David Letterman's Hello Deli guy recalls Late Show mischief

The sign outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre has come down; after 22 years, the Late Show with David Letterman, which was filmed at the Manhattan venue, is over.

Next to the theatre's stage door, however, remains the Hello Deli, selling its famous sandwiches named after Late Show staffers. Nostalgic customers still ask for selfies with owner Rupert Jee, an unlikely on-screen collaborator of Letterman's.

Born in New York to parents from Guangdong province, Jee had never aspired to be on television. "I don't like performance. I have no talent for it," he says.

It was a childhood culinary rebellion that led him, in the most roundabout of ways, to end up on the Late Show.

"My parents always cooked Chinese food but I loved American food, so I learned how to make sandwiches. I made them for myself first, and then for the whole family," he says.

After graduating with a degree in economics, Jee ran a garment business for more than a decade, until 1991, when he returned to sandwiches.

The deli he bought was next to the Ed Sullivan Theatre, where The Late Show debuted in 1993. Show staff started patronising Jee's shop and, that year, he was interviewed in the segment titled "Meet the Neighbours".