In short
Craig Robinson and Jimmy Kimmel trade stories about comedy, family pranks, and career setbacks, then discuss Jimmy’s background and how he built/kept Jimmy Kimmel Live during a difficult early period. They also talk about travel and hosting via Airbnb, plus childhood memories tied to Las Vegas.
Guests (backgrounds)
- Jimmy Kimmel: Host/executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live (23 years on late-night TV), award-winning producer/host; grew up in Las Vegas; started in radio; later became late-night host after ABC hired him.
- Craig Robinson: Actor/comedian; co-host of IMO; discusses his own Airbnb usage and travel routines.
Key claims
- Jimmy says he was hired for late night partly because he was “cheaper” than Jon Stewart.
- He describes early Jimmy Kimmel Live as chaotic: live show, midnight slot, no structure, and he hoped ABC would cancel it.
- He claims he never gets writer’s block because deadlines force constant writing.
Notable examples
- A friend’s El Camino accidentally crashes into an Airbnb garage during Jimmy’s hiatus; they still go for pizza afterward.
- Jimmy’s childhood prank history includes loading cigarettes with tobacco and “mega pranks” on Aunt Chippy, including a Waymo “limo driver” setup.
- His teacher “Mr. Mills” gave him a weekly joke allowance, and Jimmy later referenced it in a White House Correspondents Dinner speech.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOFather Bill's Nude Painting Reveal
0:00 to 0:43
Learn about the humorous and surprising moments from a celebration speech.
“It was his 50th anniversary of the priesthood and they had a big, thousands of people came to celebrate in Vegas and they called me and they said, would you speak at this?”
Craig Robinson's LA Trip
0:49 to 3:00
Craig shares experiences from his recent trip to LA and his stay at an Airbnb.
“So what's new and exciting in Craig Robinson land?”
Anecdotes About Airbnb Stays
3:00 to 3:41
Discussion on Craig's numerous Airbnb stays and memorable experiences.
“Our partnership, we love it, love them, love the team of people who come with it, which is always a big part of it.”
Introducing Jimmy Kimmel
3:41 to 5:24
Michelle and Craig share the significance of their guest, Jimmy Kimmel, and anecdotes related to him.
“We are very excited about our next guest.”
Jimmy Kimmel's Fashion Choices
5:24 to 7:22
Jimmy discusses his fashion choices and memories of past shows.
“Which has become a fixture of late night television over the past 23 years.”
Jimmy's Recent Experiences
7:22 to 9:02
Jimmy shares experiences from a recent trip, including a mishap with a restored car.
“I mean, it feels like this talk show thing is pretty grueling.”
Family Fun in Vegas
9:02 to 11:15
Jimmy and Craig discuss taking their families to Vegas and enjoying various attractions.
“It's like it's too responsive, you know?”
Childhood Vacation Stories
11:15 to 14:00
A humorous recount of childhood vacations, including family dynamics and pets.
“I think there's one at Dallas, one at Phoenix, and one in Denver or something.”
Family Stories and Florida Adventures
14:00 to 15:39
Hear humorous anecdotes about family adventures, including an alligator encounter in Florida.
“They put a small deposit on a house, $100 on like a house that was going to be built in a subdivision.”
Family Background and Careers
20:43 to 22:58
Insights into the guest's family background and their unique careers.
“Remember, FDIC, equal housing opportunity.”
Show all 33 chapters
Pranks and Family Humor
22:58 to 25:12
Enjoy stories of pranks involving family members, showcasing their humor.
“She was just working in regular jobs in an office and decided she wanted to do it and stuck with it, and now she does it for a living.”
Lessons from School and Humor
25:12 to 28:00
Reflect on humorous experiences in school and lessons learned from a tough teacher.
“But I started by blowing up her cigarettes.”
Jimmy's High School Joke Experience
28:00 to 29:18
Learn about the challenges Jimmy faced with humor in school and a memorable teacher's advice.
“He said, here's how this is going to go.”
Childhood Memories in Vegas
29:18 to 30:46
Jimmy shares nostalgic stories about his childhood friends and family life in Las Vegas.
“I mean, there's a lot of students, but he remembered me.”
The Evolution from Artist to Radio Host
30:46 to 32:01
Discover how Jimmy transitioned from aspiring artist to radio host and his early experiences.
“And I never even, I didn't know anybody in show business.”
First Radio Job at KZOK
32:01 to 33:41
Jimmy recalls his first radio job and the lessons learned from early challenges in Seattle.
“I wanted to know what stars hair he'd style.”
Facing Setbacks and Career Changes
33:41 to 35:36
Jimmy discusses the emotional impact of losing his first radio job and navigating setbacks.
“So what was his first job in morning radio?”
Lessons from Repeated Firings
36:48 to 39:23
Jimmy reflects on the lessons learned from being fired multiple times and staying determined.
“How did you deal with those kinds of setbacks?”
Getting the Late Night Gig
39:23 to 42:00
Jimmy shares the surprising and unconventional journey to securing his late-night show.
“You can put as much work into it as you want and then it's gone.”
The Surprising Late Night Offer
42:00 to 43:20
Jimmy Kimmel shares the unexpected circumstances around being hired as a late night host.
“We spend the whole interview talking about David Letterman.”
Challenges of Starting a Live Show
43:20 to 45:30
Kimmel discusses the difficulties faced when starting his late night show and balancing personal life.
“What did it feel like making that transition?”
Family Life Amidst the Chaos
45:30 to 48:20
Kimmel reflects on his experiences raising his children while managing a demanding show schedule.
“I think it's, well, somehow we managed to get okay ratings, which I think is probably the number one reason that it stayed on the air.”
Collaborating with Family on the Show
48:20 to 50:30
Discussion around working with relatives on the show and the dynamics involved.
“My daughter is an artist, my oldest daughter.”
Romantic Relationships at Work
50:30 to 52:50
Kimmel shares the story of how he began dating his head writer and the challenges that came with it.
“The guy doing Kermit was like, I don't know what's going on here.”
The Importance of Humor in Tough Times
52:50 to 56:00
Kimmel discusses the role of humor in overcoming challenges and a recent comedic mishap.
“And I hired her as a writer and she was great.”
Humor and Reflection on a Priest's Joke
56:00 to 57:00
Jimmy Kimmel shares a humorous story involving a priest and a playful photo.
“And Stephen sends back a picture of himself and he's got a...”
The Importance of Humor in Serious Times
57:00 to 59:20
Discussion on how comedy can serve as a truth-telling medium, especially during serious issues.
“I even said it to my, my, my priest growing up, Father Bill Kenny.”
Navigating Censorship and Authenticity in Comedy
59:20 to 1:02:50
Exploration of self-censorship in comedy and the authenticity of comedians’ voices.
“It's so completely, I shouldn't say dark, but just go real.”
The Business of Comedy and Changing Tides
1:02:50 to 1:07:20
Kimmel talks about the evolving landscape of comedy and its impact on performers.
“I think what worries me most is when comedians warp their sensibilities for whatever reason.”
Emerging Talents in Comedy
1:07:20 to 1:10:36
Discussion about young comedians and the future of comedic talent.
“And I'm grateful to them for being honest and admitting that they were mistaken.”
Listener Question on Parenting
1:10:36 to 1:11:48
A mom shares her struggle of balancing work and motherhood and seeks advice.
“You know, I always get nervous because I will go home and go, Oh, I forgot about him.”
Navigating Parenthood with Guilt
1:11:48 to 1:15:45
Insights on how to manage parenting guilt and the importance of boundaries.
“and I'm also trying to parent myself first to show a good example to the kids when I am there.”
A Humorous Parenting Anecdote
1:15:45 to 1:17:49
Jimmy shares a funny story about giving in to his daughter's demands.
“And that is not the best thing for them.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Jimmy Kimmel:It was his 50th anniversary of the priesthood and they had a big, thousands of people came to celebrate in Vegas and they called me and they said, would you speak at this? Yes, I would.
0:10Craig Robinson:That's just like.
0:11Jimmy Kimmel:So I had a painting made of Father Bill to celebrate the occasion. And I had it on an easel and I had a, you know, a sheet hanging over it. I was going to reveal it. And I gave my, you know, I talked about our relationship and I made fun of him. and it was, bishops were there. And then I revealed the painting and it's a nude painting of him. Oh my God. Sitting on a stool.
0:43Craig Robinson:This episode is brought to you by Shift and Chase Home Lending. Hey, Nish. Hi, Craig. How are you? That's a good jacket. Have you worn that before? I wore this to the Christmas party. I haven't worn it on an episode yet. That's cool. Yeah. It's cool on all fronts. The color is good. It feels smooth. Now, can you get that in other colors? Yes. I have this in a different... I have a couple of these. All right. Yes. Go on with your bad self. I'll break them out later on. Yeah. Fly boy. Fly boy. So what's new and exciting in Craig Robinson land? Not much. No, not much. Man, you're boring. You know, I will say, so this trip to LA has been great.
1:33Now the sun's back out, but I've been...
1:36Craig Robinson:Cramped up, cooped up. Cooped up. And this is a time when I really enjoy having my Airbnb be close because it was pouring rain the last couple of days. So getting here without getting my outfit soaked is easy. We were just talking about how many Airbnbs do you think you've stayed in since we launched IMO? Because you get around. I do. And so I tried to figure it out. We've done 40 episodes, but you don't do one per episode. So you figure on average we've done four or five. How many total tapings have we done in the last year team? And I'd say about 10 tapings. Separate tapings. Because once we started doing this, then I was just in my own personal life, I was doing Airbnb.
2:36Craig Robinson:Airbnb for all your travel, your trips, the things with the boys. The boys, all of that stuff. So I would say since last August, so a year ago, August, probably 2025. But it has been a great year one, season one. And we are looking forward to a great season two with Airbnb. Our partnership, we love it, love them, love the team of people who come with it, which is always a big part of it. Of course, Brian Chesky, the founder, the CEO, the big head honcho, is a dear, dear friend and someone that I love and respect dearly. But that's no bias. I think if he ran a janky company, we wouldn't be using them.
3:20Craig Robinson:But he just so happened. You've been using janky a lot lately. I'm really loving the word janky. It applies to so much, especially these days. There's a lot of jankiness happening around the world. But Airbnb doesn't fall into that category of janky. No. So speaking of janky. No, that's not right. Our guest this episode. We are very excited about our next guest. And I want to tell a little brief story before we bring him out. because this whole time we were talking about how both of us have been on his show. That's never happened, right? No, because no one invites you on their show. Nobody invites me anywhere.
4:11When I did my book tour back in 2010, he invited me on. But my wife, Kelly, swore, who knows everything, swore that I wasn't on the Jimmy Kimmel show.
4:22Craig Robinson:She thought it was the other Craig Robinson. I don't know what she thought. But I was like, how do you forget that? How do you confuse that? Who would forget being on Jimmy Kimmel's show? I mean, the green room aspect of his show, the music. It's a good green room. It was a real memorable vibe, as my kids would say. It was a vibe. It was drinks and food and music. Strippers. No, no, there weren't strippers. That was only with me, right, Jimmy? The male strippers. I didn't tell Barack. But we were, you know, and I'm sure Jimmy wouldn't have remembered if I was on. He would remember if you were on.
5:05Let's hope so. So Crystal was doing some research and found out right before we came on. That you were right.
5:11Craig Robinson:I was right. Yeah, I would like to think you would forget. I can't wait to get home. Right, and tell Kelly that she was wrong. Well, let's properly introduce Jimmy Kimmel. Yes, let's do that. Jimmy Kimmel serves as host and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Doot, doot, doot. Which has become a fixture of late night television over the past 23 years. In addition to his show, he is an accomplished producer and award-winning host, leading numerous hit shows, specials, and major award shows. And you know a dude is hot when you got all of that. Oh, he's just hot because he's got those cute jeans on.
5:55Welcome, Jimmy. Come on in.
5:57Craig Robinson:All right, Jimmy. See, look how cute his jeans are. Good. I'm cute. I'm good to see you, man. How are you? Turn about. Fair play. Look. Looky here.
6:07Jimmy Kimmel:I'm excited to be here. And thank you for saying my jeans are cute. I fretted over them before I came. My wife made me change. Tell her. She did. Did she really? Why is she? Why didn't she come? She's back with the kids at the house, but she told me, she said, looked at me, she said, when in doubt, just wear solids. And so I did. I went with solids. And I very much remember you being on the show. I remember it quite well. I remember we talked about coaching. We talked about your book. We talked about, so tell Kelly, you know, I don't always remember if people have been on the show or not. Sometimes it gets blurred, but I definitely remember that.
6:44Jimmy Kimmel:Thank you. Thank you for saying that. The thing that you might want to be concerned about is the fact that she doesn't remember. That's the thing.
6:51Craig Robinson:And Kelly, his wife, remembers everything. Except me. No, maybe she didn't remember him. Well, you know what it was. What? That was one of the shows where I came alone. Usually she would come with me. But I think I flew down. I was in Oregon at the time, so I flew down.
7:09Jimmy Kimmel:It may have been a blind spot caused by jealous rage. That's right. There you go. Gotcha.
7:15Craig Robinson:We were asking, so you're not sure when this is going to happen, but right now you guys are on a week hiatus.
7:21Jimmy Kimmel:We're on a break. Yeah, right now. Yeah, yeah.
7:23Craig Robinson:How does that work? I mean, it feels like this talk show thing is pretty grueling. It is.
7:30Jimmy Kimmel:It's grueling.
7:33Craig Robinson:So what's the week break feel like? Are you like chilling?
7:36Jimmy Kimmel:Are you? It feels brief. You know what we did? Actually, we rented an Airbnb in Phoenix.
7:42Craig Robinson:Really?
7:43Jimmy Kimmel:We rented, we went to visit our friends there. I have a friend named Chris Bianco. He's a great pizza chef. I think you've had his pizza.
7:49Craig Robinson:Yeah, absolutely.
7:51Jimmy Kimmel:And we rented a beautiful house. He brought his kids over. They came and stayed. And he got this El Camino restored. It took four years to get it restored. It was his 60th birthday present. We all chipped in for this. It took four years again. He's had it for six weeks. We're about to get in the car to go to his pizza place. He accidentally stepped on the, I don't know what exactly happened, but let's just say the car wound up in the Airbnb. We took out half the garage of the Airbnb.
8:25Craig Robinson:Oh my gosh.
8:26Jimmy Kimmel:They were very nice about it though.
8:28Craig Robinson:Oh, that's so, did he trash the car?
8:33Jimmy Kimmel:The car is trashed. Our rental car was trashed. It was like a video game type scenario. Oh no, he was so excited. Yeah, he was. It was sad. It was sad.
8:44Craig Robinson:It is so sad.
8:45Jimmy Kimmel:But I told him, we're going to look back and laugh at this. So tell me this. Did it have the old-fashioned gear shift that was on the side where you had the— No. It had the—it was down—I know this because I drove it shortly before he drove it into the house. Oh, God.
8:59Craig Robinson:And it's so good that it wasn't— And I remember thinking, this car's too fast.
9:02Jimmy Kimmel:It's like it's too responsive, you know? It's a little bit dangerous.
9:06Craig Robinson:Yeah, but it has to be in the right gear.
9:08Jimmy Kimmel:It does. That's one of the things that we learned. Yeah, so if you're in drive and should be in reverse, it just doesn't work.
9:15Craig Robinson:So when that happens to your friend, are you laughing at him? Are you sort of like, oh, buddy?
9:21Jimmy Kimmel:You know, I felt bad for him. I did. I mean, when something like that happens and then there's that moment of release where you realize, okay, nobody's hurt. And something ridiculous has just happened. I did have the urge to laugh, but I fought it.
Read the full transcript
9:37Craig Robinson:You held it. I held it. We are laughing now.
9:41Jimmy Kimmel:He's probably still not laughing. But maybe by the time this airs.
9:47Craig Robinson:Doubtful, but maybe. Were the kids in the car?
9:50Jimmy Kimmel:The kids were in our rental car, and then the other group of kids were in the other car. We had three cars, and we managed to destroy two of them. We'll get the other one later. So did you get pizza at least? We did go for pizza afterwards.
10:08Craig Robinson:Because the kids were like, are we sick? Because kids don't care. They're like, well, we thought we were getting pizza.
10:12Jimmy Kimmel:It is funny because there was no discussion of not getting pizza after. There's not even a moment of that. We couldn't close the garage door of the house. We just left. Oh, man. So that's what you do on your break.
10:26Craig Robinson:Yeah, no wonder it didn't feel long. You were dealing with crisis. Yeah.
10:30Jimmy Kimmel:We took the kids to Vegas. We had a lot of fun in Vegas.
10:32Craig Robinson:So your kid, the little ones.
10:34Jimmy Kimmel:Yeah. Right. Little ones, yeah.
10:36Craig Robinson:So what do you do with little ones in Vegas? We used to take the girls, but we were campaigning in Vegas a lot. And they loved Vegas.
10:44Jimmy Kimmel:Kids love, there's a lot of fun stuff.
10:47Craig Robinson:Which I told them to stop saying out loud. You know, Malia, they're like 10 and Malia's like, we love Vegas. We love staying at the wind. And I was like, you know what? Don't say that out loud. It's made to attract little kids and old ladies like our mom.
11:01Jimmy Kimmel:Kids like Blackjack. They love video poker. they love we took them to see the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show oh that's a good one we went to see the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere wasn't that great really great how long is that gonna be there I think a long time because it's doing very well yeah that was fun that was really nice I took my Aunt Chippy along she lives in Vegas so we picked her up and brought her to the show we went to a place called Omega Mart which is part of this Meow Wolf
11:29Craig Robinson:what what's that
11:30Jimmy Kimmel:franchise it's these visual experiences and it's very interesting It's really fun. I think there's one at Dallas, one at Phoenix, and one in Denver or something. But it was a lot of fun. Kids loved it. And they got to stay in a room, a Vegas room. It looks like Liberace died in it. You know, that kind of thing.
11:49Craig Robinson:Do you let them get in the mini bar? Because that can break you.
11:52Jimmy Kimmel:We did not. No. You know what? I don't think they even knew the mini bar was there.
11:56Craig Robinson:My kids knew.
11:58Jimmy Kimmel:Oh, they did. Yeah.
11:59Craig Robinson:No, they knew. I can't even imagine.
12:01Jimmy Kimmel:$12 candy bar. what my dad would have done if we'd gone, even opened the door of a minibar. When we were kids, the only vacation we ever took was, when we lived in Brooklyn, we would go to Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. And then when we lived in Vegas, we would drive to LA to go to Disneyland or whatever. And it was always very stressful. The car always broke down. It was just a matter of whether we made it halfway or not. We'd be towed to California or towed back home. Those are the worst vacations When you get towed back home, everybody's like, my dad's mad. Everyone's quiet because we don't want him to get madder, you know.
12:40Jimmy Kimmel:But we'd stay at motels and we had a little dog, Fluffy, and never even considered leaving Fluffy with someone. It wasn't even something that we thought of.
12:50Craig Robinson:I bet people back then wouldn't have taken somebody's dog. I mean, my aunt and uncle would have.
12:55Jimmy Kimmel:They had a dog. I don't know why we didn't. But we took Fluffy and then it was$2.50 extra to have a dog in your motel room. Of course, my dad didn't want to pay that. So we would smuggle Fluffy into the room. And then, you know, we'd be at Disneyland all day. We'd leave the dog Fluffy and thinking, we always got charged at$2.50. It was like, we never got away with it. I don't know why he went along with it.
13:17Craig Robinson:He exactly thought. He's like, let's just see. Let's just see. Do not disturb on the room so the maids didn't come. Don't clean. Fluffy's not going to bark all day long. So Vegas, you were born in Brooklyn and moved to Vegas. What age? Nine years old. You were nine.
13:34Jimmy Kimmel:So what prompted your move? I just loved, loved to gamble. And what prompted our move was my Uncle Frank was a cop in New York for 20 years. And then he decided at age 40, he was going to retire from the police force. Pension was coming and he decided, I'm going to move to, we're going to move to Florida. That was their plan. They're going to move to Florida like everybody from New York does. They got to Florida. They put a small deposit on a house, $100 on like a house that was going to be built in a subdivision. They're staying with friends. And in the backyard, the friends had a pool. There was an alligator in the pool in the backyard.
14:15Jimmy Kimmel:My Aunt Chippy looked out. She goes, I didn't raise three daughters to have a meeting by a goddamn alligator. I'm with Aunt Chippy. And that was that for Florida.
14:23Craig Robinson:That would be it for me, too. I've said this before. It's a reasonable fear. Any place where an alligator could be in your backyard, it's like I don't like mice in the house. I told Barack, can you imagine what I would do if I saw an alligator? I'd be like your Aunt Chippy. It's like, everybody, we're out tonight.
14:47Jimmy Kimmel:They lost$100. They went back to Brooklyn. They made a new plan. My Uncle Frank had heard that if you were a police officer, you could get a job as a security guard at one of the casinos. He got a job at the Frontier in Las Vegas. And then after a year at the Frontier, which is kind of a shabby hotel, he got a job at Caesars Palace. And because he was Italian, they almost always put the Italian guys on Frank Sinatra as part of his security detail. And I think word got out and we heard, like Uncle Frank's now, Frank Sinatra's bodyguard, and we had to get out there. So my grandparents were with them, and we just moved to rejoin the family in Las Vegas.
15:29Craig Robinson:Wow.
15:29Jimmy Kimmel:My Aunt Chip, he's still there, 86 years old.
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20:52Craig Robinson:What did your parents, did both your parents work? What did your dad do when he got to?
20:57Jimmy Kimmel:My mom raised us and my dad worked for a company that Howard Hughes owned called Summa Corporation. We still don't know what it was that he did. I think he tried to explain it to us a couple of times and it was either too complicated or too boring. Probably both. he worked somehow he worked in management information systems I'm not sure what that is I remember that's what they that's they used to call IT is that right yes yes my dad was an IT guy he was a he was a genius he was he's not a genius okay he but he did like somehow run these these systems that ran the slot machines at the casinos and they would set the odds on the that's as much as I know oh that's funny
21:42Craig Robinson:I think that's pretty good.
21:43Jimmy Kimmel:And sometimes he would just clock in and go bowling and then have someone clock out for him.
21:47Craig Robinson:Did you know that for a fact? I found that out a couple of years ago. How many of you siblings do you have?
21:55Jimmy Kimmel:I have a sister and a brother. I'm the oldest. My sister's three years younger and my brother is nine years younger.
22:01Craig Robinson:Are you the typical oldest brother? Are you the protector? Are you the, you know, were you beating up your, you know, your youngest? I tortured them, yes, yes.
22:09Jimmy Kimmel:I beat them. I did all the things. that you're supposed to do. Yeah, yeah. Psychological torture. But also, I'm so much older than my brother. I was kind of like a brother-uncle to him, really. So he was almost like, it was like having another parent as far as I was concerned with him. But yeah, my brother works as a director and a writer. He works on South Park. He's a writer on South Park. And my sister...
22:39Craig Robinson:You're the reason why South Park is...
22:42Jimmy Kimmel:I am not in the news. You're on Earth. My sister is a comedian, a stand-up comic.
22:46Craig Robinson:That's wild. And you said she came to stand-up comedy late in life.
22:51Jimmy Kimmel:Yeah, she decided about maybe like 13 years ago that she wanted to be a stand-up comic, and everybody was like, what?
22:58Craig Robinson:What did she do before that?
22:59Jimmy Kimmel:She was just working in regular jobs in an office and decided she wanted to do it and stuck with it, and now she does it for a living.
23:08Craig Robinson:Wow. Yeah. That's great. What's her brand of humor?
23:13Jimmy Kimmel:Observation, her life, being a mom and things she notices, I guess. Yeah. I mean, I think that's what you'd call it.
23:20Craig Robinson:Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah.
23:22Jimmy Kimmel:Management information services, she does. But yeah, and my parents are alive and full of hijinks at all times. There's always something funny going on. And yeah, everybody's doing all right. And was it always that way? Like when you were growing up, was it just like practical jokes and jokes around the table? What was it like growing up in your house? Very funny. Everyone's funny in our family. Literally everyone in the family is funny. The least funny person in our family would be the funniest person in most families. And yes, I started, my love of practical jokes really began with my Aunt Chippy.
24:02Jimmy Kimmel:She is my muse when it comes to that. And I carry that into my adult life our most recent mega prank on Aunt Chippy was we put her in a Waymo you know the driver of this vehicle
24:15Craig Robinson:and how old is she?
24:17Jimmy Kimmel:she was 85 at the time now she's 86 we put her in the car we pretended we had an actor playing a limo driver and picked her up at the airport and he said would you mind I have to run in and use the bathroom she's like yeah go ahead close the door the car drives off the limo driver and um The rest you should just watch on YouTube because it's, I couldn't possibly explain how funny it is. You're saying 85, Jimmy. You killed her. I did, you know what I did? She has three daughters, my cousins. And before we did this, I wrote them and I said, listen, I have this idea, but I'm going to be honest with you.
24:57Jimmy Kimmel:I don't know what's going to happen. Like this could potentially kill your mother. What do you think? I want to get your permission. The three of them answered yes before I barely, I don't think I even hit send. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. So that's how it goes in our family. No mercy. Oh my gosh. I got to see that.
25:15Craig Robinson:That's on YouTube. But I started by blowing up her cigarettes.
25:18Jimmy Kimmel:She's a world-class smoker. She loves Marlboro Reds. She's been smoking. She's like a dragon ever since I was a kid, you know? And I would get these cigarette loads. You remember those? Oh, absolutely. We tried that on our dad when we were little. We tried a bunch of stuff to make them stuff.
25:36Craig Robinson:to make them quit smoking.
25:37Jimmy Kimmel:That's not why I did it. I know. I know. I got figured. In fact, I was like, please don't ever stop. But I would load them. I'd get them in her. I'd then go buy cigarettes when I was like 14. I'd pull the clear plastic wrapping off as carefully as I could. I'd load the whole pack of cigarettes and seal it back up and use double stick scotch tape to put it back. Then I'd just leave it sitting somewhere and she'd think she got one over on me. She took the pack of cigarettes And the next day I get a call from work, you little bastard. She'd be playing the video poker machines and just tobacco would go everywhere.
26:16Jimmy Kimmel:Those things are the best. Oh, man. We did that to our dad and almost got in trouble.
26:22Craig Robinson:It was more we were dipping the tips in hot sauce. No, you dip the tips in hot sauce. I put one of those exploding things in his cigarette once and it exploded the beauty of the whole thing is when it explodes the end the tobacco goes everywhere but you're left with a cigarette in your mouth and it's bent you are absolutely right it's bent from the explosion it's just like a cartoon if you get lucky
26:49Jimmy Kimmel:and they take a hard drag there will be tatters you'll just have confetti coming out of your mouth
26:58Jimmy Kimmel:I buy them on eBay now and they still work you can't really find them new but you can find them all and so going to school did you get in trouble a lot at school doing stuff like that a little bit my teachers either loved me or wanted to kill me there was no in between really it was either they got it and they appreciated some jokes But I had situations in my life. Actually, when I hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner, you were there. And actually, we sat next to each other at that event. I told a story about my history teacher, Mr. Mills, at Clark High School in Las Vegas. George Mills was his name.
27:39Jimmy Kimmel:He was like a big, tough, like, I think he was a Marine. And a good teacher, you know, a really good teacher. It was an advanced level class. but there was, he, you know, he did not, he did not like any screwing around in class. And finally, and I just never stopped. Finally, he said to me, he did one of the worst things anybody ever did to me. He said, here's how this is going to go. You get, you tell one more joke and I fail you, you get an F. And, you know, I wanted to have good grades. And so this was a problem, you know, And the class objected and the class spoke up in my defense, which was great.
28:18Jimmy Kimmel:Right. Yeah. And they said, hey, come on, whatever. And he goes and he says, all right, you get one joke a week.
28:25Craig Robinson:Okay.
28:25Jimmy Kimmel:Which is worse than no jokes because I'm sitting there all week. I usually wait till Friday. And, you know, if it doesn't go over, it will ruin my whole week. I have to wait, you know, like I'd be so I have to pick my spot and make sure I slid a good one in. And when it would happen, he'd look at, he'd turn a glare at me and I'd go, I just give him like one joke a week. He'd be like, all right. But he did actually pull me outside the class once. And he said, listen, you're a funny guy. You're a smart kid. But if you keep screwing around, you're never going to get anywhere in life. And that's how I closed my White House Correspondents Dinner speech where I said, eat it, Mills, wherever you are.
29:08Jimmy Kimmel:And in his obituary. This story is written and they asked him about, and I guess he remembered me and he thought it was a funny story.
29:17Craig Robinson:So you guess he remembered you, huh? Yeah, he did.
29:20Jimmy Kimmel:He remembered me. You never know, right? I mean, there's a lot of students, but he remembered me.
29:26Craig Robinson:Wow. That's amazing. That's amazing. What do you remember most about your childhood in Vegas? I know that You had some pretty good friends and, you know, and you, you with your friends and your family, there's a loyalty. I mean, it's like you, you, you glom onto people and they stay with you forever.
29:50Jimmy Kimmel:Yeah. Is it loyalty or just no one else wants us around? No, I think it's deep love and loyalty. No, yeah, I have a lot of family and friends working at the show. You know, I had a great childhood. I really did. I grew up in a real middle, lower middle class neighborhood. Most of my friends' parents were dealers or my best friend's dad was a room service butler at Caesars Palace who worked with Sammy Davis Jr. and Bill Cosby and these, you know, these great stars of the day. And he is now in my band and his son was my band leader. Yeah.
30:27Craig Robinson:Yeah. Yeah, I know where you are with that. He passed away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when did you say, okay, maybe I can make a living out of this stuff?
30:42Jimmy Kimmel:You know, I always wanted to be an artist, like a cartoonist when I was a kid. And I never even, I didn't know anybody in show business. It wasn't like, you know, even growing up in Las Vegas, like there was this lounge singer named Perfecto who used to come over to my Aunt Chippy's house sometimes. And that was about as close as we got to show business. Yeah. Perfecto. Perfecto in motion was the name of it. And then there was another guy named Lovelace Watkins, who somehow my aunt and uncle befriended. But, you know, it wasn't something that I ever even imagined doing until I got on the radio.
31:21Jimmy Kimmel:You know, that's really what I read. I love David Letterman. And I read that David Letterman started in radio. and then I worked with a kid at a clothing store who said, hey, you're funny, you should be on the radio. He was on the college radio station. I was like, oh, I'd love to be on the radio. And I just kind of moved away from drawing and all that stuff that I was doing. And I got a real thrill out of being on the radio. I remember my first, the first time I hosted a radio show was in high school. I was on the college radio station. And they just said to me, yeah, we'll give you a show on Sunday night for a half hour.
31:56Jimmy Kimmel:you find somebody and interview them. You know, it was just like this, really. And I found this guy who, I found a guest in the Yellow Pages. He was the hairstylist of the stars. And I brought him in. I wanted to know what stars hair he'd style. Turned out it was only one star. And that star was John Davidson from That's Incredible. You remember that guy? Yeah. Uh-huh. We spent a full half hour talking about John Davidson's hair, which included a big white spot that was like a skunk. He had like a skunk type white spot on his hair. And it was fun. And I went home and my Aunt Chippy was over the house smoking.
32:34Jimmy Kimmel:Of course. She and my mother had listened. My parents had listened to it and they were so excited. And, you know, being raised in this loud Italian family, just being listened to, it was a big deal. I think that was...
32:49Craig Robinson:Getting a word in edgewise. Yeah.
32:51Jimmy Kimmel:Just the fact that they sat around presumably quiet, and listen to me for a half an hour was, I just, I was so excited by it. And that's all I really wanted to do from there on.
33:04Craig Robinson:Wow.
33:05Jimmy Kimmel:Is be a diss shocking.
33:07Craig Robinson:Did you finish college?
33:08Jimmy Kimmel:I didn't. No, I was at UNLV for a year. And then my whole family moved. My dad lost his job. We moved to Phoenix. I went to Arizona State and got a job in Seattle doing morning radio before I graduated, which by the way, never would have happened. Yeah. I say before I graduated, as if I would have graduated. You weren't on the... It was, that was not really... I was only going to school to avoid getting thrown out of the house. That was... My parents had no idea how much they were wasting on my education.
33:41Craig Robinson:So what was his first job in morning radio?
33:44Jimmy Kimmel:It was in Seattle at a radio station called KZOK. That was my first paying job.
33:49Craig Robinson:Wow.
33:49Jimmy Kimmel:I had a lot of jobs like calling in and doing character bits. but none of them paid. But my first paying job was at KZOK. I did a show with a friend called, his name was Kent Voss. The show is called The Me and Him Show. He was me, I was him. And we were on air every morning and we loved it. We got fired 10 months into our one-year contract. And then I had to move. What happened? What'd you do? I just, yeah, would you blow up? I wasn't very diplomatic at the time.
34:23Craig Robinson:I was 20 and everyone at the station was,
34:29Jimmy Kimmel:the median age was probably 45, you know. It was a classic rock station. I had never heard most of the songs that were being played, you know. Like it wasn't, it just wasn't the place I was supposed to be. And they figured that out a lot quicker than I did. And they sent me back home and it was heartbreaking. It really was like one of the worst times of my life. Really? Yeah, because I felt like I was on top of the world. I got this job that I wanted. And I was like, we're going to live in Seattle forever. And this is going to be our town. We're going to be on the radio here. And then the next thing I knew was like, okay, grab your stuff from your desk and go home and don't come back.
35:08Jimmy Kimmel:Which is weird. It's like no notice. You've never been fired, obviously.
35:13Craig Robinson:I don't think I have. No.
35:14Jimmy Kimmel:Have you been fired? I'm a coach. I've been fired. That's part of the deal. Yeah. It is an empty feeling. Isn't it? Yeah. Even when they owe you stuff, it's still like, oh, what am I going to do?
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36:48Jimmy Kimmel:and how about the people now that's the thing that really disappointed me more than any these people that you think are your friends who you just suddenly don't ever hear from yeah it's like you you have something contagious and they don't want any part of it it's like you used to be funny but now yeah you stink yeah like it's it really is and i got fired a lot of times and that's what I was going to say, you're like a coach. You get hired to get fired. How did you deal with those kinds of setbacks? I was always very determined. I always had a lot of confidence in myself. I felt that what we were doing was funny.
37:24Jimmy Kimmel:I really liked my partners on the air. We felt, you know, that was nice having a teammate. Being fired with another person is easier than being fired on your own. We started a classic rock station. I went to a top 40 station from there. Then it was what they call a hot AC, which is like upbeat adult contemporary. Then to another top 40 station. And finally, I wound up at K-Rock in LA, which is an alternative rock station. And that was kind of where I was supposed to be. I didn't get fired there. I fit in well at that station.
37:59Craig Robinson:What do you think you were learning as you were going through this period in your life that prepared you for your ultimate shine?
38:08Jimmy Kimmel:Well, I think it was a little bit like the Karate Kids in some ways, the Wax On, Wax On. When I was at K-Rock here in LA, I was the sports guy and I wrote all the comedy bits for the show. And I did a bunch of character voices. So I did six sports casts a morning, every half hour, and I wrote all the comedy bits. And then I would sometimes be on the air as well. So it was just nonstop writing, write, deliver, write, deliver, write, deliver, and just in a row. And so I learned to write quickly and to write and to just turn things around in a furious way, which has been great for me because I have to sit down and hash out a nine-page monologue every night.
38:58Jimmy Kimmel:But that learning experience, just little by little, taking on more and more and more and having those deadlines, which is something I have to this day. I never have writer's block because I just don't have time for it. Like I can't even, I don't even understand what it is. I just keep going and going and going. And at the end of the night, the show's over and you're on to the next one. And there's something terrible about that. It just disappears. You can put as much work into it as you want and then it's gone. But there's also something great about it because you're constantly creating. You're constantly coming up with stuff.
39:36Jimmy Kimmel:And that I like. I would love to hear, Jimmy, about your getting your late night gig. Like, tell me about that process. It's a disappointing story. And it goes like this. I was told that ABC wanted to meet me about a Thursday night variety show. I was hosting a show called The Man Show on Comedy Central at the time. I was also picking football games on Fox NFL Sunday. I was like their odds maker or whatever you want to call it. So I was asked to come in for a meeting and I was not interested in doing. One of the weird things I did is even at my most desperate times, I would say no to things, which turned out to be, I wasn't doing it as a strategy, but it turned out to be a great strategy because people would drive them crazy and then they keep offering me things until I did a game show called Win Ben Stein's Money.
40:35Jimmy Kimmel:And it was like, I think the fourth thing this producer, Michael Davies, had offered me. And each time I was just, you know, I was the sports guy. I was making$60 ,000 a year, you know.
40:45Craig Robinson:Like, what are you turning down stuff for?
40:47Jimmy Kimmel:The idea that I was turning down TV shows was genuinely ridiculous. And Tilly told me about this show, Win Ben Stein's Money. I was like, oh, that sounds funny. And he explained the premise of the game show. And I was like, oh, and then it turned out to be a hit. and it led to everything else I did on TV. But I was, my manager is a guy named James Babydoll Dixon. His other clients are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert who came along later. And Jon was going to be hired as the late night talk show host at ABC. He'd had conversations with them. They decided that they wanted to hire him. And then at the last minute, this producer, Michael Davies, who years later is now working at ABC, suggests to the guy, Lloyd Braun, who's running the company, that he'd look at a tape of me.
41:36Jimmy Kimmel:And he said, oh, the guy from the football? And he's like, yeah, yeah. He's like, oh, all right. So they looked at a tape and they were like, you know what? We're a very, this is a very blue collar network. At the time, like according to Jim, was their like number one show or whatever. And for whatever reason, they decided they were going to hire me, but they didn't want to tell me That's why they're interviewing me because I had the same manager as the guy they had already essentially offered the job to. So I go in under false pretenses. We spend the whole interview talking about David Letterman.
42:11Jimmy Kimmel:Never discussed a late night talk show. I go home. I get a call the next day saying, hey, they want to hire you to host a late night talk show. They never even offered me the job. They told me I had the job. They're like, congratulations. You're going to be hosting late. I told you I was like, I am? Okay. They knew about your strategy of saying no. So they made it so you couldn't say no. I don't think they knew anything about me. It was a period of maybe 36 hours. And they decided to give me the job and they gave me the job. And years later, I asked Bob Iger. I was like, because I still to this day think they made a mistake.
42:55Jimmy Kimmel:I would have, a hundred times out of a hundred, I would have hired Jon Stewart for that job. And I said to Bob, I was like, why did you, what is it that you saw in me that, you know, made you guys pick me over Jon Stewart? And he said, you were a lot cheaper. By the way, I was not kidding.
43:12Craig Robinson:No, no, Bob would not kid about that. And that's how I wound up on the year. Right, right. 23 years later, here I am. Just cheap, that's all.
43:21Jimmy Kimmel:The discount host.
43:22Craig Robinson:That's right. That's right. What did it feel like making that transition?
43:28Jimmy Kimmel:Terrifying.
43:28Craig Robinson:Really? Yeah.
43:30Jimmy Kimmel:Terrifying. Relentless. I mean, the show was live at that time. Yeah. And that means, and the show was on at midnight. It was on at 12.05 following Nightline. 12.05 to 1.05, which in LA time means 10.05 p.m. to 11.05 p.m. No. Yes. No. 9.05. Sorry. 9.05. 9.05, 10.05. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So every night, I was not done with work officially until 10.30 at night. I had just gone through a divorce. I had my kids three days a week. I had my older kids three days a week by myself. I had this show five days a week. We had no structure in place. Staff that 80 % of them had never done anything like this before, had no idea what they were doing.
44:19Jimmy Kimmel:a host who had no idea who he was doing, what he was doing. I had bunk beds in my office so my kids could sleep. It could, after school, come and they'd hang out with me. And then they'd sleep until, and I picked them up and put them in the car and drive them home and then take them to school in the morning and start over again. And we had no guests. We had, we just really, it was a very, very difficult startup. And it went on like that for years. And in fact, like the first six months, I hired all my friends, all my relatives. There was a lot riding on this, right? And I was hoping that ABC would cancel the show.
45:03Craig Robinson:It's like, please.
45:04Jimmy Kimmel:I really was. Put me out of my misery. Because then it wouldn't have been my, you know, what are you going to do? I'm not quitting. But, you know, I wasn't going to quit. but I would have welcomed the sweet release of death at that time. And it never came. And no matter how hard I tried, it never came.
45:22Craig Robinson:Just kept hanging on. What do you think it was that kept it going? Was it the time slot? Was it luck? Was it bad luck? I think it's, well, somehow we managed to get okay ratings,
45:35Jimmy Kimmel:which I think is probably the number one reason that it stayed on the air. because if they weren't making money, that, you know, whatever. They're not doing you any favors. We did okay, even though the whole time they told us we were not doing okay and we're losing money and all this kind of stuff. But I think more than anything is I'm just bullish. And I just kept, I had a good friend named Alex Wallu who was the president of ABC at the time. And he said at my 20-year anniversary, he said, you know what? You just, it was just, you just kept pushing that rock up the hill. This was just a, this was an act of sheer willpower more than anything.
46:15Jimmy Kimmel:And it probably was. It really, I just kept at it and kept doing it because I kept remembering what my life was like before it and how I would have a job for 10 months and lose it. And I wanted to just, I wanted to do everything in my power to keep it going. And if that way, if it didn't keep going, I would be okay. I would be able to make peace with that. Because, you know, there's not a big, there's not a huge afterlife for talk show hosts, especially back then. Now there is. Now somebody like Conan is, you know, got this entirely different career. But back then, there was, you were gone. That was it.
46:54Jimmy Kimmel:You were done.
46:55Craig Robinson:Yeah, yeah.
46:55Jimmy Kimmel:Maybe you'd get a game show if you were lucky.
46:57Craig Robinson:Yeah. How were your kids in the midst of, because you have the two older kids, how were they? because I didn't realize that you were single dadding it through it as well.
47:09Jimmy Kimmel:They were at that time. My daughter was, my daughter Katie was 10 and my son was eight. My son Kevin was eight.
47:18Craig Robinson:They were little.
47:19Jimmy Kimmel:Yeah, they were little. They were almost exactly the age that my younger kids are now.
47:24Craig Robinson:Younger kids are, yeah. Do they, what do they remember about that time? Or do they remember anything about that? They do.
47:30Jimmy Kimmel:My son Kevin works at the show now, so he's still in the bunk bed. Yeah. he's 6 '5", but he's chilling in the bunk bed. They remember, you know, it's a great question. I'd like to ask them what they remember, but they kind of had the run of the place, you know, and there were a lot of snacks. I'm sure that was a big thing that they remember. But we had our, you know, we had our family, our family traditions just took place at the show. Yeah. I'd get my son a bean and cheese burrito from Piquito Moss. You know, like we had my daughter would get penne marinara from the Italian restaurant across the street.
48:05Jimmy Kimmel:We'd do the homework. You know, I'd be writing a monologue and helping them with their homework. It was just a weird mix of home. I was in a dressing room that had no windows. You know, it was like just very strange situation. But, you know, what are you going to do? That's how you just have to do it.
48:22Craig Robinson:Yeah, yeah, yeah. What does your daughter do?
48:26Jimmy Kimmel:My daughter is an artist, my oldest daughter. Her name's Katie Kimmel. You can find her on Instagram. She's a very successful ceramics artist. She makes really clever, whimsical sculptures. And she has a pop-up store at The Row in downtown LA.
48:44Craig Robinson:Nice.
48:45Jimmy Kimmel:And she has a baby as well. So I am a grandfather. Welcome.
48:49Craig Robinson:Thank you. What do they call you? Pop-pop?
48:51Jimmy Kimmel:Well, she is only eight months old. So she calls me nothing right now. And my dad is papa. So I'm not getting that. So I just, I'm going with grandpa. I know it's weird, but I'm going to hope for just grandpa. So any tips on working with family? Because this is our first go around. Well, I think it might be harder with you guys because you're playing the same role here. Whereas, you know, I'm in charge.
49:22Jimmy Kimmel:Although that's not great. And that has its downside. But I'm fortunate. and maybe it's by design that I only hire relatives who set the best possible example for as far as working hard goes, as far as not complaining goes, as far as doing what needs to be done. They know that they have to be in the top 10 % as far as that stuff goes. So, and I've been fortunate. I've had a couple of unfortunate situations. I've had to fire my relatives. I've had to scold my uncle. I had to call him into my office and lecture him. Yeah, that was the uncle.
50:06Craig Robinson:And then how was Christmas after that?
50:10Jimmy Kimmel:Well, he got over it quickly. But, you know, my Uncle Frank used to be, he was a security guard on the show alongside Guillermo, who's my sidekick now. But Uncle Frank was my first sidekick. and he was the one we followed out to Las Vegas who worked for Frank Sinatra and he was a character he was just an offbeat funny dense man who you could pull anything over on him and he's just, he's very hard to explain I think the best way to explain him is he once sat in a room and had an hour long conversation with Kermit the Frog never acknowledging that it was a puppet talking about dating and food and places to go and things to do.
50:58Jimmy Kimmel:And it's just an unbelievable.
51:00Craig Robinson:Is that on YouTube? It is. Yeah, yeah.
51:03Jimmy Kimmel:It's just unbelievable.
51:04Craig Robinson:I've got so much to do after this.
51:08Jimmy Kimmel:The guy doing Kermit was like, I don't know what's going on here. Is this a joke on me?
51:16Craig Robinson:So why did he get fired?
51:19Jimmy Kimmel:Oh, I didn't fire him.
51:20Craig Robinson:Oh, he wasn't one of the ones. It came close. Oh, you had a talking to.
51:24Jimmy Kimmel:He got called into the office.
51:25Craig Robinson:Yeah, so what did he get called? Can you say or is it a private matter?
51:29Jimmy Kimmel:No, it wasn't anything bad. It was just like kind of refusing to do, like picking and choosing what he did and did not want to do, which, you know, like part of the fun when somebody is, you know, a stooge, for lack of a better term, is you put them in situations they don't necessarily want to be in. And he didn't want to be in it. And then he became like a star, you know, and he's like, I'm not going to do that. And I'm like, yeah, you are going to do that.
51:56Craig Robinson:You are still a star, but you're a stooge. We need you to do all the things, not just the fun ones.
52:03Jimmy Kimmel:Yeah. So, but yeah, he was funny and he really helped get me through a lot of rocky times from a comedy standpoint, because I knew I could always turn to him and get, he would say something crazy, you know.
52:30Jimmy Kimmel:so when did you meet molly molly uh started working at the show i think about a year into it and she wanted to be a writer and she became the writer's assistant she did that for i think a couple of years two three years and she would write jokes you know on the side and I'd look at the jokes and then it just became apparent that her jokes were so strong that I needed to hire her as a writer. And I hired her as a writer and she was great. And then she became the head writer when our head writer left. And then I think it was a couple of years after that, that we started dating.
53:06Craig Robinson:Yeah. And Molly is everybody's favorite person. Let's back up a minute. So it was a couple of years after you made her head writer that you started dating. Yeah. When did you start thinking she was interesting?
53:20Jimmy Kimmel:Oh, you know, I know it sounds, it always sounds like phony or whatever, but when I was dating, I was dating a comedian, Sarah Silverman. It didn't, I, I'm, I don't like, I don't have that kind of brain. You're monogamous. So you had a girlfriend at the time. I had a girlfriend and then she had a boyfriend as well. And I also just, you know, the idea of dating somebody at work wasn't necessarily a plan I had, But when I broke up with my girlfriend, I just like, you know, you get in that period, you're like, I'm not going to go out. You know, it was a fairly high profile relationship, whatever.
54:00Jimmy Kimmel:I'm just going to hang. So I would just hang out at the show after work. We just hang out a group of us. And Molly was part of that group. There were like 10 of us and we'd hang out every night. And then we had a lot in common and she knew it was a terrible idea for us to date. and went ahead and did it anyway. I was much more cavalier about the whole thing. I was like, it'll be fine.
54:20Craig Robinson:You're like, I'm the boss. It'll be okay.
54:23Jimmy Kimmel:It'll be okay for me. But I also went from, you know, a 13-year marriage to an eight-year relationship to dating Molly. So I've never been in a situation where I've been like dating. You know, I've never had anything like that. You weren't on the apps. Yeah, that's not my, yeah, there weren't even apps. There weren't even apps. So you said earlier, you don't know what writer's block is. You don't get writer's block. You're just used to cranking out stuff. Yeah. Have you ever cranked out anything where you're like, ooh, I'm nervous about doing this or? Oh, every day. Every day. Really? Yeah. But I tend to lean into those things.
55:08Jimmy Kimmel:If something makes me nervous, I have to be, I have to be talked out of it in a serious way. I'm always more relaxed about it. And really, that's why I was fired from all those other jobs is because I always thought, oh, they'll think this is funny. Yeah. Right. I was like, oh, they'll think this is funny. I don't think they're going to think it's funny. It's like, you're fired.
55:33Jimmy Kimmel:I'll give you an example of something terrible I did. Please, yes. This was today. Oh, okay. Today is Ash Wednesday, right? Right. Oh, I forgot about that. You forgot about that? I did. Okay, anyway.
55:45Craig Robinson:Because we've been in this building all day.
55:48Jimmy Kimmel:So my friend, comedian John Mulaney, texted me and Stephen Colbert and said, you guys have ashes? We're all Catholic. You guys have your ashes today? And Stephen sends back a picture of himself and he's got a... It looks like he got hit with a charcoal briquette. you know? And then I am like kind of looking at the picture and I think, oh, this is, you know, this is a funny, how, what a mess this priest made on this thing. And I go into the bathroom and I get a, um, uh, a pastel and I draw a penis on my forehead. And, um, I texted some, I'm like, uh, well, I guess my priest thinks he's funny, you know?
56:34Jimmy Kimmel:And I thought, oh, maybe I'll put that on Instagram. And, yeah, no, that got, my wife was like, no, you're not, no. Don't do that.
56:43Craig Robinson:Say, but if it were up to you, it would have been thin, thin, thin.
56:46Jimmy Kimmel:It left to my own devices. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I probably would have done that. And now, in a way, I got, you know what, I kind of got what I needed because I did tell the story.
56:59Craig Robinson:And we're not laughing, everyone.
57:01Jimmy Kimmel:I even said it to my, my, my priest growing up, Father Bill Kenny. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. And I sent him the picture. And I said, Father Bill, I went to church this morning. And let me know if you think this is appropriate, what the priest did. And then I sent him the picture of the penis on my head. And he says, you need an exorcism.
57:26Craig Robinson:And you crack yourself up. I love it.
57:30Jimmy Kimmel:You know, my other straight man growing up, besides my Aunt Chippy, who was my, you know, who I would torture was my priest, Father Bill.
57:38Craig Robinson:Oh, no. Who I've been friends with since I was a kid, you know.
57:42Jimmy Kimmel:But there's no better, there's no one who gets more, you get more shock value out of than the priest from your church. And he had a great sense of humor. So he always started funny, but I do crazy stuff in front of the other. And even at his, it was his 50th anniversary of the priesthood And they had a big, thousands of people came to celebrate in Vegas. And they called me and they said, would you speak at this? Yes, I would.
58:11Craig Robinson:I mean, that's just like.
58:12Jimmy Kimmel:So I had a painting made of Father Bill to celebrate the occasion. And I had it on an easel. And I had a sheet hanging over it. I was going to reveal it. And I gave my, you know, I talked about our relationship. And I made fun of him. And it was, bishops were there. And then I revealed the painting. and it's a nude painting of him sitting on a stool covering himself in just the right spots.
58:45Jimmy Kimmel:It was just great. It was really... Really like, I love when I'm doing the same things I was doing when I was 14. You're like, you're just a kid.
58:59Craig Robinson:Oh. So how does it feel that you have probably unintentionally entered into the space in comedy where you are, you know, you become a truth teller? And, you know, and there are times when, you know, you've had to go serious and even go dark. It's so completely, I shouldn't say dark, but just go real. How is that transition felt for you? because at heart, you're a prankster. You know, you're a morning show radio guy, you know. But here we are in these times and you have so bravely and boldly used your platform to speak truth to power, as they would say.
59:48Jimmy Kimmel:Well, thank you. I don't think of it as bravely, boldly maybe would be a good description. But to me, it just seems obvious and unavoidable. And I don't see that. I just can't imagine on those nights talking about anything other than what we are talking about. And I give a lot of credit to my colleagues for doing the same thing. I think it would be embarrassing if we didn't talk about this stuff. It would be shameful. Not that I think everyone has a responsibility to speak out, whatever, if you're comfortable doing that. But, you know, my job, I've always said since the very beginning, even when I was on the radio, is to talk about what is going on in people's lives and what is going on in, you know, if you're doing local radio in your town and if you're doing a national television show in your country.
1:00:46Jimmy Kimmel:And these are things that I take very seriously. and of course, you know, I like to, I love telling jokes. I love being funny. I love when the audience laughs. There's nothing that's more exciting to me than that. But well-rounded human beings don't behave that way. And to say that, well, your job is this, it makes me, I bristle at that. Because first of all, don't tell me what my job is. You know, I don't tell you what your job is. My job is whatever I decide my job is, or whatever my employer allows me to do. That's what my job is. And comedians have been doing this for a long time.
1:01:30Craig Robinson:So true.
1:01:30Jimmy Kimmel:And, you know, from my generation, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, it just shows a great deal of ignorance when it comes to comedy to say, well, Johnny Carson didn't do this. Like, well, first of all, we're living in a different time. And secondly, how do you know Johnny Carson? wouldn't do it. I bet Johnny Carson would talk about it. I bet Johnny Carson would be absolutely mortified by what's going on. And I do think that he would probably have a greater impact than any of us do. But I don't love those nights. I feel uncomfortable. I get emotional. I lose control sometimes of my emotions, which is embarrassing to me.
1:02:19Jimmy Kimmel:But I just feel like I wrestle with myself throughout the day and I go, am I going to talk about this? Am I going to talk about this? Am I going to talk about this? And then I just go, yeah, of course, you have to talk about this. You might not want to, but you have to. And that's it.
1:02:34Craig Robinson:Yeah.
1:02:35Jimmy Kimmel:I wish we didn't have to do it. I hope there's a day that we don't anymore and we can just go back to fun. It would be nice.
1:02:42Craig Robinson:It would be nice. Do you worry that comedians will censor themselves in this environment?
1:02:52Jimmy Kimmel:I think what worries me most is when comedians warp their sensibilities for whatever reason. Do people censor themselves? I don't know. Do television networks censor themselves? Absolutely. Have they always censored themselves? Yes, but for different reasons. I was listening to you guys talk to Henry Winkler and ABC wouldn't let him wear his leather jacket unless he was riding a motorcycle.
1:03:25Craig Robinson:That's right.
1:03:25Jimmy Kimmel:I mean, how quaint is that? Like leather jackets or some kind of...
1:03:31Craig Robinson:It's like it's the devil.
1:03:34Jimmy Kimmel:Entryway to gang membership.
1:03:35Craig Robinson:If you look at it, you'll go blind.
1:03:38Jimmy Kimmel:But I do think that there are people who are pretending to be something other than what they are in search of an audience. And it's especially sad to me. It's especially sad to me because you look at some of these comics and maybe they're not doing so great and they, you know, I'm going to pick up this MAGA torch and maybe people will support me just because of that?
1:04:10Craig Robinson:Well, it's important for people to know that for some of these folks, this is a game. This is a hustle.
1:04:19Jimmy Kimmel:More than you would think. I would bet.
1:04:22Craig Robinson:Because we saw it in the White House, especially around the holidays when there would be a set of people who would demonize my husband on TV and then be in line for a picture with their grandchildren, essentially saying, my granddaughter loves you. And, you know, and it's like, if you believe the things that you believe, if I believe this about someone, I wouldn't be in the line. I wouldn't be in the house. You know, so there's a lot of wink and nodding that goes on. It's like, you know, and I think that is, does a disservice to the people who are following people. It's like, oh, how much do you believe in this, you know, stuff you're spewing.
1:05:09Craig Robinson:Because if you don't believe it, don't play with people's lives like that. Yeah, it's hard to...
1:05:18Jimmy Kimmel:On some levels, it's hard to understand and others, it's easy to understand. Because when it comes to how people make their money, they seem willing to compromise in a lot of ways. And I think I get a little more backlash than someone who maybe, like Jon Stewart, who kind of came out of the shoot of very outspoken liberal, because I didn't talk about politics, and because it wasn't really part of my act. It wasn't really something I wasn't particularly interested in.
1:05:54Craig Robinson:You were putting bombs in cigarettes and sending I was doing
1:06:01Jimmy Kimmel:sports jokes and this kind of stuff, and hosting the man show, you know, which people like, are like, well, you've betrayed us. Like, no, I've never, I've always been like this. I, you know, my parents are, you know, and of course, you know, that's how it starts. Whatever your parents are, usually that's what you are, you know? And my parents are very liberal people, you know, very, very, very liberal people. And I always have been, you know, I've never voted for a Republican in my life. I just always been of this mindset. And I think people were just shocked to hear it because you assume somebody you like thinks like you.
1:06:39Jimmy Kimmel:And I don't mind if people think differently. I have some very close friends who think very differently. And I'm okay with that. I understand that people have different life experiences and believe things. I know I personally believed certain things to be true for a long time my life and realized that they weren't. And just, you have to allow for that. And lately, you know, I posted something on Instagram about some of these, primarily podcasters
1:07:13Craig Robinson:who now are having second thoughts about who they endorsed for president.
1:07:20Jimmy Kimmel:And I'm grateful to them for being honest and admitting that they were mistaken. Absolutely. It happens almost never.
1:07:29Craig Robinson:Right, right. That people admit when they're wrong.
1:07:31Jimmy Kimmel:It's the cardinal rule of MAGA is to never admit when you are wrong. And I can't think, first of all, it's the opposite of Christianity. I mean, it's the basis of the whole faith, you know, is asking for forgiveness. And that seems to be cast aside. But I welcome those people. I am, I don't think there's any way forward if we don't. That's what I think. I've heard people that I have a great deal of respect for, with whom I'm on the same page, whatever you want to say, who go, oh no, they must be punished for their sins. I disagree. What makes you excited about the future of comedy? I love the niche aspect to comedy now, where you can, like our announcer on our show, Lou, Lou Wilson, he does a show that's very popular on the internet about Dungeons and Dragons.
1:08:30And it's like a funny internet show
1:08:34Jimmy Kimmel:about Dungeons and Dragons. and he can do it and he can get an audience and he makes money from it and it's amazing to me because even you know when i was coming up in order you had to first get on the radio which is like basically you how do you get on the radio if you're not on the radio you just have to hang around you just have to annoy them until they put you on a little bit and then they put you on a little more and then hopefully you get better but now you open up your computer you could do a whole show for, you know, your friends or for nobody, whatever. And then if it's good, usually it catches on.
1:09:12Jimmy Kimmel:And I think that's a lot of fun. And a lot of people see that as like, the end of comedy as a business. But I think it's great. I mean, I think you'll see a lot more people doing it. Maybe not for as much money, but you'd be able to, if you're good, you can make a living and really only talk about what you want to talk about.
1:09:33Craig Robinson:And there are so many funny people out there. I mean, it's like, you know, I get funny things sent to me because I try not to be on social media a lot. But I could spend the day just cracking up about people. I love that too.
1:09:48Jimmy Kimmel:You know that when you get a video that's funny and it's somebody you've never seen before, that thousands of other people are also sending that video around. And that's just something. It's one of the few good things I think about social media that, you know, we forget, I think, sometimes that there are also good things. And it is one of the good things is that exposure and just even those reps you get as, you know, when you're 15, you get to be on, you get to do a show every day. I think like in 40 years, we're going to have like some incredibly developed talents that are very unique and very unusual.
1:10:26Jimmy Kimmel:And I like that. Who are some of the younger guys that you see coming along that excite you? Can you say without... Without like thinking too hard. You know, I always get nervous because I will go home and go, Oh, I forgot about him.
1:10:44Craig Robinson:He's going to kill me.
1:10:46Jimmy Kimmel:We had a comic named Mae Martin on the show last week who was very, very funny. and that's one of the great things about my job is sometimes I can see people and I can put them on television if I want to.
1:11:05Craig Robinson:But we've got a listener question too. We do. We always have a listener question that we can offer some advice to one of our listeners. Hi, my name is Andrea. I'm a mom of three-year-old twin girls and their one-year-old baby brother and I have a full-time job while my husband stays at home with the kids. He has the harder job by a thousand miles. I have a drive to be with my kids through their various phases, but being the sole breadwinner, I'm really only present on weekends and at bedtime. I know people, including you, say this time goes so quickly, so savor every moment. I also know that you raised your kids during what was probably the most stressful and public-facing period of your lives.
1:11:46Craig Robinson:All that to say, I try to stay present, and I'm also trying to parent myself first to show a good example to the kids when I am there. Can you give me a little guidance on prioritizing when to stay present, what to be there for, and what I shouldn't worry so much about so that my kids feel like their mom is both their foundation and a successful person to emulate? I want to be focused on the parts of parenthood that my kids can reflect on positively once they're out in the world being their spicy selves. Thanks, and I love your vibe.
1:12:18Jimmy Kimmel:well number one i would andrea um your husband comes first no matter what he oh sorry i'm talking to molly we weren't ready for that one that's a tough one especially for women because you know there's you know and these presumptions that you, like, I guarantee you if the roles were reversed there, it'd be like, wow, what a great dad he is. He wouldn't be writing. He wouldn't be writing in like, how can I be more present? He'd be like, I'm with these kids all weekend and sometimes at night.
1:13:01Jimmy Kimmel:But it does seem like, like we're now as adults expected to, I know we still have 24 hours in the day. I mean, I'm just comparing it as we all do to what our parents did, right? There's still only 24 hours in the day. And now we're expected to do so many more things. And I don't know why that is. I don't know if we've learned that we need to or if it's pressure that we feel from others. I don't know what advice I would give other than you're doing your best. Just do your best. I mean, and that has to be enough because you have to be at work all day, every day. and even just to hopefully the dad's doing a good job right and if he's doing a good job which I don't know it sounded like she thinks he's doing a good job
1:13:51Craig Robinson:yeah she wasn't complaining let him do who would have heard about it
1:13:53Jimmy Kimmel:let him do his job yeah you do your job and then you do as much of the job together as you can yeah and release that that guilt my wife we have this conversation too she's like I feel like I'm not you know I'm not doing I'm not doing enough at work. I'm not doing enough for the kids. I'm not doing enough at home. And, you know, of course, I'm always full of wisdom. She says this the other day. I'm like, what do I think of? What can I say to get out of this room without causing an incident? You're getting yelled at. And what I did was I touched her on the face and I said, you're doing a great job.
1:14:36Jimmy Kimmel:You're doing everything you can. And then that's all you can do. And I walked right out of the room. And I was so pleased with myself. Yeah, I mean, even just like me recounting this, I'm feeling a surge of pride in the way. I handle it like you would in a movie. End scene. And there he goes, off to work.
1:14:55Craig Robinson:What a great man. What a great man.
1:15:01Jimmy Kimmel:But it's hard, right? Yeah, yeah. It is.
1:15:03Craig Robinson:But I do think you're right, Jimmy. I mean, the one thing I would say to Andrea is really try not to parent from guilt, because I think that's more damaging than how much time you are or are not spending. Like if you try to replace your time with the wrong things, like being more lenient or, you know, always being the fun parent or, you know, if your guilt is preventing you from creating the kind of boundaries and all of that, that to me is the thing that winds up hurting kids is that they're raised by a mother that feels guilty. So they learn to play on that guilt. And that is not the best thing for them.
1:15:50Craig Robinson:So I learned that my kids react to the schedule the way I react to it, the way Barack reacts to it, right? We learned that in the White House. So we started going, okay, yeah, we live in the White House. It's really no big deal. It's just, this isn't about you. Just go to school. Yes, you have security, but, you know, that's just the state of life. You're fine, you know. This isn't about you. What your dad does isn't about you. And all you have to do is take care of your business, you know. And I found that with them having their regular routine and their lives on track, the older they get, that's really what they care about.
1:16:30Craig Robinson:But if there's something that they can count on, like this is the time I have with my mom and it's good time, so that she's not using the guilt, the time, just being guilty, that she's still showing up her full self for the time that she has.
1:16:49Jimmy Kimmel:This is so much better than my advice to Andrea. Yesterday, we were at lunch and this place has a gift shop as well. And so we're waiting for the food and I'm sitting with my daughter, Jane, and my wife is in the gift shop with Billy and Jane goes into the gift shop and they come back and they're having a negotiation. Jane wants a jelly cat. These are these stuffed animals that are very popular and they make different ones. And she's like, mom, I just want, and Molly said, well, you know, your birthday's in July and you should put that on your birthday list then if you want it. But we're not buying a jelly cat right now.
1:17:34Jimmy Kimmel:And they go back and she, my daughter's relentless, you know. She's going on and she's like, but I did this and that. So, no, Jane, I said, no, you know, whatever. And I'm sitting there, I'm watching the whole thing. And finally, I go, I'll buy it for you. Oh, Jimmy. And I just, and they both started cracking. I decided I'm just going to be the worst parent imaginable. We're going to end this jelly cat issue. It's yours. I'll buy it for you. Here's two. And it was such an antisocial act.
1:18:11Jimmy Kimmel:But I did buy it for her ultimately. And no lessons were learned.
1:18:16Craig Robinson:None whatsoever. You just screwed Molly. That's all you did. so brazenly though that I felt it was okay you totally ran over her you backed over Molly and then drove back over her oh my goodness
1:18:32Jimmy Kimmel:good luck Andrea
1:18:33Craig Robinson:yeah you're gonna be fine you're gonna be fine well this has been great
1:18:40Jimmy Kimmel:yeah it was a lot of fun
1:18:42Craig Robinson:what's next on the Jimmy Kimmel train
1:18:45Jimmy Kimmel:let's see I have an appointment with my ENT on Friday. Is that interesting?
1:18:57Jimmy Kimmel:Nothing. You know, we're off for the rest of the week. I will rest up and then go right back at it.
1:19:02Craig Robinson:Go right back at it.
1:19:02Jimmy Kimmel:Right back into the mess.
1:19:04Craig Robinson:Yeah. And it is a mess. It's a mess, but you handle it beautifully. Oh, thank you. You really do.
1:19:11Jimmy Kimmel:I finally handled something beautifully in my life.
1:19:14Craig Robinson:Yeah, well, yeah, you've got this one down. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun watching you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. And thank you for gracing us. You know, turnabout. My pleasure. How did it feel being on the other side of the interview chair? It's fun, actually.
1:19:28Jimmy Kimmel:You know, I like talking to you guys. I love the brother-sister dynamic. I could probably ask you 10 ,000 questions about that. One day we'll both be on. Yeah, that would be fun. That would be funny. Maybe on like National Siblings Day or something like that. That's right. It would be nice.
1:19:45Craig Robinson:And we could play a joke on Craig.
1:19:47Jimmy Kimmel:Oh, well, will you?
1:19:50Craig Robinson:But he'll forget about it.
1:19:51Jimmy Kimmel:Or we could just do something. You could just both do something to Aunt Chippy. Oh, that would be great.
1:19:56Craig Robinson:Oh, my God. No, no. No, because I do not want to be responsible for any kind of accident.
1:20:03Jimmy Kimmel:It's like, I don't know. Listen, I'm going to kill her eventually. Might as well go out, you know, an A-level.
1:20:14Craig Robinson:Oh, Jimmy, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. For everything you're doing. We love you. Love you so much.
1:20:20Jimmy Kimmel:Thank you, guys. Thank you.
From the publisher
On this week’s episode of IMO, legendary late night host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel joins the show! Jimmy opens up about his childhood in Las Vegas, shares why he was fired from every job he had before late night, and how he built his show from the ground up, family and all. Plus, he shares a recent not-so-proudest parenting moment.
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