Arthur Levine

Special for USA TODAY

It’s not every day that someone gets to star in and be the focus of a theme park ride. In fact, except for fictional characters such as Harry Potter and King Kong, it virtually never happens. But The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon is the unlikely inspiration and star of Race Through New York, a simulator attraction that opened at Universal Studios Florida on April 6. Audience members get to compete against the comedian in a raucous showdown that sends them careening through Times Square, above the Statue of Liberty, and to other iconic places in the city.

Fallon moved his TV show to Orlando for a week to help celebrate the new ride. He chatted with USA Today about his attraction in the pre-show area of Race Through New York.

Dressed in a natty suit and tie, Fallon looked like he walked off the set of his talk show — which was appropriate given that Universal designed a convincing reproduction of NBC’s 30 Rock building and The Tonight Show’s Studio 6B in the New York section of the park. He was as affable and funny as you might expect. And Fallon was clearly excited and genuinely thrilled about the ride.

USA TODAY: Where does your fascination with theme parks come from? What are some early memories?

JIMMY FALLON: I grew up about four hours away from The Great Escape in Lake George, New York, and we used to go there. I loved the roller coasters. I love the idea of theme parks, because everyone is there to have fun. It’s like the movie, Vacation. Whether you like it or not, we’re going to have fun!

USA TODAY: I was surprised to learn that you actually pitched the idea to Universal about doing a ride years ago, when you were on Late Night and before the parks were part of NBC.

JIMMY FALLON: They politely told me no. I said ‘Well, maybe I’ll check back in.’ They said, ‘Don’t even check in. We’re good. If you ever need park tickets, go call somebody else.’ I figured I’d never see them again. Then we graduated and got The Tonight Show, and I got a call [from Universal]. They said ‘Remember pitching us that idea about the ride? We want to make it.’ And I got goosebumps and got right to work.

USA TODAY: What role did you play in developing the attraction?

JIMMY FALLON: I worked on it with my two writers for three and a half years. They said no to nothing and yes to everything right down to the pizza smell [that is piped in as part of the ride’s 4D sensory effects]. I wanted it to be a love letter to New York so people could see how great the city is. I was born and raised in the state, and I love New York.

USA TODAY: You play yourself, but you have many other roles in the ride as well.

JIMMY FALLON: You’ll bang into ten different characters. I play a cab driver, a construction worker, and a 15-year-old girl named Sara with no “h,” because the letter is ew!

USA TODAY: The ride is intense, but not like the roller coasters you grew up with.

JIMMY FALLON: You won’t get sick on it. You feel like you’re actually cruising in the safest way, but there are a couple of wild moments. When you freefall, you feel it. There’s butterflies. All ages can do it. [The minimum height to ride is 40 inches.] All ages will be psyched about it. They will love it. They will want to do it twice.

USA TODAY: You have pre-recorded scenes aboard the trams as part of the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. But now you’ve got your own ride. How cool is that?

JIMMY FALLON: I can’t even describe the feeling right now, because I’m just very lucky. I’m a comedian from Saugerties, New York who was very psyched to be able to pay his rent. That’s all I wanted to do, you know? And now I’m hosting The Tonight Show, and that’s more than enough. To have my own ride, it really makes no sense. It’s something that’s beyond my dreams.

USA TODAY: You’re on TV, you’re in movies, you perform music, and now you have a ride. What do you think of theme parks as a form of entertainment? What place do they hold in popular culture?

JIMMY FALLON: They are built for people to enjoy themselves. There are thrills and chills, things for kids, things for adults, entertainment. It’s all about having fun. On my ride alone, there is singing, dancing, a giant stuffed panda, and there are interactive tables for you to send thank-you notes. They thought of everything.

USA TODAY: What was it like filming the sequences for the ride?

JIMMY FALLON: It took about two weeks. I had these little [motion capture] dots on my face and what looked like little ping pong balls. I was actually sitting in a really crappy cart on what might’ve been an office chair. They just kept spinning me around and around. I was thinking, I don’t know, this ride could go either way. I don’t know if I can trust these guys! We thought it was all done.

Then they said, ‘Hey, we have to do the safety precautions.’ We had to make that fun. We solved that. The Roots rap the safety precautions. And it’s great! It all started coming together.

The last time I was here, I was wearing a hardhat, and it was a construction site. But I could see a little bit of the floor. I said, ‘Oh my gosh. You’re going to make it look like 30 Rock? For real? I didn’t know anything about that stuff. I was blown away. It was above and beyond.

Now, there’s a [Tonight Show] museum. You see [original host] Steve Allen, who would be so proud to be alive for this. He’d say, ‘What? You made this show into a ride? What is going on?’ Hopefully the families of Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson get to come and experience this. Jay Leno is coming this week, so I’m going to bring him in. I think he’ll be impressed. And he likes fast cars too. This is right up his alley.

USA TODAY: What was your experience like the first time you rode Race Through New York?

JIMMY FALLON: I got chills. I got a little emotional. It’s so realistic. Just hearing the stage manager talking — there’s beautiful sound in it — saying, ‘Okay, get the cue cards ready.’ I felt like I was really at work. That’s when I got butterflies. The ride wasn’t even moving at that point.