This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
The Observer is proud and excited to share our interview with Northern Essex celebrity alum Tom Bergeron. We chatted with him about TV hosting, what it’s like having Haverhill roots, and more. Check out the interview below!
Shaun Hood: Do you have any advice for students who enjoy – or hope to someday start – hosting events and/or TV shows?
Tom Bergeron: Well, I think one of the things I did during my brief tenure as a student at Northern Essex was to take some theater courses. I always think that’s a great idea. Anytime that you’re thinking of entering a career that puts you in front of the public, one of the best ways to overcome any kind of stage fright is to get on a stage and take some theater courses and find your comfort zone and things like that. So that would be my key advice. If there are any opportunities, either at the school or beyond, to be in sort of a presentational mode, it helps to build that muscle.
SH: Yeah, my first big hosting experience was when I recently moderated with Broadway performer from the cast of “Hamilton.” Most of what I’ve been doing as an aspiring journalist is writing on websites, but I’m starting to enjoy hosting and event planning.
TB: Good! Congratulations, that’s a good start.
SH: Here at the NECC Observer, I have written about the Oscars a handful of times. Have you ever attended the Oscars? What thoughts did you have on this year’s ceremony and winners/nominees?
TB: I’ve never attended, but interestingly enough, the other day, I was exchanging emails with Jimmy Kimmel congratulating him for what I thought was another fine performance. To connect it to the first question, I’ve seen Jimmy for years in his various hosting roles, and to see the comfort he brings to what is arguably the most difficult stage on the planet, The Oscars, is really something. Because previously, there were people like Billy Crystal, or before your time, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, who could take that stage and were just completely comfortable in their own skin and had the audience, and were willing to risk jokes that might bomb. However, coming from that comfortable zone, which Jimmy has certainly gotten to, it makes performing a lot easier and more fun to watch too. You don’t want to watch somebody who’s having flop sweat because it just makes you as an audience member uncomfortable, right?
As far as the winners and such, I thought the show was produced probably better than any recent Oscar telecast.
SH: That’s what I’ve been saying!
TB: I thought the device of having former winners in different categories, address this year’s nominees, was, in a lot of cases really touching and funny.
SH: Yeah, especially after the SAG strike.
TB: Yes, absolutely. I think that it was a celebration of movies and the ability to get back to work.
SH: I liked how it was done like that specifically in the acting categories, because we were seeing actors supporting actors.
TB: Yeah, and in a lot of cases, either the people speaking to the nominees were friends of theirs, or like Rita Moreno and America Ferrara, there was a sort of a common link of heritage there.
SH: As a “Walking Dead” fan, I LOVE Yvette Nicole Brown. She is pretty much the celebrity queen of all “Walking Dead” fans. I understand you co-hosted a telethon with her. What’s it like working with someone as funny as her? Are you a “Walking Dead” fan? If so, have you ever discussed “The Walking Dead” with Yvette?
TB: Here’s a confession. I have never seen “The Walking Dead,” not one episode. So, you’re telling me something I didn’t know about Yvette.
SH: Oh, you didn’t know that about Yvette?
TB: No, I didn’t. We’ve been friends for years and worked together now and then. We did the telethon for two years in a row to raise money for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, the campus of which is not far from where I am here in California. Interestingly enough, Shaun, in about four hours from now, despite the high winds that are blowing outside, I’ll be going to the campus. Unfortunately, Yvette is shooting something else, so she can’t join me, but I’ll be going there to engage in a “Three Stooges”-like pie fight.
SH: So is it like a snowball fight, but with pies?
TB: That’s a good way to describe it, a snowball fight with pies. They do productions there, because they have a lot of retired people from various parts of the business, and when I heard they were going to have a pie fight, I said, “Count me in.” We don’t have snow here in Southern California, so you have to use pies!
SH: Back in high school, I felt much less engaged with both academically and socially with only a few circumstantial exceptions, and I feel as though most of that was me perceiving my surroundings to be a very shallow environment. What I love about college is getting to know faculty, staff, and students, all of whom I share common interests with, which is why I love the depth and community aspect of the college setting. Did you ever have any similar feelings as a college student at Northern Essex or elsewhere, or was education more of just a steppingstone of minimal value for you?
TB: To be honest, I became a student at Northern Essex when I was already working full-time at the local radio station in Haverhill, WHAV. I had started working for them in my senior year in high school part-time, and then when I graduated high school, I was able to work there full-time. Originally, I’d planned to go to Emerson College in Boston to get a degree in broadcasting, and after that to try to get a job in radio, but I already had a job in radio, so I thought, “I’ll just stay here and keep doing this.” Then, my boss at WHAV, who was not happy that I was going to forsake college, threatened to fire me if I didn’t go to college. So I took some courses at Northern Essex. So, I went to Northern Essex to take theater courses and English courses, things like that at first just to avoid being fired.
Ultimately, to your point, I made some really good friends there and friendships that really fueled some aspects of my entertainment and performing career for years later.
SH: As a student at Northern Essex, I really appreciate you being here with me for this interview, and since you responded to me saying that we could move forward with this, it has seemed to me like Northern Essex is – even if only to a certain extent – a part of your Massachusetts roots that you still carry today. What other parts of Haverhill or other significant Massachusetts memories are still close to the forefront of your mind?
TB: Oh, quite a few! I’ll be back in the area next week, as a matter of fact. My sister and her family all live in or near Haverhill. I spent a number of years in Boston TV and radio starting in 1981, well before you were born. Then, I moved on to New York and LA and national venues. Boston and Haverhill are very important parts of my growth and continued enjoyment. I have family and friends and great memories there.
SH: Getting back to show business, you have talked about being fired from “Dancing with the Stars” in connection to getting lied to by bosses and not wanting political figures on the show. Piggybacking on the Oscars, what do you think of social commentary in movies and on TV, such as but not limited to, the feminist themes in “Barbie,” the satire in “American Fiction,”
rities delivering political remarks intertwined with award acceptance speeches, or even celebrities like Lady Gaga campaigning with presidential candidates at their rallies? Do you think there’s a fine line that show business shouldn’t cross?
TB: One of the things I really, really, really hate is when people will say, “Stay in your lane. Just entertain us. Be a dancing monkey!” I think that’s ridiculous. I think we are citizens first, and performers second. Any great art, be it a film or a painting or a novel or whatever, has to have some takeaway. I think the “Barbie” movie, as you mentioned, was powerful stuff as well as a lot of the other imagery and such in the movie. In many movies. If people don’t feel that as citizens we can express ourselves and if entertainment is only an expressionless vehicle, then it’s like eating candy and getting no nutrition. So whenever I’ve been trolled online by somebody saying, “Just host TV shows, Tom,” basically I block them.
SH: Is there anything you have coming up or that you’re currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about? Also, do you have any closing remarks for all of us here at the Observer and the rest of Northern Essex?
TB: I’m at a nice point in my life where I can pick and choose what I dabble in. William Shatner is a friend of mine. He and I came up with a story that was turned into a screenplay and option by a production company here in LA. So, that may or may not go forward. One of the ripple effects of the strike is that there’s been a lot of retraction of production. Some projects that had been green lit are either being paused or outright canceled. So, we don’t know if our very nice screenplay will ever be a movie, but we’re hopeful in doing some writing and things of that nature.
I will mention – I think you can still find this on YouTube – I addressed the graduating class of Northern Essex some years ago prior to “Dancing with the Stars.” I think at that point I was doing “Hollywood Squares” and “America’s Funniest Videos,” and so I used those shows as a device to offer life advice to the graduating class. So, you can check that out online.
