July 30, 2010
Q & A with Tom Bergeron
Tom with his co-host, Samantha Harris, on "Dancing with the Stars."
It's hard to pin an age on the host of one of America's most watched prime time television shows. Time has been on Tom Bergeron's side -- he gives off a vibe of the boy next door all grown up. When I talked to the emcee of "Dancing with the Stars" and "America's Funniest Home Videos" just days after his birthday, Bergeron chalked up his youthful energy and style to a sense of humor, the seriousness with which he follows his fitness regime, an easy haircut, and among other things, the watch he purchased at LAX for $14.99.
Rezoom: You just turned 52, what's it like?
TB: It's a concept I have difficulty with. It helps to keep saying the number and kind of owning it, but I don't feel the way I thought I would feel at all. I feel like I'm still in my late 20s or early 30s. I'm reminded of a quote that Gene Hackman (I think it was Gene Hackman) said, "I feel 18 and I look in the mirror and I see my grandfather." I'm trying to look in the mirror and keep from seeing my grandfather, love him though I did.
RZ: I hear you're a bit of a gym rat? Is that keeping you young?
TB: Certainly because I'm on TV and I stand next to these incredible specimens who compete on the "Dancing with the Stars," one of the reasons I go to the gym is sheer vanity. It's the best incentive. The other is for health reasons. I have diabetes on both sides of the family.
I'm in much better shape now than when I was 30 and was largely defined by how much Bass Ale I could drink. When I turned 40, I really said to myself, OK now it's time to make exercise a commitment. I have a trainer and that helps, but even on my own I've made it a regular part of my life.
RZ: You really don't appear to be aging.
TB: The gray hairs would differ with you.
RZ: Well maybe, but the haircut is great. Was the short cut your idea?
TB: I was sort of talked into it by the gal who does my hair and makeup on both shows. She and my wife kind of double-teamed me, and she started cutting it a little shorter. It's just so much easier to have short hair and I'm getting a lot of comments like yours. If you look at some of the old "Hollywood Squares" shows on GSN [Game Show Network], my hair was almost a bouffant. I'm a little over 5'9", so maybe subconsciously I was adding three inches of height just by combing my hair back.
RZ: Is there anything you do to hold back the years? How do you feel about aging in front of an audience?
TB: I'm not willing to go to the dying of the hair, that sort of pathetic orange that you see on some guys. I'm letting it gray normally. Within the parameters of things I can naturally do to be healthy -- like be at my optimal weight and fitness level -- I certainly do those things. If you're in television, anyone can sort of watch the aging process take place. My stage manager says he can always tell what year the rerun is by how close I'm holding the cards to my eye. Year one on "Hollywood Squares," the cards were right up there; by year six, I needed an arm extension. And also the hair started to get a little salt and pepper, and the bouffant eventually went away.
Bergeron and Harris.
TB: Thank you, this interview is doing wonders for my ego.
RZ: You dress well on both shows.
TB: That's a credit to the people who pick my clothes.
RZ: Do you have any input in that?
TB: Well, definitely. With all of the flamboyance of the dancer's outfits on "Dancing with the Stars," my sense is to go a bit more conservative. On some of the early "America's Funniest Home Videos" shows, I came out with a suit and tie on, and it just didn't feel right ... when you're introducing people getting hit in the nuts. I said to the producer, I think I'm overdressing. So we compromise with a suit and no tie or a sport coat.
RZ: Is there anything that you don't feel comfortable wearing as a host?
TB: A burkah! That's where I draw the line.
RZ: What are the three things you wear most when you're not on TV?
TB: Jeans, running shoes and some sort of comfortable cotton t-shirt. That's sort of my off-camera uniform. I have about four pairs of Asics running shoes, all of which look as if they've been through the mill. And so my natural tendency is to dress very comfortably and as if I'm still in my 30s. My set point is usually denim.
RZ: I was looking at your video clip on the Walk America Web site (Bergeron is the national celebrity spokesperson for the March of Dimes' Walk America), and you have this fabulous watch on. Do you accessorize?
TB: If it was a fabulous watch, it's gonna be the swag watch I got when I was co-hosting the Daytime Emmy's with Kelly Monaco because like right now, I have on a rather basic Swiss Army watch. And the watch I've been wearing for about a year-and-a-half I found at LAX .
RZ: Seriously?
TB: Seriously. I'm not a big "stuff" person. I don't get into the bling. I enjoy experiences as opposed to stuff. My favorite car is a 1978 Volkswagen Beetle I have at home [in Connecticut]. Emmitt Smith and I got on the elevator once when he was doing "Dancing with the Stars," and he had on this diamond encrusted watch. I said "cool watch." He said, "yeah." I lifted my sleeve and said, "14 dollars, LAX." And he laughed much like you're doing.
RZ: Has your sense of humor kept you young?
TB: Absolutely. My humor has been my salvation at times when I was younger and things were bleak. And I don't take what I do too seriously, apart from the commitment to, and the discipline of, doing the work.
RZ: What else keeps you young?
TB: Well I had TM [Transcendental Meditation] training years ago, but I'm not an advocate of that. Whether you use a mantra or your breath or a spot on the wall ... I just think anything that you do with regularity to bring yourself into the moment resonates throughout your life. That's why I love live television. It gives me the opportunity to be right in the moment. Last week all hell was breaking loose on the show, and I couldn't have been happier. My feeling is, they don't pay me for when the show's going along on all pistons -- they pay me for when it's starting to go off the tracks.
RZ: Do you even think about age?
TB: I think about it only in terms of just being amazed that when people said "Happy Birthday" to me on Sunday, they also said, "and you're 52!" I love when they say it that way. One of the staff members said she thought I was in my early 40s. I promptly kissed her on the cheek.
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