On day two of SXSW Interactive, Kevin Ryder from KROQ’s Kevin and Bean Show sat down with professional funny man Jimmy Kimmel for an interview. The tables are rarely turned on the late night host, who not only proclaimed his love of all things Austin, but donned a pearl snap western shirt embroidered with the likeness of the state capital. Here’s what we learned.
President Obama brought a bulletproof shield with him
We all know that President Obama was recently a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and along with his down-to-earth attitude, he brought a bulletproof shield. Okay, so it was his security team — who made sure to grab it when the President left. Jimmy quipped during his interview, “…they took it, I mean, don’t they care about the safety of the other guests?”
“Dr. Drew is actually a doctor”
While working at KROQ, Jimmy was having some medical issue he described as: “My penis hole closed up.” He went seeking the professional advice of Dr. Drew and decided to take Kevin Ryder and other radio friends with him and surprised them by getting fully naked and ripping open the curtain to spook them.
Jimmy has narcolepsy
“I love my narcolepsy, I can fall asleep on a plane in a minute. As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m asleep. I embrace the good parts of it.”
The idea for “Mean Tweets” came from Jimmy’s wife
Jimmy is buddies with comedienne/Twitter phenom, Kelly Oxford, and while enjoying a little game of read your meanest tweets, his wife, Molly McNearney (also head writer for his show) said, “That would be a great segment for the show!” Guests are often disappointed when they’re not offered an opportunity to do this bit. Before his segment, President Obama noted, “These are the meanest tweets you have? I can think of meaner ones.”
Jimmy has been fired from five radio stations
Before he found his home at KROQ in Los Angeles, Jimmy was fired from a college radio station (where he was an unpaid intern), and a selection of stations in Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, Palm Springs (he actually quit that gig), and finally Tucson. He finally took a gamble and moved himself and his family to Los Angeles, not knowing if he had a job waiting for him.
Adam Corolla was Jimmy’s boxing trainer
Jimmy asked Adam to train him for a boxing match he had been challenged to by “Michael the Maintenance Man” (actually a maintenance man at KROQ), but the two never really got around to actually training. Instead they “drank Snapple and talked for hours.” Maybe that’s why Jimmy lost.
His basketball team got beat by a team of little people
When Jimmy finally left KROQ, his farewell request was to have the station’s team play against a championship team of little people. The little people won. “They were cheaters. One of them bit me on the knee,” Jimmy chided.
The first episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live involved vomit
Jimmy explains: “Our first night on the air, we carried over something from The Man Show. We served cocktails to our audience. A girl, who was probably underage, vomited all over people in the audience, so our free cocktails happened only once.”
The first guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live was Snoop Dogg
“He was high.”
Is Jimmy “Team Britt” or “Team Kaitlyn” for the upcoming season of The Bachelorette?
Neither. “Funny thing, Sean Penn [who is also a fan of The Bachelor series] asked me that the other night. I dodged the question, because one of them is going to get eliminated and I don’t want trouble.”
Jimmy’s mother likes to play dead
“As a kid, my mother used to lay on the floor and pretend she was dead to make us cry. I recently found out that her mother used to do it to her, AND her mother used to do it to her. My great-grandmother used to lay on the floor and pretend to be dead.”
