Jay Leno isn’t just the hardest-working entertainer in show business; he’s also one of the most resilient. The late Bob Einstein, better known as daredevil Super Dave Osborne, pretended to risk life and limb for his profession, but Leno has experienced it for real, making news in 2022 after being injured in a garage fire, only to fall down a hill and face-plant once he recovered from the burns. The experiences, naturally, are ripe for Leno to draw on for his latest stand-up.
Current events not involving personal injuries have been fundamental to the comedian’s act since he first started forming it in his native Massachusetts. Born to an Italian father and spirited Scottish mother, Leno developed an appreciation for the humorists such as George Carlin, whose comedy albums he would memorize, and Mort Sahl, who would draw on current events for his club and television appearances.
David Brenner, Bob Newhart, Robert Klein and Johnny Carson were also among his influences, but he followed his own idiosyncratic path to success. Leno would make bets with club bartenders that he could do a set without anyone in the audience leaving in order to access stages. He opened for dancers at strip clubs and weathered abuse from their patrons. He became familiar to television audiences with guest-starring roles in ’70s series such as Good Times and One Day at a Time.
His most memorable role was in 1981 when the motorcycle enthusiast played a biker fixated on the titular character in Alice, but from then on, his stand-up persona began to eclipse his sitcom exposure. Leno was known as a comedians’ comedian at a time when his peers included Richard Lewis and Richard Belzer. David Letterman publicly praised him as his favorite comedian, and Leno became a regular guest on Letterman’s NBC show.
That admiration would end famously when Leno was chosen over Letterman as Carson’s replacement on The Tonight Show. The idea of Leno donning a suit and appearing nightly seemed a little less daunting to NBC execs than replacing congenial Carson with sarcastic Letterman. In the end, with Letterman taking an offer from CBS for a show with an 11:30 p.m. time slot, both comedians flourished.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno debuted three days after Carson retired in 1992 and ended in 2014. Leno relinquished hosting duties to Conan O’Brien in 2009 but was brought back by NBC after the network heads got jittery about O’Brien’s ratings. He drew flak from other comedians and late-night hosts for returning, maintaining his customary unflappable demeanor.
All the while he maintained a schedule of stand-up appearances and, unlike Carson, he didn’t invite guest hosts to fill in for him on The Tonight Show while he took vacations. Leno earned and maintained his reputation as the hardest-working comedian in stand-up throughout his late-night career and subsequent CNBC series Jay Leno’s Garage. He’s also earned the right to be a little accident prone.
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