In 1988, movie star and comedian Martin Short visited Johnny Carson on ‘The Tonight Show.’ He walks out to huge applause, shakes hands, puts his arms up, and shouts, “It’s nice to be home!”
Johnny echoes it, and the two comedians are off and running. Martin says he brought a gift for Johnny while on his trip to Jamaica. Martin says they have James Coco on their 20-dollar bill, which he didn’t realize.
Johnny thanks him and shows the money up to the camera, and sure enough, there is a picture of a bald man in a suit with glasses that looks like James Coco.
Johnny asks if Martin saw ‘Uncle Ed’ on tv last night, and Martin says yes, he did great. He also says Jerry was fabulous as well, referencing the ‘Jerry Lewis Telethon.’
Then, Martin does an impression of Jerry with a loud New Yorker accent, “Yeah, show me, do me, talk about it, yeah!” Then, he says the people contribute money, and they go to bed and get a good rest.
Martin tells Johnny that he used to have an applause record. He would pretend to be hosting a show in his bedroom at the age of 14. Martin imagined he was a talk show host, and he did all the voices of his guests while using the applause record to simulate an audience.
He talks about how he worked on his Bobby Short impression in Jamaica. He begins to sing with a loud, booming voice and a British accent. He tries to sing it multiple times, saying he can do better the next time. Every time he holds out the note, he makes a scrunched face as if he is in pain while getting laughs from the audience.
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