Ross Shafer (Almost Live!/Late Show/Match Game)

Ross Shafer joined me to talk about watching Rusty Nails as a kid; flipping bikes, cars, houses, and businesses; college football; owning a stereo / pet store named Woofers and Tweeters; hamster drag racing; going to a comedy club when he had an ulcer; seeing there was a science there; trying it and getting good enough to win Showtimes Comedy Laugh Off; having a day job and not being able to move to LA; bombing on Alan Thicke's Canadian talk show; pitching Almost Live!; getting the show on the air on the fly; creating fame for little towns near Seattle; Louie, Louie campaign makes it a hit, but no one wants to syndicate; gets job to host Late Show but has to cancel remaining gigs; writers to Johnny Carson; Writer's Strike causes theme shows like TV reunions; Ozzy Osbourne; Hollywood Squares & Howard Stern; finding out Late Show is cancelled that morning; getting Match Game; memorable trip; Sally Struthers and Charles Nelson Reilly; Iraq War preempts show and ratings dive; began doing corporate gigs; his WOW versus POW theory; the book Love, Johnny by Mark Malkoff