That's why I had to leave Hair on Broadway, because I did it for about a year, and one night I was doing the show, and I realized, well, this is not real. I told the director. He says, man, it was a killer show tonight.
As scary as it is, we have to admit that there are folks in the world who only know the Roots as 'the band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.''
It used to be that if you got on 'The Tonight Show,' your career was made. Now, if you're on 'The Tonight Show,' maybe 14 more people show up to your gig in Tulsa.
The old Johnny Carson 'Tonight Show' was great in that he was so good with the guests, and it was not about him. I think he was very smart in realizing 'I have plenty of screentime on this show. I do my monologue and we do sketches and stuff like that.' During the interview, he really made it about trying to bring the best thing out of the guest.
My first 'Tonight Show' was just one of those things - I mean this seriously - a cosmic, meant-to-be coming together of circumstance. You walk out there to do your first 'Tonight Show': Is the audience going to be hot? Are you going to be on fire? It's like an athlete: Are you going to have your moves at a peak?
I got a call from my mom today, she says, 'Well, David, I see you didn't get the 'Tonight Show' again.'
In 1980, when I graduated from high school, my goal was to be on 'The Tonight Show' with Johnny Carson at least once before our ten-year class reunion. Our class reunion was in June of 1990, and I was on 'The Tonight Show' in April 1990, so I made it by a few months.
I have some very special guests tonight, and I would like to give a big welcome to the Wayne State men and women's rugby team for coming to the game tonight and to be on my TV Show
I don't think I would do a straight late-night talk show, like a 'Tonight Show' kind of thing. But I'm open to whatever is done well. I don't have any agenda. I'm not like Fugazi - I'm not trying to be just so punk rock until I die. Whatever is funny is good.
Tonight's show is about doubt. Or maybe it isn't - haven't made my mind up yet.
I still sweat bullets if I go on The Tonight Show, but I tell myself, You can either have fun tonight or you can be shy and miserable. You ask my friends or anyone I work with now - nobody would say I was shy.
A lot of folks focus on using Twitter as a marketing tool. They'll have a bump that says something like 'Tweet about the NewTeeVee show! Use the hashtag #newteevee.' And that's great - folks should definitely do that. What gets us really excited, though, is when they go an extra step and start to transform tweets into TV content.
If you live in Tishomingo County and there's a statewide mask mandate you can't help but say, 'Well, that's probably for those folks in Hancock County.' If you put a statewide mandate, the folks in Hancock County are going to say, 'That's for the folks up in Tishomingo County, they can't possibly be talking about me.'
I am tired again tonight - a good kind of tired. Some aches are well earned. I wish I could see the sky tonight
Tonight was not about winning, it was about focusing on myself and what I was aiming to do. It's the reason why I was able to swim so well
The world can use more light and less noise. More solvers and fewer blamers. More folks showing a better way and fewer folks complaining about how much better things used to be. More folks offering help and fewer folks wringing their hands about the problems. More hope bringers and fewer hope killers.