Late Night Last Century: Michael Caine Learns Stand-up from Johnny Carson

Late Night Last Century is a weekly column highlighting some of the funniest and most unforgettable comedy from late night, talk shows, and variety shows of the 20th century currently streaming on YouTube. Today, we go back to 1974, when Johnny Carson gave Michael Caine some tips on how to perform stand-up comedy.

These days, Michael Caine is most known for his emotional exchanges with Batman and occasional, matter-of-fact tweets. See, for example, his post to mark the end of the Olympics: “We will always have Paris.” Ya can’t beat the classics. 

For more than six decades, Caine has entertained audiences on the big screen, from The Italian Job (1969) to The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and everything in between. And over the years, he has been a frequent guest on American late night TV. On April 13, 1994, he appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien to discuss his early days as an actor, when he palled around with the then-unknown Peter O’Toole, who in 1962 would go on to play the titular role in Lawrence of Arabia. Cain said they believed that “to be a great actor, you had to be a drunk.”

With Conan, Caine recounted working as O’Toole’s understudy, noting that it was his job to secure the booze. One Saturday night, they went out to party and then woke up at seven o’clock on Monday evening, an hour before O’Toole was scheduled to be on stage. “And I never found out what happened to Sunday,” Caine said. Their escapades inspired a Saturday Night Live sketch, “The Adventures of Peter O’Toole and Michael Caine,” in which Jude Law and Seth Meyers, respectively, played the two men. In this sketch from 2004, the pair drunkenly make their way into a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut, believing they are hosting their own talk show, An Evening with Peter and Michael. 

Fifty years ago, on June 6, 1974, Caine returned to American late night TV as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. On the show, the two catch up before Carson offers to give Caine some advice on stand-up comedy. Caine tells Carson he has always been envious of those who can perform the craft. Carson is more than happy to help. He had his writers jot down some jokes from previous monologues and gave Caine the chance to walk out from behind the famous curtains and perform. For a rookie, and on the biggest stage in the world, Caine crushes it. “Ed [McMahon] is so cheap,” Caine said, “he orders prune juice as an appetizer so he won’t be around when the bill comes.” Classic.

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic and researcher, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.