Nebraska’s favorite son, Johnny Carson, would have been 100 years old on Oct. 23. The Lied Center in Lincoln is celebrating with a night of magic and music, hosted by another Nebraskan, comedian Pat Hazell from Omaha, who appeared on the Tonight Show in June of 1989. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson caught up with Hazell and asked if he was funny as a kid.
Pat Hazell: I was a funny kid. I think I got encouraged, which was also nice. Who knew comedy was going to be my career? But my mom encouraged me to go to into dramatics because of how silly I was and that kind of a thing.
Dale Johnson: From where did magic come in this comedy personality of yours?
Hazell: My parents gave me a magic kit. I think I was about 9 or 10 years old, and they were traveling, and they went to some magic shop and came back with some stuff. So one Christmas, I was then forced by my uncle to learn the tricks and put on a living room show kind of thing, just to sort of put the magic kid to use. But I love the attention, and it was kind of a vehicle to be funny. You know, if the trick didn't work, you could sort of laugh it off and that kind of a thing. I didn't really realize that the comedy part of it was going to be so important to me. But I loved having the secrets, and I loved making people pick the cards and all of that. And I did it in my formative years and through high school and into college and at the local spaghetti works and street performed. Everywhere I could do it, I was doing it, and it was what led me into comedy, because I was a young person that was able to go to comedy-shop-type places, only because I had an act. And because I had an act, they'd let me be in the back door through the liquor department and whatever, then I could go on stage. But I got a lot of stage time that way.
Johnson: Do you still have a pull to magic? Will you be watching at all?
Hazell: I do have a pull. And I look Johnny was both a magician and a comedian that came from Nebraska. So Johnny Carson was my true north. I wanted to be a talk show host. I wanted to be all the things that I watched him do. I thought, Oh, that's pretty, pretty interesting, right? So in the choices of the magicians that I'm bringing back to Lincoln, Johnny's favorite magician was Lance Burton, but Mike Caveney and Tina Lenert both have some magic elements in their act, and we wanted to kind of be sure that we're not only celebrating Johnny, we're putting on a show the way he would in Burbank. So it feels like a taping with the orchestra and all that kind of thing. We did it last year as kind of a trial balloon, and it was a big hit. So we cut a few more highlight reels, and chose some more acts that were regulars on his show. And you know, I feel lucky to be in the seat of producing the show, because I get to know every element that's going to happen and when it's happening. And you mentioned that I'm hosting it, but the truth is, I was crafty in setting it up where Johnny is actually hosting the show, because he has had all these guests on his show many times. Marilyn Maye the singer, was on as many as 76 times, I think. So I'm able to go into the Carson Entertainment Group archives and pull Johnny's intros and then take out the stuff that may be, you know, playing at the funny bone in St. Louis, like I can take that out, but when those acts hear Johnny say their name and the music starts up, it takes them right back to their first appearance.
Johnson: Did Johnny do any meet and greets? Was he that kind of host where he would meet you ahead of time?
Hazell: I had a very unusual situation because of having a magic background. I was called to his office before the show, and I went. I thought everybody got that, so I assumed this was like some way to make the person comfortable so they'd be good on the show. But I was brought down to his office, and he had a deck of cards and some coins and stuff, and he said, ‘Hey, I understand you're good with a deck of cards.’ And there was a gentleman at WWT when Johnny worked there named Pete Petracek. He's 100 years old and still around today. He was the one that told Johnny that I was good with cards. So I did a couple of demonstrations to show the trick. Johnny showed me stuff that he still did with coins. I would say it was 30 minutes, and it was insane how much time I was having with him. And then somebody was banging on the door saying, ‘John, you got a show to do here.’ And we were like kids in an attic just playing. So I told my comedy friends that afterwards, they're like, ‘Oh, I never met him. I went out through the curtain, back through the curtain.’ So I knew it was special. And I guess his Midwest, Western kind of convivial nature was what attracted me to his humor because it was always unassuming, and it was his reaction and his ability to recover from a joke that didn't work. He was a master class, If you were going to be a comedian.
Johnson: There will be nostalgia on the stage. Oct. 23 at the Lied Center, Pat Hazell is going to be on stage remembering Johnny Carson's 100th birthday with a night of comedic fun and magic. Tickets are still available, I assume, reach out there and see if you can get it.
Hazell: But I'm telling you, we're not doing it again. Johnny turns 100 one time. You know. And man, that orchestra at UNL is killer. They're playing from Doc's charts. We have the actual music from The Tonight Show in the days that Doc was there. So it's really going to be a bang up, fun thing.
Johnson: Pat, this has been fun. Thanks a lot.
Hazell: Nobody got hurt.
(By way of full disclosure, the Lied Center for Performing Arts provides financial support to Nebraska Public Media.)