Host with the absolute most
SheKnows: You’re sense of comic timing and how it comes on the spot, is impeccable. Is that always something you’ve always been akin to?
Tom Bergeron: Much to the chagrin of the nuns that hade me in grade school.
SheKnows: OK, now I see it.
Tom Bergeron: Yeah. It’s always been there, my mouth has always been quicker than my common sense.
We both laugh.
SheKnows: As a host, has that ever been a problem?
Tom Bergeron: Not usually. At this stage, I’ve done it long enough. I have a pretty good understanding of it. I get all my R-rated jokes in during dress rehearsal. Although (laughs) I did get somewhat, not irate, but an upset Facebook message from somebody had no real sense of history. When Pamela Anderson did her Marilyn Monroe dance, and she came over to me and I said, “I don’t know what the judges are going to say, but a busload of Kennedys just pulled up.”
SheKnows: (Laughing)
Tom Bergeron: (Laughs) Somebody wrote me and said, “It’s too soon after Ted’s death to use that joke.” You would pick the one Kennedy who didn’t score with Marilyn Monroe.
SheKnows: (Laughs). A swing and a miss…
Tom Bergeron: That’s right (laughs)!
SheKnows: This year, Dancing with the Stars, my goodness, you guys are just killing it.
Tom Bergeron: It really has been amazing. You know, we’re right across the hall from American Idol.
SheKnows: Oh wow, who said keep your enemies closer?
Dancing past American Idol
Tom Bergeron: (Laughs) You know, Randy (Jackson) and I were just giving each other a ration of, well you know, the other day because we beat them. For the first time in five years a show that wasn’t the Super Bowl, knocked American Idol out of first place.
SheKnows: Congratulations!
Tom Bergeron: Thank you, but look, I’m of the mind that there’s a big enough tent that everybody can be successful and all that. But, it is fun to tweak each other.
SheKnows: How has it been working with Brooke Burns, your new Dancing with the Stars co-cost?
Tom Bergeron: A lot of fun and I didn’t expect it would be anything but that. She is an absolute sweetheart. She brings to the role the extra dimension of having won the competition herself and every week I think, she gets stronger and stronger.
SheKnows: Often times we’ve seen the judges do a little dancing. You did a bit a while ago, but any desire to jive on the very ballroom you rule as host?
Tom Bergeron: Yes, the famous Quick Step in season two during the results show, which unfortunately is available on YouTube (laughs). But, the reason I did that is I wanted to know what they feel. I wasn’t crazy about how I was hosting the show up to that point. I wanted to get beyond the intellectual understanding of “this must be tough.” I wanted to get out there and feel it on every nerve ending.
SheKnows: Literally…
Tom Bergeron: Yes! It really helped. It wasn’t a particularly good Quick Step, maybe a four or a five, and I built in some decidedly comedic elements to mask the fact I hadn’t quite mastered the technique. But it did do for me what I wanted it to do which was it changed my approach to hosting. From that point on, a lot of the scripted material disappeared and I started reacting in the moment. For a live show, it’s the only way to go.
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