Chris Tucker sat down on Conan O’Brien’s couch in a blue suit and an open white collar, and before long Conan brought up the friend everyone wanted to hear about. “You hang out with Michael Jackson,” Conan said.
Chris didn’t need a second to think. “Michael is my boy,” he said.
It was Aug. 6, 2007, on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” four days before “Rush Hour 3” opened in theaters. By then Chris and Michael had been friends for years. In 2001 Chris had appeared alongside Michael in the short film for “You Rock My World,” and he told Conan the two of them still crossed paths on the road. “We bump into each other around the world,” he said.
The trips weren’t what Chris wanted to talk about, though. He wanted to talk about the phone. “He’s cool because he called me sometimes, check up on me, see how I’m doing,” Chris told Conan.
That’s Michael Jackson, with everything else going on in his life, picking up the phone to ask a comedian how he was doing.
On some of those calls Michael didn’t say “Chris” at all. He had his own name for his friend, and he saved it for the days he really missed him. When Chris told Conan what it was, Conan stopped him and repeated it back.
Listen for the name Michael used when he opened those calls, and watch Conan’s reaction when he hears it.
Chris Tucker tells Conan O’Brien about Michael Jackson’s phone calls
This clip is from Conan O’Brien’s official YouTube channel. Conan brings up Michael at about 2:29, and Chris starts on the phone calls at about 2:45. The full clip runs about four and a half minutes, and Chris talks about his friendship with Prince in it too.
So what did Michael call him? He called him Christmas. When Michael really missed him, Chris said, the call would start like this: “Hey Christmas, how are you?”
Conan repeated it back to him. “He calls you Christmas?”
It was Michael’s own spin on the name Chris. At first, Chris said, he wondered why Michael was calling him that. Then it grew on him. “But then it starts sounding good,” he told Conan. “I was like, say that again, Mike.”
Michael only pulled the name out when he’d been away from his friend too long, so every time Chris heard “Christmas” on the line, he knew Michael had been missing him.
Chris had one more story about Michael that night, and this one was about going out in public together. “Both of us like going to the movies,” he said.
That took some planning when one of you is Michael Jackson. According to Chris, Michael had to “sneak in the movie right before it starts.” He’d come in “with a ninja suit on,” Chris said, “hiding in all black.” Chris would turn around, and there was Michael: “Hey Chris.”
Security brought them popcorn, and the two friends settled in to watch. Chris saved one last detail about his famous movie buddy for the end. “He’s the loudest person in there,” he said.
The movie story starts at about 3:10 in the same clip, right after Chris finishes explaining the nickname.