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Fade to Black Presents:
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One does not need to be a Letterman fanatic to know who Calvert Deforest
(Larry Bud Melman) is. His quirky personas and characters have touched
something in all of us over the years. Exactly what that something is, is
often hard to define, but it has almost always made us laugh. To get a
better picture of the man behind the persona we talked with Calvert about
his life and work.
Calvert was born and raised, and still lives, in Brooklyn New York. His father was a doctor, and his mother an actress who never wished for him to enter into show business. Against her wishes, he traveled around some, never wandering too far from home, and landed bit parts in local theatres in the tri-state area. It was not until his mother died when he made a more determined effort to further his acting career. It was during this time he ended up in a student film called King of the Z’s, which made its way into the hands of David Letterman. Impressed with the film, David hired the crew, and made the discovery that would change Calvert’s life. From the moment Calvert walked on stage on the very first episode of “Late Night with David Letterman”, the very same night David met him, Calvert has intrigued us to say the least. His cameo appearances on the “Late Night” show stirred up feelings in our guts that there was indeed something different about this man, but what? His impersonations of Roy Orbison, Barbara Striesand and Meat Loaf, his ‘Ask Mr. Melman’ skit, and his various on location interviews and announcing assignments compounded his intriguing nature and mysterious charm. Simultaneously, yet impossibly, true and pure while performing the most obscure of bits, Calvert is not a man you can easily forget. In addition to “Late Night”, Calvert has done We have conducted the following interview with
Calvert asking him about his idols,
working with Letterman, and his feelings about losing one of the most recognizable pseudonyms in
the entertainment industry. Continue |
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Part III ]
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television commercials for AT&T and Dominos, and was the only television personality invited to
Woodstock ’94. The man has something millions of people enjoy and can identify with. Our guess is
that no one will quite be able to define just what this something is, but we’ve given it our best shot. 
