Check Out Todd Barry’s ‘Letterman’ Debut from 1982

Here’s a great way for Letterman fans to happily distract themselves from this morning’s Late Show marquee teardown: a clip from Late Night with David Letterman’s first year on the air back in 1982 uploaded today by standup Todd Barry that features his very first appearance – well, over-the-phone appearance – on the show when he was only 18 years old. Barry wrote to Letterman asking to come on the show to perform his “unbelievable” Paul Shaffer impression, so Letterman called the young Barry up during a “Viewer Mail” segment and introduced him to the audience as “Todd Barry…apparently a man with a lot of time on his hands.” The end of the video includes a clip from 1984, when Letterman fits in a callback to the whole Todd “Razz” Barry incident.

Check Out Todd Barry’s ‘Letterman’ Debut from 1982