Production Coordinator Reflects On Bob Saget's Final Stand-Up Routine

Actor Bob Saget passed away at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on January 9, 2022.

On January 11, police visited the home of Richard Stanford, a production coordinator who worked with the “Full House” star shortly before he passed away. The Blast obtained an audio recording from the police department containing his interview recalling Saget’s final moments.

Stanford said that it was his job to act in a hospitality position towards talent. In this case, he was tasked with supplying the “How I Met Your Mother” narrator with his beverage of choice, which turned out to be Diet Coke and Red Bull. He did not have any alcohol. Apparently, they had listed sandwiches on the guest list but scratched it off a few days before the show. Stanford still kept a runner on stand-by to accommodate any last-minute requests that Saget may have had.

He set up the comedy show and said that at 6:15 PM, Bob showed up for his soundcheck. However, he revealed that the actual soundcheck did not occur until about 6:45 PM and they finished it at 7:07 PM or 7:08 PM. Stanford noted that they were running behind schedule, but noticed that Saget “seemed excited” and was “impressed” by the number of people in attendance.

They kept the door open for about fifteen minutes and started the show between 8:15 PM to 8:20 PM and stayed on stage “all the way” through the night, until 10:30 PM. After the show, Saget hung out backstage and was chit-chatting with people for “a good 30-45 minutes.”

Saget reportedly showed them a sizzle reel for a new movie or a documentary and talked about new projects that he was working on. From there, at around 11:30 PM, Saget left. He noticed that some of his conversations with Saget “kept getting weird.” Stanford said that he might have only picked up on this because he was ADD himself, but he said that Bob would “talk and he’d just change it in between.”

However, he noted that Saget is a comedian and his thought track might be bouncing a bit from one thought to the next as he spoke.

He watched Bob Saget’s car pull out of the lot at around 11:30 PM while he was packing up.

“The only thing that stood out was that he was funny, he enjoyed it,” he recalled. “One of his friends locally, the newscaster, dropped off a bag and it had water, tea bags, and honey in it. They gave it to him.” He noted that they also dropped off posters.

Stanford called working with Saget “one of the easiest acts I’ve had so far.” From all the TV and movies that he’s seen, Stanford wasn’t sure what it would be like meeting Saget in person, but he noted that the comedian was very easy-going and easy to work with. “He was cool, straight to the point, no filter,” he added.

Stanford explained that, from the way his set was written, it was about forty minutes of comedy “just straight-up, stand-up normal.” Then there was supposed to be about thirty minutes of music with a guitar that Saget had with him on-stage. He continued working but noticed that by 10 o’clock, Saget had still yet to pick up his guitar.

Standford recalled that Saget mentioned that he had gone on for an hour and forty-five minutes the night before and called his comedy routine “spot-on.”

“The magic was there,” he said. “He was excited.” He later referred to Saget as “pretty tight.”

Stanford noted that he didn’t stumble over his words but noticed that “his train of thought changed a couple of times.” He explained that he’d bring up a story and then get sidetracked and go off talking about another topic. He called it “weird” but didn’t know if it was necessarily out of the ordinary for Saget, as this was his first time meeting him.

They hung out for about an hour after the show and they asked if he planned to stay nearby in Jacksonville. Saget had told them that he had a hotel in Orlando not far from the airport and appeared to be familiar with the area.

Stanford was one of three people who had walked with Saget out into the parking lot. They recalled him driving a white car that seemed to be in the style of a Chevy Impala. They noted that he was alone and did not have a driver. He said he would be calling home during his drive. They waved to him as Bob Saget drove out of the parking lot.

He said that the only problems that Saget had that night were trying to link up their social media accounts to do a post before the beginning of the show. “Besides that, he loved it,” he recalled.

“At no point did I think anything was wrong,” he said. “Come and go. He chatted with everybody. He had a good time talking with everybody.”

As far as he knows, the show was not recorded. He admitted that some people might have taken a few photos or snippets but the theater where he performed does not typically record performances.

Bob Saget arrived at the hotel safely and had a conversation with the hotel valet which can be read here.