David Sayh, a comic whose reality-based comedy was relatable, tasteful, and entertaining, has been lost in time. Once a popular phenomenon, he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.
Key Takeaways
- David Sayh is a comedian who gained popularity for his appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
- Despite his initial success, Sayh failed to maintain his momentum and build a lasting legacy for himself in the comedy world.
- His last known public appearances were at comedy clubs in Southwest Florida in 2017 and 2018.
David Sayh, who is in his late 70s, is an artist and performer who has done it all around the world.
He gained fame after appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson not once or twice but 12 times.
Similarly, Sayh made numerous national television appearances on major networks and cable shows, such as Showtime, A&E, Merv Griffin, Comedy Shop, Midnight Special, and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.
In addition, he has appeared on many local and regional television shows and worked as the writer of the 2007 sci-fi comedy Elixir.
David Sayh Couldn’t Keep Up With The Momentum
Although David Sayh was doing good in terms of making the audience laugh, he couldn’t build a platform for himself after a brief fame.
His downfall in comedy was even discussed by the popular actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld in an interview with Graham Bensinger on April 26, 2024.
Talking about the importance of writing for a comedian, Seinfeld mentioned an experience and said,
I saw it happen uh to a guy who was uh on The Tonight Show, and he was a Smash Hit on his first show; then he came back to do a second one; it was the 6-minute appearance in those days to do six great minutes on The Tonight Show, walking out as a complete unknown and to kill them in six minutes, you need about 40 minutes of material that you’re doing in a nightclub that will distill down to six so then they want him to come back in 3 months, do another six so that he takes another six so his first six is the best six right, of course, and then the next six weren’t as good and then he came back a third time, struggled, and he was gone.
Jerry Seinfeld
After the interview, many suspected Jerry was talking about David Sayh, which later turned out to be true.
“Comedy at the Edge,” a book by Richard Zoglin, also mentions the same incident.
An excerpt from the book states,
Jerry Seinfeld remembers the night well; he was waiting to go on next when Carson walked in. But someone grabbed him at the last minute and told him that he’d have to wait. The first act that Johnny Carson would get to see at Catch a Rising Star was the club’s hottest comic at the moment, David Sayh.
It continues,
A slim, mustachioed New Yorker with a slick routine of observational stand-up, Sayh delivered twenty minutes of his A material and got a big response. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, he got a call from The Tonight Show. On April 27, 1977, David Sayh got to live out every stand-up’s dream: being plucked from the chorus line to make his national TV debut on The Tonight Show.
Where Is David Sayh Now?
In 2017 and 2018, David Sayh was pictured performing at comedy clubs in Southwest Florida, which was his last sighting.
Since then, the comedian has disappeared, leaving no traces of his whereabouts.
It could be due to a sudden change in his personal life. He and his wife, a Californian native singer Sally Sayh, of several years, have divorced.
Sally remarried a guy named Don Wiggins and took his surname (she goes by the name Sally Wiggins) around 2019.
Whatever the reason may be, we are eager to witness what the comedian will bring once he comes out of his hibernation.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- David Sayh has headlined over 300 Comedy Clubs throughout America.
- He is a licensed pilot and knows how to do carpentry.
- Sayh has done command performance for former Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore.
