In Conversation: David Letterman

“How’s this interview going? Do you think you’re talking to a normal person here?”

- David Marchese

SINCE RETIRING FROM The Late Show two years ago, David Letterman has kept a low public profile— aided by the growth of a truly impressive beard. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been as fixated on politics as the rest of us. “If I still had a show,” says the 69-year-old, dressed in a baggy sweater and cargo pants and sitting high above midtown in a conference room at his publicist’s offices, “people would have to come and take me off the stage. ‘Dave, that’s enough about Trump. We’ve run out of tape.’ It’s all I’d be talking about. I’d be exhausted.” Late-night TV comedy has offered some of the sharpest—and most-remarked-upon— responses to the Trump presidency. But despite the work of Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Saturday Night Live, and the rest, it’s hard not to wish Letterman, late night’s greatest ironist and most ornery host, was around to take aim. And so we’ve brought him out of retirement to weigh in on life after television and his old frequent guest and punching bag, the man he calls Trumpy.

David Marchese: I’ve always loved Leaves of Grass, so it’s a pleasure to meet the man who wrote it.