Late Show Highlights

August is a difficult month for late-night talk show reviewers like me because all the hosts like to go on extended vacations until after Labor Day. The good news is that the Late Show with David Letterman has been the exception. The bad news is that with the Time Warner/CBS dispute many people aren’t able to watch him.

As always, let’s start with the six second show review: (Vines run muted by default, mouse over the video and click the icon in the upper-left corner for sound.

Here were my favorite monologue jokes:

That’s a very nice welcome. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. It makes up for not being the new Batman.

You know who’s going to be the new Batman? Ben Affleck. The Republicans are vowing to block the nomination.

Anthony Weiner wants to be Mayor. Over the weekend he was in a small car wreck. Not to be confused with his campaign, that’s a train wreck. How about this? Today he tweeted the insurance company – he sent the wrong photo.

The comedy segments were a recap of Dave’s fender bender over the weekend and the Top Ten Signs You’re Attending a Phony University. Both were entertaining enough to recommend watching. Unfortunately, only the Top Ten is available:

Patrick Dempsey was the first couch guest. He stars in a mini-series called Patrick Dempsey: Racing Le Mans. The interview was good. Patrick is famous for being one of the stars of Grey’s Anatomy, but his real passion is driving a car really fast in order to traverse some distance in the shortest amount of time. Dave is a huge auto racing fan too, so they spent the entire segment talking about, you guessed it, racing. I don’t share their interest for the sport, but it was still enjoyable to listen to the two of them talk about something they both love a lot. Here’s the interview:

Amy Sedaris was the second couch guest. She is an actress, comedian and author. The interview was lame. Letterman introduced Amy as a “wonderfully funny woman” and “good friend.” I’m sure he must know things about her that I don’t, because I thought she was annoying, humorless and told boring stories. Interestingly, I describe her older brother David in the same fashion whenever I have the misfortune of listening to him on NPR. Still, they’re both doing a lot better than me, so they should probably just keep doing what they’re doing.

Laura Marling was the musical guest. Her performance was the opposite of exciting.

An ok show. I give it:

– Woody


Posted In: Late Night