'Night’ right for Jimmy Fallon

The late-night TV wars have become more riveting – and more Irish – thanks to Jimmy Fallon, the newest entrant into the fray. He tells IrishCentral about his move to Conan O’Brien’s 'Late Night' chair, and his love for all things Irish

“My dad fixed machines at IBM in Brooklyn and then moved upstate. And my mom, she had a bunch of jobs here and there but ended up being the best mom; she raised me and my sister,” Fallon said.

“I have a lot of relatives that are tall, red-faced, white hair people. My parents are both Irish; my dad’s Irish and German and my mom’s Irish and Norwegian.

“Cork is where I think we’re from. I’ve got to do the research. I never went into ancestry.com but I should have done that.”

Fallon’s first trip to Ireland came courtesy of his sister, who was studying on a scholarship at a university in London.  Gloria won an essay contest, and her reward was to bring a friend over to visit for a week.  Her preferred pal turned out to be little brother Jimmy, and the two of them skipped over to Ireland.

“I got my first credit card and we went to Ireland and we went to Kinsale, and I just was blown away by how nice and gorgeous people were. And, yeah, I mean I love it so much,” he says, adding that he’s been back there “numerous, numerous” times since.

His affinity for his Irish roots isn’t surprising, given that the Fallon family home was devoid of drama and always full of music and laughter and fun.

“It’s that Irish personality where, you know, I wasn’t one of those people that needed to kiss the Blarney Stone. I was kind of always talking. I came from a family of just entertaining people. I mean, both sides of my family are really, really funny entertaining people,” he says.

“They would have parties and they would sing, you know, have a microphone set up with a reel to reel and some speakers and just — everyone would sing songs. Even though we weren’t famous, you know, we were a performing family pretty much.”

Perhaps it’s too strong to say that Fallon’s career was at a crossroads when the opportunity to take the helm from Conan O’Brien presented itself.  But he was ready for a new challenge, and they don’t come much bigger than fronting a successful and profitable network late night show.

“You know, I got my shot at the movies. I love standup live and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wanted to try movies and so I gave my shot at the movies. I had two shots and I didn’t really do it,” Fallon says.

The notion of Fallon one day replacing O’Brien — who grew restless in his "Late Night" role to such an extent that NBC inked him to a new deal in 2004 that guaranteed he’d take over from Leno this year — was always a definite possibility in the mind of Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL who also produces "Late Night."

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Nster.com