Word: letterman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...want to become so famous that we go on David Letterman and get embarrassed," Tom Hammond says...
...whole look so neat, so sensible, so . . . Phil Donahue -- and the sublimely silly uses to which he put them. Phrases like "Well, excuuuuuse me!" and "Naaaah!" became schoolyard mantras, and his concerts were eliciting rock-idol squeals. "He was performing to audiences of up to 20,000," recalls David Letterman, the late-night commissar of '80s comedy. "I think that's a record for a stand-up comedian in peacetime." In 1978 Martin recorded a gag disco tune called King Tut; it sold more than a million copies. The next year he published a slim volume of short stories, Cruel...
...unexpected 20 minutes from the hottest stand-up comedian in America -- not bad for a Sunday-night club outing. But not that surprising either. Stand-up comics are suddenly everywhere. On TV they get nightly exposure on such talk shows as Tonight and Late Night with David Letterman, as well as on | their own specials for cable networks like HBO and Showtime. Jackie Mason, a veteran stand-up performer from the '50s and '60s, made a smash comeback by turning his comedy routines into the current hit Broadway show The World According to Me. And Steve Martin is just...
...nationwide network of comedy clubs. A few big-city night spots, like New York's Improvisation (sister club of the Los Angeles version) and Los Angeles' Comedy Store, have for years served as a proving ground for young comics, helping launch the careers of Robin Williams, Joe Piscopo, David Letterman and dozens more. Now clubs with names like the Punch Line, Laff Stop and Funny Bone are spreading the yuks everywhere from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Ozark, Ala. At least 260 full-time comedy clubs -- ranging from posh nighteries like New York's Caroline's to converted Chinese restaurants -- are currently...
...Mineshaft, where audience members wore miner's hats with flashlights on top ("Performing there was like being interrogated by the police," he recalls). Leno eventually graduated to the big time, and in recent years has played a grueling 300 road dates a year, besides making frequent guest appearances with Letterman...