Comedy and Everything Else Episode #137: Jimmy Pardo

Jimmy Pardo: The first time was great (working as a warm up for The Tonight Show). Just like stand up. The first time was great. I went out there, "Welcome The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien!" I was on fire. Some woman said something in the audience, like immediately... you know that's like my bread and butter. I mean, 20 years of working the audience, so I improvised off of what this woman said and I looked like a genius. The 12 minutes flew by and they went, "Jimmy, we're ready." What? And I came off like, "Holy Shit, Here we go!".

And then the next day was awful. I came out and I'm mumbling. I stumbled through the rules I had to give. I went up in the audience because that's how I've seen how warm-ups done it in the past. Walking up and down the stairs and getting to know people. Which then I realized is alienating 250 people on the other side of the theater/studio.

So I just made some mistakes. And then a guy blogged about it. He goes, "I went to the taping, the second taping of Conan, and it starts out... some jerk walks out on the stage and just yells at us and then Andy comes out and they try to riff but they can't because this guy has no talent. Andy was funny, but this guy couldn't keep up..." Just like, wow. And he wasn't wrong! Like, I stunk. He was right!

And that happened on a Thursday. And then we weren't going to be doing another show until the next week so I had like 4 days inbetween of going, "Oh, I kinda like this job." But the agreement was if they like me and I like them, I'll keep the job. And its like, well they have every right not to like me after that. That was awful.

So I spent 4 days panicked. "Oh, this great gig. Conan O'Brien! The Tonight Show." Now I'm going to lose it because I stunk. And luckily, you know, they kept me on. And I was there for the 7 months of The Tonight Show. And as I've said, somewhat maudlin-like, my dream was to grow up and host The Tonight Show. And I got pretty stinking close. Ridiculous. I'm not hosting it in any shape or form. But you know what? I got to go on the stage of The Tonight Show and do it every day.

Comedy and Everything Else Episode #137: Jimmy Pardo / aprox 1:04:00

(thanks Mark)