The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Burt Reynolds (November, 1986)

"Johnny Carson 1986 11 05 Burt Reynolds" 

Source:Stand Up Comedy with a look at The Tonight Show With Burt & Johnny.

From Stand Up Comedy

"JOHNNY CARSON INTERVIEW BURT REYNOLDS Nov 05 1986l" 

Source:ZANY with a look at The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.

From ZANY

I swear if Burt Reynolds didn't act full-time, he would've been a full-time standup comedian and probably 1 of the best ever, who would do comedy films, or action/comedy films, perhaps just as research for his own standup material, or just for the hell of it. He was so quick that when you put him on Johnny Carson (who was a full-time comedian) and Burt becomes the comedian and can make Johnny Carson look as straight and stiff Ted Koppel anchoring ABC News Nightline. 

There were a couple good Burt jokes in particular from this interview that I want to mention and 1 more that wasn't showed here: 

Johnny Carson was talking about mid-life and how 50 is viewed as mid-life (when it's actually mid to late 30s when people start entering that part of their life) and he was just boring Burt to death to the point where Burt had nothing to say about that. (I guess Burt Reynolds doesn't talk in his sleep) But Burt finally jumped in perhaps only to try to get Johnny to talk about something else: 

"I don't worry about mid-life. I don't get panicky and go out and buy a sports car." 

I'm willing to be that Jay Leno probably owns more sports cars today, than Johnny Carson ever had. But Carson owned a lot of sports cars and bought all of them as a middle-age man and he's 61 at this point. So that's what that joke was about. First rule in comedy: if you have to explain a joke, the joke is not funny, or no one got it. But just for the 5 people who see this who are not familiar with Johnny Carson, that explanation is for you. 

The 2nd joke was about Burt Reynolds and marriage. He was only married once at this point in his life (which at the time might have been an unbreakable record for fewest marriages in Hollywood) and Johnny asked Burt about marriage and Burt said: 

"I think about marriage all the time. But then I look at you and I stop thinking about it". 

Johnny Carson was married 4 times in his life. His first 3 marriages bombed as badly as a Kanye West concert in West Virginia, or a Tim McGraw concert in Compton, California. His last marriage was pretty successful. Johnny Carson had a pretty good joke about marriage as well: 

"I believe marriage is the most difficult relationship that any person can have. It calls for a lot of tolerance and understanding... and vast sums of money". 

Burt Reynolds had another joke in this interview about Joan Collins, who is also a very funny person in Hollywood. You won't see that here on video. But he was talking about 1 of his movies that I guess didn't go very well and he said something like: 

"This movie was so bad and in theaters for such a short period of time, that 1 of Joan Collins marriages was out longer". That paraphrase is probably a bit of stretch, but it was about her and along those lines. 

Burt Reynolds was on Johnny Carson like 60 times (give or take) because he was 1 of Johnny's best guests. He was not just very funny and very honest... when Johnny could get him to talk about anything. And Johnny could try to play a straight journalist and leave the jokes for Burt, which the audience loved. 

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