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Arsenio Hall: ‘It’s Cool When People Remember Me by Barking’
The actor, 70, discusses his Cleveland childhood, being shy and his career-spanning memoir, ‘Arsenio’
Video: Arsenio Hall on How Dreaming Big Helped Redefine Late Night TV
AARP Studios/Paramount Television/Everett Collection
In 1989, Arsenio Hall brought a party to late-night television as host of the syndicated Arsenio Hall Show. And his show brought Black performers and culture to the country’s attention, with guests ranging from writer Maya Angelou to rapper LL Cool J, along with the likes of Madonna and Tricia Yearwood. His six-year run ended in 1994. Hall also played several roles in the film Coming to America and took a smaller role in Harlem Nights, both with his close friend Eddie Murphy. He then stepped away from the limelight, built his dream house, raised a son and settled into private life, emerging in the public eye only occasionally: a winning stint on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, a short-lived reboot of his show in 2013, and reprising a few roles for the sequel Coming 2 America in 2021.
Now Hall is back, traveling the country doing stand-up with his old pal Jay Leno, and has a new book out March 31 (Arsenio: A Memoir, written with Alan Eisenstock), in which he dives into his childhood, his influences, and the years he spent on his beloved show. Hall spoke with us from a studio in Los Angeles.
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His father, a preacher, was 44 years older than his mother, with whom he lived all over Cleveland
The upside is I became a real social animal, learning to meet people, socialize, make friends. The real downside is I don’t have a lot of friends from childhood because we always moved away from them. Sometimes I wish I knew where Vivica was, my first girlfriend. Or Marcy Smith, who used to braid my hair while we watched Good Times.
He wanted to be Johnny Carson
“Arsenio: A Memoir” chronicles the career of the actor and late-night TV host.
Courtesy Simon & Schuster
I’d love to say I vibed with the wonderful writing of The Tonight Show or [Carson’s] interviewing skills, but I think the thing that resonated most was how he looked. He was so sharp. My first talk show was in a basement, and I would invite a friend to sing and have gang members and everybody’s big sister and big brother sitting around. I was about 11.
He was a child magician and worked at events professionally
It all came from Johnny — he and Dick Cavett were both magicians. And I used to think that was an omen: I want to do what these guys now do, and I’m starting off as a magician too. I watched my dad move people with his voice, so I knew I had that quality. And when I went to conventions as a magician, I got comments from adults: “You’re funny, kid.” I didn’t realize it, but it was all coming together. Everything I was going to do was there in that basement.
Hall as Tasty Freeze in the 2009 action comedy “Black Dynamite.”
Prashant Gupta/Apparition/Everett Collection
Hollywood was hand-to-mouth, at first
I went to the Second City [in Chicago] and met Nancy Wilson, the incredible jazz stylist, opened for her, and she brought me to Hollywood. I remember going to a Ralph’s supermarket and there was a lady who used to cook sausage in the back; she put each piece of sausage on a toothpick, and she had a plate and you could sample a piece of sausage. I became a pro at eating sausage samples and getting full. She knew I didn’t have money to buy sausage.
Playing four roles in ‘Coming to America’ helped launch his talk show
It was an idea of Eddie Murphy’s, and it came from his dating life. One day he said, “You know, I think it would be cool if I could meet girls and them not know who I am, because you never know who you can trust.” That was the idea behind Coming to America. We took it to Paramount, and Paramount said, “We don’t really like it.” And it was very smart of Eddie to say, “What would make you like it?” They said, “We’d love to see you play some characters. How about if a lot of people that you meet are played by you?” We took that idea to the moon. As soon as that was finished, Paramount said, “Come back and do a talk show.”
(From left) Hall and Eddie Murphy in 1988’s “Coming to America.” The two are close friends.
Paramount/Everett Collection
Being the first Black late-show host was a real balancing act
I exposed America to Black culture, but I knew I had to balance Q-Tip with Dolly Parton to make sure I got a large enough share of the viewing pie to stay on the air, and that was always hard because sometimes white people would think it’s too Black, and Black people would think any white person on it makes it too white. There were days when I felt like I was doing it for myself and my mom, because no one else was happy with it. But I kept fighting, and I got six good years in.
He still gets barked at
I was a huge Cleveland Browns fan, and I wanted to mention things about my upbringing in Cleveland. We all knew about the Browns’ Dawg Pound, and I pushed that on the show, the barking, and it caught on. It’s cool when people remember me — and show it by barking!
The convivial talk-show host is a bona fide introvert, which helps explain why he’s been so hard to find for the past three decades
I’m very shy. When you see me on television, that’s my show business representative. I have learned to act like I’m not shy, act like a public figure should act. But I would stay at home and never go out if my bank account allowed it.
He and Jay Leno have been close friends for decades
We’re on the road now doing a show called Kings of Late Night. We travel all over doing stand-up, and we still argue constantly about a joke and how to do it, whether it works. But he’s like a big brother to me to this day. If it weren’t for Jay, I might not have had the intestinal fortitude to pack up and actually give it a shot in the big time.
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