ThE LaTE SHoW WiTH DaViD LeTTeRMaN
In May of 2012, Gabe and I were flown to New York to appear on one of David Letterman’s famous “Stupid Pet Tricks” segments. Twice a year they would bring on crazy animal acts to perform on the show and over the years there had been everything from a tightrope-walking cockroach to a fainting beagle. But in over 30 years of hosting these bizarre animal acts, Dave had never imagined what we’d be performing for him that day.
Years prior, when my first Bulldog Rosie had won the Purina Beggin’ Strips Stupid Dog Tricks contest we were told that we would be invited to perform for one of the future SPT spots on Letterman’s show. However, Rosie being over 11 years old, coupled with the fact that these segments were only featured on two episodes a year, this never came to fruition. It was an extra special joy then to have yet another of my dogs be invited to perform this trademark Sittingbullies trick on the show. And Gabe certainly provided some unique entertainment!
Once again, we had limousine service to our hotel–this time The Dream Hotel situated a couple blocks from the iconic Ed Sullivan Theater where The Late Show With David Letterman is filmed. We were among about five animal acts waiting in the Green Room for our auditions to determine which three would appear on that night’s episode. We would not meet Mr. Letterman until we performed during the show–and that was only IF we were selected as one of the acts for the night.
We were excited to see our friends Linda and Ruger as well as another talented trick Border Collie, Nana and her owner/trainer (who prefers to remain anonymous) that we’d met online. While Linda and Ruger were not chosen for this particular episode she and two of her dogs were flown back for another segment and can be seen among some of the favorites over the years.
A short time after our audition, we were informed that Gabe would indeed be riding his pony for David on the show and we were whisked away to visit Hair & Makeup so we’d look our best in front of the camera. Gabe, of course already looked perfect so he needed no further attention!
At last our time came to be escorted upstairs to the set and then I heard David Letterman introducing our act. It was a rather noisy setting with the band just off to the side playing The Bonanza Theme as Gabe wowed the crowd and David chuckled in amazement, but my boy did us very proud–and left quite an impression on Mr. Letterman as well! Gabe even got a personal “Good-bye Gabe” as we headed out the door that night. It was pretty fun to head back to our hotel and turn on the TV to catch our performance on the show a short time later. (The show is filmed “live” but has some editing done before airing that same night) David couldn’t resist replaying Gabe’s clip a couple days later, still cracking up as he narrated, and also did a shout out to him while guest-hosting The Piers Morgan show a couple years later.
A couple years later we were again contacted by the show asking if we’d be available to perform on the final episode of The Late Show as one of the favorite SPT acts over the years. We were scheduled to fly out the following Monday and they also agreed to bring my son Micah along to help with props. But alas, the segment was cancelled at the last minute due to all of the many things they were trying to squeeze in. Such is “Show Biz”! We did, however make it into the Highlight Video of memorable acts from over the years. It was a quick flash appearance, but a nod to my special boy Gabe nonetheless!