Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists, policy makers, and performers
Speaker 1: to hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions
Speaker 1: change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. My guest
Speaker 1: is comedian, television host, actor, singer, producer, and author Jimmy Fallon.
Speaker 1: Do you know what a podcast is? You know that
Speaker 1: is because you're like old school entertainment. Now you're the
Speaker 1: host of The Tonight Shore. I couldn't get any more
Speaker 1: older than that format. Real to real. You're part of
Speaker 1: a legacy of people who are dead or nearly dead.
Speaker 1: As a kid in Upstate New York, legend has it
Speaker 1: that Fallon's kindergarten photo had a caption that read most
Speaker 1: likely to take over from David Letterman. In fact, after
Speaker 1: a detour to Saturday Night Live and Late Night, Fallon
Speaker 1: eventually succeeded Carson and Leno at The Tonight Show at year.
Speaker 1: Since then, he's taken the legendary NBC franchise beyond monologues
Speaker 1: and celebrity interviews to create some of the most viral
Speaker 1: moments in recent TV history. Whether He's mom dancing with
Speaker 1: Michelle Obama, lip sync battling with Emma Stone. We're doing
Speaker 1: his perfect Neil Young impersonation next to the actual Neil Young.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon has become the omnipresent prince of comedy in
Speaker 1: our news feeds. Do you always do this shirt? List?
Speaker 1: Listen to me. What I want to know is what
Speaker 1: you're doing right now? Was this the plan? No? What happened? No,
Speaker 1: there there was no plan about this at all. My
Speaker 1: ultimate goal was to be on Saturday Night Live. That
Speaker 1: was the dream, beyond dream. I didn't even know I
Speaker 1: could dream bigger than that, or that was it. That
Speaker 1: was the ultimate dream. I'm in Socratuse, New York, Upstate
Speaker 1: New York. I had my sister Gloria, and my mom
Speaker 1: and dad and my grandparents. No one was in the
Speaker 1: business or anything. We had no action to anyone that
Speaker 1: has an agent or anyone from Hollywood or anyone knew
Speaker 1: anyone to knew anything. It was you and your sister. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my sister is really funny. Oh yeah, the whole family's board.
Speaker 1: But you grew up people thought you were funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you tried to be funny. Yeah. Like if we
Speaker 1: would go out. You know. My parents would have friends over,
Speaker 1: have a party, very irish. Our neighbors were Italian, uh,
Speaker 1: and we were between both of us. There was a
Speaker 1: party every weekend and it was good. And my parents
Speaker 1: would make me do stand up and they would go,
Speaker 1: go do Rodney. So they encouraged you to perform. Yeah
Speaker 1: do Ronnie do Rodney Dangerfield and you would yeah, you
Speaker 1: know how old. Probably it's crazy now, you know, look
Speaker 1: back and go wait, that's right. I did all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I remember that. I used to imitate him, and I
Speaker 1: would listen to Rodney records. My dad would have the records,
Speaker 1: but they were very you know, overprotective, and so they
Speaker 1: didn't want to hear any dirty words. So my dad
Speaker 1: would take a car key and scratch out the words
Speaker 1: on the record. On the record, you're kidding. I would
Speaker 1: skip over. I still have the record skip over. Ever
Speaker 1: heard of that technique? Before learning the joke, Rodney even said,
Speaker 1: up this whole joke and just skip to another premise.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll tell you my wife, you know, she
Speaker 1: came in the back. Get out of here before you
Speaker 1: it's even worse. Yeah, get out of my room before.
Speaker 1: So the other day, so I used to guy. I
Speaker 1: used to love his voice and his delivery, and you
Speaker 1: know the sound of that. So I used to imitate
Speaker 1: those jokes. And but I always thought if I was
Speaker 1: cutting a birthday cake, which is normally a Carvel ice
Speaker 1: cream cake, or wishing on a star or throwing a
Speaker 1: coin in a fountain, I would secretly wish to be
Speaker 1: on Saturday Life. What are the people? Uh? Did you
Speaker 1: think there? And go? God, he's funny. Steve Martins. So
Speaker 1: Steve Martin was a hero. So who else? Who else?
Speaker 1: I listen to? Jose Men is Bob Newhart old school guys? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love the Smells Brothers. But they weren't not when
Speaker 1: you were a kid. Well I think they were. I
Speaker 1: mean that's how they had to have been. I remember them. Uh,
Speaker 1: John Binder's Bizarre Do you remember that? You? Super? Dave Osborne,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Winters? I love Jonathan Winter. Did you want to
Speaker 1: go into the business From the beginning it was you
Speaker 1: were Jimmy Fallon said I'm gonna be a cop. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to really get into show business or
Speaker 1: did you think you would? I think in order it started.
Speaker 1: I want to be a baseball player because my grandfather.
Speaker 1: They lived in our backyard. My grandparents in like a
Speaker 1: cottage in our backyard. It was legal, but we fed
Speaker 1: them through a slot in the door, I mean. And
Speaker 1: they were from what we hear, they were healthy when
Speaker 1: they died. So I would come from school and I
Speaker 1: go hang out with my grandparents. My mom went chopping
Speaker 1: or something like that, and you know, and my mom
Speaker 1: didn't drive, so she would walk everywhere. My dad barely
Speaker 1: drove there from both from Brooklyn and my grandparents so
Speaker 1: no one in Brooklyn knows how to drive because they
Speaker 1: take caps and buses everywhere. So they taught me how
Speaker 1: to drive. So I'm awful to this day. But I
Speaker 1: would just go home and hang out with them. I
Speaker 1: talk to my grandma and I take things apart and
Speaker 1: try to fix things, and she'd call me. She's like,
Speaker 1: you're my Einstein. You're a little at your Einstein. You're
Speaker 1: gonna fix things. Where's the moment you see yourself I
Speaker 1: think I can do is professionally or did you ever
Speaker 1: have that moment? Until years? Like the big thing was
Speaker 1: I heard my mom heard about an impression contest on
Speaker 1: the radio. They said they're gonna be a bananas comedy
Speaker 1: club funniest person in the Hudson Valley contest right outside
Speaker 1: of Socrates, New York, but Keepsie, New York. And they said,
Speaker 1: but that was the local comedy club. And they said,
Speaker 1: I have two minutes ready of an impression, any impression
Speaker 1: you do the best that you do. I did more
Speaker 1: than one. I did. You don't have to do it now,
Speaker 1: But what are some of the impressions you could do
Speaker 1: in my act? I think now, but I did. I
Speaker 1: had a troll doll that someone gave me for my
Speaker 1: high school graduation, which one am I gonna do with that?
Speaker 1: But it said it was a troll doll with the
Speaker 1: graduation cap said like best the luck or something. I
Speaker 1: took the hat off and I said, I'm doing commercials
Speaker 1: for different I want different stars celebrities to be the
Speaker 1: spokesman for this troll doll. Let's start up. First, Jerry Seinfeld,
Speaker 1: I go, okay, what got of dolls? Are theys? The hairs?
Speaker 1: His arms on? Av move? This is a doll move
Speaker 1: bins theys eggs. He doesn't even have bands on. And
Speaker 1: then the I can I do? Uh Bill Cosby or
Speaker 1: something like what the look at the thing with the
Speaker 1: lip panguin down and then you see the web the
Speaker 1: troll what drunk? After then I do uh from voter like,
Speaker 1: see I can't be dislike look this thing over here
Speaker 1: at my head, Yeah, my head. I did the hair thing,
Speaker 1: then did the big joke. The closure was it was boewinkle.
Speaker 1: I said, well, maybe I should play with myself. And
Speaker 1: then I pulled out a bow winkled from the back,
Speaker 1: and then and then and then the next The last
Speaker 1: person was pee wee herman. I go, I know what
Speaker 1: you mean, blwinkle. I'd like to play with myself, tiff.
Speaker 1: It was topical at the time. Crush. That was a
Speaker 1: good thing. It was on two minutes. I ran through
Speaker 1: it and I won first place. You won first place? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so where does that lead to? What happens? I
Speaker 1: made money off that. I forget now how which was
Speaker 1: it was five hundred bucks or somebody have cash? And
Speaker 1: I go, oh, my gosh, I got this for two
Speaker 1: minutes of work. This is the biggest money I've ever
Speaker 1: I'll ever have. I laid it on my kitchen table
Speaker 1: and took pictures of it and posed next to it
Speaker 1: and stuff. Uh, it was a big deal, and I go, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just so that. I started entering contests, talent
Speaker 1: contest and then Banana's Common clubs, So why don't you
Speaker 1: come and start being the m C here? So I
Speaker 1: started doing that. Every weekend. My dad would drive me
Speaker 1: down to the comedy club. We'd stay overnight in the hotel.
Speaker 1: I do these things. I opened for Kevin James and
Speaker 1: all these people. Should you should you get into that
Speaker 1: circuit you Lewis Black. Lewis Black was the first time
Speaker 1: I realized what comedies like the idea of having an act.
Speaker 1: He was a guy who's talking to me like we're
Speaker 1: talking like, oh, yeah, so your your name is Jimmy, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's good and you're gonna go out all right, good
Speaker 1: to see it. And then he goes and Lewis Black
Speaker 1: and he goes on say he's like Clinton, Little Clinton,
Speaker 1: And I go, what what is going on? That's you
Speaker 1: can do that? He was just a normal dude. I go, oh,
Speaker 1: he's doing an act. It was unbelievable. Sign Felt even
Speaker 1: told me that about himself. He said, I go up
Speaker 1: on stage when I before he goes, he goes on me,
Speaker 1: but I blow myself up. Yeah, Because we hung out
Speaker 1: with Seinfeld before we're together. Do you find yourself becoming
Speaker 1: him a little bit when you hang out with him?
Speaker 1: I just stare at him. Whenever I'm around him, I
Speaker 1: just stare at him. I'm like, it's signed felt, you know,
Speaker 1: he's very normal. I started, then it'll go like we'll
Speaker 1: have we'll talk about the weather boats. Because then the
Speaker 1: funny I'm staring him, We'll go, we're friends. Why are
Speaker 1: you doing that? But he he I started acting like
Speaker 1: him in making observational comedy about anything. Like he called
Speaker 1: me up for the comedians and cars thing, and so
Speaker 1: I go, uh, I call him back and go, sure,
Speaker 1: I love to do comedians cars. He goes, oh, well,
Speaker 1: thank you for calling me back. The least I can do? Yes,
Speaker 1: Do you really have to say that the least the
Speaker 1: least you can do? I go, let's not getting a fight, alright,
Speaker 1: I just got goo phone. The least you can do. Really,
Speaker 1: it's the least you can do. What's funny. Thank you
Speaker 1: for doing the least you can do it. But but
Speaker 1: that's a perfect insight into you, which is the comics
Speaker 1: that you emulated, like Steve who you can send up
Speaker 1: certain things, you can mock certain things, but he's not mean.
Speaker 1: You're not mean. Did you try me materially when you
Speaker 1: were younger you didn't like it? I try, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I did. I try to keep my eye clean. My
Speaker 1: grandfather said, don't work blue or try to him. He's
Speaker 1: getting the tray split under leaf. They ate great, they
Speaker 1: ate like kings. But but you thought about being more
Speaker 1: cynical and more snarky and mean. I did have a couple,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd say the FD a couple of times
Speaker 1: and it just didn't come out. But I mean making
Speaker 1: fun of people. No, I never really did that. Nod
Speaker 1: would have some of that, but that wasn't you. That
Speaker 1: was more like, it's the news. You have to talk
Speaker 1: about topics and that's just had yeah, which is what
Speaker 1: we have to do now with the monologue and the
Speaker 1: tonight show. It's like sometimes we get into them like
Speaker 1: I just have to do I'm gonna get to the
Speaker 1: tonight show. But prior to that, your nature is to
Speaker 1: be I want everyone to be in on the job,
Speaker 1: and you don't do anything in anybody's expense, which is
Speaker 1: kind of a mirror I remember, you know, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: My comedy wasn't like that. I think I also I
Speaker 1: used to tape all these comedians from the eighties where
Speaker 1: you did the Kevin you're opening for Kevin James. You're
Speaker 1: doing the comedy clubs in your how old? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: probably yeah, probably yeah. I went to college where Colleges
Speaker 1: Saint Rose in Albany, how long for three years to
Speaker 1: study what communications? You idiot? No, I can. I did
Speaker 1: computer science first. Karthri even more of an idiot. I
Speaker 1: knew three years up in snowy Albany and with all
Speaker 1: those legislative trash up there studying communications and you could
Speaker 1: have been doing stand up. I didn't stand up on
Speaker 1: the weekend, That's what I'm saying. So you kept doing that,
Speaker 1: and I did. I did a show at my Saint
Speaker 1: Joseph's auditorium in the college, and I go, I think
Speaker 1: we got paid fifty bucks and we split me my
Speaker 1: friend Frank, did you lay that on the table, the
Speaker 1: fifty bucks and take a picture for it? That was
Speaker 1: the check. It was not as much fun. Cash is
Speaker 1: much more fun. But my point is that you're you're
Speaker 1: going down to New York. While you're at the college,
Speaker 1: You're going down to the city still doing stand up.
Speaker 1: I started, no not really. I really just stuck around
Speaker 1: the Albany area and just doing because I was city
Speaker 1: was after, the city was after before. You go to
Speaker 1: l a um barely barely months. I just started because
Speaker 1: I couldn't get booked at Caroline's or you know, a
Speaker 1: comic strip. I went to l a because I knew
Speaker 1: that Randy Siegel was Her name was no as a
Speaker 1: manager and Randy Siegel, and she said she called me
Speaker 1: she worked for Ray Rio, and ray Rio worked at
Speaker 1: Brostein Gray, and I, being a fan of sarent Live,
Speaker 1: knew that every every cast member was one with Bernie Brolstein,
Speaker 1: and Lauren was Bernie Brostein. So I go wow, and
Speaker 1: she was like, yeah, I just did something with Sandler,
Speaker 1: and at the time Sandler was my idol. Like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. So I said that. She goes, I think
Speaker 1: you should come out for pilot season. What do you
Speaker 1: want to do? And I go, I want to be
Speaker 1: on Saturday Ight Live. She's like, okay, but realistically I
Speaker 1: just said pilot season. She was as I didn't know
Speaker 1: what that means. So I go great. So she was
Speaker 1: but it's now, so you gotta come now. This is
Speaker 1: the perfect time. It was just no one knows you.
Speaker 1: You will be the fresh new guy out here. And okay,
Speaker 1: call my parents. I go, I gotta call from a manager.
Speaker 1: They got my tape and my resume, and I think
Speaker 1: I should do it and move out there. And my
Speaker 1: parents like, okay, we's gonna feed grandma. Yeah exactly, we
Speaker 1: don't try. We have to drive the car to the
Speaker 1: back of the driveway. They're all the way in the
Speaker 1: back of the yard. At this point, they were trying
Speaker 1: to fasting. Was cool. You don't need to eat now,
Speaker 1: you got the meditation, grandma, grandpa, real quick, real quick.
Speaker 1: They're they're eating cloth that passes through them. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: pulling that rope through there where. It's a good trick
Speaker 1: either way. So they and they go, great, we believe it.
Speaker 1: You didn't go for it. I go great. So I
Speaker 1: have my guitar and I have whatever money you can
Speaker 1: get out of my hand. On your show, I want
Speaker 1: to come on where we swallow the rope and we
Speaker 1: pull it out. Would that be great? Wait? Do we
Speaker 1: read like jokes? Like hanging out to jokes and when
Speaker 1: it comes out, but you gotta keep pulling. You get
Speaker 1: to the bunt side. The news, take your table, But
Speaker 1: can we pull things out of ours? We have to
Speaker 1: do there? Yeah, we have to do it. So pilots done,
Speaker 1: one's done that, we're bathrooms pilot season. Then went out
Speaker 1: there and I just I started taking acting lessons with
Speaker 1: Gordon Hunt, Helen Hunt's dad, and I did you needed that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I figured? Was it just what everybody was doing them? Nobody? Manager?
Speaker 1: I was telling me that, look, as a comedian, you
Speaker 1: don't know how to act with other people on stage?
Speaker 1: Is that true? It is true? Did it help you?
Speaker 1: Definitely helped me? Well, the Groundlings help me more? Uh?
Speaker 1: Then yeah, Groundings, but they're both expensive. It's not cheap.
Speaker 1: Ground Lings is a very very admired program. How long
Speaker 1: were you win that? I was in there for a
Speaker 1: year and a half and it was Jim Wise, my
Speaker 1: first teacher, and he went around the rooms like no
Speaker 1: wy in this class, and he went around to everybody.
Speaker 1: He reminds me of the story and uh, he's a
Speaker 1: great writer. Now he's worked for Lano and now he's
Speaker 1: doing something else. But he goes, why are you going
Speaker 1: to go? I want to be on Saturday Live. And
Speaker 1: he goes, okay, all right, Well the good luck and
Speaker 1: it's like like the guts that no one else would
Speaker 1: just say that. Of course, that's why everyone's there. That's
Speaker 1: all I really wanted to do. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: I did impressions so I would be the new Dana Carvey.
Speaker 1: I knew. I figured he's gonna leave, and so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be the next Dana car had people told you,
Speaker 1: I mean, what thing do you think we have the
Speaker 1: greatest influence in terms of helping you? Who do you
Speaker 1: credit most prized? Stand up was the best because you
Speaker 1: could really build confidence. It's all about getting knocked down
Speaker 1: when you go out. I mean, people are gonna just
Speaker 1: reject you. And it's just insane how many times. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you don't have confidence, then you start losing your confidence.
Speaker 1: But maybe I'm not good. Maybe I'll start changing my
Speaker 1: act for your confidence. Now, No, never there like in
Speaker 1: my career with what I do, or's it there and
Speaker 1: go it's over. You know that I'm never gonna get
Speaker 1: another job again. It's over. But that's crazy. It would
Speaker 1: be hard for you to feel that way. We have
Speaker 1: six year contracts and six years we'll talk never really difficult,
Speaker 1: really difficult for you to feel. But if I'm playing
Speaker 1: with you and I feel like this is just uneven,
Speaker 1: like you're just crushing me. Then I'd be like, then
Speaker 1: my conference will go down. But I feel comfortable with you,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I can play with you. But
Speaker 1: like if it's you know you were when you have
Speaker 1: someone like Martin Short and playing with him, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you gotta be on your game. When it's Alca Bowin
Speaker 1: or Martin Short, you have to be on your game.
Speaker 1: So it's like, that's the only thing where I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm having a bad day someone when you're working
Speaker 1: with them like that, when you say on your game,
Speaker 1: you really gotta be on your toes. They're so they
Speaker 1: impress you, well you Martin Short is unbelievably. It's like
Speaker 1: log rolling with him and you're going off the log Oh, totally,
Speaker 1: no way. I can't hold my own. He's just Unbelievable's
Speaker 1: think he's already on two different levels and then he'll
Speaker 1: save some reference that it's so funny that I can't
Speaker 1: my brain can't work. It stops because I go to
Speaker 1: that reference and I go, did you just bring up
Speaker 1: you know who? We thought? You're actually looking in your
Speaker 1: mind at what he just said, and he just said
Speaker 1: that word. Yeah, Higgins will do that to me now.
Speaker 1: And then Steve Higgins is our my announcer, but sidekick
Speaker 1: or whatever, but he's just an amazing comedian's a genius,
Speaker 1: and he'll just say something and I'll just screw my
Speaker 1: head up for days. Because the other day he said,
Speaker 1: maybe this's beacon. If anyone remembers this, it was a
Speaker 1: typing tutor. It was. It was a computer program to
Speaker 1: teach you how to type. Maybe this beacon teaches you
Speaker 1: how to type. It's the hottest thing, and like the
Speaker 1: eighties early nineties, it's an awful reference. The crowd went
Speaker 1: its complete silence. But it stopped me in my tracks.
Speaker 1: A year and a half of groundlings, and that stops
Speaker 1: because you're done with it, or something else happens next.
Speaker 1: Here's a good story. I get center at Live, I
Speaker 1: get an audition Marcy Klein and I Alicon semi to
Speaker 1: New York to audition for Lauren. They're looking for a
Speaker 1: new cast member. I go on stage at the comic
Speaker 1: strip from Los Angeles. Come in, I have three minutes.
Speaker 1: I go on the stage. I could show live in
Speaker 1: front of an audience. It's an audition with just nobody
Speaker 1: else in the room, an audience. There, I see Marcy
Speaker 1: and Lauren. Lauren's wearing a hat, a baseball hat pulled
Speaker 1: down on and Marcy has the blonde hair, and I
Speaker 1: know who everyone is, and I was like, wow, that's
Speaker 1: Marcy Klein, that's Laura Michael as well. So I go
Speaker 1: on stage and just I could just couldn't get people.
Speaker 1: Three minutes was not enough to grab people. It's tough
Speaker 1: to kill people. Didn't understand the troll a bit. They're like, huh,
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's doing with the celebrities with
Speaker 1: the troll doll. I don't know, And I just bombed.
Speaker 1: I bombed, yeah, and I knew it. I was like,
Speaker 1: that was just just sweaty. That was sweaty. There was
Speaker 1: a diner next door to the comic strip and it's
Speaker 1: like Boulevard and Broken Dreams. It's like obviously the next
Speaker 1: to Marl H. Monroe, impersonator and drinking common. So I
Speaker 1: died painting and those dudes from the beam or eating
Speaker 1: lunch they came into as well. They oh, that was
Speaker 1: a terrible set uh. And so I went back to
Speaker 1: l A and I got an independent movie called The
Speaker 1: Entrepreneurs or something, and it was I was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is cool. And I was doing this thing and
Speaker 1: I Warner Brothers want to sign me for a TV
Speaker 1: show and I said, Okay, I'll do it, but one
Speaker 1: out if I get Saren Live wat Hamburger Man it
Speaker 1: was coming. It was like that. It was a thing
Speaker 1: about waitresses and I was the delivery boy and it
Speaker 1: was it was man, I don't remember any of it now.
Speaker 1: Any Sunshine cater So sold delivery or something like that.
Speaker 1: It was like it was a catering service and here
Speaker 1: you go, here, here you go. That was like the
Speaker 1: fifth leade was But I said, like, if I get
Speaker 1: Saren Live, I can't do this show. And well, they go,
Speaker 1: what I might put that in the contract, but it
Speaker 1: was so crazy to say that. They let me do it.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's ever done in the history of anybody.
Speaker 1: They put in the thing. If Jimmy Fallon gets satur Alive,
Speaker 1: he's not doing Here you go anyways, I go back
Speaker 1: to audition. How much longer after you bomb and how
Speaker 1: much they give you another shots? Year and a half
Speaker 1: so it is a long time. Yeah, we're maybe a
Speaker 1: year maybe they end up hiring Tracy Morgan. That's their
Speaker 1: next round, and you go in and what happens. They said,
Speaker 1: don't do the troll bit, which now that's my only act.
Speaker 1: Don't t would be let me come back. I don't
Speaker 1: do the troll bit. I did instead do a celebrity walkathon,
Speaker 1: which basically is the troll bit exactly the new like
Speaker 1: your backstage years and looking at me, I didn't understand,
Speaker 1: and you're looking at the troll You're coming with me.
Speaker 1: I went to Ellen Stardust Diner, which is here and
Speaker 1: right by the Dirty Rock. Next time I do your show,
Speaker 1: I want the control on the desk with us talk
Speaker 1: about this. So go ahead, Ellen Stardus, go there. I
Speaker 1: get a cheeseburger, any banana health shake, okay, I will say,
Speaker 1: there's no such things, be like, just like there's no
Speaker 1: healthy muffins. They've recently changed the name of the drink
Speaker 1: to the Jimmy Fallon Shape Perfect, which is cool. I
Speaker 1: want to go back there. So I went back to
Speaker 1: the hotel and I've eating my cheeseburger, going over my
Speaker 1: act and drinking the shake, and I go, I'm ready
Speaker 1: for this. I'm gonna do it. And it's like it
Speaker 1: was the same kind of bit, like, uh, this is
Speaker 1: the celebrity walk. It's on, please everyone come up. And
Speaker 1: I was, do you know the same Adam Sandler? You know,
Speaker 1: as I told my mom, I was doing there now
Speaker 1: the walk, and she was she goes, hey, do hey, hey, Doe, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. But I wouldn't say who I was doing.
Speaker 1: I just go into the impressions as opposed to the
Speaker 1: other thing like next up, Bill calls me, next up,
Speaker 1: John to the bat this one, I would just do
Speaker 1: the person and then I just picked up a guitar
Speaker 1: and I would do Atlantis more center um the Cure,
Speaker 1: I remember I did, which is how how many times
Speaker 1: you use that in a sketch? Can we get someone
Speaker 1: to do Robert Smith from the Cure? I mean we topical,
Speaker 1: we need that now? Why would you even audition with that?
Speaker 1: But I did kill. It was great. I killed, and
Speaker 1: Marcy Clank came out to As soon as I found
Speaker 1: your way out to audition, everybody comes out to you.
Speaker 1: The gout. The audio guy put the microphone on. You goes,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? Jimmy Couluk, who just won't let
Speaker 1: you know a little advice one does. We would like
Speaker 1: to live, so don't let the throw you. Okay, buddy,
Speaker 1: good luck, good thank you. A going and get my
Speaker 1: hair done. The girl's like, okay, there's your makeup or whatever?
Speaker 1: Your hair? When did they go and just to make
Speaker 1: a camera ready because they're beating it out to California.
Speaker 1: Just remember, hey, I've seen these auditions. Lauren doesn't like
Speaker 1: to laugh, so just go out there and just let
Speaker 1: that throw you go. Okay, he's in the wrong business.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's in the comedy business. Why would he
Speaker 1: be this. He doesn't like to laugh. So I go
Speaker 1: out and I start doing my my act. My outfit
Speaker 1: is awful. I'm wearing I look like I'm auditioning for
Speaker 1: a search to Sola. Everything is so tight, A tight
Speaker 1: brown shirt and he's tight. It was so embarrassing. My
Speaker 1: hair was spiked up because I saw a picture of
Speaker 1: I'm gonna forget her name now, actress and she's British
Speaker 1: and she had spiky hair. I forgot her name. She's young,
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Okay, Kate that can stale has spiky hair. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: she had short, spiky hair. I'm just cute. So I
Speaker 1: changed my hair to look like Kate Beck and sALS hair.
Speaker 1: So Kate Beck and Sale is the barometer for you
Speaker 1: in terms of fashion. Thank you. A lot of people
Speaker 1: think it's Brando exactly it was for me, it was
Speaker 1: Kate Beck and Sale had my hair spiked out and uh,
Speaker 1: and it did the other thing. And as soon as
Speaker 1: I got off the stage, I remember thinking like it
Speaker 1: was also emotion. I was thinking like, look, no matter what,
Speaker 1: you can always tell your kids. I was on the stage.
Speaker 1: I was on the stage Studio eight age where Steve
Speaker 1: Martin did his word Richard Pryor did that. So the
Speaker 1: second one, when you come back, is in studio just them,
Speaker 1: just Marcy and Lauren and Iala and Tina. I want
Speaker 1: to say. I was there and she the head writer
Speaker 1: then about to become the head right now yet and
Speaker 1: and and when and when you kill and it's oh,
Speaker 1: McKay was there. That's great. And when you kill and
Speaker 1: you're done, and Higgins was there. Sorry, did Lauren say anything?
Speaker 1: So when you've done, Marcy said something to you. She
Speaker 1: grabbed me on the way. I just want to say,
Speaker 1: it's one of the best auditions I've ever seen. That's
Speaker 1: what they all tell me really, They said, your second
Speaker 1: audition was one of the short list of people. Where
Speaker 1: they were when you were done with that audition, They
Speaker 1: all went, he's in, he's in. I was floating. I
Speaker 1: didn't remember. I didn't touch the ground. I got in
Speaker 1: the elevators. I took a picture of the elevator floor,
Speaker 1: the carpeting. There are peacocks, NBC peacocks. When you're done,
Speaker 1: how much later after what do you find out? I
Speaker 1: would say six weeks. Oh they waited that long that
Speaker 1: that was awful. And then I go in to see Lauren.
Speaker 1: Lauren comes to l A. They go, Lord like to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Didn't give a definitive yes or no.
Speaker 1: Six weeks later, I'm in l A. I'm doing finishing
Speaker 1: up in this movie The Entrepreneurs. And then Lauren has
Speaker 1: an office at the Paramount lot and you go and
Speaker 1: I was sitting there as waiting, you know, his assistants
Speaker 1: are outside. You just kind of hang out. I was
Speaker 1: there till maybe four hours. I waited for Lauren. Then
Speaker 1: finally said, okay, you can't come in, and so I
Speaker 1: walk in. Everything is white, everything's cream colored or white.
Speaker 1: And he was like, it's it's seriously like going to
Speaker 1: heaven or something, and Laurence city amount of desk. His
Speaker 1: feet were up on the desk and he goes up right, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: do you do you wear wigs? And I go, oh,
Speaker 1: I do this to my hair And I want to
Speaker 1: say kate bag and sad, but I said, I spike
Speaker 1: it up and he goes, no, I mean in character
Speaker 1: have you done characters? We wore wigs because we want
Speaker 1: you for the show. And that was just so Lauren himself,
Speaker 1: face to face, was the person in the toach die.
Speaker 1: It was just I don't start crying, right. It was
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you proud. That was my last thing
Speaker 1: I said to him. I'm gonna make you proud. And
Speaker 1: Jimmy did make Lauren proud, going on to anchor Weekend
Speaker 1: Update with Tina Fey and eventually getting the host job,
Speaker 1: and all of television explore the Here's the Thing Archives,
Speaker 1: where another Late night legend, David Letterman, talks about when
Speaker 1: he reached the big time. This was it. The Tonight
Speaker 1: Show is gonna make or break you. If if you
Speaker 1: don't do well, you'll never be heard of again. There's
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as a guy bombing this first
Speaker 1: time when the night show and then having a delightful
Speaker 1: career that just doesn't happen. You're gone. Take a listen
Speaker 1: at Here's the Thing dot Org. This is Alec Baldwin
Speaker 1: and you're listening to Here's the Thing. This is Alec Baldwin,
Speaker 1: and you were listening to Here's the Thing. I first
Speaker 1: met Jimmy Fallon back when I was hosting Saturday Night
Speaker 1: Live and he was new to the show. Since then,
Speaker 1: a lot has changed for Fallon. It's been a remarkable
Speaker 1: a few years. I want to actually write the step
Speaker 1: down because I kind of forget how it all went down,
Speaker 1: but I remember. We'll give you a copy of this
Speaker 1: tape then. It's pretty fun. I appreciate it. You give
Speaker 1: out tapes, gut eight track tapes. Player. Yeah, you give
Speaker 1: me a player as well. I have any TRACTI football.
Speaker 1: It was a good guy. I talked to you. He's
Speaker 1: not with Ruin Arlage. Go ahead, you know, I do
Speaker 1: want to tell the story before I forget about you, though.
Speaker 1: Can I just talk about you for one second because
Speaker 1: I think you're listening to you would go ahead? So
Speaker 1: this is this is a true story. This is probably
Speaker 1: my fourth episode. Ever, it's you're hosting, uh, and it's
Speaker 1: the Ghost of Christmas Past President Future. Yeah. And we're
Speaker 1: rehearsing and you go, what is your name? I go,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon. You okay, Jimmy Fallon. I'm about to say
Speaker 1: your name more than anyone's everybody on TV ever, Jimmy Fallon,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon. Oh, Jimmy Fallon. Sound like that, and you
Speaker 1: ket you kept saying Jimmy Fallon. No matter what ever
Speaker 1: happens in your whole life, you could diss me every
Speaker 1: day in press, you could come, you could bricks in
Speaker 1: my window. I will love you for the restaurant. If
Speaker 1: the Fellons love you, my parents love you. My parents
Speaker 1: hate people that say one little remote bad thing about me.
Speaker 1: We love you, your bulletproof. And then do you remember this?
Speaker 1: This is the part that I had to write this
Speaker 1: down because this is crazy. Now in the sketch, this
Speaker 1: is only my fourth show. I go, yeah, I'm the
Speaker 1: Ghost of Post Future. Apparently I become famous and go
Speaker 1: and I end up hosting the show in two thousand eleven.
Speaker 1: So I go, come with me to the future, and
Speaker 1: we go to the future and it's the future that
Speaker 1: so it's a fake stall life opening. There's a down
Speaker 1: part of Robot. I'm the dumb part of two thousand.
Speaker 1: But there's all the same cast members. The fat guy
Speaker 1: from Chicago, there's the quirky girl, there's you know, all
Speaker 1: the cast member looks like kind of similar cast to
Speaker 1: what S has. And when I come out to host
Speaker 1: is December twelve, two thousand eleven. Now, since that my
Speaker 1: life did whatever happens in my life, I get Late
Speaker 1: Night and do I host a show in real life
Speaker 1: and real time on December twelve, two thousand Eleven's that
Speaker 1: is that insane? That's insane. There's no you can google
Speaker 1: it YouTube and check it all out. I mean, this
Speaker 1: really happened. It's we predicted the future. Take us through
Speaker 1: the process. Because when people think of Late Night, which
Speaker 1: is obviously been churning and royaling over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years with Letterman leaves, and this one comes in
Speaker 1: and this one comes in, and and also they think
Speaker 1: of late and think of messes, there's some messy transitions,
Speaker 1: especially at NBC. You know, meet the presses of what
Speaker 1: But I'm not asking to comment on that. I always
Speaker 1: got meet the press. They begged you, I think Todd
Speaker 1: to get a haircut. Look like he didn't listen to me.
Speaker 1: That's why he's fired. To the extent that you can say,
Speaker 1: because some of this is obviously proprietary and private, I mean,
Speaker 1: the way these things are done, how does that whole
Speaker 1: thing be you're doing late night? And when do you
Speaker 1: first get any intimation that you're even in the running
Speaker 1: to become the host of the Tonight show? Gosh, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, I think who says it to
Speaker 1: you or someone says it to your agent. No, it
Speaker 1: wasn't an agent, as Lauren. If anything, you know, I
Speaker 1: think we would just you know, we got to dinner
Speaker 1: and just talk or something and said, you know, what's
Speaker 1: going to be the next thing? Is there next thing?
Speaker 1: Or eventually will that? Did you want to host this
Speaker 1: actual at that point? Yeah, I mean there's no knowing
Speaker 1: knowing that having that job and you've reinvented that show.
Speaker 1: I'm not say saying these figure about it. I don't
Speaker 1: have people come on the show for me to say
Speaker 1: these things that I don't mean it and everyone loves you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but every time you see this, you hold up like
Speaker 1: a different sponsor you're sponsored by you just hold up
Speaker 1: a sign said subway, eat fresh. You don't have to
Speaker 1: do these things. All these compliments are sponsored. This compliment
Speaker 1: is underwritten by Squarespace lick stamps dot com. I like
Speaker 1: those commentators on the sports seems like I'll tell you Alan,
Speaker 1: I think it's got a broken leg, but we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that. If you want a good breakfast, then the
Speaker 1: Hardys has the best deals at three for one saucer,
Speaker 1: Big muff is over at hard Is and deal have
Speaker 1: the best, eat the hardest, and you got Joe Franklin.
Speaker 1: Just remember you remember Joe Franklin, of course and paints. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's the greatest. Can I finish saying you don't want
Speaker 1: to say to you apologize. You are the host of
Speaker 1: a show, and more than any other man that's done
Speaker 1: that job. Are a host. You welcome people, You welcome
Speaker 1: the audience, you welcome the audience at home, you welcome
Speaker 1: your guests. Not everybody was that good at that. I
Speaker 1: like that. I think you also you have to like
Speaker 1: what you're doing, and I'd like late Night. I would
Speaker 1: have been happy at late Night. But but what I
Speaker 1: was gonna say was, you've given up things in order
Speaker 1: to do that job. You made movies. Do you miss
Speaker 1: making movies? No, you don't do stand up anymore. I
Speaker 1: don't need to know what was it, But do you
Speaker 1: miss it? I don't because I'm doing a monologue in
Speaker 1: front of people, which is stand up. You get to
Speaker 1: do everything. I wasn't talking about that. Who created your show?
Speaker 1: What do you mean? But the Tonight Show now is
Speaker 1: very different than the Tonight Show was when its previous
Speaker 1: host was. It wasn't that far away from Late Night.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the same thing because you basically took
Speaker 1: a lot of the Late Night components abo at the
Speaker 1: moment and you you dressing up as Neil Young. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of people are doing that. Yeah, the Johnny
Speaker 1: Carson wuld dress up as Willie Nelson, would Johnthan Win,
Speaker 1: It didn't have the same effect. Yeah, if Johnny Carson
Speaker 1: dressed up, we were like, what's Johnny doing? Dressing up
Speaker 1: with Neil Young? Which when you do, when people sit
Speaker 1: there and they go, wow, that's really cool. You know,
Speaker 1: we faked out some people when I first did Neil Young.
Speaker 1: You faked me out. I did for about I say,
Speaker 1: Hollywood Reporter or something. We have it. I have it
Speaker 1: the I have a screen grab of it and say, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how Fallon convince Neil Young to sing
Speaker 1: the theme song to uh whatever it was Charles and
Speaker 1: Charge or something like Anthio, but he did it. Anyway,
Speaker 1: It's really funny. Here's no Young singing and it's just
Speaker 1: me dresses Neils in the seventies. It's not like Neil
Speaker 1: addressed like that now, but it's like great brown hair.
Speaker 1: Oh totally, but they thought they go, it's great that
Speaker 1: we've got to fake them out. But either way, it's fun.
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, Lauren has been a big
Speaker 1: help with the whole thing, just talking to him and
Speaker 1: seeing what's going on. I think once Jay called me
Speaker 1: and said, I think I'm rounding the the last lap here,
Speaker 1: and I would love it if I think you got it.
Speaker 1: I think you should take the Tonight Joe and make
Speaker 1: it yours and keep it number one. And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, in a way, did you feel that
Speaker 1: that was somebody telling you you were going to get
Speaker 1: the Tonight show? Yeah, well that's as good as it gets.
Speaker 1: I guess, I mean that's him from him, Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's hell kept it. When when when an NBC incorporated,
Speaker 1: whether it's Lauren or any of people who work there.
Speaker 1: When did they come to you and tell you you're
Speaker 1: gonna do the show? Now? I think I met with
Speaker 1: Steve Burke came down to the office and met with
Speaker 1: me and goes, who is the head of Comcast? Whos NBC?
Speaker 1: And Lauren's like, it's gonna be fun meeting with Steve already,
Speaker 1: because Lauren knows before I know, he knows it's my
Speaker 1: birthday before right, He know's what I'm getting. He knows
Speaker 1: you're gonna be arrested. The third gives you open You're
Speaker 1: gonna lat's a fitbit. Uh. So I go, okay. So
Speaker 1: Steve comes down and I kind of know that it's
Speaker 1: gonna be good news. He goes, well, we'd love for
Speaker 1: you to do it tonight, Joe. I want Jay to
Speaker 1: be happy because it's you know, like you said, it's
Speaker 1: just always been a nightmare. He said, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: make this a not a nightmare. I'm making this as
Speaker 1: smooth as can be. And Jay's involved all the way.
Speaker 1: So I talked to Jay every step of the way.
Speaker 1: You know. I went out to l A and Steve
Speaker 1: when out Dlien met with Jay and she was, again,
Speaker 1: we'll do this the right way, because we never had
Speaker 1: anything any be for anything mean Jay. I think we
Speaker 1: wrote him into a sketch like everyone was so afraid, like,
Speaker 1: how do we we don't screw this up? How would
Speaker 1: Jane go? Just it's all cool. We're both adults. I'm
Speaker 1: in no rush. I'm happy, I'm in New York. I
Speaker 1: have my wife, you have a baby. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is Everything's great. I don't need to move to l A.
Speaker 1: I don't want to, so I'm very happy. But did
Speaker 1: anybody think that that was problematic for you to be
Speaker 1: in New York? Yeah? I talked to Lauren about it.
Speaker 1: That would be great. I just kept it here and
Speaker 1: just kept it in the studio that Johnny Carson was at,
Speaker 1: which is where we're doing. They were receptive to that
Speaker 1: right away. No, the Lauren was. But then we got
Speaker 1: on the phone with everybody, the president of NBC and
Speaker 1: Steve Burke and Yeah, and all his executives and and
Speaker 1: I just remember saying they go, well, what are you thinking?
Speaker 1: You know, we could do it this, you know, and
Speaker 1: Jay's studio, and what is the timing for it on?
Speaker 1: I just said, I'd love to keep it in New York.
Speaker 1: Long past, long long silence, and they go, oh, well, okay,
Speaker 1: well let's well, you know what, let's call you back,
Speaker 1: let's all think about it. I was like, okay, and
Speaker 1: then I was in and then I called Lauren. I go,
Speaker 1: why did that go? He was like, we'll see what
Speaker 1: they say. But it would make sense to bring it
Speaker 1: back to New York, where Johnny started, where it was,
Speaker 1: where it was when the Time show first began. It
Speaker 1: would be something at least different that you could, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm used to the building. I've worked at that
Speaker 1: building for NBC for you know, and then for people
Speaker 1: who don't know, A tremendous expense was laid out by
Speaker 1: NBC to renovate the building and renovate the facility for
Speaker 1: you it was like they were starting all over again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was actually gonna be a bigger thing to cut
Speaker 1: all that out. I go, I don't want a balcony,
Speaker 1: because you know. I talked to of course, Phil Himes,
Speaker 1: one of the best lighting directors in the world, and
Speaker 1: he was like, you don't want a balcony because then
Speaker 1: you're doing a bit underneath the You go in the
Speaker 1: audience all the time. If you're doing a bit underneath,
Speaker 1: the people upstairs can't see what you're doing, and then
Speaker 1: they won't even laugh. At Filis. I would do Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live over the ark of several years, and I
Speaker 1: love Philips because he said that. He said me, stay
Speaker 1: over here and stand right there on that piece of tape.
Speaker 1: You know you could move around more when you were young.
Speaker 1: You know, when you were young you were good looking.
Speaker 1: Stand here and put your face in that light. Because
Speaker 1: you were much older. You always give it to everybody,
Speaker 1: know he does. He gives it to everybody. Jimmy, get
Speaker 1: that hat off, you know whatever, and he God, what
Speaker 1: are you yelling at me? I'll take the hat. You
Speaker 1: can't see your Face's funny, just your costume. This is
Speaker 1: what you're wearing. Oh god, is that your hair? Was
Speaker 1: that a wig? Jeez? You know it's my hair. The
Speaker 1: first night you do the show, nerve, come out, come out.
Speaker 1: The curtain is there. It's exactly. It's so show busy
Speaker 1: and awesome. It was the most show business and traditional
Speaker 1: and awesome. I loved it so much. That was so fun.
Speaker 1: But we invited him. Sigourney Weaver was actually there because
Speaker 1: their dad created the Tonight Show and the Today Show.
Speaker 1: We had this bit that I did where people would
Speaker 1: give me a hunter bucks saying I never thought that
Speaker 1: you'd do the Tonight Show. This is it, I said,
Speaker 1: my buddy, who bet me? I never do the Times?
Speaker 1: You owe me a hundred bucks. De Niro came out,
Speaker 1: was the first guy to come out and throw the
Speaker 1: hundreds done and shook his head like and then it
Speaker 1: was everything. Tina was Mariah carry, Kim Kardashi and Lindsay
Speaker 1: Low and uh Sarah, Jessica Parker was great. Joe Namath,
Speaker 1: Mike Tyson came out, Joan Rivers. Joan Rivers came out
Speaker 1: and it was her first Tonight You appearance since Johnny,
Speaker 1: since the fallout, and it was emotional. Dude. She came
Speaker 1: out and she kissed me and then I started crying.
Speaker 1: It was awesome, I said to Lauren once, and of
Speaker 1: course he was wise to ignore my ideas, but I
Speaker 1: wanted the show to come on and you see the
Speaker 1: old Tonight Show. You here done, Dona and Carson comes out,
Speaker 1: then he go it was like a record skipping you like.
Speaker 1: Then Jay's theme plays like it's a line and then
Speaker 1: you come out like you did that kind of did that.
Speaker 1: Spike Lee directed the opening video of our show. But
Speaker 1: when you see right now with it's New York City,
Speaker 1: I go, I want it black and white because the
Speaker 1: Roots were trying to think of the theme song, and
Speaker 1: the Roots had the selling hey do do do do
Speaker 1: do Hey Hey, I go, that's good. I want something
Speaker 1: like you think of New York. I want like Woody
Speaker 1: Alleny type of black and white jazzy. So the show
Speaker 1: starts in black and white and here d dom do
Speaker 1: no Dun Dun, dune dune and turns into color. Then hey,
Speaker 1: then it's like, okay, so we all took the ride.
Speaker 1: I know it's only but we took that ride from
Speaker 1: old to New and it's classy and new great, and
Speaker 1: we have the giant curtain, which is like, there's nothing
Speaker 1: like a giant curtain. And you come out with the
Speaker 1: giant curtain, and I remember just going, this is it.
Speaker 1: I go to Lauren before the show. I go the
Speaker 1: day before I go. I think I want to come
Speaker 1: out and explain who I am, where I'm from, and
Speaker 1: who the Roots are, and who Steve Higgins is and
Speaker 1: what a talk show is. Because there's kids out there
Speaker 1: that don't know what a talk show is. They don't
Speaker 1: grow up with it. They stream everything, they don't they
Speaker 1: see clips of stuff. They don't know what to talk
Speaker 1: to you is. And if there was any young Jimmy
Speaker 1: Fallons like me out there watching the first night is
Speaker 1: when people watch any show, they'll give it a shot.
Speaker 1: So this is a big audience, a big opportunity for
Speaker 1: me to explain what talk shows are. So here's what
Speaker 1: I'm doing. That's my name, my managed, Jimmy Fallon, fourty
Speaker 1: years old. And you know, blah blah blah, and I
Speaker 1: come out here and I make jokes about the news.
Speaker 1: So in the first time it's made jokes about the
Speaker 1: news and then hopefully you laugh and you're in a
Speaker 1: good mood and you go to bed with a smile
Speaker 1: on your face. That's my ultimate goal. I know this
Speaker 1: is a big job. This is a legacy that I
Speaker 1: never thought i'd get. But I hope to keep it
Speaker 1: number one in classy and the best it can be
Speaker 1: and I'm only gonna get better. And what I love
Speaker 1: most about the show since you've done it is that
Speaker 1: and everyone who's done the show, and all these shows,
Speaker 1: you know, have their talents, but yours is the most
Speaker 1: guest proof. You're the most versatile guy that's ever done.
Speaker 1: This job is like nothing you can't do. So the
Speaker 1: show is going to be entertaining because you showed up.
Speaker 1: If the guy shows up and he's good, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't work your flows, you do something. You've got so
Speaker 1: much stuff. Now you have a family, you have a wife. Yes,
Speaker 1: Nancy producer, Um where did you meet on the set
Speaker 1: of Fever Pitch? She was producing the movie, was trolling
Speaker 1: the cast. You know, she was not She was this
Speaker 1: beautiful girl who she was having to be the producer
Speaker 1: of the film. She works to Drew Barrymore, their partners,
Speaker 1: and she produced the movie. And I met her, you
Speaker 1: know when I got cast in the movie. And I
Speaker 1: remember was driving through the streets of Boston about to
Speaker 1: do a scene like five in the morning or and
Speaker 1: it's just raining, gloomy in Boston and just very dark,
Speaker 1: and you know that type of Boston color. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of rainy and foggy. And there's this girl in
Speaker 1: white corduroy pants with a pink sweater and maybe a backpack,
Speaker 1: a green backpack or something, and bright bright white explorer
Speaker 1: had a monkey with and I go, I go go with.
Speaker 1: Uh said, can you say I'm in love with you? Uh?
Speaker 1: And so I go, She's in my head like I
Speaker 1: was so pretty. And then my driver, you know, the
Speaker 1: he was the Union guy, and goes, oh she's hot.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that hot. I go, hold on, it's
Speaker 1: our producer. It's had some respect you seriously, So I
Speaker 1: go it. We just started hanging out and just being
Speaker 1: friends and just found out we had a lot in
Speaker 1: common musically, listen to the same music. And after this
Speaker 1: show that we'd hang out, we have some drinks and
Speaker 1: listen to like Harry Nelson or Randy Newman, stuff like
Speaker 1: that no one likes, but she liked it. And so
Speaker 1: we just started getting along. And then we're selling the
Speaker 1: movie in London. The movie came out, selling the movie
Speaker 1: in London, and uh, I see you, and I go,
Speaker 1: I miss hanging out with you. That was so fun.
Speaker 1: She goes, I miss hanging out with you. And that
Speaker 1: was it. So then from then and we just never
Speaker 1: friends the same. Um. I mean, I know you work hard,
Speaker 1: it's a full schedule. Does your job and the way
Speaker 1: you live your life now because you become so successful
Speaker 1: do you find you have less time for some of
Speaker 1: the things you wanted to do with your friends. You
Speaker 1: don't get to see him as much as you used
Speaker 1: to know you do, you see, that's a great excuse
Speaker 1: to nazi them. No, I prefer it this way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's much better this way. Yeah. I see you enough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we see each other enough, don't we. Do you have friends?
Speaker 1: Were you and I see each other more than enough?
Speaker 1: This hour? Right now? We're good for three years. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll see you next summer on the beach with a
Speaker 1: piece of corn. Yeah? But but but but do you
Speaker 1: find like you have dear friends of yours, close friends
Speaker 1: of yours? Are they around or do you have that
Speaker 1: show bus this thing like I do, where we got
Speaker 1: to pick up where we left off, and everybody's spinning
Speaker 1: around the global that I don't really have that many friends.
Speaker 1: My wife's my best friend. Yeah, I just says the
Speaker 1: other day because we had to go some dinner party
Speaker 1: thing and my wife and they want to split us up,
Speaker 1: you know they do that. They go, all right, Nancy
Speaker 1: sits here, and you're gonna sit I go, NaN's gonna
Speaker 1: sit with Harvey Weinstein. I don't want to do this.
Speaker 1: I want to sit next to my life. I love
Speaker 1: my life. Yeah, I prefer to prefer to I can
Speaker 1: talk to her. That's why I'm married. I met my wife.
Speaker 1: I don't want to meet new people. I don't want
Speaker 1: say with your wife, Yeah, you have to sit with
Speaker 1: you would be my wife, the wife, your dear dear friends.
Speaker 1: They're out there in the whole galaxy spinning around. I
Speaker 1: see you know the same group of people that we
Speaker 1: just it's Lauren, it's justin, It's you know, Drew. It's
Speaker 1: just kind of the same people to come in and
Speaker 1: out and and my family and my actual family. What
Speaker 1: keeps you saying? Now, I'm not breaking, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't everything's keeping me saying. But my thing is
Speaker 1: is that you have such success. Maybe there's some douchebag
Speaker 1: DNA and you somewhere but no one can find it.
Speaker 1: Is that it's what he could. The show keeps me
Speaker 1: whatever I think of it. I think of a dumb idea.
Speaker 1: I go, but is this remotely funny that we're gonna
Speaker 1: sing the Hello video? And Lena Richie's head is the
Speaker 1: bust and he's like a statue in his head turned
Speaker 1: out it's really Lina Richie and I'd sing hello and
Speaker 1: they go, we'll pitch you to him. Then Lina Richards
Speaker 1: like love it, Let's do it. It's like all right,
Speaker 1: you just think of ideas and they happen, so I
Speaker 1: write them down. Don't know the dumb ideas that I have.
Speaker 1: I have a thousand ideas. The p muffin is one
Speaker 1: of them. But who is your critical eye on the show, Lauren?
Speaker 1: Lauren is the person. He is your yeah, consultant producers
Speaker 1: to Josh Leeve is a good producer. Gavin our head writer, Miles.
Speaker 1: You know, I talked to these guys and the writers.
Speaker 1: They have your ear. Yeah, and then they give you
Speaker 1: notes and I go, do we need to do that?
Speaker 1: And I don't know, you know, Lauren will come in
Speaker 1: and go, I wouldn't do that, do this thing, do
Speaker 1: this that. He's still a writer at heart, and he
Speaker 1: points at the key Carsley, that would be better if
Speaker 1: you ended on that line. You know, you're right. Is
Speaker 1: there a person you've tried to get on the show
Speaker 1: that you couldn't get on the show? The Pope? Literally
Speaker 1: literally yeah, I tried for the Pope. It turns out
Speaker 1: being serious. Yeah, yeah, turns up. He's like, you can't
Speaker 1: come over here. He came to New York and it
Speaker 1: was down the streets at St. Patrick's. Yeah he's not
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do. But who else booking is
Speaker 1: such a big part of your show. Yeah no, nobody, nobody,
Speaker 1: the Queen. I'd like to have the Queen on be fun,
Speaker 1: but everyone else's just you know, he's been real lucky
Speaker 1: they've come. Yeah, great New York City. It's alive, it's fun,
Speaker 1: and once you do it, you go, oh yeah, this
Speaker 1: is great. We had the best. I made sure we
Speaker 1: had the best sound, the best audio. So if you're
Speaker 1: a band and you come on and play these because
Speaker 1: you have to do this thing to sell your records
Speaker 1: or your tours, this is the best sounding show on television.
Speaker 1: I got the guys that did Lincoln Center to do
Speaker 1: my studio similar to yours. Oh my gosh, I feel
Speaker 1: like we're in a bunker. But anyway, Springsteen comes on
Speaker 1: and he loves it because it's not the stadium and
Speaker 1: it's not a club, but it's it's only two hundred seats.
Speaker 1: It's a hot ticket, and everyone's there wants to be there.
Speaker 1: They're not there because there was nothing else to do.
Speaker 1: What do your parents think now? They're the most proud
Speaker 1: thing in O my world. My mom still gives me criticism,
Speaker 1: but they both love me. They're so proud of everything,
Speaker 1: my sis. And they see you the same way. When
Speaker 1: I went to that party at your house a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. We were there and your parents, like
Speaker 1: your father almost looked at me, like, you know, who
Speaker 1: could believe Jimmy. It's got the same job as Johnny
Speaker 1: Carson would have figured out. I know. My mom goes.
Speaker 1: She called the other day, she goes, you know that
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise is great on the show. Thanks watching. He
Speaker 1: looked really good with his long hair. He does his
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise. Yeah, I really liked his long hair. I go, yeah,
Speaker 1: he looks good with long hair. He's Tom Cruise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really like his long hair. I go. I heard
Speaker 1: you the first three times there, Okay, I'm giving you
Speaker 1: a hint. Grow your hair out. It's too short. Hang
Speaker 1: up the phone. Oh I started hooking out. I started
Speaker 1: making hands returning green. My short started to rip. My
Speaker 1: mother is like a sitcom character, like the neighbor in
Speaker 1: like a sitcom like Cravit. She watches the food Network
Speaker 1: and she's seen every episode of Chopped twice. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't get the reference anything she's saying because I
Speaker 1: don't watch as much Food Networks as she does. So
Speaker 1: she like, you don't know Walter. He goes like, I
Speaker 1: put a little cheese on it. You know, it just
Speaker 1: makes some slogan. I go, I don't know that guy. No,
Speaker 1: you don't know Carla. She's like, y'all I want to
Speaker 1: do and I go, I don't know these references, mom,
Speaker 1: but i'd love that you're making these jokes. I don't
Speaker 1: know them, So I act like I don't know them
Speaker 1: and just tell the story. And are you have your
Speaker 1: parents on the show, like like davidd No, we wouldn't know.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have your mama. No, they were already. My
Speaker 1: dad was one of the first show. He was well,
Speaker 1: not on purpose, but they were in the audience because
Speaker 1: it was my parents are there, and so I could
Speaker 1: do the thing. I go, welcome, I glad you're all here,
Speaker 1: and I go, now I'm going to do the monologue.
Speaker 1: So let me run through the curtain and do what
Speaker 1: you're gonna see every night. So come out, do my
Speaker 1: first joke. Um, it was something. Wasn't even it was okay.
Speaker 1: And then I said, and who'd have thought I'm hosting
Speaker 1: the Tonight Show. I never even finished school or somewhere
Speaker 1: I'm gonna drop out or something. So it was a joke.
Speaker 1: I didn't really drop out high school. And my dad
Speaker 1: yells from the audience, we paid a lot of money
Speaker 1: for that's cool, he heckles me. The first Tonight Show ever,
Speaker 1: my dad heckles me, what's wrong with people? I go
Speaker 1: to we are you kidding me? And everyone's clapping and
Speaker 1: they're laughing at it's my dad, the heckled me, and
Speaker 1: I go, and I go. First of all, I went
Speaker 1: to public school, so you didn't pay a lot of
Speaker 1: money for that school. So the whole thing is crazy.
Speaker 1: Chill out, wait till the commercial security. Yeah, put some
Speaker 1: of the end. I haven't stopped talking anyways. Now they
Speaker 1: honestly can't stop talking about me. Well, I'll end with
Speaker 1: this and that as I meet a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are content and not very talented, and you are
Speaker 1: the most talented and the most content person I've ever
Speaker 1: met in this business. Good for you, Good for you,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for you can watch the Tonight show
Speaker 1: starring Jimmy Fallon every weeknight on NBC and at nbc
Speaker 1: dot Com. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing.