For years people have been telling me I look like Jimmy Fallon. It all started when he was on Saturday Night Live, around 2004. I’ve been getting it less and less over the years, probably because I’m getting older and Jimmy appears to be staying the same age. But, as recently as last week, I was once again called out as a Jimmy Fallon look-alike, this time in the middle of a live television interview, making it all the more surprising.
The reason I bring all this back up, is a few years back, when the Super Bowl was in Indianapolis, I had the opportunity to meet Jimmy Fallon and ask him his opinion on whether or not we looked alike.
It started a few months before the Super Bowl, with the announcement that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would be taping in Indianapolis the week of the Super Bowl. It asked people that wanted to attend to submit a questionnaire as to why they wanted to go. My response was simple, “I am the stay-at-home dad of three small children, I just want to get out of the house.”
A few weeks later I received a congratulatory email. My wife and I (along with two other friends) would be attending a taping of the show!
Of course, as with any type of contest, there was a catch. In order to be an audience member, you had to be at the box office that morning in order to get a wristband to be invited back that night. They overbooked the show to guarantee every seat would be full, we still weren’t 100% guaranteed a spot. My excitement was starting to turn to nervousness as I realized my wife, a medical resident at the time, would, in no way be able to leave her job to come stand in line.
What to do.
The friends we invited to go to the taping with us worked near the theater where we lined up for wristbands. We were able to convince one of my friend’s coworkers to stand in line and be a fill-in for my wife in order to get her a wristband. We waited in line for about an hour and finally made it up to the front, where they took my name, strapped the bracelet tightly onto my wrist and tightly onto the wrists of my two friends and my stand-in “wife”.
The four of us headed into the nearest office building and got to work removing the bracelet. I brought a few supplies from home, including pliers and some butter. The stranger was nice enough to let me rub a stick of butter all over his wrist, as we slightly stretched the plastic of the wristband off his buttered hand. The wristband was close to it’s breaking point, but with one last pull, it slid off into my buttery hands.
The stand-in washed his hands, went to work and I never saw him again. Thank you, kind, buttery stranger.
Later that night before the show we were easily able to slide the wristband on to my wife’s wrist. We did it!
We made it to the taping of the Jimmy Fallon show. After an hour of watching Jimmy’s monologue, Shaquille O’Neal strut into the studio in his underwear, and an interview with Snoop Dogg, the show was over.
Downtown was still buzzing with excitement as the Super Bowl was just a few days away. We had babysitters for our kids and decided to go to a nearby restaurant/bar for a drink.
We bellied up to the closest side of the bar near the door. We were sipping our beers and eating snacks when my friend casually mentioned Jimmy Fallon was standing just over my shoulder. I looked back thinking he was joking, but not two feet from me was Jimmy standing with one of the members of his house band, waiting for a table at the restaurant.
Seizing the moment, I tapped him on the shoulder, said hello and mentioned for years people have been saying we looked alike. He was as friendly as the personality you see on TV. He came and stood next to me as my wife took a picture of us posing for the camera. As we looked over the picture, we both agreed we looked close enough alike.
As quickly as our conversation began, it was over.
He headed off to his table for dinner, and I had a fun story to tell for the rest of my life.
