At Jimmy Fallon's 8pm stand up show at Gotham Comedy Club on West 23rd, we were warned in no uncertain terms: NO PHOTOGRAPHY. So how did I get this pix, you ask? I didn't. I got this online (it isn't even the one I went to, Jimmy was wearing an untucked plaid shirt, jeans and pro-keds: his hair was a mess). However I did my best to get you a pix, and here it is
Fortunately, Fallon was better than my photography. The 45 minute set was a mishmash of late night skits, "Thank You notes" and musical numbers and pretty good too. Especially a 10 second per impression of every major comedian to play Gotham in the past ten years.
But you are here for the music, right?
Not bad either, it started with a whatever original "Car Wash For Peace" which rhymes with Middle East and shouldn't. Essentially, it is the sorta stuff Adam Sandler is famous for. But he soon got his footing on rock icons with harmonica twofer. First Neil Young singing"Prince Of Bel Air" and next Bob Dylan singing "Charles In Charge". The latter is the highlight of the show and not because of Jimmy's vocal impression which, cmon guy even I can do Dylan by now, but the harp where he notes how Dylan tends to blow hard at the high range of the harp. Jimmy is right and very, very funny.
Jimmy follows this with a bit on how you can sing any 80s song to the beat of "You Can't Touch it". Unfortunately, the Gotham Comedy gestapo don't want you taking notes either and mine are thus skimpy. I wrote "Prince; can't Ritchie thus; radio killed; dance so g". I think I remember the radio comment as being about Buggles… The problem with this bit is it gives the game away. Jimmy only proves that if you write out the lyric to a hit song and don't worry where the accents (beats) go or and if you ignore the rhyme structure, you can juxtapose the songs on any idioms you choose. A neat trick, no doubt. But a trick nevertheless.
Finally, actually I think I may have missed another original somewhere along the line but, Jimmy ends the night with a straight up sucker cover of "Come On, Eileen".
So, yeah, the guy is funny. A little harsher on than on Late "It's soooooooo good" Night but still he comes across as the goodest of good guys! A funny, crowd pleasing piece of stand up. There is a reason why Fallon is so successful as a talk show host: he is a funny, sweet guy, and people wanna hang out with him.