TVSquad

There is a romantic notion of how a comedian gets on a program like the Late Show with David Letterman. A talent scout walks into a crowded comedy club where a hot new talent is killing and puts them on that week. Fame and fortune ensue, and a legend is born.

The reality is, not surprisingly, much different. When comedian Joe Wong makes his network television debut tonight, it will be a five-minute appearance nearly four years in the making, stretching back to when Late Show talent coordinator and audience warm-up comic Eddie Brill first saw Wong in Boston in 2005, according to Wong. Brill thought he was funny, which put him on the radar. Wong sent in a DVD now and then, and Brill gave him feedback.

"Off and on I've been watching him do what he's been doing I guess for about three years," says Brill. "Then I started getting serious about him trying to put a set together for me that I could work on for Letterman. And I guess that's over a year ago."

Brill says he knew Wong was going to be great, but it takes time to craft a television appearance to match the comedian's talent. "I just felt it instinctually, he was going to be great," says Brill. "We just had to put him in the best possible scenario. You can tell when people just have it, they really just own the set."

It took a year to fine tune Wong's set, with Wong sending Brill about 12 DVDs of different performances, tweaking specific jokes and rearranging bits. And while it was a long process and an argument or two about a particular line, Wong feels he's a better comic for the experience, and learned a lot. "I used to laugh or smile after my jokes," he says. "So they put a stop on that one. After that, I do the jokes with more of a straight face, and it actually works better. That's something I never noticed before he pointed it out."

"He was very understanding, and anytime we did anything to the set, I'd ask him for his opinion," says Brill. "I didn't want to just be like a warlord saying, you must do it. We worked on it together. As a comedian, it's hard to see what you do. I've been doing this over eight years now, I sort of have an idea what it looks like, and what a set looks like, and how I can help others with their set."

It takes Brill less time to get a veteran comedian on the show, but he still helps most shape their routines for television. Brill took a bit more time with Wong because Wong hasn't had national exposure yet, and Brill wanted to make sure it was a memorable appearance.

"Guys like Joe who are making their network television debuts, it's a different kind of scenario," says Brill. "This is his first time ever on a network television show and we want him to be remembered as this guy who just came out of the box and hit a grand slam home run on his first at bat."

Apparently, the work paid off when Wong taped his set Monday for tonight's show. Brill says he is actually looking forward to watching the spot again, something he rarely does. "Joe performed the best set I've seen a comic have on the show in a long time," says Brill.

Despite the year of preparation, Wong was understandably nervous when he stepped out onstage (Brill says plenty of stand-ups who have been doing it for years get nervous on the show). But once he got started, it was thrilling.

"I stepped onstage and the first thing I have to do basically is make eye contact with David Letterman, which I did, and that makes me a little bit nervous," says Wong. "And the second thing is, I'm supposed to stand right on top of this light blue dot on a blue stage, so I have to be very focused looking at that spot, it's not the most obvious spot onstage. After that, it was all fun. I just told my jokes. I can hear the audience, the band members are laughing. It was great."

Wong's nervousness apparently helped him with the audience. Wong's set closes the show, and at the end, he is supposed to stand on his mark when Letterman comes over to him, shake his hand, and say goodnight. In what Brill says was an honest and humbling moment, Wong shook Letterman's hand and started to walk away, and Letterman called him back.

"He told me he had sleepless nights just dreaming of doing the Letterman show," says Brill. "When it happened, it was the thrill of his life. He didn't know what to do, he was just panicked. And so the audience went nuts for him when he came back to Dave. It was almost like when Carson would bring the comedian over to the couch. Dave was like, come back, you were great."

Wong says the appearance was everything he hoped it would be, and now he hopes he gets another chance. "Before the show, I was thinking to myself, wow, if I do the Letterman show and get out on the street and get hit by a bus, I'll have a big smile on my face," he says. "But after the show, I was like, wow, I don't want to die now. If a bus hits me now, I'm going to be really sad because I want to come here again. Just tremendous. It was unbelievable. It was a great experience."