Here's a great moment from The Tonight Show from May of 1975. As the story was later told around the office, one of the Talent Coordinators, Craig Tennis, found a guy named Bob Speca who did something amazing with dominoes. Tennis fought considerable opposition from other staff members to book the guy…and Johnny Carson, who had the last word on everything then, went along with it less because he liked the idea than because (a) he trusted Tennis based on past experience and (b) he figured that if the bit was a flop, he could rescue it by ridiculing the whole booking.
Anyway, Mr. Speca went on with his dominoes and was a tremendous sensation. Special kudos should go to the nameless cameraman who managed to shoot the whole thing. There was no way to do a camera rehearsal and the guy, whoever he was, did a great job.
I also heard — and this may not be true — that right after Speca's first appearance, Carson wanted to book him again a.s.a.p. to do a more spectacular demonstration. Mr. Speca, however, asked for an even more spectacular paycheck and The Tonight Show balked…so Carson just reran the first appearance on a later show. This clip is from that later show. Three years later, Speca did appear again with a truly amazing domino demonstration…and he still does them for commercials, promotions, industrial shows, etc. There were a lot of domino-toppling imitators around for a while, and I guess there still are, but Speca is still said to be the best.
