Bill Scheft, EVERYTHING HURTS novelist; DAVID LETTERMAN writer: Mr. Media Radio Interview

Hey, Mr. Media Smart Guy! Don’t ask novelist Bill Scheft any questions about writing for David Letterman... or Paul Shaffer gets it!

After twelve years touring as a stand-up comedian, Bill Scheft was hired as a monologue writer for Late Night with David Letterman in 1991. He was with the program for its last two years at NBC, then moved over to CBS in August, 1993 to work on Late Show with David Letterman. He served as head monologue writer for the Late Show until 2004,and during his 17 years with Letterman has been nominated for 15 Emmys. Which, ah, means he’s never won.

His latest and most ambitious work, Everything Hurts, was released in April, 2009. In it, self-proclaimed “self-help fraud” PhilCamp, who accidentally achieved international acclaim writing under the pseudonym Marty Fleck, tries to seek relief from his unexplained chronic pain through the aid of another self-help guru, Dr. Samuel Abrun.

In addition to his long-form fiction, Scheft is widely known for his weekly humor column, “The Show,” which appeared in Sports Illustrated for three years. A collection of his columns, The Best of The Show, was published in 2005. Before coming to Sports Illustrated, Scheft spent two and a half years at ESPN Magazine writing a similar column, called “The Monologue.”