Johnny Carson was a man of many merits, but it was his ability to listen attentively and react accordingly that turned mere guest appearances into conversations that kept audiences riveted and laughing.
Today, starting at 3:30 p.m. at the Mary Riepma Media Arts Center, 313 N. 13th St., Lincolnites will have the chance to listen and learn from Johnny’s career as preserved in clips and in the memories of four former employees of the long-running talk show.
Jeff Sotzing, Carson’s nephew and president of the Carson Entertainment Group, along with former “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” writers Anthony DeSena, Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers, will share clips and stories at the free-to-the-public lecture.
This will be the first Johnny Carson Lectureship hosted by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. The event is slated to repeat every other year.
For this installment, in addition to the lecture at the Ross, Sotzing and the three former writers will participate in undergraduate and graduate classes today. They will meet with graduate acting and directing students in the morning and undergraduate intermediate acting students in the afternoon, prior to the lecture.
While anyone will be able to reminisce about or experience anew Carson’s comedy, the lectureship was started with the idea that it would reconnect his legacy to UNL, said Paul Steger, director of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.
“The Carson Lecture Series was designed to connect our students with those people who were influenced by Johnny and create new people who are influenced by Johnny,” Steger said.
For Sotzing, the memories go back to childhood when he would sit in the booth and watch his uncle Dick Carson direct the show and his uncle Johnny orchestrate the humor. Growing up 90 minutes away from New York City, Sotzing often visited tapings and later on would turn a 1978 summer job as receptionist into involvement with the show through to its close in 1992.
Looking back, Sotzing said it was the spontaneity of each night that he most treasures.
“I always loved taping the show because the show was basically done live,” Sotzing said. “The technology that exists today didn’t exist then, and the show started at 5:30 and ended at 7:00. Whatever happened on the show happened, so it was a very exciting, electric experience.”
Considering Carson’s roots in Norfolk, Neb., and where his success in the entertainment industry led him, UNL students can learn from that electricity and take it with them as they embark upon their own endeavors, Steger said.
“(The lecture) is a great example for any of our students to give them the idea that we’re in Lincoln, Neb., not in the middle of nowhere, but we’re really in the middle of everywhere.”
michaeltodd@dailynebraskan.com
youtube.com/watch?v=jH8gtrD4_C4