Of all the late night shows, few of them have quite as many fun and games segments as The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
For anybody who doesn’t know, Fallon started his comedy career on Saturday Night Live. When you audition for a show like that, you have to show versatility in many different areas.
For one thing, you’ll need to be able to have plenty of on camera charisma, the ability to work with a talented ensemble and the ability to do at least a few impressions. On that front, Fallon added his own twist—that he could do musical impressions as well.
As it turns out, he’s brought that game with him to his new format.
Anyone who is a particular fan of the show may already be familiar with its musical impressions segment.
On this part of the show, Fallon typically brings in another celebrity guest along with him and spins a roulette wheel to determine what song they’ll do and in the style of what celebrity.
Though Fallon is one of the best at this, he got a run for his money the other night when he brought on guest Melissa Villaseñor to perform with him. For anyone who doesn’t know, Villaseñor is an accomplished impressionist in her own right and a current member of SNL’s cast.
When the performance starts, the wheel spins and Villaseñor is asked to perform “Three Blind Mice” in the style of Gwen Stefani.
Though it seems tricky, she sets into the impression almost immediately with her face and attitude!
After that, she does a perfect Stefani impression and absolutely nails the song! After that, it’s Fallon’s turn to do his own version. This time, it’s Post Malone’s version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Although it seems like a pretty tough challenge, Fallon has the producers put Auto-Tune on his microphone and ends up nailing his impression as well.
Though all of these performances are usually funny, these two are neck and neck the whole time!
Next up, it’s Villaseñor’s turn to do another particularly tough one: Christina Aguilera singing “When You Wish Upon A Star.”
Right away, she sets off into the dramatic and melismatic delivery that Christina Aguilera is so famous known for. When she finally ends the impression, the audience explodes in a huge round of applause.
Next up, Fallon does a Barry Gibb impression of the song “Rain, Rain, Go Away.” For any fans of Fallon, they’ll know that a Gibb impression is one of his most practiced of them all.
But the last song is the best of all—it’s Villaseñor doing a Björk impression of “Rock-a-bye Baby.”
Not everybody is super familiar with all of Björk’s catalogue, but there’s no denying the unique strangeness of her voice.
Still, Villaseñor nails her inflections and her bizarre lyrical choices… and the crowd responds with another huge round of applause. Though it’s one thing to describe what happens, it’s another to see how amazing the two of them are at these impressions. We have to give Fallon a lot of credit for injecting some originality and gamesmanship into the late show circuit, but a special salute is in order for his scene partner here.
Well done Melissa! Check out the entire clip below:
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