James Brown earned the title of “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” but Jay Leno isn’t far behind the iconic soul singer.
Who knows how the veteran comic managed to perform for 150 dates a year from 1992 to 2014, while holding court as the host of “The Tonight Show.”
Leno worked 16-hour days from Monday to Friday and hit the road during the weekend to deliver stand-up comedy. During his “Tonight Show” run Leno performed at Caesars Atlantic City and that’s where he will crack wise Friday night.
Leno possessed unreal stamina while working relentlessly during his Tonight Show run.
“It helps only needing four or five hours of sleep a night,” Leno said while calling from Los Angeles. “I love to work. I also love to do stand-up. The night after I left ‘The Tonight Show,’ I flew to Florida to do stand-up. I love it.”
Leno has an old school work ethic in an age when many folks just punch a clock and dive into their devices.
“It’s so true,” he said. “Did you ever watch ‘Breaking Bad?’ There was a great scene when Bryan Cranston’s character, the meth dealer, is about to get caught by the police in his broken-down RV. The guy who worked with him said something like, ‘You’re a science teacher, can’t you make us a robot to get out of here?’
“That’s the problem with people today. They have no idea what the laws of physics are. They have no idea how the world works around them,” he continued. “We used to live in a world where everybody knew something about a lot of things and now we live in a world in which a few people know everything and many people know nothing.”
Leno laughed when asked who the best guest was during his “Tonight Show” run.
“Character actors who came prepared with incredible stories,” he said. “Guests whom I could honestly ask anything.”
That describes actor Hugh Grant after he was caught with a prostitute in San Francisco during the 1990s.
“Exactly,” Leno said. “When Hugh Grant got caught with the hooker he came on and what was remarkable was that there was no publicist or manager saying, ‘Don’t ask Hugh about whatever.’ Hugh said, ‘Go ahead, ask me what you want to’ and he was really funny. He basically said, ‘I’m a guy’ when he was asked about the incident. These days people talk about having sex addictions, which is hilarious. You made a bad decision. You’re not an addict. It’s absurd.”
Leno confirmed the rumor that he banked all of his “Tonight Show” money and always lived off of his earnings as a stand-up.
“That approach goes back to when I was a kid and I always had another job,” he said. “Yes, I would bank one check and use the other one to live off of It’s just the way I did it.”
It’s been a long and storied career for Leno, who made his mark as an 1980s stand-up. While attending Temple University friends and I caught Leno performing at the late, lamented Comedy Works on Chestnut Street during the ’80s just before his career skyrocketed and not much has changed. Leno remains clean, surprising and amusing.
The ageless Smokey Robinson will perform Saturday at Ocean. Robinson can still can belt out the hits at 86. Robinson hasn’t lost much vocal range since the Motown legend has always taken care of his voice.
Fans of mellow soft rock can catch the Yacht Rock Revue on Saturday at the Hard Rock.