‘Tonight Show’ taping Sunday at Detroit Opera House was full of Detroit love.
“Whatupdoe!” Jimmy Fallon shouted to the crowd at the Detroit Opera House on Sunday, taking the stage during a special on-the-road edition of “The Tonight Show,” which marked the show’s first-ever visit to the Motor City.
It was a lively taping in front of an animated crowd and was filled with Detroit flavor: mentions of Vernors and coney dogs, “Ja-red Goff!” chants from the audience, jokes about Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti, nods to Motown, an appearance by the Detroit Pistons’ dancers and a cameo from Aidan Hutchinson, the Detroit Lions’ superstar defensive end. Hutch showed up at the end of the taping and handed Fallon an honorary game ball, just hours after the Lions’ decisive 52-21 victory over the Chicago Bears just a few hundred yards away at Ford Field.
Fallon gave shout-outs to She Wolf, Buddy’s Pizza and Miller’s Bar in Dearborn, spots he had eaten over the last few days while in town for the taping. He also gave a shout out to Motown legend Martha Reeves, who was watching on from the box seats in the mezzanine, among the 3,000 attendees at the taping.
It was the first Detroit visit from a network late night show since 2006, when Jimmy Kimmel brought his show to the Gem Theatre as Detroit prepared to host Super Bowl XL. Ford was a sponsor of the Fallon taping, and there were taped bits of Fallon driving around Detroit in an F-150, with a stop at Ford Field and an appearance by Ford CEO Jim Farley.
The show opened with a pre-taped segment where Fallon tried hyping himself up in his dressing room mirror, “8 Mile”-style. He then ran into his band, the Roots, who were dressed up as Kiss, explaining they thought they were going with a “Detroit Rock City” theme for the evening. The local references were already off to the races.
“We’re officially moving the show to Detroit!” Fallon said after his reception from the crowd. Soaking in the cheers, he said, “this must be how Eminem felt when he found a word that rhymes with orange.” He later joked the word “Detroit” is “a French word meaning, ‘suck it, Chicago.'”
Fallon, 50, sprinkled a sing-songy Detroit tune into his monologe, making punchlines of back tattoos of Lions quarterback Goff, the paddle pubs seen around downtown and Vernors pop. Yes, pop: another bit had Fallon in conversation with Roots frontman Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter where he accidentally said “soda” instead of pop, and also pretended to confuse Detroit with being in the Central time zone, not Eastern.
During a brief taping break, Fallon told the crowd about when he was in Detroit in 2008 filming “Whip It,” Drew Barrymore’s roller derby movie in which he plays a small role, and he shared a story about riding a bike through downtown at 3 in the morning.
Guests on the show were Detroit actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key, Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham and rapper Common. The talk segments unfolded in front of a video backdrop of the Detroit city skyline from which the Renaissance Center was curiously missing.
Key had joined Fallon at the Lions game earlier in the day. “You came (to the game), and (the Lions) scored immediately,” Key told Fallon. “You have to come back to Detroit every Sunday.”
Key wore a Barry Sanders Lions jersey and played a game with Fallon where he asked the host to do his best pronouncing several Detroit street names, including Livernois, Dequindre and Gratiot. “Gra-shee-oh?” Fallon tried with the last one, to the great amusement of the crowd. Later, Key and Fallon dined on samples from Slow’s Bar BQ, the Corktown BBQ spot that is celebrating 20 years in business.
The pair also participated in a Lip Sync Battle, with Fallon taking on Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet” and the Billboard Hot 100’s current No. 1 song, HUNTR/X’s “Golden.” Key took a more old school approach, miming a pair of Motown classics, The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street.” Fallon joined him on the latter and did his Mick Jagger impression, nodding to Jagger’s 1985 remake of the song with David Bowie.
Cunningham, the 6-foot-6 Pistons point guard, talked fondly about his time in Detroit and gifted Fallon a pair of Cartier Buffs. He also joined Fallon as he shot shirts into the crowd with a T-shirt cannon as they were flanked by the Pistons’ dance squad and Pistons mascot Hooper.
Common was joined by singer Bilal as they paid tribute to late Detroit hip-hip producer J Dilla, performing “The Light,” a Dilla-produced track from Common’s 2000 album “Like Water for Chocolate.” At the front of the stage, an artist spray painted a portrait of Dilla during the performance.
Hutchinson crashed the party at the end of the taping, greeting Fallon by giving him a giant bear hug.
The local taping was announced Sept. 5. Tickets for the show were given out free to fans through an online lottery, and lines wrapped around the Opera House on Sunday afternoon as fans were let in to the building.
The show taped from about 5 p.m. until about 6:20 p.m. It is set to air at 11:30 p.m. on Monday on NBC, and will be available to stream on Tuesday on Peacock.
Among those in attendance was Jamie Longenbarger of Monroe.
“I think it’s amazing to have Jimmy come here to our city. Detroit is exciting as it is, and to have someone like Jimmy here makes it extra,” she said. “It was so exciting. Every part of it. It was great. Great experience.”
Said Traci Longenbarger, who joined Jamie at the taping, “Coming out of that (Lions) game, I think (Detroit) was just super hype today. It was amazing.”
Melody Baetens contributed to this report.
agraham@detroitnews.com