Steven Wright Was Invited On Johnny Carson’s Show Twice In One Week | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend
he went on Johnny Carson in 1982 I. believe it was your first spot and. people don't understand now because. there's so much TV and okay this. comedian went on this show where that. show and it doesn't mean what it meant. when Carson was the only show in the. world. very few Comics get to go on it's almost. impossible and if you do get on it's a. big deal and you went on. and if I'm remembering it correctly. Johnny was so impressed you were so. different and so smart that they invited.
you back very quickly is that true yes I. went on Friday and then the next. Thursday which hadn't I mean that didn't. happen it was insane when they called me. on Wednesday Jim McCauley he started. talking about the show and I thought he. was review referring to the one that. happened I didn't understand what he. meant he said no no we want you to go on. tomorrow did you have another set I I. had I had another set but I I had like a. total of. 15 minutes of.
stuff that could go on there and I. remember saying it to him but if I go on. there tomorrow that's three years half. this more than half the stuff is gone. and he simply said well you're gonna. have to write new stuff anyway. and he's to go on twice in one week is. so amazing it had it was unprecedented. at the time and that was a time when if. you went on that show you were famous. overnight. I mean people knew people recognized you. the next day because that was all.
anybody was doing at 11 30 at night was. watching Johnny Carson yeah because it. was three channels and yeah the cable. was just starting it was like going. through. Alice in Wonderland going through the. door yeah there you know and Peter or. Sally you know this you saw me and the. Jing Ho Chinese restaurant in Cambridge. if he was the producer of The Tonight. Show and then two weeks later I was on. there I've I had we were talking outside.
in the driveway do you remember when we. were in the driveway yeah it was about. 15 minutes ago. I'm still capable of remembering things. but yes there wasn't a judgment on you. it was just simply uh I'm very accurate. I don't even know what I was saying uh. we were talking about you're at the Ding. Ho oh he flukes flukes different. accidents accidents little things that. happen to change the course of your life.
contribute contribute you know someone. wrote an article about that Chinese. restaurant and went in the LA Times I. don't know why then he saw it and eight. months later he was going in the summer. to go to Massachusetts in New York. because his kids were going to go to. college so they went on a College summer. trip and they remembered the article so. he calls up and you know it's just a lot. flukes yeah I'm very fortunate so you do. that and.
you've it's clear that. impressionism and or abstract I'll use. the word abstract abstraction is really. important to you and there must have. been a time in your life when you were a. kid or something where you were you saw. abstract art or you read abstract. writing and it rang a giant Bell in your. head it wasn't the writing it was. Salvador Dali. come by surrealism when I had a art.
class 11th grade in Burlington Mass we. went into Boston to one of the main. museums and that's where I first saw. surrealism I never even heard of. surrealism and two of the paintings I. remember there was a painting of a of a. closed pin in the in the middle of the. field and it was the size of a silo but. it didn't look cartoonish it didn't look. ridiculous it was like oh my God and. then there was another painting of a. road coming down like this and then when. it went down like that it turned into a.
waterfall and I mean I was 16 I'm. telling you these paintings I was jolted. by the combining of these two realities. and a lot of the writing we were just. talking about the Mosaic thing is like. oh this thing you know this is not a. clothespin you know that jolted me more. than what I read. that was uh. influencing but your head is like a soup. everyone's head is a soup don't you. think it's the ingredients you know.
Church fun it gets surrealism. Monty Python The Comedians All Over The. Tonight Show and you know listening to. albums and it all goes into Woody Allen. to me he's still the best he's the top. guy his his writing and all that goes. into your head. I was a big Bruins fan during the Bob. your day you had to be by the way. because I'm I was I was growing up I was. in grade school then I was in second. third grade and all anybody talked about.
back then was Bobby Orr. I love you and and Phil Esposito and you. know all and everybody because you know. Bobby Orr was the biggest thing in the. world and in Boston we just couldn't. believe that we had this phenomenal. phenomenal player who was changing the. game yeah it was incredible that time. was incredible and I would listen to the. games in my bed and I had a radio in the. bed and one night I was filmed with the.
dial and I stumbled on this show where a. guy played two comedy albums every. Sunday night so I started tuning in. she played cut from one cut to the other. and I'm laying in bed in the dark and. I'm listening for like two years I'm. doing this and it was I didn't know it. but I was like going to. uh School comedy school because I'd be. thinking oh I like that guy I don't like. that but anyway it goes back to the soup. don't you think oh your head is like.
made up of all these different random. and sometimes on purpose ingredients. yeah I I think that's that works I don't. you know I prefer a stew a stew yeah. it's a little heartier mine is I think. yours is a very light broth but mine. you're critic you're criticizing me. during my analogy yeah. I want to win I want to win. a win it's a light you at Lowe's and I'm.
not putting down a light bra I'm not. putting down a light broth I never. thought I heard you say that it's a. concert it's a consummate no your brain. is a consummate and you taste it and. you're like this is great I've been a. little sick and this is really helping. now I'm like if you've been out in the. woods felling trees you don't want the. Steven Wright consummate you're up. between meal. palette cleanser which and then again no. put down no put down but I'm in a big.
crock pot yes. huge chunks of really good sirloin and. potato and there's just some Guinness in. there that really thickens the the kids. you keep going nine more minutes on that. yeah. [Laughter]. why don't you go get a sandwich. there's some yam. um oh my God there's a fit there's all. kinds of thickeners in the broth you.
know God it's thick it's a really thick. broth you put the wooden spoon in there. and it stands up on its own if you put a. spoon in mine oh if you put it in yours. it just immediately flips over and falls. on the ground. good. [Laughter].
but no I agree with you I agree with you. but I agree with you there's all this. as long as we've established that mine's. the better yes food. um richer more life-sustaining.
