I don’t really consider 11:30am or 12:30am to be late night, but I suppose that definition differs for everyone. I’m an all-night person, so for me, it’s not late night, per se.

At any rate I’ve always been a fan of the late night talk shows. I can remember watching Carson as a young kid. I think I even dug Arsenio back in the day. (and remember watching Pat Sajak, Bob Costas and even Chevy Chase)

My all time favorite though (by a long shot) is Letterman. I’ve been watching Dave since I was something like 12. (20 years, give or take)

I just think the guy is great. I dig his humor. I finally got around to seeing the show live in June 1998 and I’m somewhere between the arrows near the front in this audience shot:

It was a suck-ass show guest-wise, but it was cool for me. I’m actually so lame that I have pictures around here somewhere of myself with Felicia from the band, Rupert from Hello Deli and Sirajul & Mujibur from Rock America. (yeah, I’ll spare myself the indignity of scanning those and sharing)

But sometime around 1999 or 2000, I found myself getting way into Conan O’Brien. I’d still watch Letterman at 11:30, but 12:30 was where it was at. That phase took us to NYC again and in April of 2002 (for my B-Day) we hit up Late Night:

This time I’m more than a figure in a darkened crowd. It was a good time.

So what’s the point? Well, in the past year or two I’ve found my interest in Conan waning and my love of Letterman at near all-time-high levels. The humor has evolved from the days of the Velcro Suit, Monkey Cam and Chris Elliot eating catfood, but that’s not bad. In fact, I find my general sense of humor moving in the same direction.

Dave’s the shit, plain and simple. He’ll be around until at least 2010, but with Conan moving to the 11:30 spot in 2009 – well, who knows what will happen beyond that point. At least I can look forward to three more years of Letterman laughs.