David LettermanDavid Letterman grew up in a small town in eastern Indiana. Hewas born to Joseph and Dorothy Letterman. After reading the novel, “DavidLetterman: On Stage and Off” by Rosemarie Lennon, I have learned about all hisstruggles and joys.
Because of this book, I feel sorry towards one of thefunniest people on Earth, David Letterman. I also admire him for his good actsand abilities. To realize why I feel what I feel toward Letterman, you have to look atsome of the main points in his life. First of all, Dave was exactly an Astudent. He struggled all of his life through grade school to college.
He alsowasn’t very popular. He stated, ” I remember standing around. . .
with theother losers, watching all the athletes play sports. All we could do is makefun and ridicule them. ” He was never good at anything until high school. “AllI ever knew how to do was to make people laugh. In high school I was the classclown, making fun of everything and everyone. ” This personality trait was whatgave him his thousands of faithful fans, watching his show every night to seeDave rip to shreds anyone who dare challenge him.
Another thing that wasimportant to him was his mother and father. His father, Joseph Letterman, andDave went fishing quite often when he was young. Dave looked up to his fathertremendously. When Joseph had his first heart attack when he was thirty-six,Dave and his father started to drift away.
Later, Dave’s Dad died when he wasfifty-three. One of David’s top regrets was never spending a lot of time withhis dad. As for his mother, she is the classical conservative mother of thefifties. She was always very hard on Dave when he got into mischief in school–which was quite often. She is still a part of Dave’s life, and can be seenquite often on his show, doing a comedy sketch, or telling audience members whatthe temperature was in Lillihammer during the Winter Olympics.
The Reason I feel sorry for Letterman is because of his tragedies of hispast. His Dad’s passing was hard enough, but he had other trials to deal with. Like his mother. She was never really proud of David, constantly reminding himhe was going to fail, and not encouraging him to take his natural ability tomake people laugh to their limits. She hated the idea of him going toCalifornia to work in a comedy club there, but Dave was stubborn.
In 1975 hequit his job at a local T. V. station doing the weather, and moved to the bigcity of Los Angeles. He worked at a place called The Comedy Store along sidehis current nemesis, Jay Leno. There he learned how hard it was to be acomedian.
He started to become a perfectionist. When something wasn’t right, hegot very mad and was very unhappy. This unhappiness is what caused Dave and hiswife since 1969, Michelle Cook, to get a divorce. “I misbehaved. There’s noway of getting around that.
The responsibility for the end of our marriage issquarely on my shoulders. I have a measure of ongoing guilt about that. . . Iwas very immature and acted badly, and I am sorry for that.
” Things started toturn around on November 24, 1978, when Johnny Carson, Dave’s boyhood idol, hadselected Dave to fill-in for him every once in a while. This was it. The bigtimes. But this also set Dave up for one of his biggest rejections yet.
Davemade fifty guest-host jobs and twenty-two guest appearances from 1978 to 1980. He was a regular on Johnny’s show and became to be one of Johnny’s closestfriends. In 1980, NBC gave Letterman his own show after Carson’s. For elevenand a half years, Dave’s show was a success, and Letterman was considered asCarson’s heir to the late night throne. The job was given to Jay Leno instead,when Carson retired.
Dave took this as a major insult. He left NBC– breakinghis contract– and moved to CBS where Jay and Dave would compete for the sametime slot. “This new show was terribly exciting for me. ” Dave did his showjust like his one on NBC and on August 30, 1993, The Late Show with DavidLetterman beat Jay Leno’s Tonight Show for two years after that.
I also admire David Letterman. After all his ordeals, he still hasn’tlost the ability to do what he started out to do: to make people to laugh. Ihave been a fan of Letterman since he was guest hosting Carson’s show, and Iknow a lot about him. He still puts on a show every night, even though it hastaken a major decline in ratings since the Oscars. He is a kind man as well,giving thousands of dollars to various charities.
He has a talent for makingpeople laugh, making even the stupidest jokes funny. I view my self like him. I am not the smartest in my family, nor will I ever be, but I know I am thefunniest. Maybe that’s trough years of religiously watching Letterman at night. I am also a perfectionist.
I get very angry with myself if I do something thatgoes terribly wrong. David Letterman has inspired me in life, teaching me to dothings most people wouldn’t. David William Letterman is a tremendously funny and kind man. He hasgone through some of life’s tragic and some of it’s magic, but always seems tocome out on top.
Who knew that a skinny kid from Indiana who grew up with a fewfriends and no gumption, would be one of the most successful people of his time.And, to quote Letterman, “Would you like to buy a monkey?”Biographies
