An Iconic Passing

I appeared on The Tonight Show Staring Johnny Carson nearly 50 times.

In the late eighties/early nineties I made a living as a stand-up comedian. And at many times I thought about my own appearances on “Carson.” The show was always referred to by his last name, never its given title. He was bigger then the show - he held the power and he generously shared it.

The subtext of any comedy career shoptalk always included “doing your Carson.” Every comic carefully constructs the scenario that leds to that career moment. They each know that some night someone who sat in an audience would pass along the phrase to someone who worked for Carson - ya gotta check this kid out.

We would imagine the call and the date being set. We would envision the next weeks of performances would include the 3-5 minute set that would be our Carson material. Next, we worked on how to casually look to our stage right to capture his reaction to see if we would get the Wave.

Oh the Wave, the Wave wasn’t priceless because it held real monetary value. The Wave meant the your price went up even more. Now when you worked Wichita, you get paid big money. And depending how you did when the Wave resulted in your sitting on the couch and wittily bantering with Carson, it would mean better gigs, a sitcom, an emmy, movies, oscars, millions and millions and the greatest of all, the chance to tell everyone who thought you would outgrow this “comedy thing” - nah nah I made it.

But alas, for many reasons I “outgrew comedy.” My nearly fiftysome performances on Carson are limited to the current unaired episodes of the “The J. S. Guy Show” which play on the Imagination Channel.

Yet even through the various places my life and its career has taken me, I still think of ways I could be booked as a guest. Even tonight, I will turn to my wife at 11:30 eastern time; 10:30 central and say “here is the story I would tell if I got to sit on the couch with Carson.” And for the thousandth time she will hear about me, Dennis Farina and tollway change.

Now that Carson has left the room, I know that his gift lives on in that little part of our brains where we keep the televised view of our dreams.