ATV Stunt Entertainer, Henry Rife
photos by Tom Dunlap

On Friday Sept 28th ATV stunt entertainer, Henry Rife made his life long dream of jumping his ATV in front of millions of people actually come true. Henry was invited to jump seven New York City taxi cabs on the popular Late Night with David Letterman television program. The incredible opportunity gave Henry many lifelong memories, some of which he'll explain below...

How did you land the Late Night with David Letterman gig?
I did a jump in July and one of the producers from Letterman saw it on Youtube. After some digging around he managed to get my contact info. "Hi I'm Mike. I'm a producer for the Late Night with David Letteman Show. Would you have any interest in coming to New York and jumping some taxi cabs? "Hell yes," I said.

Were they ATV savvy at all?
The Letterman people couldn't have been nicer and they were wonderful to work with, but man did they have a lot of questions. They didn't know what to expect.

Henry started jumping at age 6!

Did you have help?
I had a crew of people working on ramps and quads and this and that. It all got a bit hectic but in a very cool way. When I got the word that the show was a definite go, I only had five days to be there so I am lucky that my crew was on top of thing as soon as the original phone call came in.

Tell us all about the journey to New York City.
Before I left my home in Ohio in the middle of the night I stopped and said goodbye to my mom. She asked me if I was ready for all of this. I looked her square in the eyes and said "All my life!" She smiled and agreed. Later she told me that the look in my eye and calmness of my voice made her not have a doubt in her mind.

Anyway on to the trip. My dad and I drove in one truck and pulled the ramps while my right hand man Russ Belt and photographer extraordinary, Tommy Dunlap pulled my quads and tools in another.

Henry is seen here with Robbie and Evel Knievel.

A couple of hours into the trip we stopped at a truck stop to fuel up. While I was walking out I heard a group of kids remark about my coat. "Who does he think he is? Evel Knievel?". I heard them snickering around and laughing. One yelled out, "I'll give you five bucks for your autograph dude." I walked over to them and they remarked about the coat. I laughed and said, "next Friday if you watch David Letterman you may stop the laughing." The cute girl in the truck with them looked around saw the ramps and busted out laughing, "He really is a stunt jumper you morons there's his ramps you jerks!" It was pretty funny. "Hey can you give me your autograph for real," she asked. She got her autograph and the guys shook my hand and a bad start to trip had a good ending.

Did they put you up in a nice hotel and all?
Holy crap it was a Hotel Dream! It was just a block and a half away from The Late Show. Man this place was so cool. They even had neon under the beds. My dad asked, "All this trouble because you can ride a four wheeler," I grinned and said I guess so.

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