Thoughts on the first show
“A smart man would leave now.” Great line to start off his first-ever monologue, after the cheerful, loud, greeting ovation.
Jimmy kicked off his first show with a great Conan bit, and really ran a very nice show straight through. He was clearly a little nervous, but the show was well-written, and Jimmy wore his nervousness charmingly.
The “snow day” joke was cute, although I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the Rush Limbaugh joke. I would have loved a few more jokes about his Day 1 jitters.
Definitely think it was the right move, though, to include monologue jokes on other topics. I loved the Microsoft/Apple store joke — that the difference between the two stores will be that, at the Microsoft store, the staff will freeze when you ask them a question. Great line.
“Slow Jammin’ the News” with the Roots behind him wasn’t just a funny conceit — the implementation was great. The camera switching focus between Jimmy and the band behind him was excellent. Just before the show started, I was thinking about how great Jimmy is at funny music, and was hoping it would have a place in his show. Well done!
Tonight, Jimmy’s hosting Tina Fey, his old co-anchor. I’ll post some monologue jokes for the day a bit later on.