Episode 11

ELEVEN!

Start of the third week and one thing is clear from the first two: a New York City crowd is FAR and away different than an LA audience. And no, I don’t mean the 2,808 miles between the two. The difference in audience styles, I think, is a contributing factor to why Conan didn’t do so hot in LA after he received the Tonight Show from Jay Leno. A New York City crowd seems so happy to be at a TV show, and just full of energy. LA crowds just seems so, blah, with stuff… It must be because of all that sunshine.

Also, it’s been 2 days without a Tonight Show, yet it feels so much longer! Maybe I just had a long, busy weekend. 

MONOLGUE: First thing off the top of the show, we see that Kirk “Captain” Douglas is back on guitar after missing all last week. He is a talented dude who is also hilarious and can sing really high like when they would on Perm Week on the Late Night Show, which I hope they bring back! A majority of the monologue comprised of jokes from Sunday Night’s Oscars, deservedly so, after the mega flub from John Travolta. And how cool is that selfie picture Ellen put on twitter, which recorded the most retweets ever on Twitter and in fact, quite literally broke twitter, causing the website to crash with over a million retweets. 

Yep, hadn’t seen that video clip of the reporter doing his standup off the highway and the snowplow came by and doused him with snow: That made me laugh out loud. 

STORY TIME STARRING JIMMY FALLON: The play-by-play of Jimmy’s polar plunge in Chicago was tremendous. There was no video, except for pictures at the very end, and I was engaged from the get go! It was just Jimmy telling a story and it was captivating.

CLASSROOM INSTRUMENTS VIDEO!!! Another awesome Late Night staple: Blurred Lines, All I Want for Christmas, Call Me Maybe, and the Sesame Street Theme have all been a part of this unique bit Jimmy and the Roots do. It’s incredibly creative and shows off the talent of the Roots. Here it is: Jimmy Fallon, Idina Menzel & The Roots Sing Let It … 

GUESTS:  Whenever an SNL alum comes on with Jimmy, the chemistry between the two are different than any other guest. They have this connection that’s unreal. Who knew Joe Namath was Tracy Morgan’s biological father! That joke from Tracy is one of the funniest things. Tina Fey has an 8 year old daughter… Crazy how time has flown! Tina Fey just got SO EXCITED when Jimmy revealed a pizza from Pennsylvania. I can’t imagine pizza would be that good. Then again, Giordano’s in Chicago is reeeeeally good!

LIP FLIP!! I’ve only seen Lip Flip one other time, with Billy Crystal, and it was hilarious. Tina Fey was exceptional with this. I can imagine this bit is really hard to do. It involves a lot of concentration and big facial expressions. Plus, there’s something about seeing celebrities break and laugh in the sketch they are doing. They’re human after all, but more importantly, they’re clearly having fun. Watch Here: Lip Flip with Tina Fey 

YOU GOT A FRIEND IN ME: Funny the Roots did a music version of Aziz’s “RAAAAAAAANDY” bit from his stand up… with 8 A’s. This interview is what I think makes Jimmy interesting.  Other talk show hosts say to the guest, “Hey, I’m a big fan.” and only half heartedly mean it. Almost like they want to maintain some professionalism, and act like they’ve been there before. With Jimmy, if there’s a guest, musical or celebrity that’s on the show, he isn’t afraid to voice how happy and excited he is to have him on the show. It’s both fun to watch and a slight hindrance, because he gets too excited some nights and it takes away from the interview. Regardless, seeing how happy Jimmy is to have some of his guests on his show is awesome.

I’ve said it before in this blog, whenever the Roots perform with the musical guest, magic happens. “I love LA” with Randy Newman was tremendous. The song was so happy! Not Pharrell Happy, but close!