Dying to Do Letterman

In 2005, struggling comedian Steve Mazan was diagnosed with cancer. He was not sure how much time he had left to live, but to him, that wasn’t important. His new mantra became, “it’s not how much time you have, it’s what you do with it.†So Mazan set out to fulfill his life-long dream: perform stand-up comedy on â€Late Show With David Letterman.†He gave himself a one-year deadline, and started working his ass off. He set up a website (Dyingtodoletterman.com), and began petitioning to have “Late Night†book him. It seemed like a noble mission. After all, if a completely out of it Joaquin Phoenix can get booked on Letterman, shouldn’t a funny, cancer stricken comedian be able to?

Well, not quite. Shorty after he began, Marzan received “a cease-and-desist letter†from the producers at “Late Show.” Their message was clear: it is not Letterman’s policy to book people just because they are dying. The show receives an overwhelming amount of daily requests from fans around the world, and it wouldn’t be fair to book Marzan solely because of his condition.

He would have to earn his appearance.

Mazan took the news in stride, continued to work on his act, and improved mightily. In fact, within this period of time, he was booked on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson†twice. Check out his bit below.

And then, in an instant, Marzan found out that all of his hard work had paid off.

Four years and countless gigs after beginning his quest, Marzan finally will get the chance to fulfill his dream. According to his friends at jokeandbiagio.com, this Friday, September 4, Steve Mazan will air on the late night show performing a five-minute running gag he has been perfecting about hotel access keys.

A documentary about Mazan and his journey is finishing post-production, and will be released soon.

Hat tip goes to jokeandbiagio.com and Punchline Magazine for their coverage.