Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Inside Late Night: Tony Barbieri

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Tony Barbieri has been with 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' since the beginning—and with Jimmy Kimmel even longer. On this episode of Inside Late Night, he joins Mark Malkoff to talk about the show��s early “Wild West” days, the evolution of Kimmel’s voice, and creating his live-wire alter ego Jake Byrd, who’s crashed everything from Michael Jackson trials to Trump rallies. It’s a candid look at more than two decades inside late night.

from late-nighter.com, it's Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Welcome to Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Today, long time. Jimmy Kimmel Live writer, Tony Barbieri talks to me. We're going to have a good time. Let's do it. Tony Barbieri, nice to see you, sir. Thanks for having me, buddy.

Jimmy Kim Alive, you've been there since the beginning, correct? I have, yeah. I've been with Jimmy since... The band show, and before that, he was the announcer on a public access show I did with my buddy's Don and Perry Caravello, and Jimmy was our public access announcer. Was he the announcer at the very beginning? Because you do these pranks and he, on public access, and Jimmy loved this. This was the big three, your group. And then did Jimmy discover the show and asked to be your announcer? How did that work? I met Jimmy at my buddy Daniel Kellison, introduced me to Jimmy, and we hit it up. And I told him about the Perry stuff and the public access show.

He said, oh, I want to be the announcer. So, funny, because Kimmel was a big star in Los Angeles on radio. Yeah, yeah, he was K-Rock and Ben Stein. He was already huge. And then I see in the background, you have some posters for Windy City Heat. When did the idea begin or come to? you was it during the public access or during the man show when you were a writer that you were

going to do this movie and play maybe the greatest prank i think grant land said it was the best comedy prank of all time something to that um when did that come to you that idea that you were going to make your friend believe that he was going to be starting in a film well we would do we would call him all the time and i played a producer for years and uh and we started talking about the movie as a thing on just prank calls, you know? And then it became, the calls became more and more of these. Like, hey, is this movie happening? Is this movie happening?

We're like, I think we got. Because we would constantly call him and have him audition for movies. We had him auditioning for a Planet of the Apes movie once where his line was, Taylor, I'm an ape and you're a human. The sooner you realize that, the happier you'll be on the Planet of the Apes. He played Dr. Chimpy in there. He really believed that these were real. Oh, yeah. And we, like, a lot of people have come into it, you know, since then. And Dominic Monaghan, they act as a good friend. And he would always, whenever he was in town, he would come in and have Perry audition for his next thing. Like Dominic was in X-Men first class. So he auditioned Perry for X-Men second class. And Lord of the Rings, too, still ringing. And where they find a second ring of Soron. So we'd always have them audition for stuff.

But the movie came about, like, we were talking about it, and then we were talking with Jimmy. He's like, we should, you know, let's make this movie. Let's actually do the movie. So we started scripting it up and it all just kind of came together and everyone wanted to do it. It just became a huge prank. Everybody from Quentin Tarantino, Mike Judge, huge fans of this film, started off kind of a little bit on the download because Comedy Central more or less buried it. I think Larry Divney might have been the head of the network, and he left. And when it came out, there was not much fanfare, correct?

Yeah, I mean, it kind of like, it just played on Comedy Central and just went away. It was like pre-screening, so streaming, so it didn't really have that kind of format for people to find. But people have found it since the, uh, my daughters are in love with Finn Wolfeard, and they just watched his hot ones episode where he's dying from the wings and talking about Wendy City Heat and they were losing my mind. So, yeah. You never know. Yeah, like, I was going to ask, so when you have Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs legend and William the refrigerator or Perry coming on, do they really think that this is a real movie? Are they, are they smart?

We had William Refrigerated Perry. The guy, it was an actor playing Ernie Banks because Ernie Banks was dead. But we could tell Perry anyone, you know, I mean, you know, Hiroshima Nagasaki was our producer. So the, but yeah, William, yeah, the fridge was very confused. The fridge was very confused by it all, but he was great. Yeah, so it's one of those things where you do this and then it gets released. And then at what point does Perry actually discover that this is a prank? Is it not until it's actually out?

Well, there's, if you... Oh, at the end, at the end, yes. Well, at the end, yeah, but there's DVD extras and stuff that are online you can find on YouTube that one of my I watched not too long. I hadn't seen it in years, but it's Perry watching. We go, Don and I go over to his apartment and watch the movie with him for the first time.

So he watches it. So we're with him watching it. And it's still not, and he's so excited to see himself on screen that everything else is just, and I'm behind him just like, what's happening here? So he has madness.

And you met him at the comedy stores. And that was the three of you. It was Perry, Don, Barris and yourself, correct? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we mentioned he was auditioning to be on. Don and I ran the comedy store in the short-lived Westwood branch, and Perry would come in. And the first night he came in, Don brought him back to his apartment with this woman,

Sheba and had them act out scenes from Dog Day afternoon, and he knew he had a star. Oh, my goodness. I wanted to talk about Jake Bird, which you've done on Jimmy Kimmel, so much. many times. What is the origin of Jake? Were you doing this character pre-Jimmy Kimmel? Not really, but I mean, I remember

Halloween when I was living in New York that we both went to NYU, go violets. Tough team. When I was living, I remember one year I dressed up as David Sol's stalker. And that because someone gave me as a gift like a box of David Sol's

stationary and something like that. And So I had a hutch shirt and I went his stocker for Halloween. And that kind of became Jake Bird. But Jake Bird was, we were doing, we had a writer's meeting. And we were going to have on that night the number one fan for Michael Jackson, this woman, they were having a big thing up at his, the first night of his court hearing in San Maria. So Jimmy just turned him and said, you should go up there and integrate yourself with these people. I was done, done.

So I got in a van with our crew and we went up to soul. whole thing where everyone was doing that, you know, like it was a staging area. Everyone's in a room making posters and stuff. And there was tons of like CNN was there. Everyone was there following this group. And I just said, I'll see you guys in Santa Maria. I took off and I went into the room. There's like 30 people and they're making signs. I made a big sign that said, I'd sleep with you, Michael. Sleepovers are not a crime. And I'm holding it up. And they're like, yeah, that's not really the message we're trying to get through. And so then we go to Santa Maria for the live hit and Jimmy's interviewing the fan and this person and this person and this person but let's talk to that guy back

there and I get on there. I'm like, listen, if Michael wants to do this and then we support him, hey, the kid had it coming. Come on. Come on, come on, folks, right? He had to go. The people are like, no, no, he does not represent us. He does not represent us. So they got really, they hated me. Michael Jackson fans, once they figured out that I was with Jimmy, every time I would go up there, there would be a contingent of people against me and like, you're just making this a circus, you're making this a conscious. When the verdict came in, we put up a bounce house across the street from it. I'm not making this a circus. But I remember once, I mean, I went there so many times in Santa Maria. I had a shirt once that said, he's not Hitler. And these two women came up very anger. Like, what is this? What is this shirt? He's not a look. Oh, Hitler was the leader of Germany in World War II. He was like, oh, we know who Hitler is. We're Israeli. We know who Hitler is. We're Israeli. We know who Hitler is. They got soaps that half hour later, I'm someone. I was. We know who Hitler is. They got soaps that half hour later, I'm someone. else and they'd walk by me and said, we know who Hitler is. I'm like, I quit bragging him. Did you ever break character from Jake Byrd? Did you ever? I mean, I don't know if there's

policemen or security that got involved where you had to break or did you always commit 100%? Last one I was like, was at his verdict in New York last year. So the, uh, yeah, the year for last. And I was after he was found guilty, I was trying to hang myself with my tie and a tree across from the courthouse in New York, and the cops grabbed me. But, yeah, I'll tell you, the most weirdly, the most nervous, really quick, the most nervous I may have been for Jake was when Trump was first running, well, I mean, the thing with Jake is he supports anyone that everybody is against. If there's somebody that the climate is against them, I'm their biggest fan, you know,

whether it's Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lojah, and whoever, I would just follow them. And so when Trump popped up, he was like, oh, Jake's got to be a Trump guy. So I started following him in 2015. I went to a rally in Dallas and got right behind him. But then when it looked like he was going to, when he was going to be elected, they said, okay, so we're going to go to the inauguration. Do you want to go to any of these balls? They have, every state does a different ball.

And I looked at them like, I don't know. Oh, look at New Jersey has a Springsteen cover band. Let's go to this one. And we forgot about it. And in the meantime, it became like a little page six story that whatever the band was, you know, Dunder Road, Springsteen cover band refuses to play the inauguration because they say the boss wouldn't want them to do it. So they cancel. So I show up at the New Jersey inauguration.

I go in the bathroom, I take myself up. I put on a Springsteen thing. And I come out with a karaoke CD and say, I'm the Bruce Springsteen cover band, cover band. Okay. They throw the DVD, the CD, and I get up on. stage and I sing a cover of Born in the USA called Don in the USA about how he had bone spurs. So no Kong for Don. He didn't fight the Vietnam.

And that was one time when the whole New Jersey continues like, hey, wait a second. I was like, we got to get out of it. How long did it take them to figure out? I got through the song. I got through the song. Yeah. How many appearances would you estimate until people started to realize that you were from Jimmy Kimmel and this was a.

joke. I think there's still, you know, there's still so many people that will like run with it, you know, the New York Times being one of them. Yeah, when I was just the last one I did at the verdict, you know, the news crews are coming over, CNN. That was a weird one because they, they had penned off all the, all the fans, all the Trumpers. And then they announced that Marchand wasn't going to give a verdict. So they all left. And then they gave the verdict. and all the lunatics were gone in the staging area. So I quickly ran into the staging area, and you just see all the cameras like,

that guy. It's a speaker for everyone. And they all wanted to talk to me because of them, you know. David Letterman would send out Rupert G, and they would do this earpiece. And Rupert would just kind of mess with people. Letterman would tell him what to say. And at one point, Rupert, this never aired, but Rupert was with, I believe, a car salesman.

And the car salesman pulled out a knife. and Dave Letterman said, we're not doing this anymore. Were there any dangerous moments like that where people, physical violence, you were threatened or you thought this might get ugly? The only time I ever got hit was I went to a Susan Lucci Star Ceremony, and I interrupted this woman who was very upset as she was talking about her Susan Lucci doll,

and she was really upset that I interrupt. Because people will talk on camera, and I'll come in and say, I agree with this guy, blah, the words in them up. And they're so freaked out about being on camera that they just let you talk. she was so upset that she started hitting me and I was telling I was going to sue her for her Susan Lucci doll. She just ran away. That's what I was going to ask you about that because do these people have to send release forms before you talk to them?

Or how do you do that with releases? With releases, I mean, sometimes if it's a news thing that then it's a, you know, I don't know. The producers, like it's changed over the years that we have to kind of let them know after the fact now. when we do stuff like Live Witness News or whatever we do now, we let people know. We'll sign them up, but after the fact, we'll tell them this is for Kim already. You were at the Hollywood show, which is this autographed show in Los Angeles, where it's a lot of older celebrities are selling their autographs and photos. And you do this bit that made me laugh so much because you're asking this gentleman,

I think it was about Lindsay Wagner maybe, who was a big star and you're like, And she's sitting right there, but you don't know that that's right. You know it's her as yourself. And it was so awkward. And I was wondering if, again, with people signing releases, if you needed to do that. But do you recall that segment when you did that? Remember going to Hollywood, yeah, I remember going that Hollywood signing thing. I did that a couple times.

The one thing I remember from that was that there was like a 90-year-old Chiquita Banana lady there. And Jake's, uh-uh, uh-uh, thing is that he's into really, really. old ladies. It bothers my wife a lot. And I'll just, like, if there's lunatic old ladies, I'll start making, Jake will start making out with them. No problem. I saw you have a photo with Charo on your Instagram, so that's great. Yeah. It's the best. Is it the point now when you do, when you go out is Jake that people will want photos with you, almost like Borat with Sasha? Yeah, there's, yeah, there's, yeah, I get that now. The, yeah, the, it gets sketch. I mean,

Jake will also, for some reason, I talked about him in the third person, but fearless. And we'll get, I mean, went to Mara Lago, got up on stage, Trump's podium, Mara Lago, you know, I'll just get it to anything. There was one time when Gloria Allred was representing the Octumomom and Jimmy's like, you should go down to crash them. Like, it's in her office in Studio City. It's like, oh, you can't get it?

I'm like, oh, I'll get in. I walked in with a boom mic and I sat in a chair, knowing that Gloria, all the cameras pointing this way, knowing that Gloria Alred was going to sit next to me. And she did. And then I got the jacket. And then my phone just starts ringing with who let the dogs out over and over throughout the whole press conference. Mom!

And with O.J., my daughter had knocked out this tooth the week before. And when O.J. had his verdict, I don't know if you've seen that one in Vegas, I got up with Yale Galantor and the other guy and did the whole press conference. next as if I was on OJ's defense team that was a lunatic one yeah it is one of those things you're completely fearless how did you find out that fans were outside of Tom Cruise's home and

Katie Holmes when they had their daughter because you show up and you hand cigars out correct to the fans I didn't know that that was a thing that people would do that outside of people's homes and you just showed up as as Jake and handed out

yeah we used to do a lot of Jake anything celebrity driven. I would go to all the star ceremonies until the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce asked the show to stop sending me. I remember yelling at Matthew Broderick that we forgive him for Godzilla. Some people will get a kick out of then

and they'll laugh. Did anybody get upset? Any of the famous people from doing that? No, you know, the famous people, like, not really. No, they're all fine. They'll laugh. Yeah, but oh, yeah, had people, yeah, really, really upset.

Get that got the fuck away from me. And, yeah, one guy's just, like, screaming at me. I'm going to call. I'm going to tell those cops. I'm pleaded with them. Please don't tell. Don't tell. Don't tell.

Don't tell. I am. I'm telling. Don't tell. Pre-chimmie Kimmel, you wrote for The Man Show. Did you have to do a submission or Jimmy already knew your work. So did you have to do it? Yeah, no, Jimmy did my stuff?

But, yeah, we all wrote for it. the, yeah, I was on the pilot of the man show. I wrote the bit that was really kind of like still, the kind of stuff Jimmy loves to do is, you know, the hypocrisy catching somebody, what is it, foisting them on their own petard, kind of just flipping something. So I wrote a bit on the pilot where we had women sign a petition

to end women's suffrage. I remember, no, I remember. And then there's one woman that says, no, they're making fun of you. But it's all these women that are, signing the petition. Yes, I think we need to end suffrage. That would be women's right to vote. They basically thought it had something to do with suffering and in women's efforts, but it was the right to vote. That was probably one of the most famous man show pieces. Are there any others that

you're particularly proud of that you wrote? I did so much. Yeah, we did so much man stuff. I wrote Jimmy's monkey wife when he marries a divorce his wife and marries a chimpanzee. were you there when him and Adam cut the line at the Star Wars? Oh, that was my bet. Yeah, that was my bet. Because there were all these people, they basically cut the line. The people were camping up for days for Star Wars. And the fans just start, and they're both, and you can't tell who they are because they both are,

once dressed up like Darth Mall. I forget what the other one. And it was just, the fans just are so upset. And you can tell. They're wearing T-shirts that say, first in line for Star Wars, first to see Star Wars. And they cut the line. Look, I got the shirt. It says first to see Star Wars.

Yeah. Because it's great. You know, like, who are you going to get angry about? Star Wars fans? And then eventually when the fans find out what it is, then did they think it was funny and they were okay with it? No, they were pissed the whole time. And it made a local news thing that night. Fans got upset when two people tried to cut the line.

Hal Fishman talking about our prank. How long do you think it took Jimmy Kimmel's line? the show to really find its voice. Because it really, if I had to answer it, I'd say at least a few seasons to really figure out what the show was. Would you agree with that?

Is that fair to that? Definitely. I mean, Jimmy's just, also, I mean, he had such a background in interviewing, you know, from just decades on the radio and just, and he's,

he's such an attention to detail guy. He knows everything about a subject before he gets into. it. You know, he's not going to go in, you know, without fully knowing it. And, uh, but yeah, I mean, and obviously the voices evolved, you know, to where we are now. The, uh, it's, you know, we didn't, we, we weren't doing as much legislative analysis at the beginning. I talked to Jimmy once about Jill Leatherman when she came in. And Jill's amazing. She was a wonderful, wonderful producer. And he said when Jill came in, um, you know, the place got a lot nicer. She was kind of like the

mother ahead. Is that what you experienced? Was it an environment for whatever reason just wasn't as warm prior to Jill? Is that, do you agree with that? Well, I mean, it was always friendly and it was always familial, you know. It really is a huge family. That's what I thought. Whenever I've been over there, I've been over to visit, people have been so nice to me. I've only had good experiences over there.

And, you know, she replaced the EP before that, who was this, you know, kind of mercurial British guy, Duncan and who was great, but not necessarily, not overtly warm like Jill. Yeah. I don't know if you ever heard of the Jill prank stuff. No, tell me. She would have these, like once a year, a couple of our EPs would have their birthday. So Jill would throw a party in her office with Taco Bell and these big parties. And Jimmy's in the other building.

And so she came in. So it's packed in her office. And she's on the other side. and she doesn't see Cousin Sal get on her computer and start just firing off emails from Jill's computer to Martin Short. Ask Martin Short to play like a John Wayne Bobbitt's penis in a sketch. And I'd love it if you could play John Wayne like that kind of stuff.

And then sent Jimmy an email, Hey, love, I know you're busy, but we're all having Taco Bell over here in the office. It would be great if you could come over and wish everyone a happy birthday. has no fucking time for this to which he responded with some of us work in the afternoon which has become kind of like a you know

a thing that we throw around whenever anyone's screwing around some of us work in the afternoon some of us I heard Jimmy in an interview talk about the interns like he would talk to all the interns on the first day and welcome them to the show which I think is great because I don't know any other host

that does that and he would give them advice about how to succeed at the show and he said only one or two of them would actually follow that advice. Do you know what he would say to the interns? I don't. That's okay. I mean, you know, everyone is approachable on that show, you know. Yeah.

We do, we did a few weeks ago our staff holiday party. It's a karaoke party. And so I emce it. And I walk around with the pad and go to different tables out in our parking lot. and people are terrified to lock eyes with me because I'm going to say, all right, what are you singing? I'm not singing. And I went up to the table of P.A.'s this year.

But all right, who's singing here? And we have one P.A. Rachel, so sweet, very quiet, very sweet. And I said, Rachel, are you going to sing? I'll sing Barbara Streisand. I'm like, all right, what is this? And she got up and did, don't rain on my parade. It was very quiet. Just don't tell me.

And this nailing it. And at the end, when it's the Mr. Arnstein, here I am, she came to the end of the stage, Jimmy Kimmel, here I am. And the place went nuts. And she got up like, do you call your mom about that? She goes, my mom is so proudly. I love that. Her mom is like, you sing, you get out there.

You show Jimmy what you got, you know. Her shining moment. It's very, it's very familial, you know. Who are one or two of the best guest host, the people that maybe could even host a show or come close in terms of their skill set that did. really well guest hosting because not everyone can do that when we first started the guest host i always sensed that it was like maybe they're just auditioning people to uh you know either replace him or to have another show or whatever it seemed like a great audition platform but now it just

seems like no one's going to replace jimmy it's just unreplaceable and uh but i mean obviously like last time we had martin short on and that's just like for all of us it was just unbelievable. I got to do a bit with Jiminy Glick is just the greatest thing, you know. And I mean, he blows, Martin Short blows everybody else away. He's great. But, you know, when you get comedians, when you get comedians, the, comedians, I think, are the best ones. Whoever's a stand-up comic. They're just comfortable. Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, like a celebrity who's not necessarily a, And they get nervous and they get nervous. You don't, you don't have to name a name unless you want to, but can you tell me how, how would you tell they're nervous? Are they shaking backstage?

Are they, how can you tell? You know, you just, just a monologue delivery, you know, reading like a script and not reading it like a monologue, you know, just, I'm going to get this and we're nail this, going to be in the list. But the, yeah, the ones who are, you know, Camel just like, bam, bam, bam, people like that are just. It was great. Which guest hosts brought in their most material of their own winning really prepared just with... Oh, jelly roll. No, I don't know. Yeah, just wasn't sure if there was anybody that was really hands-on with their hosting, with bringing in and prepared material.

Yeah, I mean, Martin Short had a lot of ideas that he wanted to do. And a lot of people wanted try to do the bits that we do because they liked, like, like, lie witness news or something like that, the man on the streets. But those are, you know, those are a different animal. to do. He tried to do a live witness news as Jimmy Glicke and we're like, this is not going to work. And it didn't, but I applaud him for trying

just because he loved that bit. Were there any Jake Bird pieces that you couldn't air for whatever reason legally or they just didn't work? I went to Vana White's star ceremony and I had a Vana White Pride shirt on and that one didn't air.

Why? Things got really ball in what the Van of White's pride shirt with the crowd. Oh, my goodness. Oh, I see. Yeah. So you were like this. I got a white power. I get that now. So they were like, no, we're not going to do this.

If you had to put in a time capsule three pieces that you worked on, Jimmy Kimmel Live that you're proud of for people in 50 years to watch, what are some of the pieces that you're the most proud of? Well, I took Miss South Carolina to the Octumum's house to find out where babies came from. I know. I'm just trying to remember pre-Trump's stuff. It was a long time ago. I mean, the show used to be so, I don't want to say fun, but it wasn't as, you know.

It was different. Yeah. I mean, we were doing Twilight parodies with the cast of Jersey Shore. It was Polly D. as a werewolf who kept licking himself, you know, stuff like that. Classic entertainment. Classic. Yeah. I mean, I love the Jake.

I love the Jake stuff with the, you know, maybe that first Jake Trump thing was just so crazy because I got right with them. And, yeah, it's just such, you know, how long's it been going on? 22 years? Something like that, yeah? Was that 2003? Something like that? Yeah, yeah.

There's just so many. What stands out the initial, with the initial show when they would have guest sidekicks and the open bar back, or for the all? audience, those initial weeks of anarchy. What were they like? What stands out? What do you remember? I mean, it was probably the last time you saw Jimmy nervous.

It was just the very beginning because he got over that really quickly and just at such confidence. Because he knew what he wanted to do. But the, I mean, those early days, I'm sure maybe you heard about it, but like Jimmy's office used to be in the green room. He had his office that was attached to the green room and bunk beds for his kids,

Kevin and Katie, who would sleep in there. And the green room was just chaos. You know, it was a big Snoop, Mike Tyson kind of vibe and just a wafed of smoke and just madness in there. And here's Jimmy banging away with his kids sleeping. He finally, you know, wisely moved his office upstores. But yeah, it was just, it was Wild West and no one thought we were going to

really make it forever, but I don't know, it just seemed to, but he's such, I mean, the guy, Jimmy was not going to let it fail. He's just, he's going to work as hard as he can to like, this is going to happen. Yeah, he equated, he equated it early on with like, giving a fourth grader driving a school bus and learning as you go. What were the test shows like? Do you recall the test shows that didn't air? We did a, the big three did one promoting Windy City Heat with Tammy Faye Baker, which was Tell me about it. Yeah, we, we, well, Perry had a lot of things he did not want to talk about, and that's

all we wanted to talk about. And it became very violent. And he wanted to get up and he really wanted to sleep with Tammy Faye Baker and really thought he had a chance. Were there any guests to your knowledge, Jimmy Kim alive, that were banned other than someone like Andy Dick who was carried off by security, which I couldn't tell if it was a bit or not a bit.

Is there any, to your knowledge, anybody that was banned from the show? Not really banned, no. I mean, Omarosa walked out when we pulled out a, yeah, like, yeah, we're going to hook her up to a lie detector. And she was, and we weren't really going to do it, but we showed her the lie detector

and she freaked out. And so we're like, I guess we're not having Omarosa on again. But no, no one's really, I mean, Thomas Jane, who was like cursing on it when we're alive, kind of forced us to not be live anymore. But someone was going to do it, so he just did it. I thought I heard Jimmy say something about Jared Leto. Is that how you say his name, Jared Letto or Lee?

No, being maybe a difficult guest, but I don't know. That's all I've heard. I think, yeah, I mean, I think Jimmy was fine, fine with him. I think it was really hot and Jared Letto was wearing a scarf, and I think that bothered Jimmy. Oh, that's what it was. Tell me a story about working on the Oscars being backstage or during the show when Jimmy hosted. That's a blast. So a couple of Oscars ago, the cocaine bear was going to come out.

And so it was going to be, what's his name, Magic Mike? Oh, Channing Tatum is that? Tatum right. Canning Tatum was going to, um, was going to be the cocaine bear and present. And, uh, and then cocaine bear fought, uh, cocaine bear, uh, goes, you know, he can't, he can't do it. And they need someone to stand with Elizabeth Banks. And, and the night before like, hey, Tony, will you be cocaine bear? Yeah, absolutely. Elizabeth Banks, sure. And so, so we go to rehearsal. I'm cocaine bear with Elizabeth Banks. And at the Oscars, everybody at the Oscars, if you're working it, if you're a grip,

anything, you have to wear a tuxedo or a gown backstage. You see these guys who are working on. I'm fucking hating on, I'm walking out with the tank top and gym shorts because I got to go in the bear. Who the fuck is this guy? Why is this guy getting away with this? And so I do cocaine bear, and I go out with Elizabeth Banks. She, I don't know if you see.

Like when she steps out, she almost trips on her gown. And thank God she caught herself, but I was like, oh, then everything's off if she trips. I was like, I was just about to run over to her and grab her and scream, Does anybody have cocaine? And so we do the presentation, she and I, and then come off. And Jimmy's like, hey, when I do my stand-up from the audience, cocaine bear should come out and start mauling Malala. I'm like, oh, I don't know. People are going to like that.

And he's like, no, it'll be great. It'll be great. And so we go out there and Jimmy's doing the stand-up. Hey, when we come back, we've got this and this. Cocaine Bear, stop mauling Malala. And I'm over on Malala, she's laughing. And I fall down and I start crawling in the head shifts. And I can't see anything.

I'm trying to crawl through the Oscars to get out of there. And I just grab someone's legs. It's all I can see. I look up as Colin Farrell just looking down at me. When Jimmy did that prank at the Oscars bringing in the L.A. tour group, were they really had no idea what was going to happen. And they were unvetted. they were not screened.

That was legit. They were unvetted. They were very unbetted. Yeah. We've bet a lot heavier now. What was that like? I mean, that could have gone so many different ways to put all these tourists in front of A-list celebrities. What is going to happen?

Yeah, it was, yeah. I think he loves that. You know, that's the chaos of it. You just thrives in that. Yeah. Who are some of the guests that you went backstage at Jimmy came alive that you wanted to meet, that you just were like heroes of yours or that you were excited to me, that you took photos of you?

with or autographs or anything you know i think i'm like you and i just wanted to meet the legends you know when rickles was on the first time i had to meet rickles and uh and uh i was so it's so excited to meet rickles and i went back there and he had finished his uh segment and he said uh it's a pleasure it's a pleasure it's how was the bit how was it long was it long i said no no it wasn't long i mean it felt long but it wasn't long and he's like you got me you got me you got me and melbrooks who was like my child was real. And I had done a bit that night that I got to talk to Mel Brooks about. That was, I wrote a bit for that show that Mel Brooks was on about the fact that the two

popes were living together at the Vatican. There was an overlap where they're both staying together. So I wrote, can two popes survive each other with the fried band did the whole opening? And then I'm sitting there going, and the title is, oh, the God couple, obviously. But it's, when I was talking about that, I said, it would seem like I started with that title and worked backwards from it. And I go, and then the title just pops. She goes, the title was always in there. You had the title.

That's why you wrote the bit. You didn't even realize you had it. And it was just like just a great lesson from Mel Brooks. I love the fact I was reading in a newspaper interview. And you were, you said in first grade when your teacher asked the class, what do you want to be when you grew up that you answered Mel Brooks? first grade. Well, it was Hoffran bankrupt. Yes, of course. She was legend.

She was, yeah, she was dreaming. In terms of the writers that Jimmy Kimmel alive, in terms of your skill set, most late night shows will have monologue and sketch separate. Your show is everybody's together. Do you have

something specific that you feel like you're better at, or do you feel comfortable doing at all? I think we're all comfortable doing it all, but I've, but something, you know, I mean, our, the team that said Kimmel now, like everyone can do everything. I mean, it's like all stars, you know, we have, you know, Jesse McLaren who, did you work with him? Oh, yeah, we're doing that the Colbert Report. And on, on Twitter, what now X, I mean, he was a machine, a joke machine. And I think that's what got him on Kimmel's radar and got him higher. And he's great. And he's great pal. And Jesse Joyce,

the freaking assassin and the... Absolutely. The greatest Oscar joke of all time. What was that? What did he write? What was it? He wrote the Trump pastor jail time job. Oh, that was him.

Yeah, he, I live in a story, and he was here for years. And I used to see him in demand doing the roast and everything. I mean, so we have people like like Eric Zimmerman, who's just like an assassin joke writer, just phenomenal joke writer, you know. And certain people have more strengths in one way or the other, but everyone can do everything. Everyone can do everything. What are those New York shows like when you come to Brooklyn?

Does anything stand out, any stories? I mean, having Dave Letterman there or Howard Stern, probably some of the best late-night guest. What are those experiences like having them? I'm from Brooklyn originally. So when we first started going to Brooklyn, nobody was happier about us going to Brooklyn. And my dad, who was a nightclub owner in Bay Ridge.

accordion player right was a cordian yeah and uh and he would come in with the cast of goodfellas and uh look his his list of guests was like the little italy phone book of like oh my god and and he just loved and just he'd walk in with the and everyone in the tie like it was just the best so nobody was happy about Brooklyn and him but yeah Brooklyn is is is nuts the um i i would get to go out and and i generally get to go out and like shoot a couple bits before we start, you know, just to have some stuff in the can. You know, I did that hipster, a Hasidic, where it starts on, it's a close-up of a mustache. Oh, I know.

And stuff like that. Those are really fun. The Krasinski one was really fun, too, John Krasinski. I think I was showing where he lived maybe. I forget that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, going back and forth, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Brooklyn's just, it's a blast.

It's amazing that we survived. Oh, the first time we went to Brooklyn, the hurricane hit was, We got there. The day Hurricane Sandy hit was our first show. And so we were going to do it. And it was so sad. It was staying at the hotel. And Jimmy's whole thing with Brooklyn, no meal wasted.

We're going to Brooklyn. I've got a whole thing of this is what our meals are, lunch. Like he had it all planned out. And then everything shut down. And there's no food left in the hotel. And Molly walked up, his wife, with a sandwich with Jimmy. She goes, I managed to get to the last turkey sandwich. It has no turkey.

who is the saddest. Yeah, the Brooklyn shows were always fun. And I saw that photo of you and Billy Joel backstage in Brooklyn before the show. I was at his star ceremony. What was that like? Jake was at his star ceremony. I asked him, Billy, you said it's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday. When is the bar busy if it's not busy on Saturday?

You just needed three syllables. That's really fun that you had to do it. Did they ever, to your knowledge during Jim and Comeal Life, have to stop taping for some audience disaster or something on stage that just went haywire that they actually had to stop tape? I mean, we've had protesters and stuff, you know. Oh, okay, so protesters. And that's easily edited out. So just things like that.

Was there anything unerable that aired with a guest that was just like, I don't think we can air this? Not really. Not really. Nothing so bad that happened. No. No, it's pretty well controlled. But yeah, if there's hecklers or protesters, you know, yeah, the, that's generally, that's generally it. We had Kamala on and you just don't want to make a guest feel uncomfortable.

No, absolutely. And you can always edit the thing out. I know at Letterman, when I worked there, they had an audience member for Howard Stern's birthday, hacklay and singing happy birthday. And Dave wisely said, just let them be. Don't kick them out. We'll edit it out of the broadcast. and no one knew.

Really quick, let me interrupt you. How was your birthday? How was your birthday? It was just your birthday the other day. Oh, my birthday was good. I just turned, we don't have to say how old, but yeah. Yeah, thank you for noticing that it was just my birthday. What did you do for your birthday?

I went to Patsy's, which is Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson's territory on 56th Street. And I went upstairs to where Frank and Johnny Carson used to eat. They actually had their own entrance that was just a designated. on the side where Sinatra and Carson could walk in and out. So my wife and I went there. So that was really, really. Now, are you also a huge Sinatra guy as well as? I love Frank.

I had a Johnny Carson podcast for eight years. I know. I'm aware. I just wrote a book called Love Johnny Carson. So, but I love Sinatra. I love Tony Bennett. You've seen Tony Bennett more than I have, but I'm a big Tony Bennett, Sinatra fan.

Yeah. Yeah. Did you see Sinatra perform? I never got to see him. I never saw Sinatra perform. No. have to see him. My dad saw me. My dad had the record for the, uh, the most, the, the longest run at, uh, at the Copa Cabana. He played the, he played the lounge out just outside the main room.

So he would come home with stories about everybody every night. And, uh, yeah, yeah. You got to know Tony Bennett a little. I mean, I saw you at the Hollywood Bowl. I saw that photo of you and Bennett backstage. So you got to meet him a bunch of times. Correct. Yeah, I've met him a couple times. Yeah. And a dead, you were telling me before. we recorded and I have to look at this. He actually was in a movie. I didn't realize that Yeah, the Oscar. Yeah, look it up. It's incredible. Oh, yes.

Tony Bennett acting. It was the reason why he stuck to singing. Some of his best, best work. Who are some of your favorite musical bookings? Jim Pitt, who's a friend of mine who I love is over at Kimmel now and doing the music. But in terms of like the 20-plus years,

who were some of your favorite musical acts? Obviously Tony Bennett. Yeah. Sound check when he's there by himself. It was amazing. We saw Chris Cornell just before. Oh, wow. Sam Carl. And it was just him and a guy and Amanda Lynn and sound

check. There were like eight people in there. And of course, K-pop demon hunters. I mean, come on. Come on. I remember show number one, Coldplay. It seems to show number one, you have George Clooney and Colby. And then slowly the guests, Kimmel is having a hard time getting big

guest. It took a year or so. Yeah. I have the same same rotation of Kathy Griffin, David Allen Greer, Carolla. People don't remember. Conan at 1230 had the same thing happen. It took a year or two for him to start being able to get some A-list guest consistently. But people don't probably remember that that was a struggle for a while. But Conan was always breaking new bands. He always had that gone.

That was Jim Pet. Yeah, the genius of Mr. Johnman. Yeah, Jim is amazing, man. He's the greatest. I love that guy. Yeah, he's a good guy. Yeah, we had prints in our parking lot.

That was incredible. And I will say, coming back from the suspension and doing our show in Brooklyn the next week and starting Monday with Public Enemy doing Fight the Power is about as good as it's going to get. Are you already talking about how you might go out with the show if it does end? Do you have an idea? Not like it's like Vince Gilligan with the end of Breaking Bad, but in terms of guests that you might want or things that you might want to try. Are you already going there or not really?

No, there's no talk of that. I mean, right now it's just all, you know, it's the grindstone. I mean, we're in such a weird place right now, obviously. We have some monologues that are just, it's going to be a minute before we get to the jokes. We got to fill you in what's going on. So, you know, that's, and Jimmy handles it, you know, better than anybody at this point, I think. In terms of excitement, a jolt into the show. It reminds me a little bit of when Conan,

with the Tonight Show was going away when Jay Leno and just, Conan was just on, on fire in terms of the public's being behind. Kimmel, it really reminds me, the ratings going up and just the energy to that show. Could you feel that in the studio from the audience? You know, it was big before the suspension. After the suspension, it's, you know,

he gets a standing ovation every night. People are so pumped up and fired up. I mean, you know, people pay attention. and they see what's going on. And there's just fewer and fewer voices that are of dissent out there. Like, you know, Letterman called Jimmy the Leader of the Resistance. So there's something to that.

Are you in the studio in Hollywood when they did the April Fool's prank when Jimmy Fallon came out instead of Kimmel and Kimmel was in New York? Yeah, that was great. What did you witness in terms of the audience reaction? I mean, it was. Everyone was psyched. Everyone was just,

they're freaked out and just just the weirdness of it. Everyone just love the weirdness of it. I thought the audience was just in terms of when Fallon came out, I thought some people might be disappointed, but he did really well. The audience was really good.

I know that idea was being floated around for at least a year or two. They were talking about doing it. Are there anything like that that they didn't do for April Fool's ideas that almost happened that didn't happen? Like you can't really prank Jimmy can't really I mean It's tough to prank him

The only bit that we that really we kind of did without his knowledge Was I did with a cousin Sal and Sarah Silverman we did that a effing Matt Damon Sure Nominated for an Emmy I believe won the Emmy won the Emmy one the Emmy did it yes yes yes yes Yeah it's downstairs in my daughter's room It's the only Emmy emmy statue that has the effing word on it. It's amazing. Never thought about that. Also, didn't they do

successfully? Wasn't there a prank with, was it Rihanna that showed up in the middle of the night to wake up? Yeah, they were waking Jimmy up in the middle of the night. He's used to that now. That was legit. He has no idea. No idea. And Molly lets him in and yeah. So those are I don't know how he's okay with that.

I don't know how he's okay with that. But he's okay. Like, yeah, if you do it to me, he's fine with it. But I guess if you wake up it's Rihanna on top of you. I never know. But yeah, to be able to successfully prank him. Tony, thank you so much for talking to us. I really appreciate that.

And thanks for the birthday shout out. Nobody, a guest has never done that before. And I've done a lot of these. So I appreciate this. Oh, thanks for having me, Mark. Next time I'll tell you all my Johnny Carson stories. Yes. Tons of them.

Yes, I know dozens and dozens. I really appreciate this. Thank you, sir. Oh, man. Thank you, by it. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode on Apple Podcast. please rate it and leave a review, be sure to go to late-nighter.com for all your late-night

TV news, and you can find my podcast at late-nighter.com forward slash podcasts. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.