# Your talk show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392 "2016-06-03T15:06:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/1 "2016-06-03T15:06:30Z")
So, who do you want to book as a guest on your talk show? - either living or dead. Who do you think are/were the best or most memorable talk show guests ever and what makes them so engaging? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/2 "2016-06-03T17:05:53Z")
Hitler. The right answer is always Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/3 "2016-06-03T17:22:36Z")
Dead Men Tell No Tales. Pretty boring talk show with a dead guest! I’ll go with Norm McDonald. He cracks me the fuck up! ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/4 "2016-06-03T18:04:46Z")
If I had a talk show, I’m not sure I’d host. I’m afraid if I did it would turn out something like the late Chris Farley’s attempts to interview someone on SNL. Maybe I’ll just produce and get someone like Ed Murrow, Mike Wallace, Jack Paar, or Johnny Carson to do the actual interviewing. That said, an ideal guest would be someone with a interesting life who has (or had) natural skills as a raconteur and would (or was) not be afraid to delve into controversial topics. In terms of dead people, that would include Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, and Charlie Chaplin. I can imagine Voltaire would also have an excellent guest had there been talk shows during the 18th century. Also, I wouldn’t give them just a measly 5 to 10 minute segment of a 60 minute program, I’d have them on the entire show (maybe even having a second or third hour if the interview goes well). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/5 "2016-06-03T18:46:43Z")
Tom Waits Quentin Jerome Tarantino Billy Bob Thornton musical guest Jim Jarmusch ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/6 "2016-06-04T20:38:54Z")
I think the best interviews are when the host and the guest have a long history and high comfort level with each other. They can say anything to each other, and they go to great lengths to make the interview funny and/or entertaining. For example, I loved Letterman’s relationships with people like Bill Murray and Regis Philbin. You knew those interviews would never be boring. And I loved the whole schtick between Letterman and Richard Simmons. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/7 "2016-06-04T20:41:27Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I’ll go with Norm McDonald. He cracks me the fuck up! Norm McDonald interviewing Adoph Hitler. Now that would crack me up. Or Mel Brooks interviewing Adoph Hitler. Or…anyone interviewing AH. Comedy Gold! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/8 "2016-06-04T20:46:55Z")
Oscar Levant, possibly the greatest celebrity wit of the 20th century. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVOl49AHD6Q) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/9 "2016-06-06T03:12:07Z")
Never got big laughs from Kevin Nealon from SNL (nor the show itself after '81) but as a talk show guest I thought he can be quite self-deprecatingly funny, often recounting something dreary and totally inconsequential (even in talk show guest terms!) Patton Oswalt makes for an _awesome_ raconteur, in his dumpy, deadbeat way. Definite appointment TV, no matter who’s i-viewing him. fantasy i-viewees: a drunk Oliver Reed Gary Busey at the end of a four-day meth bender Noel Coward Ed Gien HILARIOUS seeing John McEnroe attempting to be a talk show host a while back. White as a ghost, moved like a robot - looked like something that could eventually morph into a spider or a rat or something. Looked like a really, really sick cyborg. Creeped me. I miss:( my favourite interviewers, by a universe mile: Barth Gimble and Gerry Hubbard.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/10 "2016-06-06T03:58:36Z")
Always wanted to get interviewed by Dick Cavett. Maybe the best interview I ever saw, back around '80 - a D.C. two-parter, with Robin Williams. Never seen him any funnier, with a shitload of stream-of-consciousness role-playings, sometimes riffing on Shakespeare, and then non-sequituring right away into a stereotypical suburban Californian housewife extolling the merits of so-and-so dishwashing liquid. Cavett feebly tried to be a foil to some of RW’s manic freestyling, but couldn’t keep up with him, and just sat back and let Williams go off. Whole grain goodness. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/11 "2016-06-06T04:12:12Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Norm McDonald interviewing Adoph Hitler. Now that would crack me up. > > Or Mel Brooks interviewing Adoph Hitler. > > Or…anyone interviewing AH. Comedy Gold! Adolf Hitler impersonating Richard Simmons on _Whose Line Is It Anyway?_ ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-talk-show/756392/12 "2016-06-06T04:34:09Z")
I have abou4 or 5 host I liked …old school dick cavett or tom Snyder now…dennis miller or bill maher radio would be imus tom leykis or Bernie ward from kgo in sf tho imus would have to have the old crew because chuck mc cord was the only one who could keep him in line … and hed have ot be on sirrus/xm because he was always funnier off air than on …