Part 2: Not That There's Anything Wrong With That...

Now in Manhattan, we were awash in the sights and smells of the greatest city in the world.  Namely, the garbage, the hobo urine, and the rat feces.  Aaah, ya gotta love it.  After going around in circles for a while (those damn one-way streets), we finally located our hotel, the luxurious, newly-built Comfort Inn on West 36th Street. My one complaint is the parking dude, who--I think--likes to pretend he knows English and carries around singles in a small yellow envelope, which he seems very proud of.  Nevertheless, the hotel was decent, just a 15-minute walk from Times Square and, more importantly, the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway.

Ed Sullivan Theatre Marquee

Now 1pm, we made our way over to Broadway and 53rd Street to pick up our tickets and get some food.  There were about fifty people or so in line at the theater, so we promptly got in line and waited patiently.  While we waited, we saw Bill DeLace, Letterman's head of security.  You may have seen him on the show posing as the NYC Police Commissioner.  "Hasta luego, you low-ridin' punks!"

While in line, we had a group of middle-aged Houston socialites who wouldn't stop talking about grits or something in front of us, and two flamboyantly gay guys behind us, talking about partying at the Roxy and how many times they've seen Cats.  Okay, maybe that last part isn't true, but it sounds plausible, eh?  We'd see these guys again later, unfortunately.  After about a half-hour wait, they started giving out the tickets, which we then took inside to get numbered. We were told to come back at 3:30 to get seated.  We decided to get some lunch at Rupert Jee's world-famous Hello Deli on 53rd Street, right around the corner from the theater.  You've undoubtedly seen it and Rupert on the show many times.

We made our way inside, and while I was tempted to order The Big Ass, I opted for the Hello Deli Club sandwich.  We made our order with one other than Rupert himself and got a picture.

I asked him how many times he gets asked for this each day, and he said somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred times a day.  Even through all that, he's a really nice guy.  But then, I've always found people who are associated with deli meat to be quite personable...  The aforementioned Bill DeLace came in about then and ordered a sam'ich, followed by some woman that may work for the show, who asked for a single teabag and some straws. (???)

We made our way to a table outside the deli to eat and no sooner than we had sat down than I saw a bald dude right in front of us.  I yelled out "Hey Paul!" (a habit whenever I see bald people) as it was none other than Shaffer himself, Dave's bandleader.  His reply was less than "friendly;" I think his exact words were "Hrenh!"  He slowly walked away, his powder blue cargo pants swishing away.

I look exhausted, Rupert looks bored, and Ross is thinking about monkeys

Will Lee & Jebus