Since childhood, stand-up comedian Steve Mazan has wanted to appear on David Letterman's late night talk show. Mazan figured he had enough time to make his dream come true, but when he received his cancer diagnosis in early 2005, he accelerated his timetable.
Mazan's comedic quest is the subject of "Dying to do Letterman," a documentary that will be part of the International Documentary Association's DocuWeeks 2011. The one-week theatrical runs in New York and Los Angeles will make this documentary eligible for Academy Award consideration.
When reached by phone this week, Steve Mazan talked about his comedy career, his family and how his dogs can be scene-stealers.
"Dying to do Letterman" doesn't play out like a cancer story. You basically had to do every step that a comedian must do to get on Letterman.
That's my favorite part of it; it isn't a cancer story. Neither myself nor the two filmmakers (Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina) wanted to make a sad cancer story. I'm a comedian, so there was going to be a lot of joking and laughing about it. It was kind of on their shoulders to make that work.
The best review we've gotten so far, my favorite I should say, is that it is more like "Rocky" than "Philadelphia." I'm a big documentary fan; I love them. But if you said it's a documentary about cancer, I would say "No thanks. I'll watch a few other films first." I think what we are saying in the film is important, but it's not something where you leave the theater saying "Oh my God! The world's awful and I have to change it."
How long did the filmmakers follow you around?
Filming took a little over five years and a year of post-production. The funny thing in the movie, and you even see me say it, is that I am giving myself one year to get on Letterman. That was the initial goal and I'm sure that's what Joke and Biagio signed up for.
A lot of it is 'diary cams' or me shooting stuff or something happened and they weren't there, so we 'guerilla referenced' it. I would call a friend and say "Hey, you've got to shoot me because Joke and Biagio aren't around" or "Denise! Get out here and shoot me telling this news" or that kind of thing.
Joke and Biagio signed up with me for a year and luckily they stayed way past that, having to extend that goal and that dream.
You are great on camera, but I have to say your dogs seem to be the break-out stars of "Dying to do Letterman."
That's funny. The two people who feel like they have wrangled control of the movie away from me are my wife Denise and my mother. She (my mom) feels she gets some really big laughs in the movie.
I watched the other day and it did amaze me how much the dogs are in it. Sometimes they (the filmmakers) are focusing on me or my wife talking, but the dogs are always there lurking or sticking their heads in the background. They may get the most screen time.
I am convinced that at some point in your life you would have achieved your goal, even without the cancer diagnosis.
I was 100 percent confident that I was going to be on Letterman someday and that was almost the problem. I was so confident that it was going to happen someday that I was waiting for it to come to me rather than really chasing it. The diagnosis was a wake-up call, a slap in the face.
Thank God I had that wake-up call. Who knows when you are going to get in a car accident or step out in front of a bus or whatever might happen? I think we all have that 'someday thing' out there.
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