Jay Leno - Comedy, Cars & Stories From My Life
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 1 minute
Words per minute
190.0578
Harmful content
Misogyny
36
sentences flagged
Toxicity
84
sentences flagged
Hate speech
21
sentences flagged
Summary
Comedian and writer Jay Sheinfeld joins Jemele to discuss his life growing up in the early days of stand-up comedy and how he went on to become one of the most successful comedians of all time. He also shares the story of how he got his start in comedy, how he became a star, and what it was like growing up as a kid in a small town in America.
Transcript
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Broadway's smash hit, The Neil Diamond Musical, A Beautiful Noise, is coming to Toronto.
00:00:06.520
The true story of a kid from Brooklyn destined for something more, featuring all the songs you love,
00:00:11.780
including America, Forever in Blue Jeans, and Sweet Caroline.
00:00:15.780
Like Jersey Boys and Beautiful, the next musical mega hit is here, The Neil Diamond Musical, A Beautiful Noise.
00:00:22.600
Now through June 7th, 2026 at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
00:00:31.000
Broadway's smash hit, The Neil Diamond Musical, A Beautiful Noise, is coming to Toronto.
00:00:36.860
The true story of a kid from Brooklyn destined for something more, featuring all the songs you love,
00:00:42.120
including America, Forever in Blue Jeans, and Sweet Caroline.
00:00:46.120
Like Jersey Boys and Beautiful, the next musical mega hit is here, The Neil Diamond Musical, A Beautiful Noise.
00:00:52.980
April 28th through June 7th, 2026, the Princess of Wales Theatre.
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Based on what you're saying, you sound like a really nice guy, Jay.
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Billy the bouncer stabbed him in the leg with a knife, and the guy's bleeding.
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So they gave him 20 bucks, put him in the cab, sent him off.
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The world you're describing, particularly from the early days, is so different to the world that we have now.
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A rape joke has the same career penalty as an actual rape.
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But before that, look, I remember growing up and your show was so well established.
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But people of my generation and younger wouldn't have followed your journey from the beginning.
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So we always love to get people like you to tell us your story.
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How did you get into comedy and stand-up and all of that?
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I was born in New York City, in New York rather.
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When I was nine, we moved to Andover, Massachusetts, which is about 30 miles north of Boston, kind of rural area.
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So the idea of going into show business, you know, my mother is from Scotland.
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And to the day she died, she never understood what I did, you know.
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I can remember I had my Aunt Nettie, a Scottish name.
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Obviously, my Aunt Nettie said, what's Jay doing now?
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And she said, well, he has a little skit that he puts on from town to town.
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And I'm going, Ma, I don't, like I'd stand in town square and I sort of do a dance or something.
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There's no conception of, I mean, it's the kind of place where people go, Kathy's boy wants to be a comedian.
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You know, you come to Los Angeles and you meet nine-year-old kids who want to be lighting directors because their dad is or their uncle is.
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But growing up in a small town, you worked at the sneaker factory or you worked at the plant or you were a teacher or something of that nature.
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So the idea of going into show business really did not seem like a viable alternative.
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And Boston had thousands of students with no money willing to be entertained by people with no talent.
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The colleges, they would put a candle in the cafeteria.
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It was mostly folks saying, stop your war machine, man.
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And they would have a flashlight under their chin.
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And it's like this sort of alternative experimental.
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So the idea of doing stand-up didn't really even seem like, what, it was not something people thought was a viable alternative.
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Then George Carlin started to come in and then Robert Clinton.
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Because, see, prior to that, most comedians, and I imagine the same thing in England, were men in their 40s or 50s, grew up during either the war or in America during the Depression.
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Kids with the long hair so long, the pants are through them tight.
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And then suddenly I had this younger generation talking about things that I understood.
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You know, I remember George Carlin's Class Clown album.
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And then to get into it, I would put my own stories at the end.
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I would do his routine just to get the rhythm in my bedroom or something.
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And so the first time I got on stage, I just, I was standing backstage doing George, and I walked, I tried to time it.
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So when I walked out, oh, well, here's what happened to me when I was in school.
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You know, nobody's better than, we called him Richie back then.
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I remember back in the 70s, I think Richard Pryor was the first guy to do a comedy stand-up movie.
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And for about two months, he would come to the comedy store to break in the material.
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And I remember saying to Mitzi, who owned the bus, can I go on after Richard every night?
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And nobody wanted to do it because you just died.
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But I realized I did not have an hour's worth of material.
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But it was good training because they just threw out everything that wasn't funny.
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Well, you know, that joke worked back in the 80s.
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I remember seeing a comedian not that long ago.
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You know, I was thinking about Nixon in the paper the other day.
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And I go, first of all, Nixon was not in the paper the other day.
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And you're doing, I'm not a crook, you know, all that.
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You just sort of, you just keep doing it thinking, well, it didn't work once, you know.
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And they've been saying the line ever since, you know.
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You do, it's so interesting because comedians are like that.
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Oh, no, mate, that joke worked three months ago.
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For people of our generation, he's a legendary figure.
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What was it like working with him and watching him perform?
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He, some days, it was Richard, sometime, Mr. Pryor.
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And, you know, he grew up in a whorehouse in Peoria, Illinois.
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So, you know, just witness to a lot of things at an extremely young age that were either inappropriate or just outright wrong.
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I mean, to the point where it was so natural.
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And, you know, he was the first guy to use terms, like, these motherfuckers, you know, all the time.
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And I remember Cosby would yell at him, you know, Cosby, the moral equivalent.
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But for Richard, you never felt like he was using it gratuitously.
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And it was always just really funny to watch, you know.
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Oh, he had just, I remember some of the, you know, about two black guys at the urinal, you know, and the standard at the urinal guy.
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It was really a joy to watch him work because it wasn't set up punchline.
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He was always telling a story and playing a character.
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What were those days like in the comedy store in the 70s and the 80s?
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Whenever there was a series about it, I'm dying up here.
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To me, it was a joyous time because I never met another comedian.
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When I started in New England and Boston, didn't have comedy clubs.
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So, I never knew how bad I was because people are always yelling or throwing stuff at you, you know.
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So, if I got a laugh at all, I thought that was great.
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It wasn't until I, there was a club called Lenny's on the Turnpike, which is a great name.
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And Getz and Moe's Allison and Amon Jamal and Rahsaan Roland-Kirk.
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And I would get, please don't come here at Jay Leno.
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And they were there to listen because they're jazz people.
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I never had an audience that listened before.
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And I'm thinking, did they see me come in?
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So, working that jazz club, it really made me appreciate the audiences and the economy
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of words, trying to get to a joke as quickly as possible without a lot of, you know, I
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think the reason comedians like to talk to other comedians is when you talk to regular
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Comedians get to the point, so it makes it a fun conversation.
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And Jay, you talk about starting out working strip clubs.
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I mean, I've never played a strip club in my life, thankfully.
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But even, you know, I've been similar situations.
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Well, I enjoyed it because there's nothing worse than silence.
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And if they're not paying attention, it's not your fault.
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You know, you're up there, okay, maybe you throw out an ad lib and get a laugh and, hey,
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Oh, okay, that wasn't really funny, but okay, I got a laugh.
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You know, so it was sort of comforting because it wasn't my fault.
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Well, I used to go into bars and I'd put a $50 bill on the bar and I would say, the bar
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If I do good and they laugh, give me the $50 back.
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But it also, a couple of times, they'd say, yeah, come back on Wednesday.
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We've got a, what they used to call them, a hoot nanny night.
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So I was a bit fortunate, you know, when you come to Los Angeles, I would meet new comedians
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and they'd walk into the comedy store, the improv, and Robin Williams on stage, and Jerry
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Seinfeld, and David Letterman, and they'd go, oh, man.
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And they would just be so intimidated, they couldn't even go on.
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The places I worked, the audiences were terrible, the acts were terrible.
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It wasn't until I came here and went, whoa, I got to get my act together.
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I guess where I was going with it, it does take, you know, a lot of determination to come
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into a place and, you know, I'll give you $50 to be able to perform.
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Why did you have that tenacity to keep going when, you know, you're not crushing it, you're
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not in front of lots of people, you're not making money, et cetera?
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If you don't think you're the smartest person in the room, you listen, you know.
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And I realized there's nothing else I really enjoyed doing.
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I'm dyslexic, so I was a terrible, terrible student.
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And I enjoy talking to people and telling stories.
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And to your friend, you know, you're the class clown at school, all that kind of stuff.
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It seemed like I figured I would do it until I just had to get a real job.
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Because no matter how bad it was, it was not as bad as not doing it.
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Because you're on stage, the lights are on you.
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I worked one place where the guy said, the beachcomber in Avere, Massachusetts, he said,
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Well, because the guys, they would smoke the cigarettes down, and then they'd flick them on you, you know.
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So I'm on stage once, and I hear the audience laughing.
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And my jacket's on fire, because the guy flicked the cigarette.
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I had a wool suit on, and it started smoking, you know.
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And I'm on stage, and some guy's being seated, you know.
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And I come off stage, and I said, what was that?
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And they said, oh, the guy was hassling them by the seat.
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Billy, Billy the bouncer, stabbed him in the leg with a knife and just cut him up, you know.
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So they gave him 20 bucks, put him in the cab, sent him off.
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So then, like, a month later, I get a call from the club.
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They go, hey, Jay, remember Billy the bouncer, the guy that helped you?
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Remember that I was a heckler and Billy stabbed him?
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And I actually said to the club, I said, well, you think the cops will go after real criminals?
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And it just made me, I mean, that's what you were dealing with.
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And it was just very odd, very funny, just curious, working with strippers.
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And most of these strippers, it's not like now.
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Most of these strippers were women that didn't type, weren't in the secretarial pool.
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And there weren't a lot of, a lot of them were in their 40s.
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And I used to work with these two women, Lily Pagan and Anita Man, that was her name.
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And we would drive out to army bases and they would set up like a giant champagne glass,
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you know, nails in their mouths, put it together, fill it with water and take a bath in it while
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And they'd have the big, they had their head shaved, but they'd wear wigs, you know.
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She just gets out of the tub, goes, oh, boom, breaks the guy's nose.
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And I'm just, I mean, that, I mean, that's what it was.
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It was very, you know, my friends are working at Wendy's and McDonald's covered in peanut
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You don't realize if you're a good comedian or a bad comedian.
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First of all, you have to learn how to talk in front of a crowd and get a stage presence.
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To have that and the jokes at the same time is pretty rare.
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So the fact that I was able to get stage time, I always tell young comedians, you know,
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your church, your synagogue, your pub, if there's like a karaoke night, see if you can
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That way you don't have to be a professional comedian.
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I mean, just, you know, once you punch that guy in the face, and he was a big one, just
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That's a hell of a microaggression right there.
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But Jay, you also had a few brushes with the mob, didn't you, when you were doing those gigs?
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I mean, you know, the real trick is you don't fall for the trap.
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You know, I remember where I was at a place called Catch a Rising Star, which is in New
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And this guy, it looks like somebody from the golf club.
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And I said, no, no, give it to the church or something.
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And you realize that's kind of how these things work, you know?
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I know some people in showbinds, they want to hang out with thugs.
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They want to think they're living the gangster life.
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Hey, will you pick up this thing at the airport for me?
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You know, and then, of course, they get arrested or whatever.
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But I already realized by not taking that $100, nobody ever bothered me again.
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It's interesting that you say that because you look at people like Sinatra and then later
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Well, TV was always looking for comedians, especially in the 70s and 80s.
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But back then, it was a staple of any talk show.
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And there were afternoon talk shows or evening talk shows.
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And to have a comedian who could do five to seven minutes, oh, that was the best.
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So they would come see you, and you would audition, you know.
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That's another part of the business I liked a lot because you always got more work from
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other comedians than you ever got from an agent or a manager.
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You know, the idea is, oh, it's this cutthroat business.
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I mean, Steve Martin brought Johnny Carson in to see me.
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Harvey Korman brought Johnny in to see me a couple of times.
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I brought Johnny in to see Ellen DeGeneres once I got a little bit of fame.
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I mean, you can't do every job every day, every place.
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You know, every pub in the country has a karaoke night or a comedy night or something.
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I lived in Boston, which was odd because most comedians were in New York.
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So my place was where comedians would stay when they came to Boston.
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And I just decided, hey, to go to Boston, call this guy, Jay Leno, let you stay at his place.
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And that's how I got to know Billy Crystal and Freddie Prinze and all kinds of comedians.
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Because Freddie Prinze, I mean, that was a, I mean, when you saw the documentary about the comedy store,
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I was only aware of his son because he's the same generation.
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But you forget what an incredible comedian he was.
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But it was a classic couldn't-handle-the-fame thing, you know.
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But he had a, you know, Freddie would, like, put a bullet in the gun and say to the girl,
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I'm going to go kill myself, bang, fire it in the sand, and then pretend to be dead.
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And, you know, just weird, just weird, you know.
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And ultimately, that's what the insurance company, I believe, ruled it.
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And, Jay, you mentioned being able to handle fame.
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There are clearly some people who can and some people who can't.
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Do you have any thoughts on why it is that some people are able to take it in their stride
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Well, you know, that's the great thing about doing The Tonight Show.
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Because I could be around show business without living it, you know.
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You know, one day, we had Charlie Sheen booked on the show, man.
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Then the phone on my desk for me, Jay, I got a phone call.
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But, oh, man, they caught fire, the whole thing.
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All right, look, Charlie, don't worry about it.
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Well, I'll get a comment, get somebody to film.
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He said, I'm sitting outside Charlie Sheen's house.
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You don't think I'm going to check that you're in a limo
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I mean, so that's what was fun about doing the show.
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I could live that life and enjoy it without having it affect me.
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And, you know, I was thinking about this when we were coming here
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You're not, you know, you don't drink or take drugs.
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So losing my license would be the biggest fear of my life.
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You know, so consequently, I was the guy that drive all my drunk friends around.
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You know, in America, you could buy cars for $25 or $50.
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Cars that were really not that old, five or ten years old.
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Because there were just so many cars in America that there were stuff.
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You know, in those days, I remember we found a Renault 4CV, which is a small, you know.
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And we had three acres in our, we didn't live on a farm, but lived in a rural area.
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I mean, now, of course, they call child services and the parents would go to prison and you
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My mom would watch through the kitchen window while she's doing ditches.
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And we would just drive the Renault around, you know.
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And we rolled it over a couple of times, stuff like that.
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Plus, when you work with your hands, you tend to get more of an appreciation how easy it
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You know, the idea that the heart is healthy when the head and the hands work together,
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You know, so you work and you go out and you stand on stage.
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Oh, God, this is so much easier than taking a transmission out.
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I think that's part of the problem of our society, Jay, is that very few of us work with
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And that's why we've come up with these crazy ideas or we get offended by things that
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Because we're not connected to the reality anymore.
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Yeah, I think there's a certain amount of truth to that.
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I'm so fortunate to make the kind of money to afford all this stuff.
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That's my favorite thing when I talk to young comedians.
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You know, I never ask people, I always take the job and ask what it pays later.
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You know, like when I was doing The Tonight Show.
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And there were maybe a half a dozen or more comedians that were also guest hosts.
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And those six are all represented by the same manager.
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And that manager called me and said, listen, we're going to Johnny Carson.
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You know, I'm getting $512 a show to host, which was scale.
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If so-and-so, we got it with so-and-so, whenever they host.
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I said, you know, I'm going to stick with the $512.
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Well, guess who gets named permanent guest host?
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Now, these guys, it's costing us $250,000 a month.
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You know, I always meet comedians that just, I'm not working for that kind of money.
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And that's all that's been my attitude about it, you know?
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I mean, the same show I do for a charity, Benefit and Free, is just as joyous to do as one that's
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I'm amazed at the number of comedians I meet that just don't like people.
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I don't want to deal with those jerks, you know?
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Well, somebody goes out of their way to pay, you know, a lot of money to come see you.
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Why would you not want to please thank them and say hello?
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I mean, oh, you should sell t-shirts and photos afterwards.
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You know, they've got another way to buy a ticket.
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It's the most ridiculous thing in the world to me.
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I mean, I suppose on some level I probably thought, wouldn't that be nice?
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So that's why I am eternally grateful, you know, because like I say, you know, when I,
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when I got the Tonight Show, I hired the best writers I could find and the best lighting people.
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When they told me I sucked, okay, I guess I sucked.
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I know so many comics that go through writers and they don't let the writer find your voice,
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I would hire them for a year because it would take nine months sometimes for them to go,
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oh, I think like, I would say, just write down everything.
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Even if it's not a punchline, even if it's just a setup, a store that sells this.
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So based on what you're saying, you sound like a really nice guy, Jay.
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That will be the moment from this interview that everyone's going to love.
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But it's a very powerful message because what you're talking about is humility.
00:30:38.480
And you see, you know, in any field or any particular career, the moment people lose touch
00:30:52.840
I am so amazed at the just typical thing and then the drugs.
00:31:00.700
You know, I always say behind every successful man, there's a woman.
1.00
00:31:05.280
Behind every unsuccessful man, there are two women.
1.00
00:31:12.780
You know, whether it's Justin Bieber or something.
00:31:15.120
Then they go through the obligatory drug stage.
00:31:20.760
Because how did you steer a path through that, though?
00:31:31.300
But when everybody's telling you, hey, this is Jay Leno.
00:31:35.880
Well, first of all, you don't have those people.
00:31:38.400
When I travel, like I'm in Florida this weekend, I travel by myself.
00:31:43.000
Because when you travel by yourself, funny things happen.
00:31:46.000
But funny things don't happen when you have somebody, advanced team, go ahead and clear
00:31:54.200
I mean, and you have to find the humor in that.
00:31:59.020
The idea is that you have, you know, I have a place in Rhode Island.
00:32:13.580
So someone said, hey, you got to try this Nicholas Pizza.
00:32:40.300
Hey, we all agree we wouldn't use coupons.
1.00
00:32:50.800
You rather just say, oh, I want to try another pizza.
1.00
00:32:56.640
And finally I said, look, no, actually, I just want to eat.
00:33:00.080
Those things don't happen when you have somebody get your pizza for you.
00:33:05.580
I mean, that's sort of, that's really the fun part of it.
00:33:09.520
It's just, you meet the oddest people, you know?
00:33:13.120
Like I get, like when I go back to New England, which is a very quirky,
00:33:17.380
I don't know what the equivalent would be in England.
00:33:29.920
I'm walking down Newberry Street and this guy goes, hey, Jay Leno,
00:33:37.020
And I said, oh, well, thank you very much.
0.99
00:33:41.140
I said, well, please tell him thank you very much.
00:33:43.360
And I realized that's as good as you're going to get.
00:33:54.120
Nobody would say that to me if I had to finally some bodyguards
00:33:58.980
If I hadn't been walking by myself, that wouldn't have happened.
00:34:02.220
And I thought, well, that was, that just made me laugh.
00:34:05.320
It just was so typical of New England, that quirky, Yankee kind of thing,
1.00
00:34:18.280
And they were selling T-shirts that had a fake seatbelt on it.
00:34:32.260
To show that you're for freedom, freedom to have your head
00:34:37.700
So, yeah, that's why I don't have people travel with me
00:35:15.860
Stranger in a Strange Land is my favorite thing.
00:35:18.960
I love watching immigrant comics come to America.
00:35:36.820
Because I'm an American, so it was second nature.
00:35:43.380
The American's reaction to whatever it might be,
00:35:46.820
the immigrant experience, it always makes me laugh.
1.00
00:35:50.820
That is a really important thing for a comedian
00:35:54.120
to have that outside eye and also to like people.
00:35:59.080
And that's what I got when I used to watch your show
00:36:01.120
is it was so obvious that you liked talking with people.
00:36:04.700
Yeah, you know, and the whole political correctness thing
00:36:13.560
I find when you have a crowd, they think it's a crowd.
00:36:23.700
But for the most part, but whenever I would get hecklers,
00:36:27.000
I remember at times I had just an enormous fat guy
00:36:32.200
and I could see he was waiting for the fat guy joke.
00:36:37.200
And then he got ready and he sat down again, you know,
00:36:41.500
because he realized, I didn't go for the throw.
00:36:48.440
And, you know, when people sense you're not being cruel,
00:37:01.000
was running for president the last time, not this time.
00:37:11.360
And the Jesse Jackson joke was not about him being black,
00:37:27.740
And I think, oh, do they think I'm making fun of her
00:37:30.280
because she's a woman running for president?
1.00
00:37:31.720
And I see women would get sort of standoffish,
1.00
00:38:10.980
You know, the women keep the men in line, you know?
1.00
00:38:56.320
hey, we'd love to have you on the tonight show.
00:39:05.360
and I'm running for President of the United States.
00:39:42.860
I was talking to some of my high school buddies.
00:39:45.500
when President Obama gave me his cell phone number,
00:40:21.340
But again, the same stupid friends you had in high school.
1.00
00:40:30.440
You know, with a movie, you always have to do that.
00:40:41.300
I like Sean because he was not James Bond.
1.00
00:40:46.660
I mean, he was the tough son of a bitch, that guy.
0.92
00:40:49.960
I mean, he had been a, did you know who was third runner-up, Mr. Universe, 1953?
0.99
00:40:56.280
I mean, he was, and he would come into the Tide show, hey, Jay, Jay, what's the latest filthy
00:41:04.160
You know, and I'd tell him the joke, and he would laugh like a pirate.
00:41:08.760
Like, I mean, like the most hardy, and you always hear the term, that's a knee slapper.
0.70
00:41:14.700
He's the only guy ever to actually slap his knee and do that.
00:41:18.340
And he was just, he was the only guy when he came to the Tide show, because we had these
00:41:23.900
He was the only guy who would take a shower at the studio.
00:41:27.820
And he would sing, oh, Scotland, da, da, da, da, da.
00:41:35.160
And Sean Connery would be singing in the shower.
00:41:42.240
In fact, one time, did you ever hear of a guy named Johnny Stampanato?
00:41:47.620
Johnny Stampanato was a gangster who was going out with Leonard Turner.
00:41:53.860
And Sean Connery had a small part in the movie.
00:41:56.280
And she was sort of flirting with Sean, because he's a handsome guy.
00:42:00.840
Johnny Stampanato pulls a gun on Sean Connery.
0.52
00:42:03.900
He takes a gun, smash up the side of the head.
0.98
00:42:09.980
He empties all the bullets out and gives them back the gun.
00:42:15.540
It's, in some ways, have we lost a little bit of that?
00:42:20.360
I mean, that's, you know, my mother's from Scotland, the most conservative woman you could imagine.
00:42:35.260
You know, she never talked like that about anybody.
00:42:39.400
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I mean, the world you're describing, particularly from the early days, is so different to the
00:43:54.600
You know, I mean, I don't know how you, you know, it's funny because everybody said,
00:44:00.540
well, someday Big Brother, you know, it's going to be terrible.
00:44:04.000
But nobody thinks Big Brother is watching Big Brother.
00:44:08.340
I mean, I remember, you remember the Rodney King thing, the incidents?
00:44:14.420
To me, that was the day newspapers died because that was the first time news went unfiltered
00:44:19.660
because when you saw the Rodney King thing on the news, they said, uh, six black men in
00:44:25.880
a Hyundai were driving 115 miles an hour, which is impossible for a Hyundai from that period.
00:44:30.180
And they got pulled over by police and da, da, da, da, da, da.
00:44:34.100
Because in those days, you had a news editor who would look at film and go, boy, this is,
00:44:43.380
Let's just make, you know, like, for example, in Boston, a woman was never raped.
00:44:50.020
So that could be anything from a wolf whistle, somebody pinching your ass, you know, it wasn't,
0.99
00:44:55.140
you know, they just wouldn't use the term.
0.98
00:44:56.900
So the Rodney King guy, he, he filmed it from his, from his porch and he sent it right to
00:45:04.920
And that was the first time, maybe not the very first time, but certainly unfiltered
00:45:09.400
news just went up to people, well, that's not what we just saw in the 11 o'clock news.
00:45:13.060
They said, these guys are speeding and all this other kind of stuff, you know?
00:45:16.500
So, so we live in a world now, it's better because what used to be the law is now against
00:45:26.240
I mean, the classic story is shock attack are, are, are up 100%.
00:45:35.960
Rather than just say that, the new shock attack, 100% people, oh my God, get the kids out of
00:45:47.180
We get fed the stuff and then we overreact in response to it.
00:45:54.260
I think things, I think what happens is the elite have come down a step or two and everybody
00:45:59.800
else has come up a level or two, which I think is great.
00:46:03.900
I mean, you now have protections, you know, like when you watch the comedy animal house,
00:46:10.060
which is done in 79 is a funny scene where they're in this, we're in the fraternity and
00:46:16.420
there's the Muslim kid and the Indian kid and everybody's just making fun of them, you
00:46:23.920
And I suppose it was funny back then, but not if you're Indian or Muslim, you know, uh,
1.00
00:46:34.160
Sometimes the swing is too far, that's too far.
00:46:36.140
But ultimately I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.
00:46:43.140
No, I try not to, you know, I, I, I, someone said, you should send some of your jokes out
00:46:49.080
and I did it and everything just got so misinterpreted.
00:46:53.660
It just, you know, just people mad about things.
00:46:57.260
I was telling him a story before I was in a, uh, Chinese restaurant with my wife, small
00:47:04.520
Mom was running the register and sit like 12 tables and the rest of the family's the
1.00
00:47:11.280
I'm talking to my wife and the woman, the older lady is just bringing the order.
0.98
00:47:16.300
I said, man, this woman's really working her ass off.
1.00
00:47:19.160
And since this is, this is right near UCLA, the college, a female college student said,
00:47:25.880
And I, I said, well, then she, a woman first.
0.99
00:47:29.920
I said, you know, I, I try to watch what I say.
00:47:38.160
And if I had said server, I would expect you to say, she's a woman, because I'm defining
0.98
00:47:48.100
And she, this, and Sarah credits, she said, well, I guess you're right.
00:47:53.840
First of all, I'm having a conversation with my wife, you know, and I said, I'm not mad
00:47:58.460
or anything, but I just don't, I don't see your point.
00:48:00.420
Why would you be a server before she's a woman?
1.00
00:48:02.580
And then eventually, yeah, but okay, no problem.
00:48:15.020
You say you don't use social media because people misinterpret things.
00:48:18.380
I think maybe that's why a lot of people feel like we live in a time where people are really
00:48:23.540
easily offended or whatever, because we all now live on social media where everyone is
00:48:27.640
bitching and moaning and fighting about everything.
0.99
00:48:31.120
And I realized one person has the power of 10,000 people.
00:48:38.240
And if one person says you're a Nazi, well, now you have to defend yourself, which seems
00:48:45.400
The number of people I meet that now believe we did not walk on the moon.
0.83
00:48:52.560
I mean, it seems ridiculous, but that's the one.
00:48:56.000
And what do you think about comedians getting into trouble for jokes and cancellations?
00:49:02.660
Do you think that's the pendulum going too far?
00:49:06.040
Well, I think, you know, well, the idea of a rape joke has the same career penalty as an actual rape.
00:49:20.540
You know, I mean, if you do a joke about rape, you're canceled, all your TV appearances are gone,
00:49:27.940
If you actually commit the crime, same penalty, same penalty.
00:49:32.920
So, I mean, I don't know what the answer is there.
00:49:35.640
I mean, you know, Louis C.K., I think, is hilarious.
00:49:46.180
See that blonde over there with big boobs?
1.00
00:49:57.440
That doesn't seem like something I would brag about.
00:50:01.100
But, I mean, was his crime the same as Harvey Weinstein?
00:50:09.400
I mean, I'm sure I'll get in trouble just for saying this.
00:50:12.980
It's, we seem to be, this is my issue with it, and see if you agree and push back if you don't.
00:50:18.660
It seems to me that we're living in a world without nuance, where everything is either black or it's white.
0.95
00:50:49.280
I mean, I believe you're only as good as your last joke.
00:50:55.500
Like, I stopped doing political jokes because the people get so mad.
00:51:02.120
They want to know the joke first before they laugh.
00:51:09.380
So, I'm trying to write jokes that are political but without politicians.
00:51:18.960
This guy, he's like a young Barack Obama, charismatic speaker, new guy in his party,
00:51:23.680
picked Democrat or Republican or Tory or whatever.
00:51:27.000
So, he gets invited to the big presidential nomination convention in New York.
00:51:31.440
And he flies to the night, walks into Madison Square, got 30,000 people sold out.
00:51:41.100
Then the senator, then the mayor, then the police chief, then the postmaster general.
00:51:55.740
He looks behind him, sitting in the same row, four seats, but a guy's sitting like this
00:52:16.280
He goes down and says, sir, can I ask you a question?
00:52:25.820
And when I tell the audience, that's what I'm going to do, then everybody laughs at it.
00:52:33.080
That's so interesting that that's the direction you're moving in, and see if you agree with
00:52:37.380
But when I watch late night comedy shows now, it feels like they've moved in the other
00:52:42.280
They're leaning into making a point about the other two.
00:52:46.060
People seem to say to me, boy, I bet you regret leaving The Tonight Show and not Trump's
00:52:51.540
When you like people, it's so much easier to make fun of them.
00:52:55.840
When you don't like them, and I don't like Trump, and not political, just morally unfit
00:53:07.740
Okay, now you're, okay, are you telling me this because of political reasons or because
00:53:19.720
That's the great thing I was telling about Rodney.
00:53:23.640
I know in 40 years, I have no idea if he's Republican or Democrat.
00:53:26.300
He just had simple, my favorite joke, he said, I went to my doctor.
00:53:32.520
My doctor said, I want a urine sample, I want a semen sample, and I want a, and I want a-
00:53:47.140
I mean, it's just, just pure, just, just, the joy is in the joke.
00:53:52.240
I have no, I meet so many comments going, I just want people to understand how I feel.
00:53:56.300
I feel about, I don't think anybody cares how I feel about an issue.
00:54:02.420
Like, everyone is putting all of themselves out there for everyone to see.
00:54:06.000
Yes, but not everybody, not as successful as Rodney was.
00:54:16.440
You know, Rodney Dangerfield had an incredible story.
00:54:19.080
Because this is a guy who, when he started out, he failed at his job.
00:54:23.300
He failed at becoming a comedian, went away, came back.
00:54:27.400
Well, you know what it was, because his face did not look like his act.
00:54:32.380
I remember, I've known Seinfeld for years, and Jerry and I are really good friends.
00:54:37.840
And when Jerry's like 21 years old, he looks 14.
00:54:41.140
And he had a joke about, you know, when you bring a hooker back to your apartment,
1.00
00:54:43.880
I go, first of all, nobody believes you ever got a hooker.
0.69
00:54:46.380
Nobody believes you should go back to your apartment.
00:54:47.620
And we both laughed at it, because he looked so, he didn't look like what he was talking about.
00:54:53.980
And Rodney, he started out as a comic, and he had a muse named Joe Ansis.
00:55:03.900
Joe Ansis was one of those guys, the funniest guy of everybody, stage fright to death.
00:55:13.720
He'd sit with Lenny Bruce and Rodney and all the guys, and he would just say stuff.
00:55:21.260
Like, I knew Rodney when Rodney didn't do no respect.
00:55:28.560
He had a bit about, this kind of comedy has sort of fallen out, but he says,
00:55:34.200
as your captain speaking, we're on flight so-and-so at TWA Airlines.
00:55:38.820
Flying over the Grand Canyon right now, look out the left side of the plane,
00:55:42.740
you can see the remains of flight 419 that crashed just six years ago.
00:55:47.280
Bob, you were with me on that one, weren't you?
00:55:50.760
I mean, that's what he, you know, just those sort of character little pieces like that.
00:55:54.820
And then, I don't know if it came from Joe Ansis, but that whole thing about no respect
00:55:58.380
and starting to look like his act, it really came out of that.
00:56:04.200
So, my favorite thing was when I watched Rodney on with Johnny,
00:56:12.200
But last week, Johnny, I got to tell you, you know.
00:56:19.900
So, I dreamed of the day when I could do that with Rodney.
00:56:22.780
So, when I got to this night show, whenever I had Rodney on,
00:56:32.000
now, Rodney's in his 80s now, and a little shaky.
00:56:36.620
And I have him on the tonight show, and he's doing his act, you know.
00:56:43.760
But the hand was like over, just a few little mistakes.
00:56:47.540
Only another comic would notice it if you knew Rodney.
00:56:50.440
So, while he was doing his thing on the show, I said to Debbie,
00:57:01.380
I tell you, I'm okay today, but last week, you know.
00:57:27.260
And she says, the doctor says he can hear us, but he can't respond.
00:57:30.440
So, I'm telling him how much we love him, how great he was to all us young comics,
00:57:33.660
letting us work Rodney, the Rodney Dangerville nightclub in New York,
00:57:45.480
She goes, Rodney, if you know it's Jay, try and squeeze his finger.
00:57:48.620
So, I put my finger in Rodney's hand, you know.
00:57:51.780
And I said to him, Rodney, that's not my finger.
00:58:04.360
And to get a laugh out of Rodney in that situation, it just really made me feel good.
00:58:17.600
And he, nothing changed except he just did a twitch.
00:58:22.380
And he passed away, oh, probably a couple of days later.
00:58:26.440
But, I mean, it was great to get that reaction from Rodney.
00:58:37.300
We were going to ask you a couple of questions from our supporters in a second.
00:58:41.160
But before we do, we always end the main section of the interview with the same question, which
00:58:44.320
is what's the one thing we're not talking about that we really should be?
00:58:50.260
The idea is, well, I feel that people have to know.
00:58:55.820
That's my favorite thing is watching Jerry Springer.
00:58:57.920
I want everyone on national television to know about this guy.
00:59:09.120
You know, there's nothing harder than writing a joke.
00:59:15.240
I love it when I see comedians get TV shows where they're the inquisitive reporter.
00:59:24.340
It's the hardest thing in the world to actually sit down and write jokes.
00:59:30.720
I always hated it when I was, like, whenever I go on TV,
00:59:35.240
I don't come out and sit on the couch because people go,
00:59:38.820
as a kid, I would go, oh, I wanted to see them do comedy, you know?
00:59:47.420
What you do is interesting or what you have to say is interesting
00:59:51.480
But really, there are very few people that are that interesting.
00:59:55.400
So to me, you should bring something more to the party, you know,
01:00:01.860
Head on over to Locals where we ask Jay your questions.
01:00:08.480
you must bring up the fact that Francis doesn't know how to drive.
01:00:14.700
Oh, I wish I'd known that before we started this interview.
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