So great to be here.
Thank you.
I'm so happy you're here.
And I can't believe this is your first appearance on the Tonight Show.
It is.
Thank you.
I'm so lucky.
I'm very lucky to be here.
I'm grateful to be here.
I'm a big fan.
Well, technically, this isn't your first appearance on our show.
I'm going to show you why.
This is a clip of one of our Thank You Notes segments in 2023.
Okay.
Thank you today for being Friday the 13th. which means only one thing.
It's Patrick Dempsey's birthday!
I got so many calls after that.
You did get calls?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Everybody's like, you're on!
You're famous!
Yeah, right.
He talked about you on the show!
Yeah, right.
Well, it's a coincidence because this past January 13th, you actually celebrated your 60th birthday.
Yes.
I turned 60.
So you know what that means!
Whoo!
It's Frankie Dancing's 16th birthday!
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
It's good to be 60.
Happy, happy, happy birthday.
You spent a lot of time in New York City over the years.
Yes.
But is it true your first time here, it was a juggling competition or something?
Yes, I came in town to do, it was at the Roosevelt Hotel.
It was a talent competition, and I did a three-minute juggling routine.
And I kept dropping.
I kept dropping because I was so nervous.
But I would come up with these one-liners that were really funny.
And by the end of it, I ended up winning and getting an agent.
No way.
Davina Wells signed me.
And my first audition was for a show called Torch Song Trilogy.
And Harvey Fierstein.
I have to thank him for my career, because had it not been for him and I hadn't done that show, I would not be here today.
And it was a small town, yeah.
It was a dream come true.
It was a legend.
Yeah.
How did you get into juggling?
I came through it accidentally.
I love ski racing.
And, of course, we've got the Olympics here on NBC coming up.
So we've got some great skiers.
Amazing.
We got Michaela.
We got Lindsey Vonn.
And Jesse Diggins is great.
So, we've got a really good stacked team going into the Olympics.
So, I wanted to be a slalom skier.
So, Inmar Stenmark was my hero as a kid growing up.
And I was watching ABC up close and personal.
You know, they used to do those specials.
And Inmar Stenmark in the dryland training, which is what they would do in the summer.
He was riding a unicycle.
So I was like, this is how I'm going to make it to the Olympics.
So I didn't have a lot of money.
So I had to sell seeds door to door in a little town in Maine.
And I made enough money.
And this is going to date me.
I ordered it through a Sears and Roebuck catalog.
I love those catalogs.
And I got the unicycle, and I started riding.
And unbelievably, I was in a shop class.
Paul McKinney was our shop teacher.
The power had gone out, and he started juggling to entertain us.
So I started picking that up and then riding the unicycle.
And for whatever reason, there was a new vaudevillian movement was starting in Maine.
Buckfield, Leather and Lather, Randy Judkins and Judd the Jester and Fred Garbo and all these guys brought me in and I started performing with them.
And that's how I ended up in New York.
I was like, oh, I got the bug.
Isn't that wild?
Everyone's ride, man.
It's so different.
Yeah, I was like, I actually applied for Ringling Brothers and tried to get in.
I was too young.
And they'd have questions on their phone like, how do you feel about people in small places?
Like, you know, the clown car, right?
Can you get along with people in a clown car?
Which is an important thing to ask yourself.
Yeah, you got to fit like 30, 40 people.
Are you going to be okay with other clowns in a clown car?
And I didn't get in because I was too young.
And this happened, so here I am today.
Yeah.
Well, it all worked out.
Thank you.
Well, the whole world loves you from Grey's Anatomy.
Thank you.
I think it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
It's incredible.
I think they're on their 29th season or something crazy like that.
But I did 11 seasons, I think 237 episodes, something like that.
But it's incredible.
The best thing that's come out of this show though, is I meet so many young people that have gone into the medical profession, which is needed right now more than ever.
Certainly our nurses and everything like that.
And that's the thing I'm proud of.
And we had an incredible cast of characters and everything.
Do you remember any of the jargon that you'd have to learn?
None whatsoever.
I can't remember a thing.
Because it's like cramming for a test, right?
You get this terminology, and you're like, what am I talking about?
I have no idea.
But I know MRI.
I can do that one.
Okay, that's great.
You know, CAT scan.
Okay, this is all good.
And the most important, STAT.
Wow.
Wow.
I also, we love you from some classic rom-coms.
You're unbelievable.
You're great in a romantic comedy.
I love you.
Bridget Jones.
I got to say, Enchanted is one of my favorites.
Oh, yeah.
Amy Adams.
Fantastic.
She's brilliant.
She's absolutely brilliant in the movie.
And this was shot in New York, right?
Yeah, we shot it in Central Park.
Great story in Central Park.
Like, anytime I walk by the fountain, I always go, how do you know?
I'm going to jump in it.
But we're in the middle of this shot and we're getting ready.
In between, takes and lo and behold, David Bowie walks right between.
Amy's here, I'm here.
David Bowie walks right between us.
He's wearing denim, and you're like...
The entire production shut down.
It was like, he was like, floated through the park.
It was like a great New York moment.
He's like, yeah, I loved you in camp.
I'm in love.
No, he didn't say that.
He just walked straight by me.
He didn't even notice.
He just walked in and said, oh, my God.
We were like, oh, my God, David Bowie.
He's the coolest.
Yeah, he was the coolest.
Absolutely the coolest.
I also want to say, by the way quickly, just to mention but the Dempsey Center that you started, this is in Maine.
Congratulations on what you've done with that and how that's grown and what you keep giving back.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
I mean, it must feel good, but, I mean, can you explain what the Dempsey Center does?
Yes, it was inspired by my mother's battle with cancer.
She had 12 recurrences of ovarian cancer over the years.
And what we do at the Dempsey Center is we treat people who have been impacted by cancer.
We don't treat the disease.
We treat the person holistically.
All of our services are absolutely free.
So we do acupuncture, Reiki, some counseling, nutrition.
We work on prevention through survivorship. because people go through their treatment.
I'm sure there are a number of cancer survivors here or people going through treatment.
It's like you come out of your treatment, but then you may be cured, but you're not healed.
And that's where the work begins to, you know, rebuild your life.
And all of our services are free.
So, yeah.
But you go back and... I go back.
Amazing.
Yeah.
Amazing what you do.
And it should.
I think there should be, It should be standard care with cancer patients, the support that they need along the way.
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you.
So that's something I push very hard for.
I love that.
I love reading about it.
And every time I see it, I go, I love that dude.
I love that he does that.
And you go back...
I go back, yes.
And you do, like, events there?
We have what's called the Dempsey Challenge.
We want to get people active.
So there's a bike ride, there's a walk, and there's a run.
We do it in the fall.
And that's sort of the primary way we raise money to make it possible.
We have incredible support from the community.
Maine is really special.
I mean, they leave you alone, but if there's an emergency, they're right there. in a heartbeat.
It's good to get back to your hometown, too.
There's nothing better.
And I remember as a kid laying in bed going.
If I ever make it, I need to do something good when I come back.
And if I come back, if I get out of here.
And I was at the Theatre of Monmouth and an actor told me a much older actor he goes.
You know, never forget where you come from.
And I think that's an important thing to remember.
Now more than ever, yeah.
Yeah, I agree with you.
Let's talk about your new show.
You play a hitman.
I do.
It's so much fun.
Crazy double life.
I like when you play kind of weird, like, villain, scary people.
Yeah, because you know all the comedies and everything.
Yes, we know you as the most friendly, I trust you, romantic comedies.
We want to fall in love with you.
You're sexiest man alive.
Yes, that's our... Race cars.
Everyone wants to be you.
But then Dexter, by the way, creeped me out.
Oh, did it really?
Yeah.
That was fun to do.
It scared me.
Good.
It was great.
Yeah.
I love that.
I had the best time on that.
Because you don't, you know, as an actor, you don't normally get those opportunities.
Stretch those muscles.
Yeah, so it was fun to have the opportunity and they brought me on board for that, and then that led to being able to do this project.
Yeah, memory of a killer.
Yeah, and by the way, you do actually some real driving.
What were you driving in this show that I remember saw you?
This is a Porsche, too.
This is a Porsche.
It's the EV car, which is the Gran Turismo.
It's the station wagon, because we can put bodies in the back.
It's perfect.
So it goes... That's why you did it?
That's why we had it.
You've got to be always thinking.
You've got to think ahead as a killer.
You've got to think ahead, everyone.
What are you going to do with the body?
Exactly.
I want to show a clip.
Here's Patrick Dempsey in Memory of a Killer.
Take a look.
Patrick Dempsey.
Patrick Dempsey, everybody.
You can catch a new episode of Memory of a Killer every Monday at 9 pm on Fox and the next day on Hulu.
Congratulations on the show.
You're the best.
Please come back.
You're the best.
Reggie Miller joins us after the break.
Stick around.
