Recently, I watched a YouTube showing of Club Random with Bill Mahr and his guest Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller fame. Penn doesn’t drink or smoke, but that didn’t stop Bill, who was quite comfortable in his man cave.” The setting, obviously, was casual, and the conversation went on for an hour and a half. It was so much more interesting than the short interviews you might see on a talk show, where the only purpose of being on the show was to promote a book or a movie. Bill and Penn covered a plethora of interesting subjects, and the one that I found most interesting was the one Penn told Bill about the first appearance of Penn & Teller on the Tonight Show.
Today, Penn & Teller are record-breaking performers in Vegas. They’re such Vegas icons that the venue where they perform is the Penn & Teller Theatre. They also travel around the world doing their unique magic show. But, one time, a long time ago, they were just starting out and they got asked to audition for the Tonight Show with Johhny Carson. At the time, an appearance on the Carson Show was THE big break that launched many successful careers. It was like how a book will shoot to #1 on the Best Seller list if Oprah recommends it.
So, Penn and Teller, packed up the material they would need to do a magical performance on the Tonight Show. They auditioned their Water Tank trick and Johnny loved it, except for one bit of it where Teller appears to be dead. That, he thought, was in bad taste. He wanted them to change the act. They didn’t want to, because they felt that was the core of the joke. It took guts on their part to risk losing the opportunity of a Tonight Show gig by not giving in. Then Johnny compromised. He liked their routine but didn’t want it performed in full when he was there. So, he booked Penn & Teller to be on The Tonight Show during a week when he was on vacation and Jay Leno was guest hosting. Win, Win. Except when that day came, Penn & Teller had trouble shipping their huge water tank, so they wound up doing a different trick, one that Johnny would have allowed while on a night when he was hosting.
So, tonight I was watching Kathryn Hahn guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live. Her first guest was Seth Rogen. They’re old friends and they were really having a good time talking to each other in an interview situation. Then, they finally got around to plugging his new animated movie, Sausage Fest. They showed a clip from the movie, and the audience got to see that in the movie, animated food products have sex with other food products. Then, they brought out a tray of food and Seth started moving the various food stuffs into sexual positions with other food. It quickly got outrageous and raunchy, while being funny as hell. Then it dawned on me. Did Seth Rogen pitch this idea to Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy did the same thing that Johnny Carson did to Penn & Teller so many years ago? Did Jimmy like the bit, but find it too risqué for a night when he, himself, was hosting, so he scheduled it for a night when there was a guest host. I’m almost sure that’s what happened, and I’m almost sure that this probably happens quite frequently. Really good guests who might “push the envelope” further than the regular host can convince the sponsors to accept, are saved for nights when there is a guest host, and there is less likelihood of blowback from a sponsor.
“When the cats away, the mice will play,” is the old expression, except that now, the cat is planning his away time, so that the show can have time to explore the boundaries of both their envelope and that of their audience.
Now, I won’t be skipping my favorite late-night shows, when there is a guest host. I’ll be hoping to catch another edgy act pushing the envelope while the cat’s away.
Peace & Love, and all of the above,
Earl
earlthepearl137 