On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 7:38 AM, Jon Delfin <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thought I'd get 2013 started with a fight. > > http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/12/30/another-dave-n-jay-post/ The "quote": "I’ve never met anyone quite like Jay. And I will say, and I’m happy to say, I think he’s the funniest guy I’ve ever known. Just flat out. If you go and see him do his nightclub act — just the funniest, the smartest, wonderful observationist and very appealing as a comic. Therefore, the fact that he is maybe the most insecure person I have ever known — I could never reconcile that." I am not sure why, but this quote seems to be the gift that keeps on giving for Oprah, as I have seen various pieces and posts on it around the web for about two weeks now, always as if it just came out (see, for example, this one from December 21: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/letterman-leno-late-night-tv_n_2340547.html). I take it Oprah has an effective and long lasting PR machine - though I have never heard of this particular program before. It did get me to set my DVR for the Dave interview, and the Colbert interview (apparently a repeat, and one I think I remember hearing about earlier in the year) - apparently they are rerunning a bunch of Oprah interviews from 2012 before this new won with Dave next Sunday. I agree with Evanier, who has long seemed to me willing to extend Leno every benefit of the doubt (and of course I never pretend that I am not more than willing to do the same for Dave) that the quote could have been given about either guy about the other guy, but, not surprisingly, Evanier spends his while piece only looking at how it does not apply to Leno and only applies to Dave. Evanier does not cite any sources for his claims that Dave's writers feel like he gives them the "Jerry Lewis Treatment" (cutting out their funniest lines because he wants to be funnier than his material), so it is hard to know how to evaluate that. I can't claim to have insider access to Late Show writers, though from what I have read I would have thought the consensus is more that Dave is tough on his writer's material, but not that he is insecure about making his writers look good. On that Nerdist interview last year the most negative thing they said was that when Dave loses confidence in a bit during the show he will rush through it, so they found it important to make sure there is something funny up front to keep him invested (of course we might not expect current senior writers and producers to say terribly negative things about their boss for attribution). But I think we know from what Dave has said over the years about Leno that much of what he refers to in this quote about Leno's insecurity has to do not with his relationship with his own writers or staff, but his relationship with his peers. Dave has always implied that Leno was the kind of guy who would laugh with his peers in the parking lot or the bar after the comedy club had closed down for the night, but then maneuver behind the scenes to get himself a better spot and screw the other guys. This was the sense in which I think Dave meant that the Leno we saw embroiled in the dance of death with Conan O'Brien was the Leno he knew from back in the day. And I think he always means that this is surprising to Dave particularly because Leno was always the funniest and most polished comic in the room, and so would obviously have been successful even without the maneuvering. It is this kind of thing that I take to be what Dave meant when he said Leno was insecure, though perhaps the entire interview will reveal more. I doubt that Dave would deny his own insecurities - though his interview with Alec Baldwin last year revealed to me a guy who has come to terms with a lot of those. Interestingly, like Conan O'Brien, Dave seems to be at peace now doing the kind of show that fits into the kind of life he wants to lead. Many critics miss the more obsessive, hard-working Dave who would come in early and on weekends and tape those remote pieces and review every joke and every bit, but he seems to realize that at this point in his life the show, while important, is no longer more important that his personal life. I will be interested in what he says about his relationship with his wife - I suspect it will be something along the lines that being blackmailed about his affair forced him to realize that at his age he has very few degrees of freedom left to make his relationship with his wife and son work. Having been forced though a serious of unfortunate events to sit through an entire Tonight Show monologue about a month ago, I can say that what jumped out to me about that quote was Dave continuing to see Leno as funny - though with the qualification that you have to see his nightclub act, I am less surprised. As I and others here have noted repeatedly over the years, when Leno is almost anyplace else besides the Tonight Show stage, he comes across not just as funny, but as smart and insightful. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
