arts & entertainment

Supreme Sidekick

As he prepares to leave his dream job, Paul Shaffer reflects
on life, Letterman and loving his Jewish upbringing.

Robert Gluck
I JNS.org

Jewish upbringing taught Paul
Shaffer, David Letterman's musi-
cal director and sidekick for 32
years, the value of giving back.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Shaffer
served as musical director for The Concert
for New York City; and, in 2012, he stole
the show with comedian Adam Sandler
during 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy
Relief, a fundraiser for people affected by
Hurricane Sandy, accompanying Sandler
on "Sandy Screw Ya," a comedic take
on the disaster set to Leonard Cohen's
"Hallelujah" Shaffer also is the national
spokesperson for Epilepsy Canada.
"My mother taught by example" Shaffer
said in an interview with JNS.org . "She
was a great supporter of Israel. She was
a great supporter of local charities and
gave her time for Hadassah (the women's
Zionist organization), as well as the ladies
auxiliary at the [local] hospital.
"Growing up, I watched this, so it just
came natural to me. Getting involved in
charities and fundraisers became a great
opportunity for me to use my musical tal-
ents to do some good"
In April, Letterman announced his
intent to retire in 2015 around the time
his contract with CBS expires next August,
meaning the end of the line for Late Show
with David Letterman.
What's next for Shaffer?
"I'm going to try to find something
that is as much fun as this has been, but
it is not going to be easy because it really

A

Jews

has been the dream job for me" he said.
"Getting to play every day, have my own
band, do comedy, go up against the quick-
est, smartest guy in the business — it's not
going to be easy, but I'm still going to play
the piano. I'll be looking for more ways to
do that"
Shaffer's parents, Shirley and Bernard,
introduced their Canadian-born son to
the piano when he was growing up in Fort
William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario.
Shaffer went on to work as the musi-
cal director for the Toronto production
of Godspell in 1972. Two years later, he
played piano for The Magic Show on
Broadway and then became a member of
the house band on NBC's Saturday Night
Live from 1975-1980.
"My parents said, 'That kid is going to
play the piano, and that's the way it's going
to be:" said Shaffer, now 64. "Playing the
piano was obligatory, but I enjoyed it and
still do. There was always music playing in
my house. My mother with her Broadway
show tunes as well as classical tunes. My
dad played the great jazz singers of his era.
I had music always ringing in my ears"
From his role as musical director for
John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd whenever
they recorded or performed as the Blues
Brothers to his role as musical director for
Detroit native Gilda Radner's one-woman
Broadway show to his appearances with
Sandler, Shaffer has fond memories of the
SNL comics.
"It was a time when they were making
this stuff up and inventing it for the first
time and figuring out what kind of show
SNL was going to be" Shaffer said. "I got

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

TV Doings

The eight-part BBC series The
Honorable Woman, starring Maggie
Gyllenhaal, 36, debuted on the
Sundance Channel on July 31 (catch
up On Demand or online), with the
second episode airing at 10 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 7.
The complex plot heavily involves
the politics of Gaza, which makes it
tragically timely. Gyllenhaal stars as
Nessa Stein, an Israeli-born daughter
of a Holocaust survivor father, a big
Israel supporter who became wealthy
while living in England. When Nessa
was 6 years old, her father was assas-
sinated in front of her eyes.
In the present, Nessa is a powerful

38

August 7 • 2014

philanthropist who decides to help
Israel and the Palestinians by invest-
ing her money in a worthy business
project. But circumstances conspire
to bring her into a series of danger-
ous situations involving, among oth-
ers: terrorist kidnappers, Mossad
agents and British spies.
Regarding the series' politics,
Gyllenhaal told the Jewish Journal
of Greater Los Angeles: "There are
moments in watching the series when
I know that viewers
will say, 'Oh, they're
absolutely pro-Israeli
or pro-Palestinian,'
but to those people
, I would say, 'Watch
it all; it really does
end up somewhere
Gyllenhaal
very special. I have

to be there and watch it happen"
Shaffer has played and recorded with
many famed musicians, including Ray
Charles, B.B. King, Donald Fagen, Diana
Ross, Carl Perkins, Robert Plant, Billy Joel
and Bob Dylan. His own album, Coast to
Coast, was nominated for a Grammy in
1989.
He's appeared in numerous feature
films, including This Is Spinal Tap, and,
in 2009, authored the bestselling memoir
We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives.
Shaffer has served as musical director and
producer for the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame induction ceremony at the Waldorf-
Astoria in New York City since its incep-
tion in 1986.
Soon, his 2,500th 60-second segment
of Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, illustrating
the daily history of rock 'n roll, will be
broadcast on stations around the country.
The daily vignette draws on Shaffer's vast
musical knowledge and his ability to offer
expert commentary on the history of rock.
"It's what I love" he said. "I have a huge
compendium of fun facts and comic rock
trivia. Everything we talk about is accu-
rate, but we present it with a comic twist.
Sort of like what John Stewart does with
the news [on The Daily Show], we do with
rock trivia:'
In June 2006, Shaffer received a star on
Canada's Walk of Fame. Still, whatever his
other personal achievements are, he will
forever be connected to David Letterman.
Asked to describe Letterman's legacy, he
called his boss "the guy that all the other
talk-show hosts looked to for figuring out
how to behave in times of stress:'

my own thoughts on a solution to
the conflict, but I don't want to share
them because the piece says some-
thing that I can deeply stand behind."
I hope it works out, in some cosmic
sense, for Andi Dorfman, 29, the titular
star of this season's The Bachelorette.
She and contestant Josh Murray, 30,
announced their engagement during
the season finale on July 28.
One hurdle: Although his mother is
Jewish, Murray and his siblings were
raised in their father's Catholic faith,
and Murray is reportedly devout.
Second hurdle: Even though she was
the lowest paid Bachelorette ever
(because she wasn't viewed as that
marketable), Dorfman has reportedly
given up her job as an Atlanta-area
assistant district attorney in favor of
seeing where her celebrity will take her.

Paul Shaffer behind the keyboards

"Right after the 9-11 attack comes to
mind" Shaffer said. "David stayed off the
air initially. He went back on; then every-
one else went back on. He said, 'It's time
to start going back to our normal lives and
laughing again: Everyone else said, 'Yes it
is:
"That's his legacy: an intelligent guy on
the spot. A real intelligent man behind the
desk who really knew how to run a show
like that — interviewing not only the cra-
ziest clown or comedic performer but the
leader of the free world and doing a great
job no matter who it was:'
Reflecting on his Jewish upbringing,
Shaffer said: "Judaism is certainly a blue-
print to bring up your kids, and if you fol-
low that blueprint, you can be assured that
they are going to be great, that they will
carry on the tradition of their parents.
"My parents were the greatest" said
Shaffer, married and the father of two chil-
dren. "They brought me up that way. Not
all that observant, but there was only one
synagogue in town, which was Orthodox,
so my education was Orthodox. That kind
of background gives me something to fall
back on spiritually" ❑

Fashion Note

Warner Brothers has hired a screen-
writer to adapt a scholarly book on
the creation of the Apollo space
suits for film. The project has the
temporary working title of Bras in
Space. Spacesuits made out of stiff
materials, like the armor knights
wore, proved to be a dismal failure.
What did work beautifully was the
suit made by Playtex, consisting of
many gossamer-thin layers of mate-
rial and constructed much like a
brassiere.
During the '60s, Playtex was head-
ed up by company founder Abram N.
Spanel (1901-1985), a brilliant inven-
tor who was famous for treating his
mostly female work force very well,
as well as supporting medical and
Jewish charities.

❑

