Tonight Show Quotes

I have friends at home who love ‘The Tonight Show‘ with Jimmy Fallon. They live in the U.K., and they’ve never seen an episode, but they love it.

The next step for me is not ‘The Tonight Show.’ That’s a job for Jimmy Fallon. I’m way too divisive for a show like that.

I moved from Cleveland to L.A. with a girlfriend, we broke up, and I lived out of my car for a year and a half, on the road with nothing on my mind but getting my act good enough to be on ‘The Tonight Show.’

The appearance on ‘The Tonight Show’ was one thing, but the YouTube afterlife was incredible.

I wouldn’t totally rule out doing Letterman or the Tonight Show if I had a set that I just happened to write that I thought was funny but was still appropriate for network censors. But I’m not going to go out of my way.

People don’t know this, but early in your career, you don’t just glide on to The Tonight Show.

I’ve been doing comedy longer than I haven‘t been doing comedy, as I was performing for three years before I even got on ‘The Tonight Show.’ There’s truly nothing like it; it’s intense and exhilarating, even though it looks so casual.

Every comedian dreams of hosting ‘The Tonight Show’ and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second.

I just loved stand-up comics as a kid. I’d watch them on ‘The Tonight Show,’ and I thought what a great craft it was to come out on stage with no instrument or anything and be able to entertain people.

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.

Being a harsh, dirty comic, the last person on earth I ever expected to help my career was Jay Leno. I had always thought of performing on ‘The Tonight Show’ as an unachievable goal, because I bought into the myth that only squeaky clean, family-friendly material would be welcome there.

When I got a call from Los Angeles to do the Tonight Show, I considered it more of an inconvenience than an opportunity.

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.”

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’ve performed on ‘The Tonight Show’ with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, but not at the same time.

I didn’t realize how many people watched ‘The Tonight Show.’

My first acting gig was a skit for Jay Leno on ‘The Tonight Show.’ It was this Barbie commercial where I got to pour mud all over Barbie dolls and watch the heads pop off. It was so exciting, a lot of fun.

I gave up my base in popular culture when I left the Tonight Show.

There’s always something about the Tonight Show that makes me a little bit anxious, nervous, excited. But it’s good. It’s good. It’s been real good for me. It always has helped my career and Jay and all the people here have always been great.

Lenny Bruce did clean TV. You have to be able to do that, I think, to succeed because if you want to promote something, you go on ‘The Tonight Show’ or ‘Letterman’ or whatever, you can’t be dirty.

Yes, I’m supposed to go back to New York to do Geraldo, and we’re going to be doing The Tonight Show.

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’ve always wanted to do a segment on a talk show. Jay Leno has been such a good friend, and if he would allow me, I’d have to get it all together, but I’d like to go on ‘The Tonight Show’ and do a set with no props. Or come out with a trunk and never touch it. Or come out with a clear trunk with nothing in it.

The Tonight Show’ afforded us the opportunity to work with The Muppets and other ‘Sesame Street‘ characters, and we always had the desire to do something that spoke to young people.

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.

Internet radio stations like KCRW do take you everywhere, yet that’s just one of a hundred small things you have to do to succeed. It used to be, if you just got on the cover of ‘Rolling Stone‘ and a spotlight on ‘The Tonight Show,’ that was enough.

It’s really not that hard. If I do a Tonight Show, it’s six or seven minutes. If I do a concert, it’s 90 minutes. If I do an interview, that’s 15 minutes. So by the end of the day I’ve done three hours worth of work.

I was supposed to be on the Tonight Show but I broke my shoulder instead.

I want to get back and figure out how we’re going to make ‘The Tonight Show’ funny and good.

Mork, played by Robin Williams, was my introduction to improv, and my first real peek behind the curtain of television production; I had seen Williams riffing on ‘The Tonight Show’ and soon put it together that certain scenes with Mork were not scripted.

After my 1985 appearance on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,’ I was wooed by producers in Hollywood, who told me they wanted to turn my act into a sitcom.

I like raconteurs; I like conversation. I liked the ‘Tonight Show’ when it was 90 minutes, I like when people aren’t plugging things per se, and they’re just in the moment being interesting.

I was a kid, and I would watch standup comics do the ‘Tonight Show,’ and if Johnny Carson liked you, he’d wave you over to the desk; that pretty much meant you were about to be the most successful comedian in the country for the next few years.