I'm here in Los Angeles, and I survived. Thursday night I gave my first public reading lecture for Dangerously Funny, at the Skirball Cultural Center -- and also taped my appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which will be shown Friday night (early Saturday) at 12:35 a.m. ET on CBS.
As today's BEST BETS describes it: "SEE the author of Dangerously Funny on tonight's Ferguson show! WATCH as he's too afraid to look at the audience! GASP as he freezes, and hems and haws, like Ralph Kramden on 'The $99,000 Answer'!...
I was absurdly nervous and apprehensive about going on Ferguson, even though I knew I was totally among friends. To their credit, everyone involved with the show coddled me, like the TV equivalent of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, and held-held me at every step, up to the point when I was waiting in the wings, just offstage, for the previous guest, Emily Blunt, to walk off, and for my turn to enter.
I could have chatted with Emily Blunt, star of The Devil Wears Prada and the new The Young Victoria, beforehand in the Green Room, but I stayed in my own dressing room area instead. I was nervous enough, without having to fumble through small talk with a gorgeous and talented actress. All I wanted to do was avoid anything that would make me more nervous, including, at that moment, beautiful British women.
And that approach might have worked, except for Craig Ferguson himself. After Emily left, but just before he introduced me to the audience, Craig snuck to my edge of the studio and said, with a mock-villainous affect, a raised eyebrow and a playful sneer, "So, at last we meet on the field of battle." Or something like that. The whole thing's pretty much of a blur.
I do remember admitting, right from the outset, that TV critics should be watching TV, not on it, and that I couldn't even LOOK at the audience. I remember, when asked what shows I hated, offering up Jay Leno -- so don't look for me on THAT show soon. As in ever. And I remember Craig being really, really nice, and playful, and pulling me through the whole thing.
And, at some point, getting to see Wavy the Crocodile or Alligator up close. That's Wavy with David Duchovny at left, from an earlier show.
(Wavy, Craig's most popular hand puppet, doesn't know which one he is. I could have told him, but, on national TV wasn't about to. I used to cook a lot of exotic meats: alligator tastes like chicken, and crocodile tastes like conch or calimari. I don't expect Wavy would have appreciated the taste-test ID option.)
The pre-taping ended at 7, and I was supposed to speak, across town, at the Skirball Cultural Center at 7:30. In Los Angeles traffic, at rush hour. My magician of a driver, snaking through empty streets in Beverly Hills I never knew existed, somehow got us there at 7:35, and I rushed to the stage -- still wearing makeup from, and shaken by, the Late Late Show appearance -- and gave a 90-minute lecture on the Smothers Brothers.
The audience was attentive and supportive, and the setup felt very much like one of my lecture-hall classes at Rowan University, so I instantly felt comfortable, and on solid ground. I think it went well, I signed a bunch of books afterward, and people who came to see me included Ken Fritz (one of the Smothers Brothers' managers and producers, and a key interview for my book), Paul Brownstein (producer of the new, and fabulous, Time Life DVD Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour sets), and my son, Mark, who lives in Los Angeles.
The Skirball folks, like the Late Late Show crew, couldn't have been nicer. Thanks to all, really, truly. And now, for the weekend, I get to take a breather, and steel for the reviews. (Damned critics.)
People magazine's Caroline Leavitt, in the Dec. 14 issue, just gave it 3 1/2 stars, and called it "a stunningly alive portrait of the '60s." That's a great start...