it's hard to explain to young people
today but in the late 1980s
there was no bigger deal
for a stand-up comic than to be offered
a slot
on johnny carson's tonight show it was
it overnight changed careers you were
doing well enough
that the booker for the tonight show saw
you and said
johnny's going to love this guy and
offered you a slot on the tonight show
to which you said i said
no thank you
[Laughter]
people were killing for that what what
were you thinking
i mean you know this i have a lot of uh
delusions of grandeur
but one of the things i was thinking was
like i'm not changing my act
to go on the today show because remember
even though people loved it
there was something i grew up watching
prior and carlin
so even though they went on the tonight
show they kind of looked down on us
so i didn't notice that i wasn't prior
or calling
right and so i figured he told me you
just can't
you know you can't curse on that go
forget it then
so they said just colin you can come on
the show it's going to change your life
overnight you'll be one of the biggest
comics in america
at such a young age all we ask is that
you don't
curse and you refused yeah i said
nah that's all right then you know i
don't need to you know what i mean like
i didn't need that wasn't going to be on
my me my medium was not going to be
there
help me with this when the booker for
the tonight show who's never heard
anybody turn them down had you on the
phone
what is this in person what's this in
person
it was in person you were talking to the
book of the tonight show in person
at the improv in l.a yeah and they come
up to you and they say okay colin we
think you're ready and you say
no what did they say he started laughing
he couldn't believe it he couldn't
believe it you started laughing
he goes what what
he was just laughing at me