What comes next for sidekick Paul Shaffer?
Letterman’s band leader has options aplenty
NEW YORK — Hidden in the attention being paid to David Letterman leading to his May 20 retirement is the knowledge that it will also mean the end of a regular television role for America’s bandleader, Paul Shaffer.
The Letterman sidekick, who’s 65, isn’t ready to leave show business even with the gig of a lifetime coming to a close after 33 years.
“Of course, I had the old mixed feelings, sadness, et cetera,” Shaffer said during an interview in his office behind the Ed Sullivan Theater. “Now I have come around to just being absolutely thankful for such a wonderful run, such a long run, working for a guy who has been nothing but encouraging to me.”
Shaffer is a walking trivia answer of showbiz credits: bandleader for the original Saturday Night Live troupe, same role for the Blues Brothers, part composer of the 1980s hit It’s Raining Men and the Late Show theme, cringeworthy record executive Artie Fufkin in This is Spinal Tap and music director for the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions. If he hadn’t neglected to return Jerry Seinfeld’s call, you may have known him as George Costanza, too.
He’ll always be linked in public consciousness with Letterman, however, like Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson, or Andy Richter and Conan O’Brien.
Until Shaffer interviewed for the bandleader job that began in 1982, he had never met Letterman. Asked what he saw for Letterman’s postmidnight Late Night on NBC, he envisioned something like the lounge bands he saw at the beginning of his career in Toronto, interpreting Stax and Motown hits.
Letterman said that sounded great, that he’d always thought of himself as the Wayne Cochran of comedy. Shaffer cracked up at the reference to an obscure 1960s soul singer who looked a little like Jay Leno with a platinum blond pompadour.
The time slot after Carson “sounded like the hippest opportunity, like in Las Vegas when a performer would do a late show for the other performers or cab drivers on the strip. That’s how I related to it. It was all perfect for me.”
Shaffer said he never felt tempted to leave Letterman. He’s had the freedom to do other things while the Late Show let him lead a band — perform in front of an audience, do sketch comedy and match wits with TV’s hottest host. That’s not to say it was always easy.
“I spent time preparing funny, off-the-wall lines, something Jerry Lewis had said, for example,” he said. “I was doing quite well with it, I thought. (Letterman) said, ‘I would rather we just have a conversation and try to talk.’
“That’s when I began to see what he really needed from me.”
Through the years, Shaffer has become like a security blanket to Letterman, a host who likes things just so. Shaffer will interject quick remarks — “Instagram that right away,” he said after his boss took a selfie — or lead the band into a snippet of Tequila for a Top 10 list about Cinco de Mayo parties. Sometimes it’s as simple as breaking the silence, an “ahh” or slight cackle.
After his heart bypass surgery a decade ago, Letterman stopped rehearsing regularly.
“The show got way more fun at that point, way more spontaneous,” Shaffer said.
In two weeks’ time the CBS Orchestra disbands. Shaffer has his options; he plays a little jazz and wants to stick to comedy.
The biggest adjustment will be the loss of the routine, knowing where he had to be on weekday afternoons.
“This was such a long run, so if I’m meant to get a gig in a piano bar in Palm Springs ... I’m not too worried at this point,” he said. “I feel like I’ve had a lot of fun. How can you keep having all the fun? Eventually, you’ve got to let others have some fun.”