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Paul Shaffer (born November 28, 1949 in Fort
William, Ontario, Canada) is a musician, comedian
and composer.

Shaffer began his musical career in 1972 as the
musical director for a Toronto area production of
Godspell. He went on to play piano for a Broadway
show called The Magic Show in 1974, then became
the musical director for NBC's popular Saturday
Night Live television program from 1975 to 1980.
SNL gave Shaffer the opportunity to stretch his
comedy wings as well, when he eventually started
appearing in sketches with the other comedians.

Shaffer occasionally teamed up with the Not Ready
for Prime-Time Players off of the show as well,
including work on Gilda Radner's highly successful
Broadway show, and a time spent as the musical
director for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd,
whenever they recorded or performed as The Blues
Brothers.

Shaffer has appeared in a number of motion
pictures over the years, including a role in Rob
Reiner's This is Spinal Tap, Blues Brothers 2000,
a scene with Miles Davis in the Bill Murray film
Scrooged and as a passenger in John Travolta's
taxicab in Look Who's Talking Too. In addition,
Shaffer lent his voice to Disney's animated
feature and television series, Hercules.

Shaffer has released two solo albums, 1989's
Grammy nominated Coast to Coast, and The World's
Most Dangerous Party in 1993. Shaffer has also
recorded with a wide range of artists, including
Grand Funk Railroad, Diana Ross, B.B. King, Cyndi
Lauper, Carl Perkins, Yoko Ono, Blues Traveler,
Cher (entertainer)|Cher, Chicago (band)|Chicago
and Robert Plant. He wrote and produced, with Paul
Jabara, the song "It's Raining Men," which was a
number one hit for the Weathergirls in the '80s
and for Geri Halliwell in 2001.

Shaffer has served as musical director and
producer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
induction ceremony since its inception in 1986. 
He has also served as musical director for two of
David Letterman's variety shows:  as leader of
"The World's Most Dangerous Band" for Late Night
with David Letterman (1982-1993) on NBC, for which
he also composed the theme song, and as leader of
the CBS Orchestra for The Late Show with David
Letterman (1993-present) on CBS.

In 2002, a street which surrounds the Thunder Bay
Community Auditorium was renamed "Paul Shaffer
Drive"; that year he was also inducted into the
National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of
Fame. Shaffer has also received two honorary
doctorates. He is currently the national
spokesperson for Epilepsy Canada.

==External links==
*imdb name|id=0787322|name=Paul Shaffer
*http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/show_info/b
ios/ls_show_info_bios_pshaffer.shtml Bio at
cbs.com