When Seth Rogen edged out onto The Tonight Show set, he looked less than a sure thing.  Sure, he had a nice suit, fashionably loose tie, and a fashionable-three-years-ago five-day beard.  But he looked painfully uncomfortable, rarely making eye contact and sitting tensely.  What a wonderful surprise to see him turn in a textbook performance as a great guest.

He first blew our expectations out of the water when Jay displayed a cover of GQ with Rogen front and center.  Pointing out his modified-fro curls, Jay asked, “Is that your hair?”  “Yes,” Rogen replied. “And if you’re wondering, the carpet matches the drapes.”  The audience fell apart!  Rogen milked his doofus persona and kept Jay in stitches throughout his segment.   He had done his homework: bringing out a picture of Jay in jeans and denim shirt (his favorite outfit), Rogen referenced his Northern roots by noting “We call this a Canadian tuxedo.”

The comedy centered on Rogen’s underachiever past, showing a clip from Dawson’s Creek that revealed the stoner character he plays in Pineapple Express (which he was promoting) has deep roots.  Jay even bounced jokes off of Rogen’s parents – in the audience – throughout the segment.

So why did Rogen succeed when he broke so many standard guest appearance rules?  He stuck close to the most important rule: reveal something about your true self that the audience and the host can relate to.  Play to your entertainment strength.  And he did this masterfully.

A refreshing Kyra Sedgwick is fun, engaging and open to talking about herself. She readily discussed the fact that she and her husband Kevin Bacon just celebrated their 20th anniversary and are hoping to have dance party  in November. She wants it to be a big party and said everyone was invited. She even turned to the audience to include them. Corny, but always a nice move.
Regis said it was just announced that Sedgwick is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She said she didn’t know the location but Kevin’s is located where, if you went there at night, “you might die!” – so she was hoping for a slightly more choice piece of real estate.

There to promote the upcoming fourth season of her hit show, The Closer, Sedgwick talked about the toughness of being away from her family for several months at a time, saying she always thinks it’s going to get easier, but it never does. Regis asked if her character, Brenda, was ever going to hook up with anyone (clearly he doesn’t know the show, blame the producers for that gaff!) and she explained without missing a beat or making Regis feel foolish that she and her on-screen love interest, Fritz, have just moved in to a new place together complete with all the problems that come with a cantankerous couple.
It’s nice to see Kyra Sedgwick on a talk show so you can be reminded of how natural, nice and relatively normal she is in stark contrast to some of the neurotics she chooses to play.  Now that’s part of what a good appearance is about.

The Ted Koppel who showed up to Conan O’Brien’s show recently was not what you’d expect from someone of his stature and import. Koppel was funny, slightly awkward and a bit goofy.
The first thing he said upon greeting O’Brien was “You’re goin’ down.” It seems he threw the gauntlet down to O’Brien when, during the writers strike, O’Brien aired writer-less shows (to which Koppel commented, “I noticed that!”) and desperately started spinning his wedding ring on his desk. A distraction Koppel claims to have been doing since “Conan was running coffee for the editor of the Harvard Lampoon.” Koppel said as much in a magazine article and challenged the talk show host to The North American Wedding Ring Spin-off saying if Conan loses, “he’s gonna have to promote my China series every night it’s on. If I lose…well, I don’t intend to lose.”
He even chided O’Brien saying, “Are we using the piss ant desk?”
So, off they went to a boxing ring set up with ropes, a desk and two chairs…oh and even a bikini-clad round/card girl, who would later be blamed for the loser’s failure. And that loser was… Koppel. The stunt went well and the audience loved it.
After the break, they spent the rest of the time discussing Koppel on Discovery – The People’s Republic of Capitalism. The series sounds very interesting, partly because it is and partly because Koppel made it so by talking to O’Brien, making eye contact and engaging him in conversation, which, in turn, made O’Brien behave more maturely than usual. Koppel then flipped the frame by getting bleeped while talking about Chinglish signs in China and how they are not well translated. One in particular was about things that happen in a bathroom. “The irony is I bring you on this show to class it up,” Conan retorted. “And it’s my opportunity to come down to my natural level,” Koppel replied.
And that’s how you felt watching him. He was having fun, being a regular guy and making what could have been a yawner, appealing. Not the typical newsman.

Holly Hunter looked like a deer in headlights on a recent visit to Tavis Smiley’s show. Not only didn’t she crack a smile when introduced, she hardly moved a muscle. I couldn’t tell if she was scared to death or just bored. During the interview, she made little eye contact with the host. It felt like she just didn’t want to be there. She, of course, answered her questions with her signature stutter/mumble…and the accent was ever-present – so much so that it became a topic of discussion. “It’s never been an issue,” she offered and added she so loves the “different accents of the country.”
Hunter did loosen up a bit when talking about her show Saving Grace. She commented that “the complexity of character is really what kind of keeps me compelled week after week to be excited about my work.”
Hunter takes her job very seriously and sees herself as an advocate for the characters she plays, “I’m the sole person there to represent who I’m playing. I am the character, but I’m also the protector of the character as well.” This is a good thing for Hunter, as she said, “I truly feel like I’m doing what I should be doing, built to do it. To express the particular, to express the detail. In the detail is the universe.”
Pretentious? Yes. Delusions of grandeur? Yes. Perhaps that’s why we sensed she felt she was too good to be there…as if she was “gracing” us with her presence.
I will give her that by the end of the interview, she had relaxed, opened up and I felt like there was a real person there…finally.

This will probably be one of the shortest reviews ever for The Guest Whisperer.

Will Smith is a perfect guest! He’s fun, funny, personable, full of energy and just plain great. He listens, interacts, dresses appropriately, brings visuals, is deferential to the host, has great timing, great stories and makes them interesting.

Want to hear about him golfing with Tiger Woods? Tiger’s comment about Smith’s severely curving shot, “whoa, let’s get a skirt for that hooker!” Or maybe you want to hear about his daughter’s new pet frog, which turned out to be a 3-foot boa constrictor which will eventually turn into a 12 foot boa constrictor, “Jay, I’m on your show tonight as cry for help.” Or his prowess in the bedroom — he calls it Willagra.

There to promote his new film Hancock, about an alcoholic superhero, Smith talked about donning a harness for stunt flying in the film 70 feet in the air at 60 mph for two city blocks. “ You can be sure I’m not doin’ that again, Jay.”

He is a publicist or film marketing chief’s dream – coming off as a great guy doing a great interview. Watch it and you’ll feel like you’ve had a shot of adrenaline. That’s all there is to say.

On yet another visit to The View, Sarah Jessica Parker lived up to her high expectations as a fashion plate, as demonstrated by the beautifully striking extremely tight dress and excessively high heels. But the dress was so tight that apparently she forgot to bring the “fun” out with her.  While in the past she was all about being the gracious and charming star of “Sex and the City” film, this appearance was all Parker the producer. No giddy, girlish laughter here, she was serious and forthright. She discussed the daunting difficulties of taking on such a “long and wonderfully laborious” project two years earlier — think booking sound stages and securing production teams is fun? The thrill of getting the over-40 female audience to come to the film — 41% hadn’t even been to the movies in the two months prior to the release of SATC. There was a discussion of the 81 costume changes for her character in the film, only 60 or so that made the final cut. All interesting, but this wasn’t exactly The Actors Workshop, it’s still the gab-fest known as The View.

Now, I’m not faulting her for her earnestness, I’m just saying that the fun factor was missing…and that’s a shame. Could it be that ever Parker has run out of amusing things to say about the two and a half-hour film?

It’s hard to be humble and cocky at the same time, but Robert Downey, Jr. does it very well. Looking quite dapper in a dark suit and rose-colored tie on a recent Dave Letterman show. Downey was self-deprecating, with comments such as “you’ve come along way, baby” referring to his opening of The New York Stock Exchange that morning, modest, telling Dave that getting back to the U.S. and especially his show was the hit of his publicity trip…and meaning it, and arrogant, describing how he repeatedly balled up the script pages of his new movie, Iron Man, and threw them against the wall.

Now don’t get me wrong, he was charming, using a large and small action figure of himself from the film to illustrate the difference in height between him and co-star Gwyneth Paltrow. Funny stuff.

In the end, his matter-of-fact persona and dry sense of humor drew Dave and the audience in and made him a good guest who interacted well with the host and ultimately, made for a good interview… ego not withstanding.

Helen Hunt received a standing ovation when she joined Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show recently. Probably a good thing the audience gave it to her upon arrival. I won’t say she was bad, she wasn’t, but she just wasn’t great. She did take control and dominate the conversation (not always easy with Ellen)… which was ok. She did talk a lot about her new film, Then She found Me,… good. She even joked about her old boyfriend, Matthew Broderick, playing her husband in the new film… funny. And her timing and delivery are strong (she did win and Oscar, after all!). But something about her overall demeanor is plaintive and whiney and even a bit condescending. She always looked pained. It’s off-putting and makes for a less-than-satisfying experience. It may be what got her where she is in her career, but I wish she didn’t bring it with her to interviews… not good!

Watching Marisa Tomei on Conan O’Brien’s show was like being at Kitty Hawk with the Wright Brothers – you thought something good was going to happen, but it never really got off the ground. Not only did she dress in a nondescript frock, but the tone of the whole interview was, dare I say it, boring.

There to promote her new movie War Inc., Tomei actually spent more time talking about the film she’s making now with Micky Rourke, The Wrestler, in which she plays a stripper. Now, you would think, and hope, that would lead to some fun, provocative conversation… not so much. She did manage to laugh and giggle a lot (which is often all one can do when dealing with Conan O’Brien), but not much else. She didn’t even know what clip to set up.

It’s a shame, really, because you get the sense she has so much more to offer. Oh yes, she also plugged the play she’s currently doing on Broadway, Top Girls. Come to think of it, maybe she was just tired.

Kathy Griffin is an acquired taste and whether you like that taste or not, you have to give her credit for originality. Griffin’s recent visit to Craig Ferguson’s show was interesting because for a good part of it, she was interviewing him. Things started out normally – Craig asking her about a risqué clip he had just shown from her series My Life on the D List and Griffin explaining her way out of it…but then she turned the tables and started grilling Ferguson about his political hosting duties at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner. He seemed to eat it up. A good move for a guest to know her host’s situation and use it to engage him in conversation about himself. They kept pace with each other in a witty political discussion even mentioning his rival, Jay Leno, who told Ferguson that when he hosted the Dinner, George Bush “grabbed his ass.”

The discussion stayed humorously political and then Craig regained his host position as Griffin continued her gay-themed existence. They finished the interview talking about her visit to Walter Reed Hospital and the fact that her comedy is problematic there, although she did say they “have the sickest senses of humor” and loved taking off their legs to drink beer out them.

Griffin and Ferguson played very well off each other, listening and reacting beautifully. She was bubbly, funny…and crass, but she wouldn’t be Kathy Griffin if she weren’t.