Comedian Jim Norton recently went on Flagrant to look back at his tenure doing field comedy for The Tonight Show, reminding audiences of the era when Jay Leno dominated late-night television.
Speaking with hosts Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, Norton recalled his time on the red carpet. "I was doing field pieces for The Tonight Show for Leno, and we were at the Grammys," Norton explained, describing a self-deprecating stunt that went awry when he crossed paths with Steve Martin.
The bit itself was simple but awkward. "This dumb bit I was doing was I was handing people my CD asking them if they would nomin- try to get me nominated," Norton said, recounting how he had to face Martin right after publicly trashing him in a book. While today's late-night landscape relies heavily on highly produced, studio-bound segments, these unfiltered, real-world interactions represent a bygone style of late-night comedy that networks rarely attempt anymore.