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.

If you didn’t know Mark Wahlberg and saw him for the first time on Jay Leno’s show, you would think he was a nice, respectable young actor. You would have no idea of his history. A history even he joked about. Wahlberg spent much of the interview talking about his childhood, being the youngest of nine kids. He also joked with Jay about having just had his third child, his upcoming wedding and trying to sell his house…to Jay, “come on, Jay, help out a fellow Bostonian!” (He did his homework! Good move.)

Walberg’s low-key persona is quite the opposite of that previously mentioned wild history that inspired the series Entourage, which he produces.  It’s a history which is best described in his own words – when Jay asked about how he would deal with his kids finding out about it – he said “I’m trying to figure out how I can destroy evidence or come up with…I have a few years to figure out a good excuse, but I [will] have a lot of explaining to do. Between my music career, the underwear stuff and Boogie Nights, I don’t know how I’m gonna explain that!”

Wahlberg did talk about his new film Max Payne and did a good job explaining its origins as a video game.  Once again, playing against character, he said he chose the role because after playing a science teacher and an accountant in his last films, he felt the need to “bust some heads.”

From rapper to sex symbol to edgy actor to smooth talk show guest, the adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover” really applies here. Can’t wait to see what’s next.

Harry Connick, Jr was so tough on Conan O’Brien; it makes you wonder if they are actually good friends or Connick just has a wicked sense of humor? I must say I liked seeing Connick cut the usually egocentric O’Brien off and make him squirm. It was one-upsmanship at its finest. Connick was discussing his kids, finally having to come to grips with the fact that he’s a man and realizing that he needed to give up dressing as a woman for many years on Halloween. Conan said “it took them that long to figure it out?” Connick, slowing and deliberately putting his hand on Conan’s knee and caressing it, said “Didn’t take you that long!” A flustered Conan, after a very pregnant pause and several facial contortions, said “that’s not really my leg,” thinking he had ended it. In perfect stride, Connick topped him with “that’s not really my hand.” By this point, both host and audience were in hysterics.
There to promote his Lifetime film Living Proof, Connick showed a serious side when talking about the importance of this true story and although there was no clip to watch (hello Lifetime?), he made the film seem very compelling.
Connick does have a biting essence and dry delivery, which made for a very enjoyable appearance. His different approach of teasing and harassing the host was such a welcome change of pace that I wish more guests had the confidence to be bold and take control or make a statement and ultimately an appearance worth watching. Bravo.

These types of reviews are classically tough for The Guest Whisperer.  I struggle with the ability to separate the person from the performance.  Whatever I think of Sarah Silverman’s well-cultivated brand, this site is dedicated to their talk show performances and that is what we choose to review.

Today Sarah Silverman is in a class by herself – no one can touch her blend of part cute, part smart, part over the top comedy, and firecracker delivery.  For some the over the top part can be hard to take, but she is unquestionably a breakthrough personality.  Sarah Silverman brought it all to Dave Letterman’s show booked to promote the debut of the third season of The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central.

Upon arriving at the guest chair, Silverman stuck a Late Show T-shirt between and around her legs saying that her skirt was too short to sit in the chair. Perhaps she should have thought about that before she came out. If she did it strictly for the “bit,” it set the tone for a successful in-character performance.  Which is the only sticking point I have with the Silverman shtick.  You never really get a fix on the REAL Sarah Silverman; there is never a crack in the armor except for purely comic setup and release.  This can get a little tedious for the casual watcher, but she is in no way obligated to do more than entertain on a show like Letterman where sitting down is really a “stand-up.”

Silverman managed to avoid answering repeated and relentless questioning from Dave about the current state of her relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, even when Dave expressed his desire for them to be “happy together.” She can bob and weave with the best of them.  She did have a good rapport with Dave, even offering him suggestions on how to handle the upcoming appearance of (finally) John McCain. They did talk briefly about the return of her series. Though, she didn’t talk about her website and pro Obama movement, thegreatschlep.com., which in these final weeks of the campaign, I would have thought was one of the reasons for her visit. I guess her appearance was political enough and in the end her job was done.

Much less smug and much more humble than he used to be, Russell Crowe seems to have calmed down a bit these days. At least that’s the impression we got on his recent visit to Dave Letterman’s show. Crowe was down-to-earth while discussing his weight gain (“I was a big boy”) for his new film Body of Lies, his long-time relationship with Leo DiCaprio (their first film was 1993’s The Quick and the Dead) and his family, even quoting his young son in a discussion about cow poo versus horse poo. Just like a regular, doting dad!

Crowe came prepared with good stories from the set, from several sets actually and included the audience while he told them. He had fun with Dave and a prop he brought to illustrate a long-played practical joke on Leo (a small atomizer to simulate a sneeze) and even had Dave asking to have it done to him. “Oh yeah” was his response to the “mist.” And in a perfect example of knowing your host, he related his own experiences owning a rugby team to Dave’s owning a racing team – they both sign a lot of checks and get ignored.
My only criticism, and it’s a small one, is the extensive set-up he felt he needed to explain the clip. It wasn’t really necessary and I started to not only get confused, but also lose interest.  Otherwise he was low-key, funny and entertaining.

It seems family life has tamed the wild beast…at least on talk shows.

It’s fun to see Jon Stewart matched or even bested. And he didn’t even know it himself for a few seconds. The guest was Tim Robbins, a smart, political and extremely quick witted actor/activist. But let me begin at the beginning. The interview started with some brief, humorous chat about Tim being the first person to sit in the chair since Clint Eastwood. Then Stewart asked Robbins how he is and Robbins replied, “I’m doing great other than, you know, the fact that the world is collapsing” referring to the financial world. They furthered the conversation discussing the “talking dog” movie being the top-grossing film of the weekend (“a sign of the apocalypse”) and that, because they have kids, they’ve had to sacrifice and suffer through years of “shitty movies”… “That’s why I did City of Ember, because it’s a really good film, the kind of film an adult can take a child to and actually enjoy the film.” Even Stewart knows brilliance when he sees it, responding “That was maybe the finest segway I’ve ever heard in my life!” They continued to talk about Robbins’ film and its indomitable spirit. An intelligent, well done promotion.

There’s a part of Robbins that still looks and seems18 years old. His spirit is certainly young and his presence is casual and strong. All that plus his awareness of current events and ability to discuss them intelligently lead to a most enjoyable appearance. Kudos to a job well done.

It’s often hard to walk out on stage when an interviewer has just taken a serious tone, as Julia Louis-Dreyfus was forced to do after David Letterman had just paid tribute to his friend Paul Newman. Louis-Dreyfus took the right tack by not trying to lighten up the moment immediately, but by adding her own comments and complimenting the organic nature of his Newman’s Own products. A nice tip of the hat to a great man and I’m sure Letterman appreciated it.  She was then able to segued into the now infamous non-appearance by John McCain on Dave’s show and his ultimate dissing of Dave by making it to a Katie Couric interview. She found that very rude.  So, in an effort to “show my support for you and sort of set the universe straight, I also scheduled an interview for exactly this time and I’m not showing up for it!”  Dave, afraid she was going to leave, asked her with whom. With perfect timing, she said “Katie Couric, of course.” They then cut to a shot of Couric sitting alone in the studio, waiting, staring at an empty chair. A nicely set up bit that obviously pleased Dave.

Most of the rest of the interview was an entertaining recount of her family vacation in Africa. “I’d like to go,” interjected Dave. “Would you? Well, listen to this,” she warned and proceeded to regale us with all the nightmares they encountered with lions, scorpions and baby black mambos.  Clearly Dave was souring to the whole adventure as the interview progressed.

They did finally get around to talking about her show, The New Adventures of Old Christine, which is in its fourth season. She wasn’t too happy with its season premiere being against Dancing with the Stars, but she said she wasn’t worried.  And she really shouldn’t be…she and Dave had a great time, laughed a lot, as did the audience.

While not known for his sense of humor, Bill Clinton did prove he had one when he visited The Daily Show recently. He’s been making the rounds of talk shows lately and his appearances have been rather serious. So, a touch of levity demanded by The Daily Show was a nice change of pace. He still displayed his intelligence and pit bull determination to make his points, but seeing him lean back in his chair, laughing out loud and clapping and even grabbing Stewart’s arm several times, felt at least new to the current Clinton repertoire. (Stewart couldn’t resist saying at the end of the interview “[Oh and] that really hurt my arm.”)

Interestingly, he didn’t really talk about The Clinton Global Initiative that he was ostensibly there to promote. Not that laser-focused promotion is even possible on most nights with Stewart.  The appearance was additionally crippled by the fact that there were obvious edits, that one can only guess was due to the fact that the interview must have run long, although Stewart did give an uncustomary double segment. It makes it harder to critique a guest when that occurs because you don’t really see the natural flow of conversation and whether they achieved their goals. In this instance, however, I do believe Clinton allowed himself to be lead through The Daily Show comic minefield more than he expected, as he obviously felt compelled to fully answer the questions posed.

At one point Stewart asked Clinton how much he would win by if HE was running today? “20 points… You’d pretty much crush ‘em! You’ve still got it!” And whatever “it” is, he does… and now with a bit of go-with-the-flow humor, too.

Kobe Bryant has been through a journey in his life - from amazing, humble, kid basketball player who got drafted by the Lakers to cocky self-absorbed pro with a certain degree of um…legal entanglements, and finally it seems, back to semi-humble, adult basketball player who’s appeared to learn some life lessons.

Such was the image he portrayed when he paid Jimmy Kimmel a visit recently. With a gold medal in his pocket, (probably the ultimate bling) Kobe looked quite dapper in his dark suit with pink tie and hankie. When the audience wouldn’t stop chanting MVP, Kimmel asked if Kobe gets tired of hearing that…Kobe said “no!” with a big smile.

Bryant was really the perfect mix of playful, sincere and serious. He spoke of Olympic basketball and how the world has embraced it, as well as his surprise at his popularity over in China (he couldn’t get off a plane because it had been swarmed by fans and his jersey is the nation’s number one seller).

Bryant did speak about working with Britany Spears on the MTV awards saying “that stuff makes me nervous.” They discussed his turning thirty in Beijing, his family, and his choice not to have surgery on his finger (too much recovery time away from the Lakers).

All of this was said with the right degree of humbleness and truth. He listened well, reacted even better and allowed us to want to like him, which we did. He even ended the interview telling Kimmel he had a bone to pick with him. He went on to complain about not being invited to Kimmel’s house for the Sunday NFL viewing party, saying “[sure, when the] camera comes on and he’s my buddy-buddy, and then he doesn’t invite me. I just want to know what’s going on!”

This appearance certainly marks an up swing in the control of Bryant’s public image and caps off an amazing season of talent on the court.

It’s so nice to see the up-and-coming generation of actors confident, relaxed and NOT cocky in interviews. Such was the case when Adrian Grenier visited The View. Dressed casually in jeans, black shirt and hi-tops, Grenier flashed his winning grin as well as his coy smirk and immediately brought us in and won us over. Whoopi lead off the segment with a reference to the just-viewed clip of his returning show, HBO’s Entourage, which was what he was there to promote. He spoke hopefully about both its future and his own. And we were right there with him.

When the subject of sex came up, which it did several times, Grenier was playful, not obnoxious, and even differentiated himself from his character’s free-spirited sexcapades saying he has “the monogamy gene.” Subtle and clever as it allowed even those who don’t know his character to help define him beyond the show’s hype.

So, here’s a charming, funny, understated young actor who we then find out not only makes documentaries, but has a show on The Green Channel called Alter Eco all about saving the earth and “helping the planet without sacrificing our lifestyles.” Wow! Adorable, smart, thoughtful and an environmental activist?  Maybe the future is brighter than we thought. And if his future is as successful as he was on this talk show, it’s all good. And there we are…with him all the way.