Stan Sagan wrote to ask…
I'm very interested in all your comments on Jay Leno. I understand that you don't believe the widely-circulated accusations that he forced Carson into retirement or forced O'Brien off the Tonight Show and I'm inclined to believe you're right. But what do you have to say about the charge that he was once one of the best stand-up comedians ever and that he dumbed-down his act for TV and became bland and unfunny?
Well, I try to avoid arguments over who's funny and who isn't. I think that's one of the dumber debates you can have in this world. If you don't find someone funny, nothing I say is going to make you laugh at them…with one exception. I might be able to convince you that you haven't given them a fair shake, haven't seen them at their best. And if you ever get the chance to see Leno perform live — which is easy and cheap to do if you live anywhere near Hermosa Beach — I think you'll come away thinking he's still one of the best stand-up comedians ever.
A longer set — fifteen minutes or more, preferably viewed live — is the best way to judge most comics. Sam Kinison was brilliant doing forty minutes in a club and he was boring for five minutes on with Dave. What I love about Lewis Black is largely absent when he does a few minutes of stand-up on some show…which is why, I assume, he so rarely does that anymore. If you gave Billy Connolly a six minute spot on some TV program, he'd get about a third of the way through one story. I never fully appreciated Bill Cosby until I saw him doing an hour at Harrah's in Reno.
As I've grown older, I think my attitude about comedians has changed in this sense. I don't think any professional is not funny. At worst, they haven't made me laugh much yet. That may be because they aren't my style…which does not mean they aren't great for others. Or it may be because I haven't caught them at the right moment. For instance, years ago, I saw Richard Belzer perform on three separate occasions in comedy clubs. I did not hear a genuine laugh any of those times…not from me, not from anyone in the room. He also came across as a very unpleasant human being, especially as the laughs did not come and he decided we were the problem, not him.
But I don't go around saying Richard Belzer isn't funny. Enough people love him that I figure I got him on bad nights — all comics have them — or maybe I'm just not in sync with his idea of Funny. That happens, too. Jay Leno may not be your cuppa tea these days, especially if you'd rather see the old Leno.
As a longtime fan of Leno, I don't like a lot of what he did on The Tonight Show. I have developed an aversion to pranks and hidden camera gags. Don't find any of them particularly funny. Don't find any of them particularly wittier than when my friend Don Zukin and I were thirteen and he'd phone Chicken Delight, place a large order with the name and address of a neighbor who knew nothing about it and have them deliver. Don used to laugh himself sick over that…and he and a few of our other pals would view it like it was Comedy Gold.
So I don't like that and I don't like comedy that is based on the premise that if you put ordinary folks on camera, you can catch them being either really awkward and/or really stupid. Then we get to laugh at their awkwardness and/or their stupidity. I grabbed up the remote when Jay engaged in that kind of thing, too…and there was a lot of it.
But I liked when he sat around and talked with guests he seemed to really like, especially fellow stand-ups. And I liked his monologues, which were a marvel of marathon joke writing. Yeah, there were some losers in there but I thought his batting average was higher than Carson's…and every Jay monologue had a couple of real good ones.
There are people who fault him because he changed from that belligerent guy who used to sit next to Dave, act pissed-off and do "What's My Beef?" I kind of admire the guy because he changed. I see a lot of comedians out there of his generation who are still trying to be the same person they were in their twenties. I'm thinking of one guy who had a lot of material about dating and he's still using it, unaware that a joke you do when you're 25 about not being able to find a girlfriend is very different when you perform it at age 60.
A lot of Jay's old "What's my Beef?" lines wouldn't work coming now from a guy who's happily married and has a hundred rare cars in his own private garage and a hundred million dollars in the bank. Who wants to hear that person bitching about slow service at McDonald's? Actually, I think a lot of the jokes Jay did in his Tonight Show monologues were just as good as anything he did sitting in Letterman's guest chair. They just weren't "sold" with anger and outrage like he used to feign. You can't host a whole hour-long talk show if you're angry and outraged. If you see him perform live these days, you get a little more of that because he doesn't have to then turn around and be a gracious host in the next segment.
Some would say he sold out. I think he began to act his age and to grow into a host rather than a guy who did hit-and-run jokes. Dick Cavett used to say that the failure of the 1963 Jerry Lewis talk show — Cavett was a writer on it — was because Jerry didn't have an effective identity as a host. He was funny on someone else's show causing chaos and horning in on other folks' time and tearing up the host's cue cards. He couldn't do any of that stuff when he was the host and he didn't know what to do instead. I think Leno figured out how to convert himself from a guest whose act was good for ten minutes to a host who could anchor an hour and when necessary, help his guests be good for ten minutes.
I do know some comedians who hate Leno. Some of it is just jealousy…in at least one case, admitted jealousy. Some of it is a feeling that since they were friendly with him on the comedy club circuit long ago, he had some obligation to have them on and to boost what are in some cases, sagging careers. In show business, you often find odd reactions, ranging from admiration to hatred, when someone you once considered more-or-less an equal is suddenly light years ahead of you. And of course, you also have those involved in competing shows who don't like Jay because they think their show is better than what he did and figure those better ratings have to be due to a pact with Satan.
And also some people just don't find the guy funny. There's always that.