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Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News Today crossover episode with The Letterman Podcast. Mike Chisholm is the host of The Letterman Podcast, and he had seen a list of the top ten late night host of all time and he didn’t like the list, so he made his own and he wanted me to react to it. So over the Christmas break he was like, Hey’m going to send you a list. I’m like, don’t send me the list.
I don’t want to see your list. I’ll just react to it. So that’s what you’re going to hear right now. We’ve talked a little bit about your reaction to the Billboard Top twenty five Comedians of the Century. Well, there’s been a few late night ones as well.
One particular late night list came out, the top ten late night Hosts of All Time list, which I appreciated. It’s hard when it’s a mount rushmore when you got to pick four. It’s hard when it’s ten. You’ve got a little bit more breathing room and you can talk about things. I did not like the list that came out.
I don’t even want to, you know, I don’t wanna. I wasn’t a fan of the list that came out, and and and so I decided to pend my own top ten list, and I find I think that I did a pretty good job. I have not made this list public to anybody. You’re the first person that’s going to hear it. And the whole premise of the show was you reacting to what I think is the definitive top ten late night hosts in history list.
So that got this up, you gotta say. From the home office in Vancouver, it’s the top ten late night hosts of all time, topka late night hosts of all time, number ten. Okay, I got that, I got that in I got that in my head. And so what we’re gonna do? Okay, from the home office in Lumbee, British Columbia, the top ten late night television hosts in history.
For me, the top ten late night host it has to be started by Steve Allen. Number ten is Steve Allen. And this list is is I like this list because there’s a couple that are sort of combined with each other. There are a couple that are kind of group together. But I start the list with Steve Allen because as far as I’m concerned, this is the guy that set the blueprint.
You do talk about a blueprint that even in twenty twenty five, the format is the same for the most part, the desk, the monologue, the guests, the panel, the way that they’re set up. This is the guy that basically said this is how it’s gonna be. Yes, there were shows before him, there were stuff that came along before him, but Steve Allen is the guy that actually set the tone, and all these years later, you know that blueprint is still being followed. So to me, you start the list with Steve Allen, you know, not because he was the first to do it. You make him number one, but you say, okay, you’re the guy.
You’re the guy that’s going to start the list, just like you’re the guy that started the genre. That’s why I positioned him at number ten. Oh absolutely. If we had a magic wand and you could take Steve Allen in his prime and say, you know, we’re going to use doctor Who technology here, Steve Allen in your prime, right now, I need you to host. I need you to fill in for Johnny Carson on a Tuesday night in nineteen seventy six.
Done. I need you to fill in on Late Night with David Letterman on a Monday in nineteen eighty five. No problem, where’s the Alka Seltzer suit. I got this same note on Conan Hey, John Stewart’s throwing up in the bathroom. You think you can wing the Daily Show for us?
Absolutely? Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t want to do it anymore. You want to show on ABC in twenty twenty eight, Sure, so on Steve Allen one. There we go, and and and the cool thing about Steve and not just Steve, but some of the other the other you know, pioneers of of of of this genre. If you go onto Don Giller’s David Letterman YouTube channel, if you go to Don Giller’s YouTube channel, there’s the talk show host compilation.
And I’ve talked about this one a lot. I don’t know if there’s any series. And this is a this is a big commitment because it’s like there’s seven parts to it, and I think they’re all an hour each something like that. But it’s in order every single talk show host appearance on one of David Letterman shows, and Steve Allen appeared on Late Night. I think you’ve appeared on the Morning Show too.
Now I think about it the Morning Show and Late Night and it’s it’s it’s really cool watching Steve. His influence on Dave is obvious in the first couple interactions. There’s a nervousness that Dave has, and I love that about early Dave. You know, it’s the exact opposite of where he is right now. He’s not the elder statesman that can that can communicate with anybody.
He is really nervous and UH. And and to watch Steve come in and and and and im part some wisdom and grace in doing so and even doing the show is such a cool thing. And and so I highly recommend that for people who love this stuff, highly recommend going and watching that compilation. UH number nine another trailblazer in his own right. Arcinio Hall and I have our studio here at number nine because, of course UH the first talk show host of of UH of color who has his own full time show.
Johnny of course had guest hosts of color for the Tonight Show, but this is the first one that it’s really helmed his own deal, and not just helmed his own deal, but was he was a culture, a significant person in culture, all culture. I was a huge hip hop fan growing up, and I love the music on late night. I love the music that would show up on late night. There was but but to be perfectly frank, the bullseye for me when it came to music on any late night talk show of me growing up, it was our Senio Hall, our senior Hall. Had phenomenal music, he had phenomenal guests.
He had a different vibe to things, of course, and I thought, uh, just the way that he I mean, he’s the guy that many people said, oh yeah, Carson’s in trouble because this new hip person is coming in. And he was a cultural phenomenon as well. Obviously didn’t have the lasting power, but at the same time significant enough to make it to the top ten. Oh absolutely. If you think of a lot of people that took on the Johnny timeslot, if not Johnny specifically, they were all playing on Johnny’s corner, Let’s do something similar like if you looking like Pat, say, Jack Show, what is that?
It’s you know, it’s the Tonight show without being the Tonight show, Like what are we doing? Whereas Arsenio did something different for a different audience. And there was a lot of different audience out there and both shows could coexist. You you are reminding me of the Carsenio sketch. Now, yes, I’m trying to remember.
I’ve read several Carson books, and I can’t remember where the experts have landed if that sketch actually bothered Johnny or not. But the Carsenio sketch, for people who have not seen it, it’s on YouTube. It’s a must watch, and it really speaks to that particular moment. It does and from where I from what I have heard, let me ask Mark Malkoff about it. But but yeah, Johnny, one of the things that gave Johnny pause in his entire career was Arcinio.
But also Carcinio, the idea of of of of being able to, you know, maybe get maybe not a full on gut shot, but a grazing bullet to the bulletproof man. I think is something that happened there. And apparently Arsenio gave Johnny pause saying well, maybe it is time to hang it up. So I mean, that’s that’s significant in itself. Yeah.
I mean, you know, we all age, and I increasingly feel my own age, and I love doing my podcast. I’m like, you know, at some point in the not crazy future, it’s gonna be like, Okay, seventy year old man talking about Dane Cook. What David Letterman? That show aired sixty years ago, old timer, what are you talking about? You know, I do sort of have an unofficial line.
I’ve never really pondered where it is. But there are comedic things that I don’t talk about because it’s like speaking a different language. I self possess profess to live on Old Man Mountain, and at some point it’s just it’s just not my thing. Somebody’s doing something on TikTok. It’s wonderful, it’s great, people love it.
I don’t get it if you ever want to feel old. Every now and then Variety will do a top twenty, like you know, next gen Superstars of Media thing, and you go down the list you mentioned before, not being familiar with mister Beast, never mind mister Beast. You go down their top twenty listen and you’re like, I don’t know any of these people, which is fine, Which is fine. You know, I could say to my kids, Hey, there was this guy Dave, and he threw watermelons off a tower and they’ll be like, yeah, okay, Boomer, Yeah. I keep saying that to my granddaughter, she’s seven.
I’m putting all this pressure on her, saying, you’re the one that’s got to keep me cool. You make sure you only like cool things. Okay, you see, there’s no window here. So when he throws the card and it’s a sound effect, and that’s funny. It’s funny because there’s no window.
Kids, it’s really funny. What that being said? She and I because I mean, I’m playing he out the idea of her, of her doing some reaction videos to some of the stuff Dave did. When I put on Dave’s stuff where he’s throwing stuff off a tower, she absolutely to this day. Twenty in twenty twenty five, a seven year old girl laughs her little off when she sees him throwing stuff off the tower or running things over with the steamroller.
She loved the running scens over with the steamroller. But oh, she asks to watch it. She’s seven, So that gives me hope for that generation. Right, But like, what’s funny about Larry Budd Melman not being able to really hear what Dave’s saying. All the timing’s wrong.
The guy is not really delivering the lines. Well, like why is that funny? It just is? But like, hey, kids want to watch Larry Budd Melman. What?
Yeah, I don’t know. Okay, now you go. Now I’ve got it. Now I’ve got an assignment. Lara needs to see Larry Budd Melman and we’ll have to find out.
Number eight Craig Ferguson. The people that made this list are ones who definitely changed, who added something to the game. Maybe it didn’t change the game, but they added something to me. Ferguson, you know, I loved him. My golden age in watching late night television, h was when I could watch late show Conan’s Show on TBS and Craig Ferguson.
I know that that is not necessarily popular to a lot of the purest. As far as I’m concerned, Conan and Ferguson are two that were influenced by guys like Dave and and some of this stuff that’s out there that the esoteric stuff perhaps or you know, just the plain weird, uh, you know, and and the idea that he evolved his show to a place where he had a robot skeleton for a sidekick and they had a you know, two guys in a in a two man horse costume that would come in every single night, and the audience not only bought it, but they yearned for it when Secretariat would come in. You know, he had a he had a cult following. I really appreciate his sensibility, but he also brought some seriousness to the zaniness. You know, when he had Desmond tutu on as a guest or some of these other people that Craig ferguson to me, moved the ball up the field and did it in a very very compelling way.
That’s why he makes the list in the top ten. Did you did you ever? You know he started as a stand up I don’t know if you guys his past ever would have crossed the curious thing? You must have? You must have?
Yes, I got to work with Craig a handful of times. He came up, maybe to just do a guest appearance, and we asked him to do some vo for the Radio Classics channel, and he started improving and we’re like, wait, there’s something here, and he agreed to come back the next day. We grabbed this guy Ghosty, who was on the staff who could do voices and improv, you know, well enough to keep up with Craig Ferguson. And they came back and just rift and I forget what we even did with it, but it was just one of those magical things of like, oh, this is fun. I get to do this today.
I’m going to just hang out in the studio and watch Craig Ferguson improv and really super nice guy. I’ve always said, not that he’s a troll on TV, but he’s in person. He’s super handsome, Like, he’s a really good looking dude. YEA. Loved working with him, would love to run into him again.
I’ve got to see him just as a fan, you know, not going hey, can we meet you? Back to say, it’s just like I’m going to buy tickets, go to a show and go home. Really fantastic. It’s a shame he didn’t stay with Late Night because he would have had a thirty year run at it. You know, boy, don’t you wish you could put him on at twelve thirty tonight and he was on.
He’s fantastic. I would put him on any like. I listened to his podcast now and it’s fun to the one thing that you mentioned there when you the idea of bringing him back to do some work with Ghosty. The thing that Craig brings to the table is something similar that Dave has, where his reactions are very good and very funny and very out out of left field. And when he has somebody like Josh Robert Thompson who did the voice for Jeffrey Pretyson, and then of course Morgan Freeman and all these other stuff.
Josh is amazing. Josh has been on this show and we had a marathon. I think it was a two hour conversation with Josh two and a half hours on here. And the idea that there’s this guy that is so good that he is actually the voice of Morgan Freeman when they want to edit and make the safe for TV movies and they edit his dialogue. He’s the guy that does not just Morgan, but other people’s voices, and yet he’s crazy as as I’ll get out.
And then Craig can react to that. I love that Craig can react to that. Craig was so he would take the blue cart of what the segment producer had prepared for him for who his upcoming guest was, and he would tear it up beforehand because he wanted to have a spontaneous conversation with people. That is playing with a net, like being able to rely on your rap year like wit and and and react, and that be the source of the entertainment. Even the monologue was loose.
The monologue was on bullet points and the idea that he would just come out and start talking and and not just be able to sustain an audience. But like you said, if he chose to, could have gone on a run that would put him up there, you know, with the greats. But his sensibility was I don’t want to be part of this late night club. And and that was fun too. He’s a little punk rock, He’s a lot punk rock in fact, when you look at Craig’s history.
So yeah, to me, he’s a guy that that certainly deserves to be on the last Sorry to cut you please. Is that is that. Part of the magic that I don’t want to be part of this club. Now I can break that apart because Jimmy Kimmel wants to be David Letterman. David Letterman wanted to be Johnny Carson but wasn’t allowed to be Johnny Carson twice and that sort of created David Letterman.
Yep, Conan O’Brien, some random writer in the game who. Has the who are you giving the show too? What are you saying? So? Like?
Is that part of the magic of not wanting to do the show? And conversely, is that part of the problem people have with Jimmy Fallon who I respect Jimmy’s game. Jimmy understands what the Tonight show is and he runs he runs the playbook. Is it cool? It is not cool?
Nope, But he runs the playbook the way he’s asked to run it. He runs it very well, and he’s going to wind up being the last eleven thirty show standing. It sounds like, but you know, is there something to be said to I don’t actually want to do this? Well, this is okay, John, Jimmy Kimmel one more year. I’m gonna sign on a one year contract.
And I mean some people look at it and go, okay, Yeah. He doesn’t want to get in the way of the Colbert because Colbert is gonna have his big send off, Like, I mean, we’re about to enter an era here, you know, I remember the last six weeks of Dave. There’s gonna be an era here where Colbert is ramping up to his leaving. I can see why Kimmel didn’t want to be a part of that. But there’s also a part of me that goes, it’d be cool to see Jimmy Kimmel do this for year to year, for the next five years.
Because he’s walking on the knife’s edge. He’s like, Okay, am I going to keep doing it? Am I not going to keep doing it? And to me that adds an element of freshness, just like the hesitation, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be that guy.
Ferguson, you know, for a long time wasn’t wearing a tie, and then he went and started wearing vests and he started doing different things to try and because he was uncomfortable with conformity and the idea of wanting to break out of that. Somehow, I think absolutely is part of the magic. A hesitation I’m doing this, but I don’t really want to be here kind of an attitude. Oh we love that stuff. But again, it’s the same example that Bill Carter used in his in his book talking about in Late Shift, talking about the difference between Dave and j you know, it’s it’s it’s it’s pop music versus Pink Floyd.
You know, they’re different atmospheres, they’re different people, they’re different everything. There’s a big group of people that love Jimmy Fallon and it’s it’s a pop music group, whereas some people who are more like aficionados like us, are like, well, yeah, it’s just that that was my thing with Dave and j And by the way, number seven on the list of the top ten greatest late night hosts in history, Number seven is Jay Leno. Jay Leno, that guy’s the worst. Okay, we’ll take the break here and we’ll come back and talk about the most hated man in the world, Jay Leno. We continue with a look at Mike Chisholm from The Letterman Podcast’s Top ten Greatest late night Hosts of All Time and apparently this next guy who.
On the list of the top ten greatest late night hosts in history, number seven is Jay Leno. Oh the list the worst guy whoever? Let this guy, this guy, Jay Leno, He’s the worst. The way he will have opinions about late night television as if he knows anything about it. Did you see during the summer they asked him about Colbert and he weighed in on it.
What a hirk? What does he know? He’s hosted what twenty two years of The Tonight Show, more episodes than anybody, including Johnny Carson. As if jay Leno has any expertise in Late Night The worst guy plus the way you know his poor wife has dementia and he takes care of her and cares in the bathroom. This guy’s the worst.
I can understand why people can’t stand Jay Leno. He just seems like an awful guy, doesn’t he? Oh, I was so hoping you would do that. Let’s I want to talk about that a little bit, because this is this is the thing on your show whatever, somebody whatever jay Leto seems to pipe up about something, somebody seems to have a problem with it, and it makes the news and and is it just? Is it?
You know, a generation of people who were in their formative years, they saw what happened during the Cone thing, and they’ve now just labeled him. Is that what’s going wrong with Jay Leno? Yeah, it’s yes, it’s we’re backing Conan because it’s the same sensibility. Leno was the establishment candidate. Yep, and Conan was the scrappy up and comer who’s only been in Late night for fourteen years himself.
You know this poor struggling artist. Did Conan get a short run to shows? Need time to find her legs? Of course? And of course yep was when they pulled the chair back out for Jay Leno and he says, no, I’ve brought this up on your show before.
What happens then? Do they just keep Conan on ago w hoope this works out? Or do they pull out the Jimmy Fallon chair kind of quickly and now we all hate Jimmy Fallon because he stole Conan’s job. I I don’t know, putting aside that I might understand why you’re on team Conan and and are mad at j Us Letteran. People got over it.
I’m not mad at Jay. You know back in the original Late Night Wars that I want Dave to get the Tonight show. I did, absolutely, But I don’t go around kicking a box. All day going. I can’t believe Jay Leno got the Tonight show.
What does he know about late night comedy? You know it, It’s okay, It’s okay, guys. But putting aside the the horrible sin of taking the Tonight’s Show back. I just don’t understand why people hate Jay Leno. Yeah, me too.
I I mean this is this is one of the greatest joke writers in history. And I mean, you know, you look at you look at the hosts of the Tonight Show, how many of them were stand ups? You know, really, at the end of the day, Jay is really the only one like Fallon was as well. Fallon definitely definitely was a stand up, but he was more an actor and an impressionist and things like that. He had a different he had a very different stand up aact than than than Jay.
That’s for sure. Jay is a pure joke writer. He is a pure stand up. Not only when you talk about you know, he’s an influential one. You got guys like David Letterman himself, Jerry Seinfeld who called Jay, you know, the greatest joke writer ever, and and and when you look at what he wanted to add to the Tonight Show, you know, he has this huge, huge like the fact that somebody followed Johnny and they stayed the job is nuts.
And this goes back to what you were saying about giving time for shows to find their feet. You know, he for a year and a half letterman handed him his lunch, and Leno, to his credit, was a tactician and did everything he possibly could to rough the edges off the Tonight Show. So it was a perfect, you know, gleaming shine that you could see yourself in and every little detail counted and became a tactician. Whereas again you look at Dave. Yes, everybody was working their asses off, but they came across as a product that you know, isn’t like that.
It’s not shiny, it is a little bit more clunky, and that’s kind of their identity. Leno went the exactly other way. It said, no, no, no, no, we need a monologue where I have to do credit to what is considered one of the greatest pieces of television content of all time, which is Johnny Carson’s monologue, and I have to do that justice. So I mean, of course it’s gonna take him time to adjust and to grow. That’s where I have the little problem with.
You know, he talks about Conan and Conan’s numbers with the Tonight Show, and you know, we’re in a diminishing market and there’s all these sorts of things and he says, Oh, the numbers are the numbers, you know, you know, that’s what happens. Yeah, but you were given that time. And to answer your question what you said earlier. If Conan was given the time with the Tonight Show, hindsight is twenty twenty, look at what Conan has become since then. Now, he wouldn’t have had the bump of the of the of the robbery, you know, and people getting you know, that culmination point of people getting excited or whatever and all coming together and creating Team Coco.
That might not have happened if he was given that eighteen months to run the Tonight Show and do it the way he wanted to do it and give time people, give people time to get used to it. I I think Conan would have been just fine in the Tonight Show chair. But NBC had a whole bunch of things going on and Jay took the brunt of it. The fact that Jay had this contract, this pay and play contract. You know, why aren’t people up in arms about NBC creating this impossible scenario for you know, for for themselves.
So there’s a lot more to it. But the idea that Jay Leno isn’t revered today. Even if he’s not your cup of tea, it is asinine to me twenty two years on the Tonight Show, Are you kidding Me? And and and yeah, so so Leno is to me? Leno is formidable.
You heard it here first on the Letterman podcast. But he’s formal at number seven on the top ten list all time. So two things about Jay, and I imagine your audience, of course, is familiar with Jay’s appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Yes, thank you for watching. Watch those you’ll see a different Edgier.
You know, maybe he’s not a Dice Clay, but he’s it’s an edgier Jay Leno. I’m also brilliantly parried parodied by Chris Elliott, who came out just as Jay Leno. One Night had a classic schedule. I’d probably watched once a week, and you know you have that version of Jay Leno. I also think the NBC ten pm idea was the right idea, maybe a little too early.
And as we’ve seen TV budgets evolve, if you told me I could have Stephen Colbert at ten pm, uh, you know, a paired down. Hey, we’re gonna put two chairs on a stage and I need you to talk to somebody for an hour, four nights a week. That’s probably pretty budget friendly. And I would welcome that on my network lineup if I could get it. Absolutely absolutely.
And if you look at guys like Charlie Rose and and and Steve alor Tom Snyder. Uh, you look at these long for there’s always been a hunger for for for for the long form and uh and and this we’re podcasting is right now you know the reason why. Sorry Snyder was upon podcast. Yeah, and now we’re putting podcasts on Netflix and every everything’s come all the way around again. You know, if I could get you Tom Snyder in his prime and go, hey, he’s going to do it an hour and a half once a week deep dive podcast and we’ll shoot it and throw it on Netflix.
Yeah, okay, great, sign them up. Yep. Absolutely. By the way, Jay Leno also, I don’t think he did the way Dave did. Jay Leno did evolve as a as a as a talk show host, you know, the stand up comedian.
I mean, yes, he was phenomenal. That was his That was what brought him to the dance as a stand up and as a joke machine and whatnot. But he did get better at communicating with people, not even close to where Dave is, of course, But but but the thing that differentiates to me people ask me that sometimes about their their their interview skills as at their best. This is something Shecky told me from the very beginning in fact CHECKI even said this to me that the day that I got my picture, my letter and picture signed and whatnot, there was a there was a small window opportunity where I could have met him, And Shecky said this to me. He goes, if Dave’s curious about you, it’s gonna be great.
And and Dave had this way when he had people across from him that he was having conversations with, a curiosity would come out. And I think there was an everyman curiosity that came out where when it was Jay, it felt manufactured. It felt like he was asking questions off of a card as opposed to a genuine curiosity connection that was created. So that’s in my mind, that’s something I’ve wanted to say on the show for a long time because people ask me about that all the time. I think that’s a major major difference between the two.
Did you ever encounter j back in the day. No, I’ve never met Jay. I would love to get him on the podcast. It’s funny if you asked me, like, you know, who do like if Dave Chappelle were available, of course I’m gonna say yes to Dave Chappelle, you know, any of. The big comedians.
But for the people who I really want to talk to, I think right now I would love to talk to Jay Leno and do a version of my bit and just break that whole thing down with him. Oh god, it would be so good. It would be so good because the guy does deserve credit, like like like, and it’s it’s his generosity as well. Is just it’s crazy, his generosity, you know, he’s He’s accused sometimes of being self aggrandizing. I think sometimes when you do as many good things as as as as you do, and if you’re not careful and not saying that there might not be some you know, some marketing involved or whatever to promote things that that could be there.
But that being said, when you do so many good things, many times you might get tagged with that. But every single person that I’ve ever talked to who have ever said something about Jay Leno’s generosity, and it’s I don’t know, more than more than ten. They talk about him being this kind, giving but very high level. You know, he plays at a high level when it comes to writing jokes and making jokes and things. But the man himself, you know, very very he’s he’s he’s an amazing American.
And uh, you know, I’m glad, I’m so, I’m glad you’re poking fun at this and bringing it to people’s attention. But yeah, people shitting on Jay Leno at this day and age, I don’t know if there’s a huge need to it. Making fun that’s completely different making fun of him, But people who come across with anger that’s not cool. Well sure, and as a comedian, he would appreciate you making fun of him, you know. And again, you know, for some reason I got on this raidar Hey, this guy is making fun of you, saying you’re the worst person who ever lived, and then you actually listen to the bit I’m doing.
Yeah, you know, I’m clearly not saying he’s a horrible, horrible person. Now, the other white whale guest I would like to get is Robert Smigel, who I think it’s quietly been the influence in comedy in the last thirty years. He’s not really in front of the camera. But boy, you look at the stuff that guy’s attached to, and there’s a Hall of Fame career. Absolutely.
Yeah, that guy might be you know, and it might be by design. Maybe he does like flying under the radar a little bit, you know, for being someone as big as he is. You know, the guy’s a legend. The guy is an absolute you know. I was watching The Downy Dock and I mean, you’ve got some of these people who come along who are just they transcend, you know.
They the people who create new things and the people who imitate those things that have just been created that people love, but they just do a little bit of a different thing, you know, to it. Smigle’s a guy that actually kicked the ball down the field. I was watching Christmas Time for the Jews the Darlene Love So and I said, no Christmas Special, and I just like his cartoons, like like that is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. And my wife walked in the room while it was on, and she heard the she heard the hook, and she heard Darlene say Christmas Time for the Jews and she started. She just sat there and she started looking at it.
And I don’t know if Candy had seen it before or not, but she doesn’t love comedy the way that I do. And she just looks at it and goes, what year was this maid? And I told her, geez, like, how do you come up with that? Like? How does Robert Smiel come up with some of the crazy things and the tonnage of it?
Like there’s just that’s just the way that he thinks and it. Yeah, that’s a great that’s a great poll. I’m glad you brought that up. You ready for Are you ready for? Number?
Okay? So are we done with? Oh? No? One of the thing with Leno Adam Sandler.
One of the things that Adam Sandler did that I loved because it goes back to Adam Sandler. I watched Adam Sandler’s last special, his most recent special. Okay now, in it, he does a song. Can you believe that he does a song? He actually does a song.
Oh. The song is a tribute to comedy and the things that influenced his life and his you know, it’s all it’s all comedians and stuff. And as I was watching and I’m like, Oh, I forget where he talks about because I know Letterman’s in there for him, because Letterman’s a huge influence, and he’s going through the song and he’s going through these people, all of these things, and it’s so clever the way that he puts those guys in it. He the line is Leno on Letterman. And there’s a picture that shows up and it’s exactly what you’re referring to.
It’s Jay on panel with Dave on Late Night. And that’s the way that Sandler tributes them that it’s Leno on Letterman, and that’s the that’s the thing. It’s not the twenty two years the guy who succeeded Johnny Carson, but he did that. He did that. And for those who want to say I like Dave over j that’s fine, but don’t take the respect away.
The guy followed Carson and did it for decades, well done, Jay Leno. But it also has a panel guest uh yep, talk show hosts, radio hosts, Jerk’s doing a podcast in their basement. Hate when you ask a question and somebody goes into their bit. Now, clearly you just teed me up to do the Letterman bit. So I’m guilty.
The leto get I’m guilty, but we’re having a real conversation here, right, I’m not just doing material. But Jay on let did material. You know, it would be like, hey, Jay, what’s going on? Jave, let me tell you what’s going on?
And then wouldn’t just go into the act.
But somehow kept Letterman engaged. Dave didn’t just check out and be like, Okay, he’s doing his four minutes, what’s my beef? And uh it was fantastic again to Chris Elliott version of it. I just pick nails the. Essence of it with Dave though it’s the curveballs because yeah, he was staying curious and staying because he might throw a curveball at Git in the middle of it, and you didn’t know how much of it.
Like that’s the thing, oh, I And the segment it’s so crazy, John, like like like the segment producers are the most secretive of all the people I’ve talked to so far, Like some of them I’ve talked to in the background but won’t even come on the show. And and but whatever I asked the questions, Okay, so like what lines did you give to you know this starlet who comes out and and and and Dave tees up a perfect question and she answers it and it gets a huge laugh. Well, guess what many times that starlet did not come up with that clever, clever line. It was a segment producer, you know before who did it. And I love talking about they don’t.
A lot of them are like magicians. They do not want to reveal. They don’t want to reveal what lines they gave away or how they don’t want to break down the mechanics of how things work. The Leno Letterman ones, to me, were astounding because you don’t know where the material ends. And the banter, the real banter begins with those two.
And there’s only a few guests where you can say that for and Jay is probably the top of the heap. You know, you’re reminded this is a total tangent, but you just when you talked about the magic behind a curtain. If you’ve ever seen Jackie Gleason on sixty minutes, I think it’s with Morley Safer and he’s talking about, oh you got to watch this, dude. Yeah, he starts talking about why. The Honeymooners is revered and Jackie talks about the characters and tells a story where they’re in rehearsal and the sketch that they’re gonna do just isn’t flying, and Carney says, how about this, I’ll walk in, I’ll call you fat, you throw me out of the apartment, and they were like, let’s just do that, and they sort of improved.
Maybe not a full honeymoon Er his episode from the classic thirty nine, but one of the sketches and just like, okay, we all know what to do here, we all know who these characters are. Let’s just do it. It’s a wonderful episode of sixty minutes you’ll find online. Yeah, well that’s okay. And that’s Dave in his testament to his longevity, because you know, after he stopped doing rehearsals, after he stopped, you know, you know, he starts slowing down a little bit, but the show must go on.
His last years of Late Show, they were relying on the whimsy of what happens in the moment. They were relying on the on the inspiration. Now again, you know, we were talking about, you know, a guy with one of the greatest wits of all time. But it’s like, no, let’s rely on it as opposed to overproducing things, right, And they did. They let things get looser.
Well, before you hit record, you started to tell me something and I said save it for the air. And that comes out of my radio training. Especially if you do a morning show. You don’t want to do the show in the hall at four forty five am. So did you see the super Bowl?
Up? We’ll talk about it on the air like you You can’t because the second time you do it is never as natural. I openly talk about on my podcast anytime there’s a you know, top ten late night hosts. You didn’t send me the list. I don’t want to see the list.
I want to react to it as we go along because I don’t you know, I have a guess who you think number one is, but maybe you don’t. And when you’re like number four, David Letterman, I want to go, whoa, you. Haven’t number four? Oh my god? All right, who’s left on the list?
Or right, it’s gonna be Johnny and wow, you don’t have quote part number two? Like I want to be able to do that. Where so if you send me the list, I look at it and go okay. When he talks about going in I’ll say this. Yep, there you go, and and and that’s the best.
Like I I say that about with pre interviews, you know, with many the many of the guests who come on, I can just say, Okay, is there anything you want me to avoid? Is there anything you want me to make sure I hit?
All right, let’s go and uh.
And it’s a lot of fun doing that. Boy, we’re just flying through this list. Huh. We got so chatty. I gotta cut this in two, so we’ll come back tomorrow with the rest of the list.
I’ll see you then.