Chris Elliott's First Skit on Letterman, March 1982

Chris Elliott's first scripted moment on Late Night on March 15, 1982, in a bit called "Urban Paranoia," and then his followup the next night, March 16. He described what happened on "Later with Bob Costas" on December 23, 1991:

"Actually, the first week of the shows [actually, the seventh], Dave had me come out. There was a piece we did called "Urban Disguises" [Urban Paranoia] -- ways to disguise yourself in the city so you wouldn't be mugged or you could go about your business, and I came out dressed entirely as garbage. But you couldn't see my face at all. And for some reason, when the show as played back that night, the whole Eastern Seaboard -- that part of the show was blacked out. The feed was blacked out for about five minutes. So the next night he had me come on in the garbage suit, but this time you could see my face. And I remember he asked me what my friends in the audience had thought of my performance the night before, and I said they had told me it was the funniest thing they had seen in North America, and that got a big laugh. And it made Dave laugh, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, ok, all I gotta do is make _this_ guy laugh and then I can come back on the show.' And so that's what I did. I always just tried to make Dave laugh, and if I could make Dave laugh, I knew I would be on the show the following week."

The March 16 segment is taken from two sources edited together. Not the best quality but that's what I have.

The complete interview on "Later with Bob Costas" is here: https://youtu.be/vnv5au4r_Kw

Видео Chris Elliott's First Skit on Letterman, March 1982 канала Don Giller