SIMPLE PLEASURES
Late Late Show host Craig Kilborn
seems to have everything he needs
CRAIG KILBORN IS SERENADING ME.
Well, sort of. Sitting in his office wearing a white tshirt, jeans,
and latemorning stubble, he cuts a lithe and handsome figure as he
turns on a CD. He’s just put on a song performed by the great
Cuban trumpet master Arturo Sandoval, entitled “I can’t get started.”
“This guy has done everything, but he can’t get things started
with this woman,” says Kilborn, reciting the lyrics as it plays:
“I’ve flown around the world in a plane
Settled revolutions in Spain
The North Pole I have charted
Still I can’t get started — with you…
“Isn’t that great?” Kilborn asks.
Indeed it is. The music is lush, fun,
romantic, and earthy. It’s an unexpected moment with a man who
became popular on “fratboy” appeal. And even if this exchange
is, in part, a tactic to disarm the interviewer, it works beautifully.
I’m intrigued.
 Craig Kilborn is a seeming contradiction: a talkshow host who
only halfjokingly admits to “not liking people.” At one moment
he’s charming and personable, the next, aloof.You get the sense his
mind is working doubletime: engaged in conversation, yet all the
while acutely aware of how his words are being perceived. The
longer you talk with him, what comes through the most is an ease
and confidence that has sustained his talk show while so many others
have failed. Conservative and
stable, he’s a product of a
Midwestern value system that doesn’t suffer
fools lightly and where “goodnatured ribbing”
is an art form.
“I don’t take myself too seriously… and I
don’t take other people too seriously either,”
Says Kilborn. It’s a trait he got from his closeknit
family. In fact, when he went from local
television to ESPN, his father’s response was
“Great, now you’ve become a national
embarrassment to the family!”
Kilborn was raised in smalltown
Minnesota.At 6’ 5”, he scored a college basketball
scholarship, then embarked on a
sportsannouncing career that eventually
landed him at ESPN. Later he became host
of Comedy Central’s Daily Show. And when
To m Snyder retired, David Letterman’s company
picked him up to be host of the Late
Late Show on CBS.
“This job just sort of fell into my lap,” he
offers, as means of explanation. But the
Hollywood scene that whirls around Kilborn
doesn’t easily impress him. “When it comes
to the flavor of the month, the band of the
moment, or the actor of the moment, I can
see right through it,” he admits.
He carries that attitude into his offcamera
life as well. “I knew right away that LA
was a little wild for me, so I keep myself isolated.
I avoid the party circuit as much as I
can, and when I’m off, I get out of town. I
go out to dinner, but that’s about it. I enjoy
the simple things in life: my coffee, the newspaper,
and jazz in the morning…a good
cigar, red wine, old movies…”
Indeed, Kilborn is very private, and he’s
constantly surprised at how eager his guests
are to reveal their most intimate details.When
my questions get too personal, he gets that
trademark mischievous twinkle in his eyes and
changes the subject. He does, however, confess
to only having had one serious relationship
and doesn’t see himself raising a family.
I ask him about his dream life 25 years
from now. “I thoroughly enjoy this job. I
could do it for a long time — but I could see
myself retiring early — maybe buy a house
in Carmel.”
As for his present? At the request of
Arturo Sandoval, whom Craig asked to be
on his show after hearing the abovementioned
CD, Craig recently hosted an awards
ceremony at The Henri Mancini Institute,
honoring Clint Eastwood.
Now that’s cool.
— Ally Dawson
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