 |
 |
If you think Ed McMahon knows every Tonight Show story there is to tell, well, you are correct, sir.
The 83-year-old late night legend drops by Toronto tomorrow night to perform Ed McMahon: Memories Of The Tonight Show (The Music Hall, 147 Danforth Avenue, 8 p.m.).
From 1962 to 1992, announcer McMahon spent 30 years as Johnny Carson's "second banana." Even before that, the ex-marine and World War II and Korea veteran worked game shows with the Nebraska native. Their 46-year association is all in McMahon's book, Here's Johnny!: My Memories Of Johnny Carson.
With Carson's passing in 2005, McMahon is the closest the rest of us will ever get to knowing Carson, an intensely private man who rarely gave interviews.
"I think it was his Midwest upbringing," says McMahon of Carson's famous reticence. "He never wanted to air his dirty laundry in public."
Even on the show, Carson seldom bantered with guests before or even during the commercial breaks. "He wanted all the best stories to happen on the show," McMahon says.
|
His own meetings with Carson were always brief. If the two of them had a skit to rehearse, like when Carson dressed up as "Aunt Blabby," they would do a quick run-through in Carson's office. (McMahon says they got those kinds of details right on The Larry Sanders Show, Gary Shandling's brilliant Tonight Show parody.)
"We never rehearsed Carnac," said McMahon of the talk show's most famous desk bit. Carson would stumble out in a black poncho and oversized turban and devine answers to questions in envelopes handed to him by McMahon. (Example: "Sis Boom Bah." Question: "Describe the sound of an exploding sheep.")
It was McMahon who came up with all that nonsense about the envelopes being "hermetically sealed and kept in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls' porch since noon that day." The build-up always drew a withering look and a zinger from the host.
McMahon says audience members will get to wear the turban and work the bit with him tomorrow night on stage. He'll also show clips of highlights from the show.
McMahon's second-banana role seems to be a lost art on TV these days.
Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel all banter with their band leaders but there is no designated sidekick on the couch. McMahon isn't sure why that is, but notes that Leno seems to be throwing to bandleader Kevin Eubanks more and more these days.
Of the current late-night talkers, McMahon is most impressed with CBS's Craig Ferguson. "I'm amazed at how he comes up with those off-the-cuff monologues every night. He doesn't just do jokes, he tells stories. I don't know how he does it."
McMahon says the late Phil Hartman did the best Ed McMahon impersonation. McMahon recalls Hartman coming over to the house for dinner. "Phil did me for five minutes at the door -- he did me better than I do me," McMahon says.
As for all those outrageous urban legends that have sprung up surrounding Tonight Show antics over the years, McMahon thinks they all really happened. Most can't be printed in a family paper, but one involved golfer Arnold Palmer, his wife, and his golf balls. The balls apparently got kissed for luck before every tournament. "That must have made your putter stick out," was supposedly Carson's snappy reply.
"Let me put it this way -- I can't deny that it didn't happen," McMahon says. "I may have been off that night."
Whether it did or didn't happen, he says it sounds like Carson.
"Johnny was such a rascal, he would usually do it and get away with it. It was a more innocent time back then and we were always hearing from standards and practices. I don't know what happened to those standards -- there seems to be no standards today and a lot more practices."