What's up, guys? Mickey Novak here in the Young Hollywood studio powered by Subway in Miami with Arsenio Hall.

So Novak. That's a cool name.

Oh, thank you.

Arsenio Hall is a cool name too. Ain't it kind of sound like a dorm? You know, nobody will ever.

Like a what?

A dorm, like on a college campus or something. You know, I'm staying at Arsenio Hall. Just for the first quarter. You know.

Congratulations, by the way. Coming back after 19 years, is it?

Yeah, 17, 19.

What do you think has changed about late night? Has it changed? Will you approach things differently? How much how much will you take any of the old show? Like the old concepts? Like what what's sort of going to be the?

Yeah, because you know the old concept is Every talk show, you know, this set functions a certain way when we put Nikki here. You know, I I see a guy out there. If we put him here, it'll function a little differently. Yeah. And and my show is just a product of who I am. All the rest is window dressing. But the bottom line is, the big difference in the business is it's crowded now. There was a time when Johnny was the king and I just went after anything that Johnny left over.

But you worked with Johnny. I mean, that was that had to be a great.

Oh yes.

Training ground.

Yeah. To to do stand-up on the tonight show after seeing, you know, all my life different guys like Jay Leno or Freddy Prince get a shot on the tonight show. That was a great time. And then to go into late night and not try to challenge my hero, but just He had an audience, I wanted that audience's children. You know, he wanted your mom and dad. I wanted you. Now it's more crowded. You have to be more unique. You have to figure out a way to find a place between Leno and Fallon. You know, it it's tough, but I like tough.

I read somewhere that you're a huge fan of Scandal. The show Scandal. Yeah. Now what's up with that? Is it Kerry Washington or is it the show?

You know what? I'm busted. Quentin Tarantino was in a box nude and at that moment, I become a huge Scandal fan. So it all comes around full circle. I love it. Yes.

So talk about bringing things full circle. I've I've heard that Bill Clinton would be a dream guest. Cuz when he came and played the sax in the original. Yeah. That was huge. I mean, that was to get him. I personally think that won him the election.

Well, he said that to me. Really? He's a cool guy and we've remained friends. But the bottom line is he changed my life when he came to my show. Yeah. You know, and he changed the way you seek political position. Because now it was rare then, but now to see Huckabee playing bass or to see our president doing the news with Fallon. You know, times have changed and and and that man kind of changed my life.

Did you have a moment where you said to yourself, I made it? Like, did you have that moment? Cuz sometimes you have that moment where you realize it really wasn't the moment, but you think it at the time. Like this is my moment.

That's an interesting point. Cuz I remember standing as a stand-up at Carnegie Hall. Yeah. And I thought I had made it. But I was someone's opening act. I just had a gig. You know, but it was Carnegie Hall and all that kind of stuff. Um, have you ever made it really?

Well, that's the thing. Is it ever enough? Are you ever satisfied? I mean, I guess if you were, you'd said, okay, this is enough. I'm quitting.

Yeah. I guess by definition you've made it when you achieve or get to that place and that goal that you set for yourself. And for me that was just to be able to take care of my family. Cuz in the end it's a job. I wanted to be able to send my kid to a school I couldn't go to and let my mom stop working two jobs. So in that sense by my definition, yeah, I'm I made it.