A gent named Jim McCawley was at one point The Most Powerful Man in Show Business, at least insofar as wanna-be stand-up comics were concerned. He was the main person who could put an act on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson back when that was the main route to comedy stardom. When McCawley walked into The Comedy Store or The Improv or anyplace up-n'-coming comedians could be found, you have never seen so much butt-kissing in your ever-lovin' life.
That stairway to stardom no longer exists and it barely existed the last year or two that Johnny was on the air. Back when it was at its full power, the Tonight Show stage was one of the few places a new comedian could prove himself. And if he did, if he scored there, he was well on his way to the thing most new comedians back then wanted more than anything else: Their own sitcom. Almost all of them wanted to follow in the well-paid footsteps of Freddie Prinze, Gabe Kaplan, Drew Carey, Jimmie Walker, et cetera, et cetera…
These days, most of them seem to want to follow Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Bill Burr, Kevin Hart and other concert-hall fillers…and talk show appearances won't get you there. To the extent anyone today can turn a new comic into a superstar, it's probably a top-level booking agent.
Anyway, I never got to know Jim McCawley too well. When I saw him at a comedy club, his time was monopolized by aspiring comics. We became slightly friendly one day though in the NBC Commissary. I was lunching with someone he knew, he joined our table and began talking about a comedian from Canada he was trying to book for The Tonight Show. Johnny was hesitant and so were the comic's agents…all for reasons I couldn't understand. McCawley was certain the comedian was headed for stardom and wanted to get him on Johnny's show before that happened so the program would get some credit and keep its star-making image.
And not long after that, the comedian did get on The Tonight Show and did go on to much bigger things. Here was his first appearance…