audience fall head over heals in love with her.  What I have below is Amy’s most recent appearance on the Late Show, and she talks about turning 50, touching the elderly, root canals, and Keith Richards.  It’s really a joyful interview, and if you like it, there are no shortages of her appearances on youtube, and they’re all great.  Enjoy.

Many people refer to these days as the golden age of comedy.  With tons of late night comedians, stand-up super stars, box office comedy blockbusters, and comedy nerds running rampant, its easy to buy into that hype.  Well, it might be the case that comedy is bigger then ever, but there probably isn’t one comedian from today’s day and age that comes close to matching the genius of Andy Kaufman.  All you have to do is watch the clip below where Andy appears on Letterman and hardly says a thing for the first few minutes, but manages to have the audience rolling with laughter.  When he goes into a monolog about his fucked up life, tells people not to laugh, and proceeds to beg for money like a homeless guy, what’s real, and what’s the act, is so blurred at that point, that its truly mind-blowing.  Credit also goes to Letterman for playing the strait man so convincingly, that you truly believe that he has no idea whether or not what Andy’s doing is real or not.  It would be unimaginable to think what Andy would be doing had he lived to this day, so check out this timeless performance from one of the funniest people that ever lived.

On February 1st, 1982 David Letterman launched the Late Night Show on NBC.  As you can tell by its overly dramatic and irony fueled science fiction opening, Dave was far ahead of his time.  Understanding David Letterman’s genius is partly based on knowing what a clear cut revolutionary comic visionary he was.  Not only was he fully secure in his own comic voice, always bleeding confidence over every comedy beat, he was a broadcasting natural, just a seemingly perfect physical fit for the television medium.  When Dave is on TV, he is just in his natural environment.  It’s really harder to imagine the man in real life, and according to those who work with him and know him, the real Dave is a neurotic and socially awkward mess of a man.  TV Dave is the complete opposite, a titanic colossus of confidence and  razor edged awareness.  His first show on NBC is just a remarkable time capsule of his talent and impact, and I got all 7 parts for you to devour below.  You’ll get Dave at his most classic, giving you a bizarre monolog poking fun at himself and NBC.  You’ll get a hilarious tour of the NBC studios, and you’ll get Bill Murray being young and brilliant.  Oh yea, you get Mr. Wizard too.  This is awesome, so check it out and brighten up your late night.

I’ve been all over the world the past few weeks, from Maine to New York, to San Francisco to Seoul, and now to Sydney.  It’s been a whirl wind of adventure and excitement, but on all those long plane trips, I had to keep my mind occupied with something.   Luckily I had Bill Carter’s newish book, The War for Late Night.  Not only did it track the recent tumult at NBC between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, it tackled the whole history of late night television and all its stars.  The book got me interested in tracking down legendary clips from Late Night’s long winding path, and I found some real choice ones I’ll be posting this week.  The first is the opening segment from Conan’s debut on NBC 18 friggin years ago, amazing its been that long because Conan still seems so young and vital.  The clip is the cold open and Conan’s introduction to the world where people warn him of the pressure in replacing David Letterman.  Conan takes it all in stride, happily tying a noose around his neck just before his debut.  It’s hilarious, and a piece of comedy history, so check it out folks because I’m back.

Welcome to part 44 of my youtube countdown!  Today I bring you a real blast from the past.  It’s the Flaming Lips on the David Letterman show in 1995 performing their only commercial pop hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly.”  I discovered the Flaming Lips when I was 17 years old ten years ago, right before they blew up again in the pop culture landscape.  They are kind of impossible not to love.  Their sound is a psychedelic mix of screeching yet melodic electric guitars, bodacious larger than life drumming, and lead singer Wayne Coyne’s unmistakable, warbly high, pitched croon.  For whatever reason, “She Don’t Use Jelly” made it to #55 on the US Billboard charts, probably just riding the grunge wave of the early mid 90s, but the Flaming Lips were never a grunge band.  They have always been a psychedelic garage band bent on pop music domination, clawing their way to immortality by recording dozens of gorgeous songs and records, having an always incredible experimental live show, and lastly, just through sheer grit and determination.  They are the ultimate underdog story in rock history.  So, without further ado, I present to you their epic ode to female masturbation, with Paul Shaffer making another appearance in a band that no one would have ever have guessed he performed with.  Enjoy.

Part 15 of my youtube favorites continues with Motorhead covering Chuck Berry’s Let it Rock on the old David Letterman show.  Now, you’ve probably never heard of Let it Rock.  It’s one of Chuck’s lesser known tunes.  It’s basically Johnny B Goode with different lyrics and no choruses.  But the lyrics are amazing, featuring an incredible intro, “In the heat of the day, down in Mobile, Alabama, working on the railroad with a steel driving hammer…”  AMAZING, and Motorhead knew this.  I love this hard thrashing performance that basically proves the Marty McFly maxim; play any Chuck Berry song hard, and thou shalt rule the universe.  Also great to see Paul Shaffer as a temporary member of Motorhead, just legendary.