Before Byron Allen became a media mogul, he was one of those comedians whose life was changed by Johnny Carson.

Growing up, Allen would accompany his mother to the NBC lot in Burbank, where she worked as a publicist, and was provided with a show business education. An aspiring comic who played comedy clubs as a teenager, he regularly waited in the parking lot for the late-night host to exchange a few words before tapings of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

When Allen was 18 years old, he became the youngest comic to appear on Carson’s “Tonight” stage. It led to a regular role on the NBC prime-time series “Real People” and a successful stand-up career that had him touring for two decades.

Now Allen, 64, is poised to reenter the late-night TV arena — and just when the genre is a

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