I only "discovered" the Comedy Central last year, so I have missed the prime of two Comedy Central popular talk shows: The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's Daily Show. A few months before Stephen Colbert concluded his show, I started to watch and enjoyed the Colbert Report and the Daily Show in a daily basis (thanks to TiVo). Shortly after I "lost" the Colbert Report, I watched Jon Stewart announced his "retirement" on the show, and I was both disappointed and concerned. Who would pick up the political satire talk shows, and could do as good a job as these two? If you ask me, it seems very much like a drought season for the TV comedic talk show business. Of course, Stephen Colbert is going to succeed David Letterman, and Jimmy Fallon already picked up the Tonight's show, so I started recording the Tonight's Show and catch up with them whenever my time permits.
Let me first say that every comedian has his or her special authenticity. It is a personal taste for the audience to like or dislike a certain style. Jimmy Fallon is young and relatively well established in the show business, because he was already doing the Late Night show for years before filling Jay Leno's big shoes. Jimmy Fallon is a likeable and humble person, at least that's how it shows anyway. He has talents in many areas such as lip synching, dancing, and very quick on his feet like a perfect New Yorker. As I was watching him, I couldn't help but wonder if there were room for improvements for his shows.
So here are my observations and thoughts.
Is it me or is it true that Jimmy Fallon's monologues are not as long or funny as the others? From most of the shows I watched, and I didn't watch many, his monologues were relating to politicians. His jokes basically start with Hillary Clinton, and end with Ted Cruz. I almost felt like there weren't enough monologues and I wanted to hear more.
I like "hashtag", because it shows that he embrace modern social media to reach out to his audience. Always a smart thing to do.
He has to work on his interviews. Most of the time he talks too much and didn't allow the guests speak. There were times when he kept talking (about the guests) while the guest sat there nodding, because there was no leading question. The one I could think of is the nice and happy Taylor Swift. I thought she might be wondering, "Why am I here?" Other times when the more proactive guests would interrupt him. His recent interview with Mrs. Obama was a perfect example, he was talking about her healthy campaign and didn't leave any room for her, so the skilled First Lady finally interrupted him and said the purpose and achievements of her campaign. Remember, when you interview someone, it's not about you, it's about them. Some other times Jimmy was definitely flustered when beautiful actresses flirted with him, his recent interview (two days ago) with the Geogeous and fun Scarlett Johansson, for example. I guess it's natural that he was flustered, but the fact that I could see it is not very good for Mr. Host of the Tonight's show.
He introduced games with his guests, it is an interesting concept, but honestly, most of them were not funny. Some of them, at least, I could tell the guests were caught off guard and weren't having fun. The one came to mind was his interview and game with Colin Firth. I no longer remember the details, but I thought it was kind of boring. Games with guests is tricky because actors when they are off the stage, they are not entertainers anymore, and they bring their own personalities to your show, and not all of them are so fun or upbeat or entertaining or quick. Right?
So what else, oh, he really has to work on expanding his vocabulary. Every time he introduces a guest, she is always "the greatest, and he loves her." He uses the same lines of introduction for "hashtag," and it makes me feel like I was watching a rerun of the show. Is it out of laziness or other reason? I don't know, but it's better if he doesn't do this.
Constructive advice maybe hard to hear, but I wrote this down because I like Jimmy Fallon and I think he could definitely get better as he matures in his job. If he listens to me, he may improve sooner, and make me a happier audience. If I don't care about him, I wouldn't spend time to watch his shows nor waste time to write this down on a perfect Saturday morning.
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