If you have any interest in late-night TV or comedy or SNL
or just good (mostly) clean fun, you
probably know that Jimmy Fallon took over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno
recently (February 17, to be exact). There was some fanfare and, for a few days
after his opening night, there was some particular interest in Catholic
circles, stemming from the fact that Jimmy Fallon was raised Catholic, went to
Catholic schools (included his college experience at St. Rose where he majored
in Communications before dropping out), and (at least according to his
interview with Teri Gross), tried going back to church while he was out in LA
but got discouraged by what he saw there.
(no this video has nothing to do with post. I just like it.)
Teri Gross is a great interviewer and has a wonderfully wide
repertoire and rapport with her guests. But I felt like she couldn’t quite get
what Jimmy Fallon was saying in his interview—there is a real (albeit
surprising) connection between what he does and being a priest. If you look at
Fallon’s comments, he is letting Teri lead him to calling himself the
priest-performer at church, but what he relates most to is the altar boy role. He
loved the way people felt at the end of mass. Either way, what it gets at (and
which Teri, understandably, didn’t seem to get) is the unusual nature of the
priest’s role: he’s central to the mass, he is the principal agent, but the
mass is not really about him: it’s about Someone Else. Fallon is very much like
this as the Tonight Show’s host: he’s funny, but he doesn’t really make the
show about him. This was particularly obvious on his opening night of the
Tonight Show, where there was a lot of very sincere thanking on Fallon’s part
and a sort of glad surprise that he had gotten to this place. Fallon is funny, but
he’s not that witty. He’s a great comic actor and imitator, but he’s not a
verbal jabber. There is a gentleness, a
charity in his dealings that makes the show fun: he wants people to feel good
at the end of a show, just like he saw people feeling good after going to
church. If I were a celebrity, that would be very appealing to me: a show where
I get to have fun and look good to boot. What’s not to like? Jimmy’s years spent as an altar boy must
serve him well: years mirroring the priest at mass, even imitating him, but not
really mocking him. That’s obvious in the funny but somewhat wistful nature of
Fallon’s remarks to Teri Gross, and it’s exactly what makes him such a great
host: he seems to genuinely like and be excited by the people on his show.
There is a warmth and humility and generosity of spirit that in his approach
that might seem just naïve if he weren’t such a natural. He’s not there to
bring them down, he’s there to lift them up. And if he gets to go along for the
ride, that’s even better. No wonder he
is so good at it.
Here is the “Catholic” portion of Fallon’s interview on NPR
in 2010 with Teri Gross. The entire transcript is available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=136462013
GROSS: So you went to Catholic school when you were young.
Mr. FALLON: Oh yeah.
GROSS: Did you have..
Mr. FALLON: I wanted to be a priest.
GROSS: Did you really?
Mr. FALLON: Yeah. I loved it.
GROSS: Why?
Mr. FALLON: I just, I loved the church. I loved the idea of it.
I loved the smell of the incense. I loved the feeling you get when you left
church. I loved like how this priest can make people feel this good. I just
thought it was, I loved the whole idea of it. My grandfather was very
religious, so I used to go to mass with him at like 6:45 in the morning serve
mass and then you made money too if you did weddings and funerals. They'd give
you, you'd get like five bucks. And so I go okay, I can make money too. I go
this could be a good deal for me. I thought I had the calling.
GROSS: Do you think part of that calling was really show
business? 'Cause like the priest is the performer at church.
Mr. FALLON: Yeah. You know what - I really Terry, I'm, I
recently thought about this. Again, I've never been to therapy but I guess that
would be, it's being on stage. It's my first experience on stage is as an altar
boy. You're on stage next to the priest, I'm a co-star.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: I'm, I've got...
GROSS: Also starring Jimmy Fallon.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: Yeah, I have no lines but I ring bells. I ring bells
and I swing the incense around. But it was my - and you know, you are
performing. You enter through a curtain, you exit through the, I mean you're
backstage. I mean have you ever seen backstage behind an altar? It's kind of
fascinating.
GROSS: Right.
Mr. FALLON: So I think it was, I think it was my first taste of
show business and I think - or acting or something.
GROSS: And there are comparisons, I think, between a theater and
a church. There are just kind of places that are separated from outside
reality.
Mr. FALLON: Yeah. And I remember I had a hard time keeping a
straight face at church as well.
GROSS: Did you?
Mr. FALLON: Which - yeah...
GROSS: Did you do imitations of the priest?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: Oh, of course. Yeah. I used to do Father McFadden
all the time. He's the fastest talking priest ever. He's be like...
(Soundbite of mumbling)
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: And then you leave and you go, that - what was that?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: That guy's the best. I mean that was church? Sign me
up. I'll do church I'll do it 10 times a day if that's church. He was great.
GROSS: Do you still go to church?
Mr. FALLON: I don't go to - I tried to go back. When I was out
in L.A. and I was like kind of struggling for a bit I went to church for a
while, but it's kind of, it's gotten gigantic now for me. It's like too,
there's a band. There's a band there now and you got to, you have to hold hands
with people through the whole mass now, and I don't like doing that. You know,
I mean it used to be the shaking hands piece was the only time you touched each
other.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
Mr. FALLON: Now I'm holding now I'm lifting people. Like Simba.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: I'm holding them (Singing) ha nah hey nah ho.
(Speaking) I'm I'm doing too much. I don't want - there's
Frisbees being thrown, there's beach balls going around, people waving
lighters, and I go this is too much for me. I want the old way. I want to hang
out with the, you know, with the nuns, you know, that was my favorite type of
mass, and the Grotto and just like straight up, just mass-mass.
