Jimmy Fallon’s Behind-the-Scenes Stories of Interview With President Obama

Photo: The Howard Stern Show

Jimmy Fallon stopped by to promote his new album, “Blow Your Pants Off,” and answer for all the “doughy” weight he’s packed on since his chiseled “SNL” audition look. “It’s a thing I’m going to have to embrace because I don’t know what to do,” Jimmy joked.

Howard wondered if Jimmy was friends with “Late Night’s” last host, Conan O’Brien, but Jimmy shook his head. “I’m friendly with him. We’re not friends,” Fallon said. “I’m not friends, really, with any of the [other late night] hosts.”

Asked about President Obama’s recent appearance on the show, Jimmy said the Secret Service had to make multiple sweeps of the set. “The writers had to bring in all their laptops, whatever they wanted, before 9 in the morning. And then leave,” Jimmy said. Before the show, Obama asked to meet Jimmy and only Jimmy. “I think it’s a protocol thing. A respect thing, I guess,” Jimmy said. “You have to go alone.”

The interview went well, ending with a hit bit called “Slow Jam the News” in which Obama’s smooth-but-reserved demeanor killed. “And then he takes the mic, holds it out, and drops it like Eminem in ‘8 Mile,'” Jimmy recalled. “And then we go to commercial break and he goes, ‘You see how I dropped the mic? … I improvised that.’ It was so cute.”