At first glance, Ramsey Auditorium at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia could easily have been mistaken for the set of a late-night TV talk show.
A band warmed up the crowd, which had just finished rehearsing its responses to the stage manager’s “Applause” and “Laughter” cue cards. A host’s chair and guest sofa were positioned behind a video screen. The host’s sidekick sat in a corner, arranging prompt cards for the coming show.
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But it was Lederman, not Letterman, who took the stage to thunderous applause at the recent opening of “The Late Show with Leon.”
Leon Lederman, former Fermilab director and winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics, was part of a 1 1/2-hour show aired live on the Internet as part of a Webcast from all over the globe. The event, which celebrated the centennial of Einstein’s theory of relativity and four other major theories, opened in Geneva, Switzerland, and included Webcasts from Venice, San Francisco, London, Brussels and Jerusalem, as well as Batavia.
Lederman’s sidekick was Albert Einstein, as played by Chris White of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The guests were star Fermilab physicists Peter Skands, Anna Goussiou and Jason Nielsen.
Even the band was made up of Fermilab researchers who took time off from smashing nuclei to participate.
The studio audience was made up of Fermilab employees and local high school students.
While White proved to be a capable comic, Lederman’s corny physics jokes and one-liners really brought down the house.
“Don’t worry,” he cracked after hearing about physicist Skands’ complex work. “I have nothing against theoretical physicists. Some of my best friends talk to theoretical physicists.”
On the serious side, Lederman and his guests presented an overview of Fermilab’s current major project–proving the existence of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle.
Just like Letterman, Lederman presented a list, titled “13 Ways to Know You’ve Won the Nobel Prize.”
“My first hint was when the phone rang at 6 in the morning,” he said, “and it was some guy inviting me to a party in Sweden.”