Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 | 3:52 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
February 12 - 13, 2005
What: "Hands Together" benefit for the Samaritan House, featuring Jimmy Kimmel, Clint Holmes, Jimmy Hopper, Midnight Fantasy, Rick Thomas, Forever Plaid and the Amazing Jonathan.
When: 2 p.m. Feb. 20.
Where: Railhead at Boulder Station.
Tickets: $40.
Information: 547-5300.
Jimmy Kimmel makes a point of stopping by Las Vegas several times a year. In fact, the 37-year-old host of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" seen nightly at 12:05 a.m. on ABC (KTNV Channel 13), still considers Las Vegas home, though he hasn't lived in the city since June 1986.
His next trip to Las Vegas, though, is for a special cause: a benefit for the Samaritan House, a shelter in downtown Las Vegas for homeless men who are attempting to recover from alcoholism and drug addiction. The nonprofit rehab facility, which opened in 1965, faces closure unless money can be raised to purchase new mattresses and to meet city requirements for a paved parking lot.
Kimmel hosts a benefit concert, "Hands Together," at the Railhead at Boulder Station on Feb. 20. Scheduled performers include Clint Holmes, Jimmy Hopper, Midnight Fantasy, Rick Thomas, members of "Forever Plaid" and Amazing Johnathan.
The Las Vegas Sun recently talked to Kimmel about the benefit, the Federal Communications Commission and the recent tsunami parody, to the tune of "We Are the World," aired by a morning show crew on a New York radio station.
Las Vegas Sun: How did you get involved with the Samaritan House fundraiser?
Jimmy Kimmel: A good friend of mine, Father Bill Kenny, who is the pastor of Christ the King, where I went to church growing up, asked me to do it, so I said yeah.
Sun: Prior to that, did you know much about it?
JK: I didn't know much about it, no. Father Bill is a good friend. And if he asks me to do something, I'm there. I do know a little about it (now). It sounds like a great thing: homeless and alcoholism treatment and stuff like that. I hope people come out.
Sun: Any thoughts on Johnny Carson? Did he have much of an influence on you?
JK: (David) Letterman is definitely my biggest influence. But I always watched Carson. I know everyone said it, but it's true: He was effortless and great.
Sun: Did you take anything from his shows?
JK: No. I was a kid when I watched his show and I never really thought I'd be a talk-show host. I try to take as little as possible from anyone, just to be a little different. But he kind of established how shows are done, to this day.
Sun: Has having your own TV talk show been a big transition for you?
JK: It hasn't really because I did radio for 12 years and you're doing, essentially, a talk show every day for five hours a day. So it hasn't been a big transition, just a little bit of a grind.
Sun: When Conan O'Brien started out with his talk show in the early '90s, critics were harsh and his ratings were horrid. Gradually as the show went on, though, the ratings improved, as did critics' opinions. Do you see that happening with your show?
JK: I hope so. That's our goal, that you stay on long enough that people get used to you and they give you credit for doing things a little bit differently. It seems like that started to happen a few months ago, so hopefully that will continue.
Sun: So "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" has turned the corner, so to speak?
JK: I don't know if there is a corner. You just hope that the show gradually gets a little better every month and if that keeps happening over a period of a few years, you wind up with a pretty good show at the end of it. Then you get lazy and start mailing it in and then you have a bad show again. That's what I'm looking forward to.
Sun: How long do you think you can continue with the show? Do you see yourself going on as long as Carson?
JK: I don't know. We do a lot of shows: 46 weeks a year of shows. It's a grind, but I find that I look forward to vacation time a little bit less than I used to. I don't know what will happen. Maybe in 15 years if I'm still doing it, they'll say, "We want to sign you for another 15 years." And I'll say, "Yeah, OK." I can tell you, my plan before I took the job was to do it for 10 years and then disappear just like Johnny did.
Sun: How has having the show changed your life? Obviously, there's more money now.
JK: That hasn't really changed. I make about as much as I used to make, (so) it's not really that much different. I did a couple of shows, "The Man Show" and "Crank Yankers." And it's changed my life in that I used to be involved in a lot of things and now I'm involved really in just this. My focus used to be a lot more varied, but now it's the same thing each day.
Sun: Is that good or bad?
JK: For a person like me, it's not good. I like to be involved in a lot of different things, it excites me. You just have to focus on making the shows different and then you get the variety within the show itself.
Sun: I know you've been a big supporter of Howard Stern in his battle with the FCC. As a former DJ, do you think now that FCC Chairman Michael Powell is stepping down, that the FCC will lighten up?
JK: I doubt it. People forget that (President) Clinton (nominated) Michael Powell (to the FCC board) and he is probably as liberal a president as we're going to have for a while, and as we've had for a while. So, I don't think it will change much.
I think it's unfortunate that a complaint from one person can result in a show that millions of people love getting fined so much money that it doesn't make sense to keep it on the air anymore. To me, that's not what America is supposed to be.
Sun: What about the hip-hop station in New York, where its morning-show team did the tsunami parody to "We Are the World"?
JK: I'm not saying people don't go too far, I think they do, but the station took care of it themselves. They fired the DJs.
People think that's nothing, but believe me, I've been in that situation. It's going to be very difficult for those people to get a job again. People have this idea that, "Oh, they'll just pick up another gig somewhere in this town or this town." It's a dream to do a morning show in New York. You work all of your life to get to that spot. You do something stupid and they paid for it. I'm not saying that they shouldn't pay for it, but I think the station took care of it themselves. That's bad taste. I think that the advertisers and the listeners regulate the penalties.
Sun: How has the FCC crackdown on indecency affected your show?
JK: It's just that everybody's more nervous about everything. The affiliates are always nervous that they're going to get fined because that's what the FCC has done, they target the affiliates. These affiliates, they don't know what's coming on. I don't know how you hold these people responsible for what happens on a halftime show. They're just broadcasting a signal that they are receiving. It just doesn't make any sense.
Sun: Ultimately, then, it's up to the individual shows to monitor themselves.
JK: Yeah, I think so. But I think that more than anything, the advertisers regulate the market. If something is offensive in their opinion, then they won't buy time on it. And if you can't sell commercial time, then you can't do a show. It's pretty simple, I think.
Sun: Have you curtailed any of the show's humor?
JK: No, we haven't done anything. We operate in the safe harbor anyway, so we couldn't be fined by the FCC because we're on after 10 o'clock at night. But we've not let it affect us at all. We knew going in that there are certain things you can say and certain things you can't say. And if somebody says it, we bleep it.
Sun: Anything you want to add?
JK: I hope people come out to the show, it should be a good time and it's for a good cause. Even though I live (in L.A.), I consider Las Vegas my hometown. It'll be great to be back there.
Sun: Maybe this will be an audition for a permanent gig in Las Vegas after you retire from late-night TV.
JK: I'm hoping to get a long-term engagement with either Danny (Gans) or Celine (Dion)."
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