David Byrne Did Stand-Up Comedy Because Fred Armisen Asked Him To

All the world’s a stage for David Byrne — including The Tonight Show, a New York City record shop and Fred Armisen‘s comedy nights.

The former Talking Heads frontman, 73, dropped by The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, Sept. 3 to perform his new song “What Is The Reason For It?” at the Rough Trade record store, downstairs from the show’s studio at 30 Rockefeller Center.

The performance was part of a surprise three-song set at a listening party held the day prior in celebration of Byrne’s new album Who Is the Sky?, which is set for release on Friday, Sept. 5.

While speaking with Fallon about the album, Byrne joked that he’d “let the cat out of the bag” when it came to his upcoming wedding to fiancée Mala Gaonkar, and also explained how Armisen had recently convinced him to try stand-up comedy.

The “Burning Down the House” singer said Armisen, 48, had seen Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia and “saw that I could get a laugh,” which inspired him to encourage Byrne to try stand-up.

“I said, ‘Really? Really? Really?’ [It’s the] scariest thing in the world. I don’t have to tell you, but I have to tell these people,” Byrne said. “You don’t have a band. It’s just you and if it goes [badly], it goes [badly]. You can’t turn around and go, ‘Hey, hey, my bass player f—-d up.'”

Byrne said that Armisen invited him to make an unannounced appearance at a venue in Los Angeles where he regularly performs comedy, and Byrne obliged.

“I said, ‘Can I do it as a slideshow?’… And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, we’ll set that up,'” he recalls. “All I had to do was show the picture and kind of say what it was.

The performance and appearance come days before Byrne’s upcoming nuptials. He announced on his Instagram Stories on Monday, Sept. 1, that he will marry Gaonkar, 55, “this week,” less than three weeks after he revealed their engagement. He also shared his personally curated wedding reception playlist.

“I’m getting married this week and made an almost entirely instrumental playlist while our guests eat an amazing and spicy dinner,” Byrne wrote in the post, sharing a link to his 42-song and nearly two and a half hour-long Apple Music playlist entitled “Dinner Music.”

Byrne told PEOPLE in a recent interview that early feedback to Who Is the Sky? has been positive. Byrne will release his new album alongside the Ghost Train Orchestra.

“The reaction I’ve gotten from people is they said, ‘Oh, we need this right now. This is what we need right now,’ which I take it to mean that it’s an album that’s playful,” Byrne said.

After releasing Who Is the Sky? Byrne will embark on a tour in North America through the end of the year before heading to Australia and Europe in 2026.

Who Is the Sky? is available for preorder and will be out on Sept. 5.