Emmy-winning daytime TV host-comic Ellen DeGeneres was in Chicago last week to film "Ellen's Bigger Longer & Wider Show," her third variety special for TBS. DeGeneres taped the show at the Chicago Theatre and on the streets of the city. The program airs at 8 p.m. tonight.

"I'm doing a magic trick on the streets with David Blaine," said DeGeneres, 51, listing highlights, which include appearances by Chicago rapper-producer Kanye West and comedian/musician Nick Cannon."I met David at a party where he was doing crazy, crazy card tricks and illusions like in front of my face and I didn't know how he was doing it."

DeGeneres most likely will do a dance or two on the show. That's become part of her act.

"I don't know what would happen to me if I broke a hip," she said in a pre-taping chat. "I think the show would be over, I don't know if I ever will stop dancing, because even if I didn't want to dance anymore, I have to dance. I literally will be in a doctor's office, and somebody will say, `You're not dancing,' like I'm supposed to dance anywhere that I am."

Citing such '60s and '70s variety show stars as Rowan and Martin, Donny and Marie and Carol Burnett, DeGeneres thinks these acts influenced her career decision."I watched Johnny Carson every single night and was just in love with him and had no idea that that would be something I would do later in life," she said.

"I'm sure watching those shows, it seeped in and put that bug in me to end up doing this for a living. That and my parents' only vacation -- they took us to Warner Brothers Studios. Our only vacation as a child, I was on a train going to California to see the set of Gilligan's Island. I think that tells you where my parents said 'Hey, this would be fun to do for a living, kids.'"

A big fan of the city, DeGeneres was glad to be back in Chicago.

"If it weren't for the weather, I'd live there," she said. "It's a little too cold for me, and that's the only thing that keeps me from buying something there, because I really do think it's a gorgeous city and the people are lovely. And so I was excited to be there just for that reason.

"And you know I've performed many times in that theater, so it's fun to go back to that theater that -- I kind of started there --my first HBO special, "Women of the Night," was there. So it was exciting to be there, plus I've never seen the Liberty Bell up close," she laughed.

"Ellen's Bigger Longer & Wider Show," 8 p.m. Saturday on TBS