What originally started as an assignment for Esquire magazine ended in an Ubben Lecture for DePauw University.
Tom Chiarella, professor of English and writer-at-large for Esquire magazine, originally interviewed Jimmy Kimmel for the publication’s April 2014 cover story. After that, a friendship transpired that put Kimmel’s agent in contact with Ken Owen, executive director for media relations, who oversees the Ubben Lecture Series. After some negotiation, which Chiarella left to Owen, Kimmel agreed to come to DePauw University.
“I think Jimmy deserves credit [for making it possible for him to visit DePauw],” Chiarella said. “He’s the one that wants to do it.”
Kimmel, who is known for his late-night talk show on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” will speak on Saturday Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Green Center for Performing Arts’ Kresge Auditorium. The speech will be during ArtsFest, which has a theme of “Art & Laughter.” The Ubben Lecture series hosted New York Times columnist David Brooks last weekend and will host Piper Kerman, author of “Orange Is the New Black,” on Feb. 4.
“He’s doing it as a favor to Chiarella,” Owen said.
However, there are some drawbacks. Kresge can only hold about 1,400 people. While Lilly, which has held high profile Ubben Lecturers in the past such as Jane Goodall and former president Bill Clinton holds more people, sometimes quality is lost.
“Tom and Jimmy are of the belief that the program is going to go much better in Kresge than in the gym because the thing about the gym is you get more people in there, but you’ve got the buzzy lights,” Owen said. “You’ve got the horrible seating. You’ve got bad sight lines, and it’s hard to hear in there even when the sound is good.”
However, students will be given first priority in seating.
“Jimmy Kimmel is really adamant that students attend this,” Owen said. “He wants to see a lot of students in the audience.”
Chiarella thinks Kimmel will be able to teach students a lot.
“When I interview people who are both interesting and highly interested in the world around them, I think that they would be a benefit to the school if they came around and talked.”
In the past, Chiarella has suggested other celebrities, but for one reason or another, they weren’t able to visit campus
“I don’t really think every celebrity is a person who ought to come visit a college campus,” Chiarella said. “They’re not made to order — to have something to say. I mean, everyone wants to meet them or look at them or listen to them.”
However, Kimmel’s non-traditional path to his position as a late-night talk-show host leaves him with an interesting story to share with students.
“He’s kind of a scrapper, come from behind guy,” Chiarella said.
Sophomore Jeremy Boyd, host of the bi-weekly Pre-Recorded Late Night Show, is looking forward to Kimmel’s visit.
“I’m really excited that he’s coming,” Boyd said.
On the upcoming episode set to be released Tuesday, Boyd is challenging Kimmel to a game of beerpong. The proposed terms are this: if Boyd wins, Kimmel will have to do a boulder run, and if Kimmel wins, Boyd will do a show dedicated to Kimmel, and has offered to be his intern. The monologue from the episode is scheduled to be release later today, and the staff of the show will be tweeting at Kimmel in the hopes that he will see it and either accept or deny the challenge and terms.
The lecture will consist of Chiarella engaging Kimmel in a conversation followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
“I feel like this guy is one of the best interviewers in the world,” Chiarella said. “I don’t know where I rank, but it’s certainly not there. So, I’m going to keep it a conversation.”