‘Tonight Show’ Star Visits His Iowa State Fair Butter Sculpture

While Jimmy Fallon, star of NBC's The Tonight Show, was rubbing elbows with the president of France, sitting courtside for Team USA's gold medal win in men's basketball, and co-hosting the closing ceremonies broadcast at the Paris Summer Olympics over the weekend, his longtime sidekick was back home in Iowa, getting up close and personal with an unusual likeness of himself.

Des Moines native Steve Higgins, the announcer on The Tonight Show since 2014, and the announcer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014, was at the Iowa State Fair, where he, along with Fallon and the late Johnny Carson, were honored with their very own butter sculptures.

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While at the fair, Higgins posed for pictures with the creator of the sculpture, Sarah Pratt, and later took time to chat with the Des Moines Register about the honor.

Higgins grew up in Iowa's largest city and graduated from Roosevelt High School in the early 1980s before forming the comedy troupe 'Don't Quit Your Day Job', which performed at Iowa spots like the Hotel Kirkwood, Corky's, and Spaghetti Works.

The tradition of the butter sculptures at the Iowa State Fair dates back to the late 1950s when cows were the subjects for the first several years. In 1996, to honor the Hawkeye State's Sesquicentennial, Grant Wood’s famous 'American Gothic' became the first companion sculpture, which has since included the likenesses of:

• Elvis Presley (1997)
• John Wayne (2001)
• The Peanuts Gang (2002)
• A Harley-Davidson motorcycle (2003)
• Tiger Woods (2005)
• Harry Potter (2007)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2012)