-Welcome back to "The Tonight Show," everybody.
I'm hanging out in the greatest city
in the world, New York City. I love you!
There's so many great comedy shows to see here.
I'm about to go to one of the best clubs -- The Comedy Cellar.
Let's check it out.
♪♪
-Hey, everybody, I'm here at the legendary comedy club,
The Comedy Cellar, here in the village in New York City,
and I'm with a very, very funny comedian,
who also is co-host,
"Weekend Update" with Colin Jost.
Michael Che is here, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for -- -Hi, Jimmy.
-Thank you for meeting me here tonight.
I appreciate it, buddy. Cheers.
-Oh, yeah. Oh, this is --
We're gonna do this. -Oh, yeah.
Let me ask you something.
Comedy clubs -- Do you remember
your first time at any comedy club? Anywhere.
-Oh, man, I do remember my first time at a comedy club.
I don't even remember which one it was.
But I remember my brother had tickets,
like, some college giveaway.
You know, like, colleges used to do, like,
the packages where they just give a bunch of kids
tickets for -- I don't know -- very cheap.
-Yeah. -And we went.
I was like 16 years old.
-Did you know at that point that you wanted to be a comedian?
-No! Absolutely not.
I didn't even really know that was, like, a realistic job.
-When did you start going, "Okay, I can -- I can be funny.
I can maybe do this"?
-Much later. Like, in my mid-20s I tried it.
I got super drunk and tried it. -[ Laughs ]
That's usually how these stories start.
-Yeah, I got super drunk and tried it.
-Some open mic?
-Some open mic, literally down the block.
Some open mic. I had a --
I bought a bottle of E&J, this brandy,
which is like $3 a pint.
-Oh, my God. That sounds quality.
-Oh, yeah, it's really good for you, too.
It's good. They make, like, medicine --
My grandmother used to make medicine out of it.
And I remember I drank a whole bottle,
and I saw people perform, and I was like,
"Well, everybody was terrible."
And I was like, "Well, if they can be terrible and confident,
I could be terrible and confident."
-Yeah. -So I just tried it.
And it was so much fun.
I remember being up there and being like,
"Oh, I'm gonna do this all the time."
-Do you remember the best advice you got from a comedian or --
-I remember one time I was -- [ Laughs ]
One time, I was opening up for Tracy Morgan.
And I remember I didn't really "know him" know him.
I just was opening.
And I opened for him. I had a good set, I thought.
And he comes on, and he does his set.
And I remember I was in the greenroom waiting after the --
Oh, man, I can't believe I'm telling this on TV.
I was in the greenroom, waiting after the show,
and it's filled with people.
Tracy comes off stage, and everybody's congratulating him.
And like, "Oh, man, great show, great show."
And then he's like, "Everybody get out,
get out -- except for you."
And I'm like, "What did I do?"
And everybody clears out.
He closes the door, and he was like,
"We got to work on your act." And I was like, "What?"
No one's ever, like, told me that before.
And he was like, "Look, you are hosting this show.
You stand in front of the microphone.
You got to move that mic out of --
Get that mic out of the there. You got to work the stage."
I had the warm -- this hot spot.
Like, he's literally schooling me
on how to emcee a show, like, in real time.
And he's telling me everything I did --
Like, he watched.
He told me every single thing I did and what I needed to do.
So it was kind of maybe
the coolest advice because it was real.
He wasn't trying to protect my feelings.
He was trying to make me a better comic.
-Wow. -And it meant a lot.
It was very thoughtful that he would even take the time
to say something like that.
-Now you started off as a comedian as an emcee,
then you go to a middle act. -Mm-hmm.
-Which I think is my favorite.
That was my favorite. -The best.
-Favorite performing ever was middle act.
-The best.
-You don't have to warm up the crowd,
and you don't have to worry about the headline --
You don't have to close out. -You do your thing.
-People getting the checks on the table at the end.
You go, "I'm already in the car, man.
I'm already out." -It's awesome.
And when you do well as a feature, as a middle,
oh, it's perfect.
-I remember I was at The Improv my first Saturday night,
which is a big deal, to do a Saturday.
I remember I'm nervous, and I go in,
and Jerry Seinfeld's eating dinner in the club
with Budd Friedman.
And I go, "Oh, my gosh. That's Jerry Seinfeld."
So I go in to do my thing, and I'm --
I do a lot of impressions.
I was an impressionist in my act, you know.
So I'm waiting to go on, and they go,
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat tonight."
I'm like, "Oh, my gosh." And they go, "Jerry Seinfeld."
The place goes -- pwwk! -Yeah.
-And it was like -- It was like --
Dude, people were freaking out. -Yeah.
-Like, it was like Woodstock. -Yeah.
-And he went right into some bit and destroyed.
And I just watched it, and it was destruction.
And it was like 10 minutes of just pwwk! Fww!
And then they go, "Okay. Who's next?
Is Todd Blah-blah-blah?"
And the guy that was there goes, "I'm not following that.
Later." He split.
And he's like, uh, "Ed Blah-blah-blah."
And then this guy goes, "I'm not gonna follow that.
Bye, dude."
And he goes, "Who's Jimmy Fallon?"
-"Who's Jimmy Fallon?" -"Is there a Jimmy Fallon?"
And I was like, "I'm Jimmy Fallon."
He's like, "You're up next, buddy."
I go, "It's my first Saturday."
He's like, "Here you go, good luck."
-Oh. -And I go --
I had to follow Jerry Seinfeld, and I was, like, so nervous,
and I just like -- But I had him in my act.
So I just changed the order of my voice.
I go, "First up, Jerry Seinfeld."
And I go, "What kind of things --"
And I won the crowd back.
And it was like one of the best sets of my life.
-Well, that's the key.
If you get them early, then, like, they know what --
like, what situation they're in.
The audience already knows. -Yeah.
-Because they know that you have to follow Jerry Seinfeld,
and they don't know you.
Like, they're kind of -- -They have no idea who I am.
-Yeah, yeah. So once you play with that,
then you're kind of set.
I think my first Saturday here actually was, like, Chappelle.
But I didn't get to go up, though,
because I think Chappelle did like an hour or something.
-An hour. See, I remember those days, too.
-Yeah, he'd do like an hour, hour and a half.
And you're just getting paid to watch a Chappelle set.
And you're like, "I guess this is work."
-"Guess I'm not working tonight," yeah.
-Yeah, yeah, but it's fine. -Yeah.
-You're like, "Okay, I'll take it."
-Do you think stand-up helps you with "Update"?
-I think it certainly can.
It definitely sharpens your brain to get that first take --
you know? -- where you know
once you hear the story,
you kind of know exactly where the comedy is.
You know, "SNL" is very much about timing
and boom, boom, boom, boom. -It's live.
-And then, the camera's off you. -Yeah, exactly.
-You know, doing "Update" with someone else,
the camera's off you as soon as the joke is told,
so you don't really get to milk it.
You don't really get to finesse it.
So it's a little bit harder.
There's a lot of things about stand-up you have to unlearn,
but there's a lot of things in stand-up that really helps.
-What are you -- What are you guys doing for WWE?
Can you explain this to me?
-Well, we may have -- We may have, uh...
got ourselves into a pickle. -[ Laughing ]
-We did. We went to WWE.
We were gonna -- Stephanie McMahon knows that,
you know, we're huge fans of WWE.
And we're doing "Wrestlemania" as correspondents.
I mean, it's just, like, one of those things
that you don't -- you can't believe you get to do.
-Yeah. -So, we went to "Raw"
in Philadelphia with everybody, and it was really awesome.
Colin got into some hot water.
Might've got somebody angry -- a very large man angry.
-[ Laughs ]
-And that man took it out on him physically.
-No. -Yeah, it's gonna be fun!
[ Both laugh ]
-Make sure you have security. -It'll be fun.
Oh, no, we don't need security, man.
-It's "Wrestlemania." That's big.
That's big-time.
Congratulations, dude. I can't wait to watch.
-This was so much fun. Thank you.
Honestly, seriously, thank you for having me on this one.
This is -- This is special.
I've done your show a lot of times, but this is cool as hell.
-This is great, right? -This is cool as hell.
-We should get out because they're about to start a show.
-All right, let's do it. -Let's go, bud.
-I'm leaving the water. That's a tip.