William Shatner may have lost out not getting a part in the most recent Star Trek epic, but he certainly hasn’t lost any warp speed as a talk show guest.  As The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien looks to find its sea legs, beyond the ultra-heavy reliance on often forced pre-taped packages and shtick, TGW was happy to see the C man could take on a veteran of a thousand talk wars.  The combination of what was obviously well rehearsed material from Shatner, and Conan’s fearless use of physical comedic reactions, proved to be a winning combination.
Shatner, no stranger to the “plug machine,” came loaded for bear with the paperback release of his latest autobio “Up Till Now,” a new edition of his comic book series, and the season debut of his BIO Channel interview series “Raw Nerve.”  No moss growing under this stone.  But the plugs were mercifully left to the end of the interview.  That gave Shatner the chance to tell cryptic stories about traveling across country and miming the action of relieving himself near a stopped train and offering his own interpretation of a Vulcan hand gesture.  It all sounds pretty juvenile – which it was – but somehow Conan’s innate midwestern pseudo innocence worked like a charm.  In a final demonstration of just how far Conan will go for the laugh, he ended up with his already towering presence, standing on his desk in feigned disgust.  Leaving the show’s director no doubt challenged to figure out just how far he could widen his shot.
The lesson here is that the plugs and pre-interviewed stories on the “blue cards” sometimes aren’t enough.  A talk show appearance is a performance whether the guest likes it or not, and if their agents or publicists are telling them anything different, they’re selling them short.  The talk success bar is on the rise due to renewed competition in late night and constant format tinkering to insure the success of these historic money machines.
Bottom line.  Find your stories, get comfortable with them and then get some feedback from a regular watcher of these shows and kick it all up a notch if you truly want to be a repeatable guest.  Shatner is once again welcome on any TV couch.

Tags: 5 out of 5 Whispers, Star Trek, William Shatner

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under 5 out of 5 Whispers, Star Trek, William Shatner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.