Meanwhile, Craig Ferguson's guest last night was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, not exactly a mainstay of late-night entertainment. Ferguson's conversation with the clergyman was by turns serious, funny, and sometimes both simultaneously ("When you don't forgive, frequently you feel it in your tum-tum," said the Archbishop, patting his own tummy) as they talked about race, God, good and evil. And nagging wives. All without reading from cue cards or notes. "I think you're crazy!" Tutu chuckled at one point. Craig also told an excellent chess joke involving bishops.
Now, I am not for a second suggesting that late-night hosts should start booking more serious guests to boost their cred -- even Ferguson said this hour contained "all the stuff that you don't come to the show for." Nor am I saying Fallon was the lesser host for yukking it up with Diaz while Ferguson chatted up a Nobel Peace Prize winner. These guys both make their living being, as Craig described himself last night, "a vulgar lounge entertainer."
What I am saying is that Ferguson did a damn fine job interviewing Bishop Tutu without being intimidated or fawning, and in so doing, demonstrated the range of tones and subject matter that can be addressed on late-night TV to which Fallon can only aspire. No, I'm not sitting here hoping Fallon books the Archbishop of Canterbury on his show to demonstrate his chops and competitiveness (although, Jimmy, there's a goldmine of comedy in all that some-churches-seceding-from-the-church thing going on in the Episcopal church).
http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/03/jimmy-fallon-cr.html
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