Jay Leno at MPAC: Proving he’s a standup guy, after all

Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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He can’t need the money.

Not after 20 years of hosting The Tonight Show.

Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Jay Leno must need the laughs.

He was richly rewarded at Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday.

Leno gave a comedy clinic, a master course in pacing and delivery. The performance was a potent reminder for the packed house:

Before The Tonight Show, before that bit of unpleasantness with Conan O’Brien, before all those car shows on cable, before the voice-overs and kiddie books, this wise guy with the lantern jaw and billowing spinnaker hair was one of the best standup comics of his generation.

Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Without cue cards, the 68-year-old Leno bounded and breezed from political stuff (surprisingly little, actually…maybe it’s just too easy?) to social commentary (Americans are so fat “the Ferris wheel at Disneyland can’t make it up the hill anymore”) to universal themes such as pets, dating, marriage and clueless geezers (“I’m at the age where women change clothes in front of me”).

White collar crime is up, he observed, “and that’s just in the church.”  On the invention of bacon-flavor condoms: “Guys, don’t try putting one of these on when a dog is in the room.” 

Mining the #MeToo headlines (“as I was saying to my Uber driver, Kevin Spacey…”), Leno’s language got about as salty as your average New York Times story.

That is to say, there were no F-bombs…though explosive diarrhea did come up once or twice.  (From now on, I’m hitting “mute” for the disclaimers on those TV drug ads.)

Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Leno does about 100 gigs a year, and he appeared to deviate from his well-honed 90-minute routine only a couple of times, ad libbing during a forgotten punchline, and launching into an “only in New Jersey” riff about his unlabeled water bottle.

Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Jay Leno at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

A disciple of the late Johnny Carson, Leno also paid tribute to another comic legend, Ted Koppel.

You know, the guy who used to grill the Ayatollah Khomeini on Nightline. That Ted Koppel.

I can’t really repeat Ted’s joke here. But you’ve got to admit, the very notion of it is pretty funny.  

The Morris Music Men kick into high gear before Jay Leno set at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
The Morris Music Men kick into high gear before Jay Leno show at MPAC, May 18, 2018. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

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