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picture of him from 1981.” That couldn’t happen today.
For reasons that defy logic, I still have a young audience. Fifteen-
year-olds are really into the weird stuff I do, and I can’t explain to them
what it was like when I started out. They can’t grasp it. It feels like I
might as well have started in the Eisenhower administration.
You are now at 22-23 years and definitely the late-night king in terms
of longevity. Is there sort of this sense of vindication that you’ve outlasted all
of them?
I don’t think so. I don’t look at it like that, because they started
before me. My main concern is the quality. I do enjoy viscerally
making people laugh and being silly, and if they’re laughing at me
that’s okay, too. I’m still interested in finding new ways to do it.
With the travel shows, and the different stuff we’ve been doing,
the remotes we’ve been doing that go on the Internet, I think that’s
happening. I was just in Korea. They don’t even get my show in
Korea – it doesn’t air there. But young people there really like the
remotes I do on YouTube, and they’ve translated them for each other
and put their own subtitles in. And it became a thing. I’m just trying
to stay in the now. I know it’s such a Santa Barbara phrase, but it’s
what I do every day.
Or at least very Oprah.
Yes, exactly! When I was caught climbing over Oprah’s wall,
before she called the police she told me, “Stay in the now.”
What do you do to keep the show and your characters fresh?
I’m blessed with good writers. I have had so many genius ones
come up with funny things that keep invigorating me. And it’s also
the change in technology, which you could be afraid of. But for me,
it’s all happened very naturally. I review video games on the show, and
that’s become very popular in the community... I don’t even like video
games! I’m terrible at them. The big video-game companies insist that
I review their games. I tell them, “I’m going to say lousy things about
your game, just because I’m a frustrated middle-aged man who doesn’t
know how to play video games.” But they want to give me a sneak-
peek of a game that cost $8 billion to develop, so I can mock it. I’m
like, “How did I get this to happen?”
On the other hand, you’ve held rather steadfast to the concept of your
style of comedy, not trying to keep up with the Jimmy Fallons or whoever.
Everybody has got to play their instrument their way. I don’t want
to be rigid just for the sake of it, but there are core things that I believe
PROFILES
