Art Donovan Post-playing career What did donovan do when he left the nfl He published an autobiography, Fatso, Was the autobiograpghy a hit I don't know. What did he do after the autobigraphy was published He was noted as a jovial and humorous person during his playing career and capitalized on that with television and speaking appearances Did he ever become a sports announcer? He also appeared as a guest commentator at the WWF King of the Ring tournament in 1994. What kind of television and speaking appearances did he make Donovan also appeared ten times on the Late Show with David Letterman, telling humorous stories about his old playing days and When did he retire? I don't know.
What shows did he do besides Letterman and WWF
What shows did Art Donovan do besides Letterman and WWF?
He published an autobiography, Fatso, in 1987. He was noted as a jovial and humorous person during his playing career and capitalized on that with television and speaking appearances after retiring as a player. He owned and managed a country club near Baltimore. Donovan also appeared ten times on the Late Show with David Letterman, telling humorous stories about his old playing days and about other "old school" footballers he played with and against. He relayed a story that he played without a helmet and in fact is shown on football cards without a helmet. Letterman wore Donovan's No. 70 Colts jersey in the famous Super Bowl XLI commercial with Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno.  Donovan guest-starred in the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete in the episode "Space, Geeks, and Johnny Unitas". He also appeared as a guest commentator at the WWF King of the Ring tournament in 1994. Donovan's appearance at the 1994 King of the Ring event would become infamous among wrestling fans for being seemingly uninformed about the product as well as generally befuddled behavior such as repeatedly asking how much certain wrestlers weighed. He was joined by Gorilla Monsoon on play-by-play, who inadvertently referred to Donovan several times as "Art O'Donnell", and Randy Savage.  He was co-host of the popular 1990s program Braase, Donovan, Davis and Fans on WJZ-TV in Baltimore with Colt teammate Ordell Braase. The trio talked more about Art Donovan's fabled stories than contemporary NFL football, but the show held high ratings in its time slot. He was also a pitchman for the Maryland State Lottery and ESPN. CANNOTANSWER
Donovan guest-starred in the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete
Arthur James Donovan Jr. (June 5, 1924 – August 4, 2013), nicknamed the Bulldog, was an American football defensive tackle who played for three National Football League (NFL) teams, most notably the Baltimore Colts. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

Early life
Art Donovan, born June 5, 1924, was the son of Arthur Donovan, Sr., a boxing referee, and the grandson of Professor Mike Donovan, the world middleweight boxing champion in the 1870s.

Art attended Mount Saint Michael Academy in the Bronx. He received a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame in 1942 but left after one semester to join the United States Marine Corps, enlisting in April 1943. He served four years, to include service in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He took part in some of the conflict's fiercest engagements, such as the Battle of Luzon and the Battle of Iwo Jima. He also served as an ammo-loader on a 40mm gun on the aircraft carrier  and as a member of 3rd Marine Division. His earned citations, which included the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the Philippine Liberation Medal, and would later earn him a place in the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame, the first pro football player so honored. After the war, he completed his college career at Boston College.

Professional football career
In each of his first three seasons, Donovan played for a team that went out of business. He started out with the first Baltimore Colts, which folded after his rookie season in 1950, followed by the New York Yanks in 1951, and their successor, the Dallas Texans, in 1952. After the Texans franchise folded, many of their players moved to Baltimore when the Colts were awarded a new franchise in 1953 and became the second Baltimore Colts, Donovan played with that team. He became one of the stars in an outstanding defense and was selected to five straight Pro Bowls, from 1953 through 1957. The Colts won back-to-back championships in 1958 and 1959. He was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

During his career, Donovan played in what many believe was one of the most important games in NFL history, the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Colts and the New York Giants. The contest between the two teams took place on December 28, 1958, and ended in a 17–17 tie. Being the championship game, it went into overtime, the first NFL game to do so. Witnessed by 40 million viewers on nationwide television, the game came to be known as the "greatest game ever played." Donovan made an important tackle during the overtime, stopping the Giants and allowing Johnny Unitas to lead the Colts on an 80-yard scoring drive to win the game. Donovan was one of 12 Hall of Fame players to take part, six of whom were Colts.

Post-playing career

He published an autobiography, Fatso, in 1987. He was noted as a jovial and humorous person during his playing career and capitalized on that with television and speaking appearances after retiring as a player. He owned and managed a country club near Baltimore. Donovan also appeared ten times on Late Night with David Letterman, telling humorous stories about his old playing days and about other footballers he played with and against in his time. He relayed a story that he played without a helmet and in fact is shown on football cards without a helmet. Letterman wore Donovan's No. 70 Colts jersey in the famous Super Bowl XLI commercial with Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno. Donovan also made several appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Donovan guest-starred in the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete in the episode "Space, Geeks, and Johnny Unitas". He also appeared as a guest commentator at the WWF King of the Ring tournament in 1994. Donovan's appearance at the event would become infamous among wrestling fans for being seemingly uninformed about the product as well as generally befuddled behavior such as repeatedly asking how much certain wrestlers weighed. He was joined by Gorilla Monsoon on play-by-play, who inadvertently referred to Donovan as "Art O'Donnell", and Randy Savage.

He was co-host of the popular 1990s program Braase, Donovan, Davis and Fans on WJZ-TV in Baltimore with Colt teammate Ordell Braase. The trio talked more about Art Donovan's fabled stories than contemporary NFL football, but the show held high ratings in its time slot. He was also a pitchman for the Maryland State Lottery and ESPN.

Achievements
 Played 12 seasons, 138 games
 Five-time consecutive Pro Bowl Selection (1953–1957)
 Four-time consecutive first-team All-Pro (1954–1957)
 First Colt to enter Pro Football Hall of Fame (1968)
 Member of 1958, 1959 NFL champion Baltimore Colts
 Began NFL play with Baltimore as a 26-year-old rookie (1950)
 Co-hosted the WWF's 1994 King of the Ring pay-per-view event
 U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame (2004)

Personal
Donovan was married to the former Dorothy Schaech for 57 years. Since 1955 they owned and managed the Valley Country Club in Towson, Maryland. Although he was the owner, Donovan was known for doing menial labor at the club to include painting and working in the kitchen washing pots and pans.

Death and legacy
Donovan died August 4, 2013, at Stella Maris Hospice in Baltimore from a respiratory disease at age 89.  A funeral mass was held at the Cathedral of Mary our Queen in Baltimore, and he was buried in a private ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The Washington Post said of Donovan:

References

External links
 
 

1924 births
2013 deaths
American football defensive tackles
American Roman Catholics
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
Baltimore Colts players
Baltimore Colts (1947–1950) players
Boston College Eagles football players
Dallas Texans (NFL) players
Deaths from respiratory disease
New York Yanks players
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players
Players of American football from New York (state)
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from the Bronx
United States Marines
Western Conference Pro Bowl players
Burials at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens
National Football League players with retired numbers
The David Letterman Show is  an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward.

Background
David Letterman's relationship with NBC began in 1978, when he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Over the next two years Letterman would return to the show several times, and would occasionally serve as guest host in Carson's absence. NBC's president Fred Silverman was so impressed by Letterman's performance that he decided to give him a morning talk show.

In early 1980, NBC's daytime morning lineup consisted of six game shows. The David Letterman Show was made possible by the cancellation of three of them: High Rollers, Chain Reaction, and the long-running daytime version of Hollywood Squares.

The series was a critical success but the edgy comedy did not go over well with morning television watchers, more accustomed at the time to talk shows, soap operas, game shows, and prime time reruns.

Production
The original producer was Bob Stewart, a veteran quiz-show creator who had enlisted Letterman as a panelist on Pyramid from 1978 onward. However, due to creative differences, Stewart left the show four days before its premiere. He was succeeded by H. Barry Sand, who remained at the helm for the rest of its run and re-joined Letterman for the first five years of Late Night.  Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers wrote the opening theme of the show.

Behind the scenes were Hal Gurnee directing and Barry Sand producing, with Biff Henderson serving as stage manager (a role he would serve for the next 35 years of Letterman's career). The writing staff consisted of Merrill Markoe (head writer), Valri Bromfield, Rich Hall, Gary Jacobs, Harold Kimmel, Edie McClurg, Gerard Mulligan, Paul Raley, Ron Richards, and Letterman.

Familiar bits that became staples of Letterman's comedy on his later shows were originally introduced on this show.  They include: "Small Town News", "Stupid Pet Tricks", and an ever-changing non-sequitur opening introduction immediately before Letterman is seen on camera. (e.g., "And now, a man whose recipe for triple fudge brownies includes two quarts of vodka, sauerkraut, and a heaping tablespoon of love...David Letterman!") Because Letterman owned the rights to The David Letterman Show, he was able to claim ownership of all the sketches that originally aired on it; this would prove valuable in 1993, when Letterman left NBC to launch the Late Show on CBS. NBC wanted to claim that much of the work he did on Late Night was the property of NBC, but because those sketches were carryovers from The David Letterman Show, he was allowed to take them to CBS.

The production staff consisted of George Callahan, Kim Carney, Lee B. Chernick, Barbara Gaines, Edd Hall, Tim Holton, Brian J. McAloon, Meg Mortimer, Dency Nelson, and David Reale.

The news producer was Alan Mohan, and the news writer was Nick Allen. Bill Kelley was the technical director. The musical director was Frank Owens who led the "David Letterman Symphony Orchestra" (actually a four-person combo) and traded jokes with Letterman. Longtime NBC newsman Edwin Newman provided live news updates in the studio during each broadcast; studio audience members would often interrupt his reporting with laughter or groans, as if Newman were an anchor on Saturday Night Live'''s "Weekend Update".

The program was produced by Space Age Meats, a precursor to Letterman's later production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated.

Guests
Valri Bromfield, Edie McClurg, Rich Hall, Gerard Mulligan, Merrill Markoe and Paul Raley all appeared on the show and served as writers. Edd Hall (later the announcer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) and Late Show producer Barbara Gaines were both production assistants, while stage manager Biff Henderson and director Hal Gurnee would follow Dave to his next two shows. Announcer/comedian Bob Sarlatte was replaced partway through the run by Bill Wendell, who would also announce on Dave's next two shows.

Among guests who appeared were Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman, Wil Shriner, Richard Lewis, Dinah Shore, Judy Collins, photojournalists Jon & Keiko Alpert, keyboardist Suzanne Ciani, Dr. Isaac Asimov and Jeff Greenfield, who reviewed the first show while it was on the air.

The show's musical guests included Tony-winner Nell Carter, Irene Cara, Tom Rush and Harve Mann.

In one of his earliest television appearances, a young Bill Maher was an audience member on the show's first episode, and Conan O'Brien claims he hitchhiked to New York just to see a broadcast in Studio 6A (which has also been home to some of Jack Paar's NBC programs, later Late Night with David Letterman and finally Late Night with Conan O'Brien).

Final three weeks
Letterman received notice that his show was being cancelled, but would continue for three more weeks. He decided that if he had three weeks on the air, he was going to have fun with them. He arranged a "Have The David Letterman Show in Your Own Home" contest and chose a family in Cresco, Iowa. He flew in a farmer named Floyd Stiles from Collins, Missouri, with his wife, Zola Mae Stiles, and gave him a "Floyd Stiles Day". Esquire noted, "He cut loose with his own jokes until they had a 2:00 a.m. comedy-club edge. He reached for his emergency weapons. Let go, he let go. By the beginning of October, audiences were packing themselves into the studio." College boys hitched cross-country with petitions to save him. Some Long Island housewives threatened to block Manhattan traffic until the network relented.

For the next year, NBC would pay him $1,000,000 to do nothing except not work for someone else without their permission.

Episode status
Approximately 83 episodes (of the 90 produced) are held in the archives of Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants in New York City; a brief clip from the finale was shown on Letterman's 15th anniversary show in 1997, and several episodes were featured as interstitials on the Late Show's'' final episode in 2015. Some episodes are available for on-site viewing at the Paley Center for Media in New York.

References

External links

Opening minutes of the September 30, 1980 show
Detailed Episode Guide for The David Letterman Show

1980 American television series debuts
1980 American television series endings
1980s American television talk shows
English-language television shows
NBC original programming
American live television series
Television series by Universal Television
David Letterman
Andy Kaufman Dying to do Letterman is a 2011 documentary film, directed by Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, and produced under their Joke Productions banner.  The documentary follows the journey of Steve Mazan, a stand up comedian with the lifelong dream of performing a comedy routine on the Late Show with David Letterman.

However, Mazan's quest takes a turn when he is diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer, and informed he may only have five years to live.

The film follows his decision to spend what time he has left chasing his dream to perform on Letterman's stage. Dying to Do Letterman also looks at the historic impact David Letterman had on the comedy world.  Notable appearances in the documentary include Ray Romano, Kevin Nealon, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan, Arj Barker, Will Durst and Robert Schimmel.

Mazan acted as narrator for the film, speaking directly into camera from behind a large microphone on an empty comedy stage.

The film won numerous audience and grand jury awards on the film festival circuit, and was invited by the International Documentary Association to qualify for Academy Award consideration through the 2011 DocuWeeks program.

The film's Kickstarter for an Oscar crowdfunding campaign also received press attention, as reported by Indiewire, who noted the Kickstarter project for Dying to Do Letterman raised $20,000 in just two days.

After a theatrical release through the 2011 DocuWeeks program, Dying to Do Letterman was acquired for distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Of the film's premise, The Chicago Daily Herald said, "There's nothing like a little incurable cancer to kick-start someone's attempt to fulfill a lifelong dream."

Synopsis 

The film begins on an empty comedy stage with a large microphone. Steve Mazan enters and speaks directly into camera. This narrative device is used throughout the film. Mazan explains that since he was a young boy, he dreamed of performing on David Letterman's show. He became a professional stand-up comedian, and performed shows around the country in hopes of one day making it to the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show with David Letterman was taped before a live studio audience. He then learns he has cancer, and may only have five years to live. His girlfriend at the time, Denise, is shocked by the news, but the couple makes the decision to get married. Together, they also decide that Steve should spend the time he has left pursuing his dream of performing on Letterman's show.

Mazan launches his Dying to Do Letterman campaign, asking people to email the Late Show with David Letterman staff with the subject line "Book Mazan." Hundreds of emails are sent on Mazan's behalf. He receives a letter from an executive producer of The Late Show. The letter states that many sick people with emotional stories write to the show and ask to appear in an episode, but as a policy they cannot honor such requests. Undeterred, Steve decides to perform more comedy shows, write new material, and seek advice from professional comedians who have appeared on Letterman.

As the film progresses, Steve sits down with numerous comedians who are veterans of David Letterman's show. These include Ray Romano, Kevin Nealon, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan, Arj Barker, and Will Durst. The conversations cover why Letterman was so important to them, and explore how the comedians achieved their first appearance on Letterman's stage. The comics also offer advice to Mazan on his quest. Interspersed with the comedian interviews and Mazan's writing process are scenes tracking Mazan's health. His cancer is growing slowly, but Mazan is informed that the tumors on his liver could quickly accelerate their growth at any time, which would likely lead to his death. During this process, Mazan manages to send a DVD of his act to Letterman's booker, Eddie Brill. Brill likes Steve but thinks his material is wrong. He offers Mazan advice on how to tweak his act for the show, but makes no promises about booking him.

Mazan continues to write and test new material. The process includes a trip to Iraq where Mazan performs for American troops. During the performance, the base is bombed. Cameras catch Mazan and the comedy show audience running through the night as an ammunition dump explodes behind them, but Mazan escapes unharmed. He jokes that "it's not just cancer that can kill you." He continues to send off new material to Letterman's booker, Brill. Despite many submissions, several years pass and Mazan receives no communication from the show. He begins to believe that he won't be booked, and decides it may be time to give up on his Letterman dream. At that time Mazan sits down with another comedian diagnosed with cancer, Robert Schimmel. Schimmel encourages Steve to continue his journey and keep chasing his dream. A title card then informs viewers that Schimmel died shortly thereafter.

Mazan makes a final audition DVD for Letterman's show and sends it off. Letterman's booker Eddie Brill likes the DVD and wants to book Mazan. However, comedians are often cancelled at the last minute, and Mazan won't know if he will perform until right before showtime. The film ends as Mazan takes the Letterman stage. Title cards inform viewers that on September 4, 2009, Mazan performed on the Letterman show. He received five applause breaks, and his sickness was never mentioned. A quick shot of Mazan then reveals that he is still alive and healthy.

Over the final credits the film shows a montage of Mazan practicing his final routine at comedy clubs intercut with the actual Letterman performance. The routine centers on key cards that become demagnetized, and the frustrations of being locked out of one's hotel room.

Narration style 
For the narration of Dying to Do Letterman, Mazan delivers his backstory and commentary from a stage in an empty comedy club.  Mazan speaks directly into camera. He also occasionally interacts with props such as a ticking clock and a running hourglass.

Of the device, The Plain Dealer said:

You know you're in for a weird and wonderful ride when a little more than nine minutes into the story of Steve Mazan's quest to make it onto the "Late Show With David Letterman," the comic busts out his "Top 10 Benefits of Catching Cancer" (3. Blame hair loss on chemotherapy rather than on male pattern baldness.)

Internet Reviews said, "Steve is not only funny, he is a really likable guy, which comes through in spades in the very insightful narration he does for his life story."

Screen Comment felt the narration device was unnecessary.

Production 

Dying to Do Letterman was self-funded by directors Biagio Messina and Joke Fincioen, who invested their life savings making the film. The entire production took five years.  Footage for the film was acquired between 2006 and 2009.  Editing took place throughout the filming, and was completed in 2011.

Development 
In 2005, Mazan learned he had cancer, and said after he went through the stages of grief, he decided he'd like to launch a campaign to perform on Letterman's show.  As depicted in the film, Mazan launched the original Dying to Do Letterman site, and began shooting videos of himself discussing his quest in early 2006.

Pre-production 
Deciding he'd like to fully document his journey, Mazan connected with Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, a married, filmmaking and TV producing duo. They had edited a comedy reel for Mazan in 2003.  Since the filmmakers also considered Mazan a friend, they were concerned about making a documentary following his story.  Fincioen warned that if the journey did not go as planned, or if Mazan fell on bad times, they could not put the camera down and stop filming.

Of the potential filmmaking/friendship conflict, Screen Comment said: "Fincioen and Messina generally refrain from lionizing Mazan's predicament, a considerable achievement given that both are close friends with him. They are not afraid to show his stubborn and mopey side, or the effect that his single-mindedness has on Denise."

In an interview with MovieMaker Magazine Messina stated that Mazan's only creative input before filming was, "Even if I die, you have to finish the documentary and still make it funny. I don't want to make a depressing cancer movie."

Of the story, Messina said he felt the documentary had to present two concepts in order for the story to work:

On our own documentary Dying to do Letterman, there are two hooks. 1. A man chases his life-long dream of performing on the David Letterman show. 2. He learns he only has five years to live. Either hook on its own is really not enough to carry the film. Combined, they made for a much deeper movie: When a man learns he only has five years to live, he dedicates his life to living his dream of performing on Letterman.

As they prepared for more in-depth filming, the entire team began reaching out to bookers and comedians who might be able to help with Mazan's quest.

Production 
Much of the footage was personally filmed by Mazan on small camcorders.  The filmmakers built a mock comedy club which was used for Mazan's narration.  It was designed by Elvis Strange.  To save money, the filmmakers recorded most of the interviews on a $15 clip-on microphone purchased at Radio Shack.

Post-production 
Messina and Fincioen edited the film together from 300 hours of footage they had captured over the years.  Music was provided by Dave Pelman Music.

Marketing 
The filmmakers used a variety of grassroots techniques to promote the film, including both real-world and virtual approaches.

Street team 
Mazan, Messina, Fincioen, and volunteers visited film festivals dressed in hospital scrubs while passing out flyers for Dying to Do Letterman.  They also passed out buttons which read, "I'm Dying To ..." followed by a blank space.  Festival goers were encouraged to share their own dreams with the street team. The filmmakers would then write those dreams on the buttons with a marker, and the pin it on the people sharing their dreams.  The technique was cited as winning them fans in several cities. The filmmakers posted photos and videos of the buttons with others' dreams featured on them as part of their online campaign.

Actor Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) joined the street team in San Jose to help promote the film at its world premiere, part of the Cinequest Film Festival.

Kickstarter campaign 
Once Dying to Do Letterman was invited to participate in DocuWeeks by the International Documentary Association, the filmmakers launched a Kickstarter campaign to help cover their costs and thus qualify for Academy Award consideration.

Dubbed Kickstarter for an Oscar the campaign set out to raise $37,000 to pay for promotion, travel, and screenings related to the expenses of participating in DocuWeeks. According to TheWrap: "For an independent documentary, qualifying for the Academy Awards isn't easy, or cheap. But one of this year's hopefuls has found a new way to raise money: a crowd-funding campaign based on the simple plea, "Help us qualify for an Academy Award." Michael Lumpkin, executive director of the International Documentary Association, said of the Kickstarter Campaign: "[It] shows the filmmaking community how to successfully use some of these new online tools to raise money for documentary films."

The campaign raised a total of $57,569 from 614 backers.  Of the Kickstarter project,  Indiewire highlighted the fact that Dying to do Letterman raised $20,000 in just two days.

Charity screenings and events 
Mazan and filmmakers stated that using the film to support cancer research and patients in some way was important to them.

Before the Dying to do Letterman world premiere in San Jose at the Cinequest Film Festival, Mazan headlined a comedy show benefiting the Canary Foundation at the San Jose Improv.  Actor Michael Rooker joined in promoting the event in a video hosted by both Rooker and Mazan.

At the Kahbang Film Festival, August 9, 2011, Dying to do Letterman played as the closing night film, with all proceeds going to benefit the Champion the Cure Challenge.

On August 11, 2011, a charity screening of Dying to do Letterman was held to benefit Team Lucy, a group put together to support 4-year-old Lucy Weber, a Bloomington, Illinois girl being treated for leukemia.  The filmmakers stated the event raised $8000 for the Webers.

Dying to Do Letterman also played as part of the 2012 Gilda's Laughfest, a film festival that promotes healing through comedy.

Release 
Dying to Do Letterman had its world premiere in San Jose at the Cinequest Film Festival on Friday, March 4, 2011.  It received a theatrical release through the 2011 DocuWeeks program.  Its New York premiere was August 26, 2011 at The IFC Center.  In Los Angeles, it premiered September 2, 2011 at the Laemmle Sunset 5.  Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the film for distribution on home video platforms in North America. On December 7, 2012, it was released on iTunes, and was named New and Noteworthy along with films including The Dark Knight Rises, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Brave.  On May 13, 2015, the film was released on Hulu.

Reception 
In 2011 Dying to Do Letterman played in a variety of film festivals and was reviewed in numerous outlets before it was acquired for distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories. It had its world premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival, where it won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.

Film festivals and awards 
Cinequest Film Festival 
Grand Jury Prize, Best Documentary
Audience Award, Best Documentary

Cleveland International Film Festival
Winner, Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition

Carmel Art and Film Festival
Jury Prize, Best Documentary

Los Angeles New Wave International Film Festival
Honorable Mention, Best Documentary

Just for Laughs Comedy Film Festival 
Honorable Mention, Best Comedy

Kahbang Film Festival
Audience Award, Best Film

Naples International Film Festival
Neapolitan Media Award

Heartland Film Festival
Official Selection

St. Louis Film Festival
Official Selection

Great American Comedy Festival 
Featured Film

DocuWeeksInvited to qualify for Academy Award consideration by the International Documentary Association.

Audience reaction 
The filmmakers posted videos showing multiple standing ovations after screenings, and interviewing audience members as they exited theaters.

Reviews 

Cleveland's The Plain Dealer said of Dying to Do Letterman, "...a nimble, uplifting film that celebrates life, love and friendship. Best of all, it's a riot."

Variety wrote "Like its regular-guy subject, the pic proves more endearing than hilarious" and said that scenes in the film provided a "worthy curtain-peeling dimension."

Film School Rejects wrote: "[Dying to do Letterman] does a solid job of weaving elements of Mazan's personal life together with his quest, and it becomes a humorous and occasionally heartbreaking reminder that the journey is more important than the destination. Cliched? Sure, but it works as more than just a simple tale about trying to triumph over cancer. It's inspirational entertainment."

We Are Movie Geeks wrote:

What could've been a grim story becomes a tale of hope and laughter ... This film is an uplifting story that will give you a great insight into the lives of the men and women who grab a mic, deal with rowdy drunks, and follow their hearts no matter what life throws at them.

Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews called Dying to do Letterman, "a very moving documentary about achieving the American dream." He also noted the audience reaction in his screening:

The movie has shades of ROCKY, as it had our audience rooting for Steve to live long enough and to be determined to be good enough to finally pull off his lifelong ambition. After the ending credits -- which have by far film's funniest bits of all -- had finished rolling, our audience, to a person, was standing up, cheering and applauding loudly.

Comedy publication Splitsider called it, "an exceptionally compelling story, with a twisting and sometimes heartbreaking narrative."

Nearly six years after Mazan's performance, as Letterman neared his final episode of The Late Show, Donald Liebenson writing for The Huffington Post discussed Dying to do Letterman, and called Mazan's Letterman debut, "...one of the most triumphant moments during Dave's 33-year tenure."

References

External links 

2011 films
American films
English-language films
Documentary films about comedy and comedians
Documentary films about cancer
American independent films
American documentary films
2011 documentary films
Comedy
Comedy