WED, OCT 23, 2024 7:30 PM
SPONSORED BY
PATRON FRIENDS
Jane Aalborg
Rose Hunter
Georgianne & Jim Mastera
Howard (Tom) Thompson
CORPORATE SPONSOR
PRODUCER’S NOTE
Welcome to the Lied Center and Carson Tonight: Johnny’s 99th Birthday Celebration. This is an extraordinary opportunity to salute Nebraska’s Favorite Son. His 30 years on Late Night Television launched the careers of countless numbers of comics, actors & musicians. Johnny had a real affection for variety artists of all kinds as long as they were world-class. An appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at the helm was the most coveted showcase an artist could ever possibly imagine. All the acts on this evening’s show owe a great debt to Johnny for his shining a light on them and amplifying their stories. Tonight we are blessed to be accompanied by the UNL Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Greg Simon playing from the original charts used by Doc Severinsen. We are lucky to be gathered here at this time and place on this big spinning marble celebrating the guy who devoted his life to a legacy of laughter. The Carson Entertainment Group provided all the amazing archival video footage that keep the spirit, wit and whimsy of Johnny Carson alive in these uncertain times. Happy 99th and Here’s to Johnny!
Pat Hazell
Chief Creative Officer Sweetwood Creative
A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT OF CARSON ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Johnny’s 99th birthday than for you to experience what it was like to be present for a taping of the show. Tonight, we hope to recreate that experience. For 30 years from 1962 – 1992 The Tonight Show was taped in New York and Burbank. It was a well-oiled machine. Doc Severinsen and the band played, Ed McMahon and Fred de Cordova told a few jokes, the theme began, the curtain parted, and out walked Johnny Carson in the flesh. The feeling was electric. All the performers you will see tonight, including Pat Hazell, appeared on the show with Johnny. The experience was life changing for many people. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this show possible. Happy birthday Boss.
Jeff Sotzing, President
Carson Entertainment Group.
PAT HAZELL is one of the original writers for NBC’s Seinfeld, a Tonight Show veteran, and a critically acclaimed playwright. Showtime declared Pat one of the five funniest people in America. His 35 years of experience as a writer, performer and producer have made him a go-to guy for genuinely funny Americana humor. Hazell’s one man show, The Wonder Bread Years, was shot in Lincoln by NETV for PBS, where they referred to him as “America’s Foremost Pop Culture Anthropologist.” As the Chief Creative Officer of Sweetwood Creative, he is responsible for creating and producing the national tours of the original productions: Bunk Bed Brothers, The Wonder Bread Years, Grounded For Life, Backstage Pass, The Good Humor Men, My Funny Valentine and A Kodachrome Christmas. Pat is currently touring in his new one man show Pat Hazell’s Permanent Record and has new comedy album called Pat & Mic LIVE available on iTunes. He is the creator and host of the popular Arts & Culture podcast Creativity in Captivity going into Season 8 and available on all platforms and at www.creativityincaptivity. fun. However is greatest production are his two sons Tucker and Keaton, heirs to the sarcasm fortune.
NICOLE HENRY has established herself among the jazz world’s most acclaimed performers, possessing a potent combination of dynamic vocal abilities, impeccable phrasing, and powerful emotional resonance. Her passionate, soulful voice and heartfelt charisma have earned her a Soul Train Award for “Best Traditional Jazz Performance,” and four Top-10 jazz albums on U.S. Billboard, Jazz Week, HMV Japan & UK Sweet Rhythms charts. Heralded by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Japan Times, El Pais, Jazz Times, Essence and more, Ms. Henry tells real stories through peerless interpretations of repertoire from the American Songbook, classic and contemporary jazz, popular standards, blues and originals. Nicole has captivated audiences in over 20 countries, headlining at venues in cities including New York, Tokyo, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Miami. Ms. Henry has also performed in more than 30 music festivals worldwide and in some of the world’s most famous venues including Blue Note, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Blues Alley, Arsht Center, Feinstein’s, Green Mill, Jazz St. Louis, Madrid Jazz Festival, the Regattabar and Catalina Jazz.
LANCE BURTON is widely considered by his peers to be the greatest stage Magician of the past century. Lance burst onto the national stage on October 28, 1981, by making his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. So impressed was Carson while watching the rehearsal that he allowed Lance to do an unprecedented 12-minute routine. Through the course of Burton’s career, he was invited back for a total of 10 appearances while Johnny Carson was host, and another 10 appearances with Jay Leno. He racked up appearances on David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, The View, The World’s Greatest Magic and Hollywood Squares. Lance had a series of annual TV specials on NBC and in Las Vegas he performed an astounding 15,000 shows in his 30-year career. Lance spends his time supporting a number of charities including The Kentucky Humane Society, Nevada SPCA, Heaven Can Wait Animal Society, Variety Children’s Charity, and the Shriner’s Children’s Hospitals. His new live touring show, Lance Burton Master Magician & Friends is a mix of illusions, sleight of hand, audience participation, and amazing guest stars.
CATHY LADMAN is a comedian who presents herself as the self-probing, anxiety-venting person that she is. She has appeared on The Tonight Show ten times and was also featured on the last two of Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show Anniversary” shows. She’s been on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson five times, has had her own HBO One Night Stand, and was awarded the American Comedy Award for “Best Female Stand Up Comic”. Her TV and film credits include: recurring roles on, I’m Dying Up Here and Pretty Little Liars, Modern Family, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, NCIS: LA, Mad Men, Brothers and Sisters, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Caroline in the City, Everybody Loves Raymond, Politically Incorrect, Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Aristocrats, White Oleander, What Planet Are You From?, My Fellow Americans, and Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead. Her solo show, Does This Show Make Me Look Fat? opened this past year.
JAY JOHNSON is one of the world’s greatest ventriloquists who also happens to be an extraordinary writer, comic, actor, cartoonist, poet and puppeteer. Jay Johnson considers his real job to be a tour guide on a journey into the imagination. He is best known for playing the schizophrenic role of Bob & Chuck Campbell on the classic television series Soap. His one man show Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! ran on Broadway and won the American Theatre Wing Tony Award for “Best Special Theatrical Event”. The show also won the Los Angeles Ovation Award for “Best Solo Show.” In high school he produced and starred in his own local television show sponsored by a car dealership that lead to summers performing in theme park shows at Six Flags over Texas, Astroworld and Six Flags over Georgia where he logged in 918 performances at the Crystal Pistol theater (that’s 10 shows a day for 13 weeks). Jay moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television, landing over 30 national commercials, hosting three comedy specials, producing and performing in two network TV specials, two HBO specials, appearing as a guest on hundreds of variety shows and starring in four television series.
THE PASSING ZONE (JON WEE & OWEN MORSE) were finalists on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” performing in Seasons 1 and 11. Jon & Owen met in 1986 at a juggling convention and things immediately clicked. Two weeks after their first performance together they won the Silver Medal at the International Jugglers’ Association Teams Competition. The next year they won the Gold. That recognition earned an invitation to appear at the renowned Comedy and Magic Club in Los Angeles, where on their first night they were approached by the Tonight Show talent scout and booked for their first national TV appearance in September of 1990. Johnny Carson enjoyed them so much they were asked back less than a year later. Their first feature film followed, The Addams Family Movie, where Jon and Owen doubled for Gomez (Raul Julia) and Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) in the climactic Mamushka dagger-passing scene. Jon and Owen have been guest performers at The White House and have opened for comedians Jay Leno, George Carlin, Bob Newhart, Bob Hope, and Penn & Teller. Television appearances have included Comic Strip Live, CNN’s Road Warriors, Hell’s Kitchen, An Evening at The Improv, MADtv, Penn & Teller’s “Sin City Spectacular, Steve Harvey’s Big Time, and regularly return to NBC’s Today. The Passing Zone has been awarded five Guinness World Records and 18 Gold Medals from the International Juggler’s Association.
GREG SIMON, the musical director of tonight’s show, is a composer, jazz trumpeter, Associate Professor of Composition at the University of NebraskaLincoln and the director of the UNL Jazz Orchestra. He’s performed with the Marcus Lewis Big Band, the Shawn Bell Quartet, the Nebraska Latin All-Stars and the Jodi-Renee Band, at venues ranging from Dazzle Jazz Club to the Jewell of Omaha; and played in the bands of The Temptations, Hannah Huston, and Andrew Dost of fun. Greg was a featured performer in Tom Larson’s groundbreaking 2020 work Living In Americah, and his own group, the Greg Simon Septet, debuted in 2021. Greg’s first single for jazz septet — a long-form composition entitled Fanfare, Nocturne, Fanfare — is available now on Bandcamp and all major streaming services. Currently, Greg plays trumpet/flugelhorn alongside his colleagues in the UNL Faculty Jazz Ensemble and serves as the director of the UNL Jazz Orchestra. Greg has taught jazz with the Detroit Symphony Civic Jazz Orchestra and Omaha Performing Arts Academy, and served as guest clinician at the Westside Jazz Festival and the Nebraska State Band Association’s Jazz Festival.
THE UNL JAZZ ORCHESTRA is the premier jazz ensemble at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Directed by Dr. Greg Simon, UNLJO performs music from across the jazz landscape, including masterworks of the big band tradition and cuttingedge new offerings from living composers. The Jazz Orchestra has performed at conferences for Jazz Education Network (JEN) and been featured in presentations at the International Symposium of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC) and the Nebraska Music Educator’s Association (NMEA); and it has collaborated with jazz luminaries including Stephen P. Harvey, Emilio Solla, Donny McCaslin, and George Stone. Alumni of the UNLJO include trumpet legend Laurie Frink, pianist Masayoshi Ishikawa, saxophonist Andrew Janak, and many others.
Jeff Sotzing - Carson Entertainment Group
Jon Sotzing - Editor
Pat Hazell - Producer/Director
Dave Nuckolls - Production Manager
Tucker Hazell - Associate Producer
Lanny Fuller - Production Assistant
TJ Nuckolls - Video Playback
Brad Buffum - Stage Manager
Trey Franklin - Assistant Stage Manager
Chris Blankenship - Additional Editing
Ted Tipton - Tech Director
Melanie Rudy/Jason Hibbard - Lighting Director
Mike Doran - Audio
Ted Tipton - Projection
SpecialThanks:BillStephan,WalkerAnders,JamesCurry,Rocky,LibbyMcKay, ElkhornValleyHistoryMuseum,JoanFuller,AllenRobertson,TracyPeoples, KentWarneke,StevenPearson,JoanneHazell,andProductionfor.
