David Tolley began his stint on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson as a regular audience member, however, because of a cancellation made by a visitor at the very last minute, he was able to demonstrate his remarkable musical abilities.

And his spontaneous performance on the piano ended up stunning not just Johnny but the whole audience as well!

Jonny Carson intended to have a famous pianist do a performance on the program, and he made preparations to do so. However, all of a sudden he found himself in a difficult situation. An accident involving the pianist’s fingers and a vehicle door caused him to phone only a few hours before the live event to let them know that he wouldn’t be able to play because of the injury.

Johnny did not let this deter him from going live with his performance.

After all, things have to carry on as planned, don’t they? Johnny made the courageous decision to think creatively about the circumstance, and he shared his insights with the audience. He reasoned that one of the people in the crowd had to have been a student at some time.

The improbable manner in which the “Hail Mary” play to rescue the performance was successful was a pleasant surprise.

David Tolley, who was wearing a Nike t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops at the time, raised his hand when Johnny Carson asked people in the audience if they knew any pianists. David took a risk despite Johnny’s reservations about whether or not he understood what he was doing and whether or not he had the necessary amount of expertise.

He even cracked jokes. It is evident that David would have dressed more appropriately if he had known he would be on TV.

David gave a performance of “Memory” from the musical Cats while winking and grinning at the crowd. No one was expecting him to play so well, thus they were pleasantly surprised by his performance.

David beamed a smile at the audience and motioned toward the keys just as it seemed that the concert was drawing to a close.

As he proceeded to bring his performance to a close, the crowd responded well to him by applauding and laughing sometimes.