| Q&A with Jay Leno: Back to stand-up.
When you’re one of a few people in television history to have hosted your own late-night show for more than 20 years and then stepped away from it, what do you do now? If you’re Jay Leno, you hit the road.
Leno, who succeeded Johnny Carson as host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in 1992 and left the program in 2014 (with a bit of drama in between), is still working the standup job he had before his coveted TV gig. By his own estimate, Leno, 67, plays about 210 live shows a year — up from the 150 or so he did annually while still on “The Tonight Show” — at clubs and casinos.
Leno, who also continues to host “Jay Leno’s Garage” on CNBC, explained in a recent phone interview that his desire to stay active as a stand-up is rooted in “being an observer.”
“Real comics don’t really fit in anywhere,” he said. “You’re not really a blue-collar guy anymore. But you’re not comfortable around rich people.”
Leno spoke further about his life after late night and challenges of being a political joke-teller in a polarized environment. These are edited excerpts from that conversation. Q : What is it like to have once hosted a latenight show five nights a week and then stepped away from it? A: People always think, you have a TV show, then it ends. The next night, you go, “Where’s my table at Spago?” “I’m sorry, Mr. Leno, it’s been given to Mr. Fallon.” “What? That’s my table!” It doesn’t exist that way. The real trick is to make show business money but live in the real world. And then you tend to appreciate things a little bit more. Q: So you didn’t go through a withdrawal period after it ended? A: What I tell people in show business is, Don’t fall in love with a hooker. That’s what show business is. The greatest thing about “The Tonight Show” is that you could be around show business without being immersed in it. When Charlie Sheen would come on and tell a story about some hooker pushing him out of his Mercedes on Mulholland Drive, it was always hilarious, but I don’t want to live that life. I did the show and I went home every night like it was a school night, to work on the monologues. Q: Do you watch any of the current late-night shows? A: I enjoy everybody. I always say Jimmy [Fallon] is the closest of anybody to Carson. But I love [Stephen] Colbert’s hard-hitting monologues. Samantha Bee is terrific. I like Trevor Noah. I loved Larry Wilmore. The people who fall by the wayside are the people who have nothing to say. They come out and go: “Woo, how are you all doing? You all good?” Yeah, I’m fine, just give me the jokes, OK?
Q: Howisitthatthere aresomanymore late-nightshowsnow,but they’restilllargelyhosted bywhite,maleperformers? A: I was talking to a younger comedian who said to me: “You and Seinfeld were lucky. You came up in the golden age of stand-up, when everybody could get in.” No, there’s no golden age. Every time is just as difficult as every other time. The difference is, now you can rocket to the middle. Q: Youtookpainson“The TonightShow”tojoke equallyaboutbothpoliticalparties.Wouldthatapproachbepossiblenow?
A: It’s a different time now. It’s kind of ugly. On “Jay Leno’s Garage,” we did a thing where we had Colin Powell race Joe Biden in Corvettes. The two of them trash-talked each other and made fun of each other, and people just seemedsohappytoseea Republican and a Democrat being nice to each other.
Last year, before the election, I was playing in Lancaster, Penn. That’s pretty much Trump territory. IwoulddoaTrumpjoke, and then a Hillary joke. I deliberately did one and then the other. After the show, this ladysays:“I’mafan,butI have a bone to pick with you: I notice you didn’t do any Hillary jokes. You only made fun of Donald Trump.” What she would do is, every time I would tell a Trump joke, she would turn to her friend and go, “Ugh, can you believe what he said?” She didn’t even hear the other jokes. It was a classic case of just hearing what you want to hear.